"Babe? Baby! Hellooooo? Earth to Jackson."

I shot up from the chair I was sitting in. I  was leaning my head against the wall behind me and decided to rest my eyes. Clearly, I had fallen asleep.

I looked to the left and saw Harper glaring at me. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her left foot was tapping angrily on the floor.

"I'm sorry, princess." Damn my voice was scratchy. "What did you ask me?"

"I didn't ask you anything, Jackson. I told you that Marie brought out the samples for us to try."

"Samples..." I glanced around at my surroundings and quickly realized that, not only did I fall asleep, but I fell asleep in the bakery where we were trying to find our wedding cake. "Right! Samples."

I walked up to the counter where Harper was standing and glanced down at the tray next to her. On it were about a dozen different kinds of cake.

"Jackson?"

"Yes?"

"Why the hell are you still wearing your sunglasses inside?"

I shrugged a shoulder. "It's, you know, bright."

"How hungover are you?" she whispered angrily.

Busted. "I'm sorry, princess. I wasn't going to have that much to drink last night, but Nate invented some drinking game where you write down girl's names and you take a shot if you've ever slept with..."

Fuck. The look on her face told me I was about two sentences away from sleeping on the couch. Or worse, at Ayden's house. If she ever allowed me back there again.

When Nate first came up with the idea for that drinking game, I wasn't going to play. But of course, the guys started teasing me and I I gave in to the peer pressure. Given my extensive sexual history, I threw back a lot of shots and got very hammered by the end of the night. On the bright side, I won the game—but I was pretty sure my fiance wasn't interested in that little fact.

"You were saying?" 

I glanced at the baker, Marie, who's expression told me I should tread carefully with what I said next. She was right. I looked back to Harper.

"Princess, let me start over. Have I told you today how fetching you look today? Absolutely luscious."

Even though she rolled her eyes at me, the corners of her mouth twitched with amusement.

"Mhm." She pointed to the cake samples. "Let's get started, shall we?"

"Absolutely, princess."

Harper chuckled before she reached down and scooped some of one of the samples onto a fork. She held it out to me with a smile. "Open up."

I opened my mouth and closed around the plastic fork. As soon as the food came in contact with my taste buds, I almost threw up.

"Ugh." I reached for a napkin and spit the foul-tasting desert inside. "What the bloody hell flavor was that?"

"Citrus and mint meringue," she said flatly.

"What...? Princess, you know I hate citrus."

"Yes, I do," she smiled evilly. "Let's just call that pay back for that little drinking game you played last night."

I knew she wasn't going to let that go, but I didn't expect her to punish me with an audience. I didn't miss when Marie chuckled as I nearly choked. I had to give Harper credit though, I've always known she was the revenge-best-served-cold type.

"Well played, princess. Well played." I leaned forward and put my mouth to her ear. "You can punish me later when we're home. But for right now, hows about we find the perfect cake for our wedding day?"

"Sounds good to me," she answered a little breathlessly.

I loved it when her voice sounded like that—when I knew she was affected by my words or my touch. Her voice alone was the biggest turn-on in the world.

"What's next?" I asked. Right now I would settle for anything to get that citrus taste out of my mouth. 

I watched as Harper dipped the fork into another sample of cake. "Let's try this one." She took a bite and closed her eyes as she moaned softly. "Wow. This is beyond delicious. Here, try it." 

She fixed some on her fork for me and handed it to me. I tasted the sample and had to admit... "This isn't that bad. What is it?" 

"It's Strawberry Shortcake."

Thought so. The flavor of strawberry was strong. A little too much actually. I didn't mind strawberry shortcake, but this cake wasn't what we were looking for. 

"Let's try another."

Harper took the fork back and pointed to another piece. "How about this one? It's carrot—"

"Nope."

Harper chuckled and pointed to another piece. "Okay. This one is funfetti. It's a little like—"

I shook my head. "Absolutely not." 

She blew air between her lips. "You are so picky! You haven't even tasted them."

"I don't need to. I know I won't like those choices. This is our wedding day. I want to make sure we have the right cake." 

I looked around at the different cake samples; hoping that the right one would jump out at me. Most of them were bright in color and had flowers for decorations. I mean, I've been to a wedding or two before. I knew that's how wedding cakes usually looked. But we weren't like other couples. We were Harper and Jackson. 

My eyes fell to a white cake that had gold flakes around it. Something about it had me curious. I took the fork from Harper and scooped a piece of it. As soon as I tasted the chocolate and cherry combination, I knew.

"Well," she asked eagerly. "How is it?" 

I flashed her a wry grin. "You tell me, princess." 

I handed her the fork so she could try it for herself. Once her lips closed around that fork, her eyes flicked to mine. 

"Jackson...this is—this is perfect!"

"Yes, it is." I pulled her lips to mine and gave her a deep kiss. "Just like you are." I turned to Marie who was watching with a wide smile. "We'll take this one. What's it called?"

"Great choice! It's one that I think is underrated. It's called Black Forest." 

"Black Forest it is." 

After Harper took care of ordering the cake for the wedding, she and I left the bakery and headed to a little Italian restaurant down the block to grab a bite to eat. Honestly, I wasn't that hungry, and considering the hangover I was still rocking, the thought of eating didn't sit well with me. But she was hungry and I didn't mind tagging along while she ate. 

Once we were seated and Harper got her food, I started sipping the ginger ale that I ordered. I flipped through the wine menu absently, trying to keep my mind off of what happened yesterday. That little part where I went to see Mrs. Lewis. Fuck. I hated lying to Harper. It felt all kinds of wrong. But I didn't know how to tell her the truth without her getting furious with me. Hell, I deserved it. Maybe I should—

"Jackson, are you okay?" 

My eyes met hers. "I'm fine, princess. Just a headache."

She seemed to accept my answer. That was until she started nibbling her lip nervously. "I wanted to talk to you about something important. The bachelorette party." 

Okay...that was random. "What about it? You aren't cancelling it are you?"

She told me before that she'd been looking forward to it. Had something changed? Maybe there had been some kind of disagreement between the girls when they played that game Nate told us about. 

"No, we aren't cancelling it." She glanced away from me, avoiding making eye contact. "There's going to be a stripper there and I wanted to make sure you were okay with that." 

It wasn't news to me that there was going to be a stripper at the party. With Lanie at the helm, I figured as much. Didn't mean I had to like it. "I know, Harper."

"Are you okay with that? Be honest with me. I rather cancel it if it's going to upset you." 

I reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "Princess, I want you to have a real bachelorette party. Even if that means Lanie is going to hire a stripper." I hesitated before I confessed, "Even if it bothers me a little. But I trust you."

"I trust you, too. Are you sure about this though, Jackson?"

"I am. Are you going to be okay with there being a stripper at my bachelor party?" 

She nibbled her bottom lip. "It bothers me a little, I'm not going to lie. But I want you to have a real party, too. And I want you to enjoy it."

"Then we have nothing to worry about," I promised. "I mean it. I don't want you to worry about this. I want you to enjoy your bachelorette party with the girls. Okay?"

The tenseness in her shoulders seemed to fade away and she smiled. "Okay, Jackson. I promise."

Good. Now that that was settled, I needed to figure out how to spend the rest of the day with Harper without my guilty conscience getting to me. We may be done with the cake tasting, but we still had to go listen to a few bands and try to get started on the guest list.

I didn't know if it was gut instinct or what, but something told me I wasn't going to make it to the end of the day without telling her the truth...