Lovestruck Forever by Rachel Schurig

don’t want you to play it cool. I
don’t want you to pretend—”
    “I
didn’t say I was pretending. I want you to do this, Thomas. I
really do.”
    “What
about the wedding?”
    I
swallowed. “If we have the wedding here, we would have more
help than we could ever need with the planning. We wouldn’t
even need to hire a planner. Hell, they’d barely even need me
to pull it off.”
    “Lizzie—”
    “Besides,”
I went on, trying to sound more sure about it then I felt. “It
will mean a lot to my family, having it here.”
    “Yeah,
but what about you?” He bent a little so to better peer into my
eyes. “I hate you making a decision like this based on what
they want.”
    I
shrugged. “A wedding is about family, isn’t it? I want
them to feel like they’re a part of this, a part of our
relationship. It means a lot to me that they want to be involved.”
    “I
don’t know, Lizzie.”
    “I
talked to my mom today,” I admitted. “She gave me her
mom’s veil, the one she wore in her wedding. And she told me
about how she’s always dreamed of this, of me getting married
in the same church as everyone else. I wanted to talk to her about
London, but how could I after that?”
    “I’ll
talk to her, then, if you feel too close to the situation. She loves
me.”
    “She
does. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have the wedding
here.” I placed my hands on either side of his face. “Look,
the important thing to me is that we get married. I’m not just
interested in a party; I’m interested in the marriage, you
know? Why not have it here, if it means so much to so many people?
Besides, you know I’m not good at all of this frou-frou wedding
planning stuff. Having my sisters and my parents helping wouldn’t
be the worst thing in the world.”
    He
stared at me, silent, for a long moment. “You know it doesn’t
matter to me where we have it,” he finally said. “My
family is a lot smaller, and it’s easier for them to get here
than it is to get all of you over to England.” He paused. “But
I don’t want your sisters making all the decisions for you,
Lizzie. Maria was brutal the other night, the way she jumped in and
started making plans without talking to you.” His look grew
stern. “If we have the wedding here, if we let them help us,
you have to promise me that you’ll stand up to them.”
    I
shifted, feeling uncomfortable, but he placed a finger under my chin,
making me look up at him. “I mean it, Lizzie. No humungous
dresses that you hate. We pick the food. We pick the music. You have
to promise me. I don’t want our wedding to be something that
you end up resenting because Maria is pushing you around.”
    “Okay,”
I agreed, knowing he had a point. Wherever our wedding was, I wanted
it to be about us. “Maybe it will be easier for me to stand up
for myself now that we’ve decided to have it here. I won’t
have that guilt I would have had in London, so it will be easier for
me to say no.”
    His
face tightened at my words, and I realized I probably shouldn’t
have used the word guilt to describe our wedding choices. I hurried
to continue, hoping he’d drop it. “Besides, I’ll
have Sofie here to help me be strong.”
    “Okay,”
he said, his face finally relaxing. “If this is really what you
want, then I’m cool with it.”
    “Good.”
I smiled up at him. “So. The movie.”
    He
swallowed hard. “The movie.”
    “You
have to do it, Thomas. You have to. I’ll be furious with you if you turn it down.”
    “I
want it, Lizzie,” he admitted, blowing out a shaky breath. “I
really want it.”
    I
laughed. “Of course you do.”
    “But
I don’t want to leave you.”
    “Look,
I’ll come over when it makes sense for both our schedules. I’ll
spend a week here giving my sisters a break with my mom and doing
wedding stuff then the next week or so in London with you. We can
talk every day, you know.”
    “And
what about the wedding plans? Am I just out of the