Page 67 of Shameless With Him

“Lacey made sure all of us had a pack of tissues in our pocket. We’ll have some for the wedding, too.”

I held back a laugh. Of course, Lacey did. She really did think of everything. And while I knew my maid of honor—if I ever got married—was going to be amazing and helpful, I had a feeling that Lacey was going to be right alongside her. However, I wasn’t getting married anytime soon, and I purposely didn’t look over at Caleb as I thought those things.

“Okay, let’s get this rehearsal going. Caleb and Zoey? Get close. Because you guys are going to be attached at the hip for the rest of this wedding.”

Caleb slid his arm around my waist again, and I sighed dramatically into him.

“On it,” I said, and everyone laughed.

Lacey narrowed her eyes at us, but then went back to dictating the wedding.

Or planning it, whatever.

The rehearsal went quickly, and then it was time for the food. My favorite part.

There would be courses served and lovely cheese spreads and desserts and cake for the wedding. Tonight, though, was all about the pizza.

“Pizza and wine for a wedding rehearsal?” Caleb asked.

“Oh, this isn’t delivery pizza. And it’s not DiGiorno,” I said, making Caleb laugh.

“Okay, tell me, what’s so special about this?”

“Everything is cooked right in front of you in that wood-burning oven. You pick exactly what toppings you want. If you want to go classic with some Margherita pizza or pepperoni. Or if you want to go completely hipster and add some arugula and pears and whatever you want to it. You have fun, and the chef is sure to have the ingredients.”

“I’m not putting arugula on my pizza,” Caleb said dryly.

“I don’t know, I’ve had it before. It’s really good.

“Fine. You can put arugula, but if you touch my pizza with pineapple, we’re going to have words.”

I didn’t tell him that I actually liked ham and pineapple pizza. I already had to hide it from so many, might as well hide it from Caleb, too.

Everybody got their own pizza, and I groaned as I bit into the whole wheat crust, the cheese melting and almost burning my mouth.

“This is amazing,” I grumbled around my bite.

“Can’t talk, dying in bliss.”

I laughed and looked over at Caleb as he practically demolished his pizza. He hadn’t been eating that much recently when we’d been near each other, and I figured work was hard, or he wasn’t that hungry. I just didn’t know.

And that kind of worried me.

We were going steadily into this almost serious relationship, and he hadn’t really told me much about himself. I didn’t know everything, and he was pretty closed-off. I had to remind myself that even though we had been friends forever, we hadn’t been in this new part of our relationship for long.

I didn’t have to know every single secret, I just wished he would open up a bit.

Then again, I was holding the worst secrets from him.

The fact that I had loved him as the Caleb of my dreams for as long as I could remember, and the fact that I was totally falling for him now.

He looked over at me and winked before taking a bite of mine. I knew I didn’t have a plan when it came to making Caleb fall in love with me. And the thing was, I had done the exact opposite. I had fallen for him even more than before, and I had no idea how he felt about me.

I ignored that, ignored the Caleb of my dreams, and focused on the Caleb of my present.

Because I was so afraid that if I didn’t, if I didn’t live in the moment, there wouldn’t be a Caleb going forward.

As someone who tried her best to plan for anything, I didn’t know what the next step was. Or how I should feel.

Or if I’d have a Caleb at all in any part of my future.