by Ava Miles
“Well, well, well,” Arthur drolled. “If it isn’t the groom. Although it’s hard to recognize you as such since you’re not wearing a tuxedo.”
“I hate monkey suits,” Tanner told him with a shrug.
Thank God, Meredith had understood how much he hated formal attire. She’d been okay with his choice of a cream tan suit with an open-collar white shirt. No tie. It was more of a beach look, Jill had told him, but he’d added a splash of panache with the red silk handkerchief in deference to Meredith’s choice of red amaryllis flowers for her bouquet.
“Can I have a red hot?” Keith asked the elderly man, who dutifully dug one out of his pant’s pocket.
“Do you want one?” Arthur asked, turning to him.
“Better not. It might give me a red tongue, and that would be awkward for when I say, ‘I do.’” He stuck his tongue out playfully to Keith, who laughed like he’d just said the silliest thing ever.
“I want a red tongue,” Keith said, sticking out his tongue and pointing to it before he popped a candy into his mouth.
“Me too,” Danny mimicked.
So far, the two boys had bonded like crazy. Tanner threw Andy a look as if to say, “Kids.” The Hale brothers simply laughed and held out their hands as Arthur passed around more red hots. The man was like his own candy machine. Natalie deferred, agreeing with Tanner about the whole red-tongue thing.
“Are you nervous, Tanner?” Alan Hale, his future father-in-law, asked as he accepted a red hot.
Tanner had faced down the Taliban. How could he be nervous about marrying the woman of his dreams in the safe little town of Dare Valley, surrounded by family and friends? “Nope. Not a bit.”
“It’s getting to be about time,” Alan said, tapping his watch face.
“I’ll just go and grab my sister and my best man,” Tanner said. “That is, if they’re both still alive.”
Alan blinked rapidly, but Arthur barked out a laugh.
“Not too many men would come out alive after being penned up with your sister,” the older man said. “That’s why she’ll make a great deputy sheriff for our town. What are they doing in there, anyway?”
The Denver cousins, not to mention Meredith’s father, looked at Arthur like he’d just asked an inappropriate question, but the older man knew Peggy well enough to know there wasn’t any hanky panky going on in the waiting room. “They’re trading chokehold techniques.”
The other men’s eyes widened in shock, but the journalistic legend nodded sagely. “Sounds like a smart swap. You never know when you might need to use a chokehold on someone.”
“Dad!” Alan said aghast.
“You never worked international,” Arthur said. “It’s another world.”
After wrangling Asher and his sister, Tanner returned to the vestibule with the two in tow.
“I know you just got back here, but you’d better head to the waiting room with Asher,” Alan said, making sure his tie was straight. “The guests are starting to arrive.”
Tanner didn’t see the harm in staying where he was, but he clapped Asher on the back and off they went. When it came time for the ceremony to begin, he and Asher strolled out and took their places at the altar. All of the guests smiled at him, but his eyes were glued to the front of the church, waiting for that first glimpse of his bride. Covered in a long white runner, the aisle was flanked by candles and red roses, amaryllis, and red hypericum, the latter of which he would never have identified if Meredith hadn’t asked him to make a follow-up call to the florist one night.
Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” swelled, and so did his heart. He smiled as Danny came down the aisle holding an engraved sign that said Here Comes the Bride. They’d had to send the first sign back because it had arrived saying Here Comes the Bird. Someone needed to use spell check.
Next came Keith, their ring bearer, who beamed with happiness as he made his way up the aisle and came to a stop near the altar.
Looking lovely in a red satin bridesmaid’s dress, Jill strutted down the aisle with that sassy smile of hers. Asher met her halfway, and she curled her fingers around his arm and gave her grandpa a wink as she passed him. Tanner simply shook his head at his soon-to-be sister-in-law, whom he loved not only for all the energy she had poured into matchmaking for him and Meredith, but also for her wicked sense of humor. She blew him a kiss and took her place on the other side of the altar.
Then the music changed to “Ode to Joy,” which Meredith had chosen for its name, and everyone in the church stood.
His throat backed up when he saw her. Her red hair was swept up into some kind of elegant coif with soft curls framing her face. A short white veil was tucked into her hair and danced along her mid-back as she walked down the aisle, her blue eyes sparkling. When her dad kissed her cheek and stepped back, she locked gazes with Tanner and didn’t glance away. It felt like nothing could pull them apart.
As he took her hand, he knew nothing ever would.
***
Meredith knew everyone oohed and aahed over the bride at weddings, but when she saw Tanner, she decided those people were missing the boat. He was the most handsome groom imaginable. She was so glad he hadn’t worn a tux out of convention because his cream tan suit was so much more him. His rugged face softened when their hands met, and his brown eyes shone like the North Star on a recent December night.
“You take my breath away,” he whispered to her.
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
He flashed her that devilish smile, the same one that had made her heart go pa-rum-pum-pum that first night at Hairy’s Irish Pub. It played the same beat now.
They took their places in front of the minister she’d known all her life, and the ceremony began. Everything else faded away. As she stared into her love’s eyes, she heard the minister talk about how they’d met and then her cousins, Caroline and Matt, read the two passages they’d selected. His was “Every Day” by David Levithan while hers was by “Looking For Your Face” by Rumi.
She mouthed the first line to the Rumi poem as it was read.
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face, but today I have seen it.
He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed it with such exquisite tenderness she felt tears form in her eyes.
“I love you,” he mouthed back, and a single tear cruised down her cheek.
When it came time to say their vows, she took a deep breath. They’d decided to write their own—they were journalists, after all—but mostly, she’d wanted this ceremony to be so different from her first that it was unrecognizable.
“Meredith,” Tanner began, holding her hand firmly in his own, “when I came to Dare Valley after traveling the world, I was an empty shell. Burned out. Hollow. I didn’t believe there was any good in the world. I certainly didn’t believe in romantic love.”
She felt a smile touch the corners of her mouth as more tears filled her eyes.
“And then I found you. I know you were looking for someone else, some hero from a Nora Roberts novel. Lucky for me, you think I’m that guy. I don’t know about that, but I do know this. I’m the one who loves you every which way, who wants to curl up on the couch with you on these endless winter nights, who wants to explore and enjoy your mind as we work together at the family newspaper your grandfather built. I promise to always be faithful. I promise to always be there for you, whatever comes. I promise to be a good father if we are blessed with children. And I know it will be easy because loving you and being with you is the single greatest joy of my entire life.”
She had to reach back and shake her hand so Jill would know she needed a tissue. They’d agreed on a signal before the wedding. As soon as it was delivered, he took it from her and dabbed at her tears, his whole heart in his eyes.
After taking a few deep breaths, she smiled and said, “Tanner, when I came to Dare Valley, I was looking for myself, for the woman I’d lost somewhere in New York. With Divorcee Woman’s help, I fo
und her. And I’m grateful for that. I want to come to you whole and complete.”
He tilted his head to the side and gazed into her eyes, likely remembering just how lost she’d been. Her divorce had taken a toll on her, and it had forced her to take a hard look at both the woman she’d become and the woman she wanted to be.
“I returned to Dare Valley on a quest to prove fairy tales still exist like they do in Nora Roberts’ books. But you taught me one very important thing. That a real hero is better than any storybook character, and true love is more incredible than any love story could ever describe. I love you with a heart that seems to have grown a thousand times bigger these last months. And even though I can’t imagine loving you more than I do right now, I know I will as we work together and play together and have a family together here in Dare Valley. Thank you for loving me and accepting me as I am. I promise to love you the same way.”
He pressed their foreheads together when she finished, and she could feel he was struggling with the strong emotion flowing between them. When he seemed more settled, he edged back and traced her face with his free hand.
“For always,” he whispered.
“For always,” she whispered back.
Then the minister blessed the rings, and it made her cry again to see Tanner slide her Grandma Harriet’s ruby and diamond wedding ring onto her finger. She looked over her shoulder to see her grandpa wiping at the tears in his eyes. When he caught her looking, he gave her a thumbs-up, and she simply nodded over the tightness in her throat. Neither of them needed to give voice to the understanding that passed between them.
When the minister announced them husband and wife and said Tanner could kiss her, she threw her arms around his neck, making him laugh, and poured all her love into a simple kiss she knew she would remember all the days of her life.
And with his hand in hers, they walked down the aisle after their wedding party.
She had to fight the urge to throw her bouquet up in the air and cheer.
***
Tanner suffered through the wedding photos in the fabulous brass and marble rotunda in Emmits Merriam University’s Main Administration building, but the minute they were over, he yanked off his boutonniere. It had been sticking into him for the last twenty minutes.
“Undressing already?” his bride asked with a saucy smile.
“I’m game, if you are,” he answered in a voice only she could hear, caressing the hollow of her throat. He’d never imagined lace could be so sexy, and her dress was tantalizing him way too early.
“We have guests, if you’ll remember,” she said, stroking the lapels of his suit. So not helpful.
Asher ducked his head into their conversation. “Some of us have come from across the Atlantic to be here. You two had better not be thinking about ducking off before I dance with the bride.”
“We are,” Tanner said, right as she said, “We’re not.”
They grinned at each other.
Jill threaded her hand through Asher’s arm. “Could he be any dreamier? I’ve said it all my life, and I’ll say it again. Everything sounds better with a British accent. And to test my point, Asher, I want you to say a few words. Natalie! Caroline! Moira! Come here. You’ve gotta hear this.”
His friend didn’t roll his eyes—he was way too proper a British gentleman for that—but it was close. Her cousins clustered around them, all of them giving Asher an eyeful. Well, all but Natalie, who seemed about as interested in him as if he were an elderly relative of Tanner’s.
“All right, Jill,” Asher said politely. “What do you wish for me to say?”
“Say horse puckey,” Jill ordered.
Asher’s mouth twitched. “Horse puckey.”
Jill fanned herself like she was breathless. Caroline and Moira deflated like day-old balloons.
“See. Now say maggot.”
“Maggot.”
The women’s sighs were worthy of Sarah Bernhardt and her understudies.
“I knew it! Even the gross words sound sexy!” Jill declared with a stomp of her heel, which echoed in the vast rotunda.
“I’ll be sure to tell all my television counterparts. Now how about we go find a glass of something delightfully alcoholic?”
“That sounds divine,” Jill replied, sugar-coating it plenty.
Asher offered his other arm to Caroline, who took it with a simpering smile. Natalie and Moira followed the trio to the door that led to the reception area.
“If we hurry, we can find a closet somewhere and make out for a while,” Tanner whispered into Meredith’s ear. “The coast is clear, but it won’t stay that way for long.”
Meredith entwined her hands around his neck and gave him a kiss that made even his stalwart knees go weak.
“You’re killing me. Right here. And at our own wedding, no less.” He tucked her closer to his body. “You wear some dress made all out of lace to drive me wild and God knows what kind of underwear underneath it all. Then you make me go to a church and stand in front of a minister and talk about how much I want you.”
“You poor baby,” she said in a sad, pouty tone that drove him wild.
“If that’s not bad enough, I have to smell your perfume as we smile for the camera, knowing I have to eat a full-blown meal, cut a ridiculously tiered cake, and dance in front of everybody. And I have to do this all the while pretending I’m not aroused out of my mind, knowing I’m going to get lucky tonight. Do any of your wedding magazines cover the man’s point of view? I might have to write an article on this.”
He could warn other men what to expect and suggest they wear extra-long suit jackets to cover the evidence of their wedding-day longing.
“My underwear is all white, appropriately lacy, and has MW stitched into the top of the panties for Married Woman.”
He’d given her cotton underwear with MW stitched into them as part of his marriage proposal. It might have been unconventional, but the time had come for her to let go of Divorcee Woman, the superwoman alter ego who had helped her regain confidence after her divorce.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
She took a few steps toward the door to their reception hall, which was down the corridor, and then gave him a sexy look over her shoulder. “What do you think?”
There was no question. He was going to die a happy man tonight.
He followed her into the party and watched with a smile as she rushed straight into her grandfather’s arms.
The reception area was the perfect place for two ink-blooded journalists to celebrate their marriage. Black-and-white photos of Arthur Hale and other award-winning journalists and world leaders graced the wood-paneled hall, as was appropriate since it was called The Arthur Hale Conference Center. The large windows provided sweeping vistas of the valley and the surrounding snow-covered mountains. But one of the most impressive features of the room, in Tanner’s humble view, was the award case holding one of Arthur’s Pulitzer Prizes at the back of the room. The others were in his office, which is where Tanner had decided to display his. Maybe when he won another one, he would give it to the journalism school for display.
Today the hall was filled with round tables decorated with amaryllis flowers and lit with tiny candles Tanner knew wouldn’t last the evening. There was a dance floor area set up between the main tables and the head table. The open bar was at the back, and people were already helping themselves to drinks. Even though he’d seen the hall last night, the whole scene felt different today. It was everything he and Meredith had hoped for: warm and romantic.
Somehow, being surrounded by the journalistic integrity and excellence he loved so much, which his new family also lived and breathed, seemed to forge an even stronger connection between him and Meredith on the first day of their married life.
“I love it here,” Asher said as Tanner moved further into the room. “I might have to teach here as an adjunct one day—like you did. This is like coming to journalistic heaven. Did you see that photo of your new g
randfather-in-law, if there’s such a word, with Anwar Sadat and Jimmy Carter in the 1970s?”
“I did. Arthur is truly one of the most incredible men you will ever meet. You seem to have lost your admirers,” he said with a playful nudge to his friend’s ribs.
“I said I had to go to the loo. It’s degrading. Those women are animals,” Asher joked. “Especially your new sister-in-law. I feel like some English boy toy. Fortunately she only has eyes for one man, and he came and stole her away.” He nodded toward his left.
Tanner looked over to where Jill and Brian were talking while sipping what looked to be beer. The two were renewing their friendship at the moment, and she’d asked him to be her date to the wedding. It was a start.
“She’s been in love with him since she was a little girl,” he told Asher. “He’s been…a bit more obtuse about the whole thing.”
“Punch him if he breaks her heart,” Asher said, unbuttoning his tailored Savile Row suit.
“I will,” he said easily. “He knows he needs to handle her with care.”
“She’s a spunky one,” Asher said, picking up a glass of champagne from one of the trays the servers were walking through the room. “Now, tell me what it’s like to work with Arthur day in and day out.”
They started talking shop, something Tanner had missed doing. He loved working at The Western Independent, but he was still adjusting to not covering the news in the field. By the time the conversation had turned to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Meredith came over.
“It’s time for us to find our seats so the waiters can start serving everybody,” she said, taking his hand.
Sure enough, everyone had begun to find their tables. It felt wonderful to see all these people who were special to him and Meredith melded together in one place.
Dinner was much better than he’d expected, and when he told Meredith, she laughed and said never to underestimate a Hale. Her cousin, Natalie, had done a great job with the beef tenderloin. Meredith had pretty much ploughed through the entire salmon on her plate.