They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 03

They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 03

He blinked. “What’s the point of bringing this up now? It already happened.”

“Exactly. What’s the point? You never listen anyway.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. His mouth pressed into a thin line.

That look crossed his face—the one I’d seen for eight years. Impatience, barely contained.

He knew he was in the wrong, but he didn’t think it was bad enough to say sorry.

“Haven, what’s the point of digging up old grudges now? The Maypole was an accident. I couldn’t control it. If you’re really that upset, I’ll have someone try to smooth it over with Mayor Carver tomorrow—just a formality, save you the embarrassment. Okay?”

I looked at him. “A formality?”

“My dad already said it at dinner. She can’t Reject the Match. She can’t get struck from the Registry. How exactly are you going to make this a ‘formality’?”

Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Haven, be reasonable—”

“Reasonable?” I laughed. “Ethan, when I try to be reasonable with my dad, he says I’m talking back. When I try with my mom, she says girls shouldn’t be so difficult. When I try with my brother, he says I’m overthinking. I thought it’d be different with you. But you still think I’m the one making things difficult?”

He opened his mouth.

“I didn’t mean—”

“You don’t listen to me,” I said. “You just assume I’ll give in. Like always.”

Like my dad assumed I’d shut up.

Like my mom assumed I’d swallow it.

Like my brother assumed I’d let it slide.

“Haven…”

His voice softened. He reached for me.

I stepped back half a step and turned toward the dark.

I heard his footsteps follow—two steps, then stop.

Someone must have called him back.

Probably Calla, asking in that soft voice of hers, “Ethan, what’s wrong?” Or someone from inside, pulling him back to wedding plans.

Either way, he didn’t come after me.

Three years ago, when he proposed, his eyes had been so bright.

Now that light was just… gone.

By the time I got back, it was late. They were out in the yard setting off fireworks.

Calla held a sparkler, her face lit up by the glow.

“Ethan, do you think Haven will mind? Us setting off fireworks out here…”

Hunter waved his sparkler around. “Mind what? Calla, you worry too much. The more you tiptoe around her, the weirder she gets. Just ignore her.”

Landon laughed and chimed in. “Yeah, don’t overthink it. Think about it—Ethan just happened to catch your ribbon. That’s fate. The Maypole Goddess is literally setting you two up.”

Calla’s cheeks went pinker. “Don’t say that. Haven wouldn’t be happy if she heard…”

Ethan laughed but didn’t deny it.

“Mayor Carver said all three couples from the Choosing will have their weddings together. One couple Rejected the Match, so it’s just the two of us now. I’m not letting you lose to anyone. You’ll have the best ceremony of them all.”

It was all he could give her, really. That one day. That one show. A way to make up for everything he couldn’t say to her.

Calla ducked her head, voice small. “But my gown won’t be ready in time. I’ll have to wear something ordinary…”

Hunter let out a laugh. “Ethan already thought of that. He had Haven’s gown altered to your measurements.”

Calla looked up. “Really? But what about Haven?”

“She won’t need it,” Ethan said, lighting Calla’s sparkler for her.

Silver sparks scattered across his shoulders.

I just stared.

That gown—I’d had it custom-made by a friend who did hand-embroidered work.

Ethan said he’d handle the fittings.

He took my measurements himself.

But when it arrived, it was tight in all the wrong places.

So that’s what it was for.