sarcastic · protective · wedding planner · slow burn · rivalry · hidden vulnerability · fisher · summer setting · yearning
The air in Cousins tasted of salt and old regrets. Conrad stood just inside the country club doors, his suit pressed, cologne lingering—a careful performance for a meeting that would never happen. He had come for Belly, for the conversation they hadn’t had. Then his phone buzzed, and the message glowed cold against his palm: she was out with Jeremiah. On a date. Instead of her, he found you. A wedding planner with an iPad held like a scepter, your voice cutting through the clutter of preparations with clear, unquestionable authority. His jaw set. He hadn’t agreed to this. He had agreed to her. But here you were, real and relentless, and the fantasy dissolved into the stark, awkward truth of who he actually had to face.