Men Are Frogs (Fairy Godmothers, Inc. #2) - Saranna DeWylde Page 0,3

in her client’s wedding, it had come as a complete and utterly devastating surprise.

The groom, one celebrated surgeon Alec Marsh, hadn’t been present for any of the usual things. He’d had medical conferences, emergency surgeries, and it had been just the perfect storm that kept them from crossing paths until the day of the wedding.

When the bride, Jenn, realized that her Alec was Zuri’s Xander, she hadn’t turned on Zuri. No. She’d taken a single moment to compose herself, directed her maid of honor to unzip her dress, and she’d stepped out of that Vera Wang original and stood there in her silk slip while she lit her wedding dress on fire with an altar candle.

No one had made a move to stop her.

Not even Alec.

Zuri had thought that, surely, Jenn would turn her fury on her. But she hadn’t. Instead, she’d thanked her for showing her who the man she was about to marry really was and invited Zuri to join her on her honeymoon cruise.

Zuri, for her part, should’ve said yes.

Oh, the sheer power of that woman. Zuri had to say she admired her for so many reasons.

Mostly because she knew right at this moment, Jenn Gordon was not sitting surrounded by the ashes of a life that had gone supernova.

She was living it up in the Caribbean with her friends, sun, sea, and cabana boys with drinks with little umbrellas in pineapples. Jenn Gordon was getting massages, facials, and pampering herself while she nursed her broken heart.

And Zuri, well, she was trying to scrape all the ashes of her life into a dustpan and put them back together like some sort of snowman reject from hell. No one wanted to trust their wedding to a wedding planner who’d “stolen the groom.”

Even though that’s not what happened.

Even though Jenn didn’t blame her.

She looked up at her twin sister, Zeva, who was helping her pack her things away in storage.

“Why do I still even want to be a wedding planner after this?” In fact, Zuri wasn’t sure if she did. It was all she’d ever wanted since she’d realized giving people Happily Ever Afters was an actual job that came wrapped in a wedding planner bow. She’d never thought about doing anything else.

Only now, she was sitting in an almost empty condo, about to say goodbye to everything she’d ever known. All the accomplishments she’d worked so hard for, like this condo. She couldn’t believe her whole life had been burned to the ground by a man.

A man she never would’ve gotten involved with if she’d known he was with someone else.

No, not just a man.

But love.

Love had helped her build this beautiful life, and love had taken a giant, steaming shit on her life, and she was struggling not to swirl down the bowl with it.

Zeva finished taping up a box and turned to look at her sister. “You want to be a wedding planner because love is still magic.”

“But is it?” Zuri was doubtful. “I mean . . .”

“Of course it is. What happened with Jenn and Alec, you know that’s not what love looks like. What happened between you and him, that’s not love, either. Deep down, you believe.”

Zuri sighed and slumped. “Why do you have to be right?”

“Because I’m the oldest.” Zeva sank down and put an arm around her shoulders. “Listen, this interview is going to be great. Fairy Godmothers, Inc., already knows what happened. You were honest in your email application. They still want to interview you. This is good.”

“Or maybe they just want to look at me. You know, see the pariah for themselves.” She’d already had several wedding pod-casters try to book time with her for a wedding consultation, only to try to interview her about the wedding that wasn’t.

“I don’t think they’re like that. Not at all. They’ve had their own struggles, what with the ‘Billionaire Fake Wedding Turned Real.’ Come on.”

“I think the fact their godchildren were willing to get fake married for them speaks to how much their godchildren love them. They’re probably really great people.” Zuri nodded slowly, driving the point home to herself.

“See? And they want you.” Her sister squeezed her.

“I suppose, but I don’t know how I feel about moving to a small town in Missouri named Ever After. It’s definitely not Chicago.” She looked out the window at her stunning view of Lake Michigan and the blue sky.

“I think it’s fantastic that it’s not Chicago. Which is just what you need. So is renting