"Hello?" Pt. 2

I do, I do, I do, I do, I do

Charlotte Delaney

There was a loud commotion coming from the hallway. Voices were shouting over each other in panicked tones, their words indecipherable as the noise increased and rousing me from my slumber.

Heading for the door, I pulled it open and peered out only to see almost everyone stood around with the look of fear on their faces. "What is going on?" I shouted over their voices.

"Oh, Charlotte," Evelyn Harrow, the groom's sister, sighed heavily as she broke away from the group and neared me. Her face was as pale as fresh snow and her hands trembled. "It's Sophie. We can't find her anywhere."

"Aye," the unmistakable voice of Keira Delaney spoke from the crowd. "She's bolted."

I rolled my eyes at how dramatic everyone was being; there was no way that Sophie would have bolted. She's been dying to marry that idiot of hers ever since he proposed and having seen how they couldn't take their eyes off each other at the rehearsal yesterday, I could think of a hundred reasons why we couldn't find Sophie but none of them involved her having cold feet.

"She's around here somewhere," I assured them all as I stretched out my body. "She's probably hiding from you lot."

Evelyn shook her head and muttered something about needing to phone Alistair, her husband. I wasn't sure what he could possibly want with him, but I didn't care to ask as she wandered off down the hall and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. The others were quick to scuttle off, too, until it was just Dad, Lucas and I left.

"I'm starving," Dad said, patting his growling stomach. "I'm making breakfast if anyone wants some."

After telling him that I'd meet them in the kitchen, I dashed back into the bedroom and quickly ran a brush through my hair before changing into a loose pair of sweatpants and a grubby discoloured white t-shirt that I'd had for years. Until the hairdressers and the makeup artists arrived, I wanted to be as comfortable as I could be because soon enough, there was going to be chaos here.

Downstairs was quiet, the sound of Dad whistling as he cooked the only sounds I could hear. When I entered the kitchen, Lucas gave me a warm smile as I cradled my head against his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his torso. Ever since we all grew up and moved out of home, we rarely had moments like this and I missed it. Despite being the only boy, Lucas was the glue that held my sisters and me together and we were extremely close. It wasn't surprising at all that Sophie had asked him to walk her down the aisle.

"Excited for today?" Lucas asked as I untangled myself from him and took the seat next to him at the breakfast bar. I nodded in response while pouring out a glass of orange juice and taking a long sip. "I wonder where she is. Probably with Daniel, I'd imagine. Those two can't go a second without some sort of contact."

"Wherever she is," Dad said, turning and dishing out a cooked English breakfast onto the plates before us. "She'll be back soon."

As if on cue, the rear door of the kitchen opened and a windswept Sophie entered dressed head to toe in her running gear with mud covering her trainers. "Oh, breakfast!" Her eyes gleamed as she kicked off her dirty shoes and rushed over to the breakfast table. "Is there enough for me, too?"