Chapter 16

**Xavier Black**

"This is all wrong." My mother says as we look at table settings placed out in front of us. I don't really care about what we eat out of, as long as we're eating but I can't exactly say that in front of all these woman looking like they're going to murder each other.

"This is exactly what I asked for." Skyler says, glaring at my mother, something she's been doing more and more these past two weeks. I'm just glad she's not glaring at me anymore.

"If you had went with rose gold you could have had crystal plates but that's not going to happen now, it it?" My mother asks and Nancy gives me a nervous look but I just shrug.

"I'm not going with rose gold." Skyler says and I swear if she was a wild animal she would have pounced on my mother by now. "Nancy, I like the white plates with the silver linings and could we maybe get the roses a little lighter? I want more of a pale blue instead of the sky blue." She says, choosing to ignore my mother for now. "Oh and how are we on the bridesmaids dresses?" She asks and I'm glad that I didn't have to be there for that because Candice told me horror stories.

"All tailored and ready to be detailed." She says and Skyler nods, while writing something on her notepad. "We should start thinking about narrowing down your dress choice." Nancy adds and the face Skyler pulls tells me it's the last thing she wants to talk about at this moment.

"Tomorrow. We'll handle that tomorrow." She says and Nancy nods but of course my mother doesn't look very happy about that and of course she doesn't hesitate to say so.

"We should do it today, while we still have time. We still have to go cake tasting tomorrow and look at venue’s." She says. Skyler closes her eyes and takes a deep breath and I find myself wondering why I'm even here if it doesn't look like I'm needed.

"We're not doing anything. Xavier and I are going cake tasting and looking at venue’s and that's happening today." Skyler tell her and I want to groan but I refrain from making any noise. I don't know when I went from feared and ruthless to being involved in wedding drama but I don't like it. Not one bit.

"You can't just keep us from everything, Skyler. We have a say in this too." My mother says and that's when Skyler looses it.

"No, you don't. You don't have a say in anything. Not the colours of my wedding, not the flowers, not the plates, not the tables, not the chairs, not my bride's maid dressed, not the cake, not the venue. You don't have a say in anything. You're here to watch us plan and wedding and give advice when asked, not to run your mouth and plan the wedding you want. You had your chance and now it's my turn so from now on you're not allowed to come with us anywhere. You stay your ass at home and you show up to the wedding, wearing white like all the other guest because I don't need you to be in my wedding party. I don't need you for anything." She says before storming out and leaving me in shock.

"Are you just going to stand there, Xavier? This girl has done nothing but disrespect me and you haven't defended me through any of it." My mother says, glaring at me like all of this is my fault.

"You wanted to run your mouth, you deal with it." I tell her and leave the room to go find Skyler. I could care less about what my mother feels right now because at the end of the day I'm going to be the one who has to live with Skyler and I would rather not make my life a living hell before I've even said 'I do'. "Are you okay?" I ask when I find her outside, pacing back and forth at the bottom of the steps. She looks at me, like she's surprised I'm even standing before her. I can see a whole range of emotions go through her eyes before she looks defeated and sits down on the bottom step.

"I'm tired." She says as I sit down next to her. "I'm tired of it all and I just want it to end. I have to deal with your mother here and mine at home and all of my bride's maids have their own issue and style. Isn't this supposed to be about what I want? What we want?" She asks, looking up at me like a helpless puppy would at it's owner, begging for help.

"You want to go and shoot something?" I ask, because it's the only thing I can think about right now because Skyler looks like she's about to cry and I don't want to deal with that. Silence falls between us and for a moment I think she didn't hear me before she nods.

"Yeah, let's go shoot something." She says and I don't know if I should be happy or worried about the sound of her voice when she says that but as long as she's not going to cry on me I'm good for now. We head back inside and move things around with Nancy, opting to go cake tasting and all that stuff tomorrow and Skyler promises to narrow down her dress options by tonight.

It takes us an hour to drive out of the city and to the custom gun range we set up for our men. I take the time and go through everything with Skyler that she's already learned these last few weeks before strapping her up and setting her loose. Gun shots goes of left and right as she takes her anger out on the targets and I have to say I'm impressed by the way she handels herself. I find myself wondering if she could ever look a man in the eyes and kill him but I know she won't. She's to innocent to do that and for some reason I find myself wanting to keep her that way.

We've gotten along much better these last two weeks and when I say that I mean she's stopped ignoring me and she's wearing the ring. I know it's still going to be a long time before she actually likes me but we can spend time alone without it becoming to akward or uncomfortable for either of us and I take that as a win.