𝗔 𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞𝗬 𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗕𝗟𝗘

bonus chapter | the graduation party

"You know, Heiress," Jameson murmured, using his left hand to turn the steering wheel of his Porsche down a new street, "I'm starting to think you really don't want to marry me."

I flushed at the comment and glanced down at my traitorous fingers, which were sliding my diamond ring on and off my left hand.

On and off.

On and off.

On and —

"It's not that," I said, forcing my hands to part ways so they weren't tempted anymore.

"What is it, then?" Jameson's hand moved atop mine.

I cast my gaze out the window, gauging just how many more streets it would be before we reached Hawthorne house. I estimated nine.

After both receiving our degrees just days before, Jameson and I were headed back to Hawthorne House. Home — at least for now.

That wasn't the bad part, however.

The bad part wasn't even that my sister was throwing us both — but particularly me — a graduation party.

It was that everyone was going to see my ring.

We'd been cautiously hiding it the past couple of weeks, carefully slipping it on and off around family and nosy paparazzi.

Answering Jameson's question, I said, "It's that, after today, everyone is going to start telling us where to get married. Where to go for our honeymoon." I sighed. "People we don't even know are going to try to plan our flavor of wedding cake, Jameson."

At this, he snorted. "They can sure try." He leaned in closer to me as he murmured, "It's going to be chocolate. Right?"

I smile curled my lips. "I was thinking vanilla."

His lips twitched as we turn onto a new residential street. "This might be our biggest fight yet, Heiress."

"Yeah," I mumbled. "A fight between you, me, and half the population."

His smirk faded. "They don't get to decide anything about our lives. You know that."

"Yes," I conceded. "But I'm getting tired of all the unsolicited input."

Before responding, he turned down the last winding road. And Jameson and I were both rendered speechless.

Even though we still had a long stretch of road to reach the family mansion, I could already see plenty of Hawthorne handiwork.

A zip-line stretched up to the highest level of the house, upstaged only by the plethora of people decorating the grounds. Bungee cords descended from the roof, and even from this distance, I could see Xander scaling the side of the building, followed closely by an entourage of onlookers.

As Jameson and I pulled up to the mansion, still speechless, I noticed my sister's cupcake truck peeking out of a collection of hedges.

Despite my excitement, nerves gathered in my chest too. Familiar faces were beginning to notice us parked just outside of the grounds, and if we didn't get out soon, we'd be surrounded.