A Drop of Pretty Poison: A Brother’s Best Friend Romance (Pretty Poison Trilogy Book 2)

Little girls dream about their wedding day. They imagine what it’s going to look like, the kind of dress they’ll be wearing, and who they’ll invite. But me? I always pictured who was at the other end of the aisle. And since I was fifteen, I pictured Hayes.

Granted, I told myself it was never going to happen. That he would never see me as anything other than his best friend’s little sister. But it was still fun to fantasize about it and wonder what it would be like.

If only that girl could see me now—in my mom’s wedding dress, with my hair curled and a veil sitting on top of my head.

Hayes wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to marry me as soon as humanly possible. He’s nothing if not impatient. When we went to the courthouse two days ago to get our marriage license, he almost tried to marry me there. But if we were going to do it that way, there was no point in telling our parents beforehand.

Besides, this feels more special.

“Do I look okay?” I ask my mom.

She dabs under her eyes with a tissue for what feels like the millionth time since she walked in. “You look beautiful, sweetheart. I always knew you would make such a gorgeous bride.”

I smile, looking at myself in the mirror once more. Honestly, I can’t believe we’re here. Even at dinner that night with Mali, we barely even considered the possibility that proposing was what he meant by I can work with that. And speaking of…

As I hear the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs, I also hear Mali grumbling to herself. And I should probably mention that I haven’t told her about any of this yet. Partly because I didn’t want her trying to talk me out of it, and also because this way is much more fun.

“Your boyfriend is fucking weird,” she says as she walks in the room, her eyes focused on her phone. “He wouldn’t let me come in the front door. Insisted that I come in the back and straight upstairs for some rea—” Her head raises to look at me and she freezes. “You’re in a wedding dress.”

I smirk. “Nothing gets past you, does it?”

That’s when she sees my mom sitting in the chair, also dressed up, and her eyes widen as she looks at me once more. “Y-you’re getting married? Like, today? Right now?”

“Yes,” I say slowly. “And if you’ll be my maid of honor, your dress is hanging in the bathroom.”

She goes into the bathroom and grabs the dress, then comes back out, still looking at me like I’m crazy. “How pregnant are you, exactly?”

“She’s not,” my mom tells her, complete with air quotes.

Jesus Christ. “Mom, really. I’m not pregnant.”

But she just sighs, as if she knows more about whether or not I’m with child than I do. “It’s okay, sweetie. I understand the importance of waiting until you’re three months along to tell people.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

My eyes meet Mali’s, and she must be able to see that I’m at my wits end with her about this, because she presses her fist to her mouth to keep from laughing, then distracts herself with getting dressed.

I NEVER REALLY UNDERSTOOD the whole something old, something new tradition. Who decided that a bunch of random shit is necessary in order to have a good marriage? Did they poll the people who didn’t have it all and see how many got divorced? Hell, half of the couples who get married these days get divorced. There must not be enough something blue to go around.

Still, as my mom checks to make sure I have everything, I don’t try to stop her. It’s little things like this that make her happy. Though, when she puts her hand on my lower belly when she says something new, that’s it for me.

“Mom!” I push her hand away. “Again, not pregnant.”

She chuckles. “Sure, honey.”

My eyes roll as she grabs my bouquet and hands it to me, showing me the blue flower in the center—the one I don’t have the heart to tell her is actually teal. But it’s fine. Mali subtly grabs a blue hair clip from her bag and clips it to the side of the bouquet.

“Okay,” Mom says, looking me over once more and fanning her eyes when she starts to cry again. “I’ll see you downstairs. I love you so much.”

I can’t help but smile. “I love you, too, Mom.”

The second she’s out of the room, Mali looks at me with narrowed eyes. “Seriously, not even a little pregnant?”

“Nope.”

She hums amusedly. “Huh. Your mom is going to be devastatingly disappointed in a few months.” I giggle just before she finally says what she’s been dying to since she walked in. “But if you’re not pregnant, do you mind telling me what the fuck is going on? Since when are you getting married?”

“Since a few nights ago,” I confess. “That conversation you and I had at dinner Saturday night? Yeah, I came over that night, and he asked me to marry him.”

“Holy fucking shit. This was Hayes’s idea?”

“Yeah,” I breathe. “And I tried to tell him he didn’t need to do this. I gave him an out. But he practically convinced me into it. Not that I wouldn’t have said yes immediately if I’d known he was serious.”

Mali looks utterly shocked as she tries to make sense of it. “Damn, babe. What kind of magical pussy do you have?”

I chuckle, just as my dad knocks twice and opens the door. The moment his gaze lands on me, his eyes start to water. I’m used to my mom crying. Once, I took my time wishing on my birthday candles, and she cried because I put so much thought into it. But I’ve never seen my dad shed a single tear until now, and it instantly gets to me.

“Wow,” he chokes out. “I’ve thought about this moment since the day you were born. You’re a lot younger than I thought you would be, but you’re just as beautiful. Hayes is a very lucky man.”

Pressing my lips in a line to try to keep from crying, I walk toward my dad and hug him. He lightly kisses my cheek and then moves his mouth to right by my ear.

“And if he ever hurts you, he’s going to be a very dead man.”

Laughter bubbles out of me. “Thanks, Dad.”

He rubs my back and looks over at Mali. “You look good, Mal.”

“Thank you, Daddy B,” she says, then cringes. “Mm, nope. Can’t call you that anymore. Hook up with a guy with a daddy kink one time and everything changes…”

My dad chokes on air. “Still lacking that filter, I see.”

As if she just realized what she said, her eyes fall closed, and she pinches the bridge of her nose. “Yep. Sure am.”

Meanwhile, I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts, because what the actual fuck did she just say to my dad. She looks completely mortified, and so does my dad, for that matter. Thankfully, Cam peeks his head in the door.

“You guys ready?” But when he sees me, he smiles. “Look at you.”

“How is he?” I ask nervously. “Is he still going to be there when I get downstairs?”

Cam rolls his eyes. “Are you kidding? Why do you think I’m up here? He’s ready to drag Pastor Todd up here and marry you in the bedroom.”

Well, that would save us time later. But unlike Mali, I have a filter, so that thought stays tucked away inside my brain.

“Okay, good,” I say, relieved. “Yeah, we’re ready.”

Cam nods, and before he leaves, he comes over to give me a hug. “I’m happy for you, sis, even if you are stealing my best friend.”

“Please. You’re opening a bar together,” I tell him. “You’re going to get more time with him than I will.”

“Rightfully so. He was mine first.”

I stick my tongue out at him, and he chuckles before leaving the room.

As I hear the music start to play downstairs, I know that it’s time. My dad, Mali, and I walk over to the stop of the stairs. In a few minutes, I will be Mrs. Laiken Wilder. And oh my God, that just hit me.

Mali goes down one step and then turns around. “You’re sure about this? Because we can go out the backdoor—be in Bora Bora by noon tomorrow. No one will find us.”

I smile at the offer as my dad tilts his head toward me. “I hear it’s beautiful there this time of year.”

“You are both impossible,” I say with a sigh and then I nod at Mali. “I’m sure. Go.”

“All right,” she says skeptically. “Let’s go get you a ball and chain.”

I watch as she carefully walks down the stairs and turns, winking at me before she steps out of view. Holding onto my dad’s arm, I take a deep breath as we head down together. All I can do is focus on not tumbling all the way down the stairs, but once we reach the bottom and turn toward the living room, I look up and my gaze locks with Hayes’s.

Any nerves I had dissipate immediately. Just like that, nothing else matters. I love him and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. People can think I’m crazy, or assume I must be knocked up. I don’t care. Because if they had what we do, they’d make the same exact decision.

He stares back at me with the biggest smile plastered across his face and tears in his eyes, and I don’t stand a chance at holding back now. My lips purse as I try not to cry. He drops his head as he laughs and wipes away a stray tear.

What feels like ages later, we finally get up to him. He steps forward and shakes my dad’s hand.

“If you ever do her wrong, I will kill you,” my dad tells him.

Hayes looks at me with nothing but admiration in his eyes, but his words are meant for my dad. “If that ever happens, I’ll let you.”

He seems to like that answer, because he kisses my cheek and passes me to Hayes—officially giving me away. Leaning forward, Hayes brings his lips to my ear.

“You are breathtaking.”

Butterflies erupt in my stomach, and I hand Mali my bouquet as I step in front of the pastor who has watched Cam and me grow up. Mali stands behind me while Cam stands behind Hayes. The rest of the room is filled with my parents, Hayes’s mom, and Devin.

It may not be a traditional wedding, being in the middle of our living room, but it’s ours. And all the flowers and decorations that our moms put around the room, it goes to show how supported we are. Most of the people we know might think we’re crazy, but the ones who matter are right here—watching us promise the rest of our lives to each other.

Pastor Todd starts talking, giving the pre-vow speech about why we’re all gathered here today—as if people may have thought it was something else. But most of what he says fades into the distance as I get lost in Hayes’s eyes. The man standing in front of me is everything I have ever wanted and more. I couldn’t have dreamed him up if I tried. And all of the things we went through that brought us here, they showed us what’s really important. For that, I’m thankful.

I’m thankful for him.

“The couple has prepared their own vows that they will read now,” the pastor announces. “Hayes, if you’d like to go first?”

He smiles as he nods, pulling a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. “Laiken. I don’t know how I’m supposed to put how I feel for you into words, but you wanted us to write our own vows, so I’m going to try.”

Pausing to look at me, he swallows, crumpling the paper and tossing it to the side.

“Yeah, nothing on that would do you any justice. There aren’t any words for how much I love you, because my God, it makes me dizzy. You are the reason I get up in the morning. The first person I want to go to when I’m having a bad day, and when I’m having a good one. We may not have started like any other couple, but I think that only makes us stronger. You were the biggest risk I’ve ever taken, and you were the best risk I’ve ever taken.

“There’s no one else who loves the way you do—so unforgivingly and without anything holding you back. And to know that I get to sit in your light and admire you for the rest of my life is all I could ever ask for. So, this is me promising to love you, to be there for you, and to support you with everything I have until the world explodes, and probably even then. Thank you, not only for loving me, but for never giving up on me.”

My heart feels like a puddle of mush, barely beating because he took it—stole it straight from my chest. Tears are flowing down my cheeks as I silently mouth I love you to him. But the only sound we hear is the sniffling behind me. Hayes leans to the side and gives Mali a look.

“Really, Mal?” he asks.

She huffs out a wet laugh. “Shut up. My best friend is getting married and she didn’t even give me a heads-up so I could get this out of my system.”

Everyone chuckles, and I take my attention off Hayes for a moment to hug my best friend. In hindsight, I should’ve told her, especially now that I know she wasn’t going to try talking me out of it. But the last few days have been such a whirlwind in the best possible way. And besides, her reaction was fantastic.

“He’s stealing you from me,” she whispers loudly.

I giggle and pat her head. “No one can ever steal me from you.”

She looks up to glare at Hayes. “Hear that? No one.”

Thankfully, Mali is the one person he isn’t possessive over me with. I mean, it’s probably because he knows she would knock him over the head so hard he wouldn’t even remember who I am, but still.

Hayes snickers as I release Mali and turn to face him again.

“Laiken,” Pastor Todd says, nodding for me to go ahead.

I take a deep breath.

I’ve got this.

“Hayes. I stand here in front of you and our families, tasked with explaining how much you mean to me, but you were right. It’s not possible, like taking a picture of the moon—the outcome is never anywhere near as good as the real thing.

“Three years ago, I fell in love with the boy who insisted on wearing a backward hat instead of a helmet during hockey. Since then, my feelings for you have only grown, never lessened. You’re the one I want to share my good days with, and the one I want holding me through the bad.

“I promise to spend the rest of my life believing in you and supporting your dreams. I promise to cheer you on at your games, only ever wearing your jersey. And I promise to always put you in your place, the way you love so much.”

He chuckles, and I can’t help but smile at the sound of it.

“The fact that I’m going to spend forever loving you is nothing new to me. I’ve known that for years. But knowing I get to do it while having your last name is a dream that I never thought would come true. It’s always been you for me, H. That won’t ever change.”

The look in his eyes, the way he wipes away a tear the second it escapes, shows me just how important I am to him. That vulnerability he tries to hide from the world in an effort to protect himself—he shows to me. I’m the only one who gets to see the real him, exposed and open, and the fact that he trusts me enough for that means everything.

“Beautifully said,” Pastor Todd tells us both. “You two will have a beautiful life together.”

“That’s the plan,” Hayes jokes.

He laughs along with everyone else then gets back to business. “Hayes. Do you take Laiken Rose Blanchard to be your wife? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto her for as long as you both shall live?”

Hayes’s brows furrow as he cranes his neck to see into the book Pastor Todd is holding. “You got anything longer than that in there?”

God, I love this man.

The pastor smiles as he snickers. “Afraid not.”

“Fine then.” Hayes looks me in the eyes. “I do, even after we both shall live.”

“And Laiken, do you take Hayes Beckett Wilder to be your husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” I say confidently.

I don’t think I’ve ever meant two words more in my life. Once again, I’m lost in staring at him—acknowledging just how unfairly gorgeous he is as he tells him to skip the rings because we don’t have them. We had another idea in mind for that, and trust me…

I am all for it.

Pastor Todd smiles. “Then by the power vested in me by the state of North Carolina, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Hayes smirks, grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me in like he’s been waiting on this forever. His mouth covers my own and with a hand holding me in place, he dips me back. And as we kiss for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Hayes Wilder, it hits me.

I get to spend the rest of my life doing this.