by Nicole Snow
Everyone files out with a burst of giddy chatter except for Brina and Mag. They stay after every time they’re here so we can talk.
And I’m already expecting the first question before it darts out of her mouth.
“Okay. When are you and the Wardhole making it official?” she asks.
My cheeks heat.
“I don’t know. We’re taking it easy, remember? We haven’t really talked about—”
“Yeah, right. He’s always at your place.”
I shrug. She knows he asked me to move in the night we got back together and I turned him down because I like being difficult.
But seriously, I need respect. Commitment. Possibly a real ring this time.
“You mean Mr. Bossypants hasn’t brought it up again?” Brina asks.
“Stay out of it, Fido. These things always work out in their own good time.” Mag drops his hand on Brina’s leg.
“If he’s playing my best friend, he’ll regret it.”
“Not your monkeys, not your circus,” he says.
Before I can agree, Brina looks at me with woebegone eyes. “At the very least, I owe him a pie to the face.”
Mag smirks. “Can’t disagree. I’d love to see the gossip rags move on from my near assassination by strawberries and cream. Word of mouth travels fast, and so do asshole bystanders with Snapchat and an appetite for capturing famous men at their worst.”
The bell above the door rings as somebody enters.
Speak of the world’s sexiest devil.
I glance over to find Ward walking through the door and grin.
“I wasn’t expecting you here tonight,” I say, bounding over to him.
“I was hoping you had time for a private lesson, but maybe class isn’t over?” He moves to stand beside me.
I throw my arms around him and squeeze until it hurts.
“We’re just finishing up. I always have time for you.”
“Brina,” Mag says under his breath.
She stands, leaves the monster pineapple in its place, and turns to Ward. “It’s good that you always have time for her now. You’ve already broken her heart once. I won’t forgive you a second time.”
Ward grins.
She puts two fingers in front of her eyes and aims them at him in warning.
Mag stands. “Okay, I have to get Carrie home before bad things happen.”
“Carrie?” Brina asks.
“Stephen King. Don’t you read, English major?” Mag growls at her.
She shrugs. “I’m just saying—”
“I know. But we have a juvenile delinquent with a hard-on for college chemistry to deal with at home, so we’re heading out.” He slides an arm around her.
“He started it when he made my best friend cry,” Brina whines.
He kisses her cheek. “I know. But it’s over. Let’s go.” He leads her out the door.
“You think she’ll always hate me?” Ward asks, turning to me slowly.
“Not forever, I’m sure. They were married for about six months before I decided Mag was worth keeping around. When I realized he wouldn’t leave her again, I was chill. Brina and I have always been a team. As soon as she thinks you’re serious, she’ll back off.”
He nods, moving to the table Brina and Mag vacated and sits down. He pulls a lump of clay out of his pocket.
“This came in a kit. Can you help me mold it?”
I lean over the table beside him and pick up the lump, working my fingers through the clay. I’m pleasantly surprised he’s taken an interest in making art. Usually, he’s content to be an observer with a coffee in hand.
“This already has a shape, so if we follow the molding...should be easy enough.” The pre-formed shape becomes clearer in my hand. “Looks like a horse?”
“A Trojan horse,” Ward says. “I bought a figurine and dumped it in clay.”
I laugh. “What? Why?”
“Because there’s a secret compartment for your eyes only,” he says mysteriously.
“No way. What’s in it?”
“You have to find it first.”
Oh, boy.
“Um, okay. It’s not alive and doesn’t bite, right?”
“This isn’t Fear Factor, sweetheart.” He shakes his head. “It’s something you left behind. I thought this would be an interesting way to give it back.”
“Hmm. I thought I got everything?”
Ward stands, those blue-green lagoons for eyes shimmering in the light.
I push away at the clay with my fingers until I find a pouch on the rear of the horse. I put my nail to the edge of the pouch and it opens with an audible pop!
It takes my eyes a second or two to focus.
A diamond twinkles at me, spraying light against the wall. It’s—holy crap.
It’s the ring he gave me at the start of our charade. The pretty diamond ring I threw at him when he said he never loved me and wouldn’t marry me.
He kept it and hid it inside a horse that’s like a stripped down version of the sculpture I made in college, inspired by his grandmother’s brilliance.
Oh, no.
Whoa.
Does this mean...
My lungs forget how to breathe. I take a deep, shaking breath but my knees give out anyway.
Ward catches me before I hit the floor.
“I was supposed to do this on one knee,” he whispers in my ear. “Trouble is, you’re the clumsiest person I know, so I thought it’d be safer this way.”
One knee? So it does mean...
God.
Still holding me up, he leans over, plucks the ring from the horse, and slides it on my trembling finger.
“This is yours, Paige. It’s always been yours since the night we collided and I spent the next few weeks growling at you like a very stupid bear. You won my ring. You won my heart. I could never trust it with anyone else.” He pauses for a breathless second. “Sweetheart, will you marry me?”
I think I just died.
It’s so hot I can’t breathe in here, even with the autumn coolness.
Wrapping my arms around Ward Brandt, I give him the only answer I can. I press my lips to his so deeply I’m dizzy. He opens his mouth and I deepen the kiss.
His arms tighten, and he pulls away with dark amusement in his eyes.
“Was that a yes?”
I still can’t form words so I nod. A hot tear runs down my cheek.
He touches my tear with his finger. “Tell me that’s a happy tear? I don’t think I can handle it if it isn’t.”
I nod again so fast my head almost snaps off, and his lips come to mine in this feral, claiming kiss that reverberates through me.
This is a perfect moment.
Balmy and magic.
Everything I’ve ever wanted.
“I need a favor,” he says, breaking away.
“What?” I ask.
“Can you come home tonight? If not, we’re eloping. We can be in Vegas and have fake Elvis marrying us before dawn.”
I giggle, pushing at his chest. “I was ready to come home with you the first time you asked! I just needed to know it was permanent.”
“It’s forever,” he snaps too quickly.
Ah, there’s the adorable grump I want to marry.
I grin at him.
“Fiiine. I’ll come home, but we should think about making the lakehouse more permanent. It’s a better place for kids and dogs. There’s a huge yard to play in.”
“We’re having babies and dogs?” he asks slyly.
My face heats.
“Not for a little while. I just wanted to see what you’d say.”
“I say we start tomorrow,” he rumbles, pushing his forehead to mine.
I laugh and slap his arm, now fully smitten with this man for life.
He pulls me tighter to him and kisses me again.
“What do you think of Fiji for a honeymoon?”
“Wherever you want, Ward. If I’m with you, I’d be happy having it in Death Valley.�
�
Weeks Later
I knock on the door of what’s been designated the men’s dressing room.
“Hey, baby sister.” Nick opens the door and immediately jerks his head away.
“What’s wrong?” I rush out.
“My brother will kill me if he catches me looking at you in a robe.” He turns his head and yells, “Yo, Ward, your lady’s here!”
“Dude. It’s not like I’m naked.”
“Whatever.” Nick walks away.
Ward comes to the door with a freshly trimmed beard and...what’s that redness under his whiskers?
“...I’ve never seen you blush before.”
“I’m not blushing.” He reaches out and pulls me inside. “I’m just not sure what I think about my wife prancing around the Art Institute in nothing but a bathrobe.”
“I’m not your wife yet,” I tease.
“You will be in half an hour,” he says with pride.
“I didn’t want you to see me in my dress, so I had to get creative. And Merry Christmas.” I hand him a box wrapped in iridescent white paper.
He tears it open and pulls out an aqua-blue bow tie exploding with pale green stars. “I thought our color was silver?”
“Everyone else’s color, yeah. You’re wearing a new lucky tie that matches those eyes. They were the first thing I noticed about you, after all.”
“Really?” He echoes, lowering the tie in his hand.
I nod. “You were one grumpy god with looks made to electrocute.”
“Electrify sounds nicer,” he corrects, then smiles and kisses me. “Thanks, lady. I appreciate it.”
I undo the silver tie around his neck and attach the cerulean-emerald one in its place. “Don’t worry. I’ll appreciate it tonight when it’s all you’re wearing.”
“Fuck, woman, just try to appreciate it half as much as I will.” He smothers my lips so hard I melt.
“This is where we first met,” he says with a lazy realization.
“Kinda why we chose to get hitched here.”
He slides a hand over his face for a second before he gives me that mischievous grin I love so dearly.
Our mouths meet. Our tongues twine. There’s magic in every second today.
Then my phone rings.
“Paige! I have no idea where you are but you need to get back here,” Mom hisses. “We have to get you ready. Your wedding starts in less than an hour.”
Ward takes the phone from me. “Don’t worry. I’ll send her back, but make sure no one starts the wedding without her.”
I giggle.
He passes my phone back as I push the door open to leave.
“Paige?”
I look over my shoulder.
“Next time I kiss you, you’ll be my wife.” His smile—that smile—is freaking catnip.
Warm anticipation spreads through me and it’s enough to carry me through the second half of our epic day.
Back in our dressing room, I step into the simple strapless white dress I picked out. Brina pulls up the zipper in the back.
Mom helps me into a pearl and cubic zirconia long-sleeved getup that trails six feet behind me. I wanted a plain white dress.
Go figure, she wanted something fit for royalty, so this was our compromise.
She kneels down and starts buttoning while Brina buttons from the top. An eternity later, Mom puts the last button through the hole at my waist and holy hell, I’m sick of buttons.
We meet Dad just behind the door of Fullerton Hall.
My sister and Nick walk down the aisle first. Brina would’ve been my maid of honor, but Mag refused to let anyone else walk her down the aisle.
Ward was okay with her walking alone or with Nick, but said his brother would be his best man, and he didn’t care what Mag thought.
I planned for Brina to go down the aisle alone followed by Ward’s brother escorting my sister, but Mom thought the pictures would look lopsided with an uneven number of attendants.
So Nick and my sister go first, followed by Mag and Brina.
I come down the aisle with Dad. The frosted glass window over Fullerton Hall is so beautiful this room doesn’t need decorations, but Mom’s florist did a great job.
Colorful bursts of flower garlands cover all the railings. An arch behind the priest drips flower arrangements that smell as beautiful as they look.
Ward turns to see me.
He smiles at me the whole way, drinking me in, and with all these eyes on me, his grin keeps me anchored to the room. It’s the one thing that stops me from freaking out and becoming a runaway bride.
“You look like Princess Di in that dress,” Dad whispers as he places my hand in Ward’s. “Take care of her for me.”
I can’t decide which one’s a bigger compliment as Ward gives my father a solemn nod.
“She’s more bomb than any princess ever crowned,” Ward whispers with an edge in his voice that says he believes it.
God, I love this man.
The ceremony goes by in a warm and fuzzy blur, drifting vows and forevers, a priest who makes our bond already written in the stars official.
Ward’s hand is so tight I can barely get the ring on his finger as he grins at me sheepishly. And I die again, realizing just how much this bear of a man adores me.
“You’re okay,” I whisper. “Relax.”
Then it’s his turn to slide the diamond-covered band over my finger.
I miss the fateful words, “You may now kiss the bride.”
But there’s no missing the hunger his mouth has when it collides with mine in one long inferno.
He deepens the kiss with a growl I can feel amid the wild cheers and applause.
My arms close around his neck.
His arms hug my waist, and then my feet are off the floor and I’m floating.
Literally.
I think as long as we live, he’ll teach me new ways a woman can float with love, desire, and so much passion I might need hooks to stay on the ground.
“Hey, maybe wait until tonight!” Nick yells from the side.
A stunningly well-dressed Reese condemns him with a look, making me wonder what their deal is.
Laughter bleeds into the music beating through the room.
The hall clears out with people heading to the hotel for the reception. Mom directs the photographers like they’re trained hunting hawks for what seems like forever.
Finally, Brina and I slip back to my dressing room where this ridiculously heavy beaded outfit gets removed, and I replace my heels with sandals and a sweet smile of relief.
We walk to the reception together, my head on his chest, his arm slung around me like it’s the only thing that’ll ever matter.
And maybe it is.
“You were right. This balcony is beautiful. You can see the whole skyline and even Lake Michigan from here. This was the perfect place.”
“I’m glad we did the ceremony at the museum. No place better,” he says with a glowing look.
It’s also the place where we were reborn, when Beatrice convinced me to go find him when all seemed lost.
Again, the evening blurs.
I’m dancing with Dad one second, and then I’m in the middle of my first dance with my husband(!), our feet clumsily forgetting to sway with the music. Kinda hard when our lips have no chill, growing impatient every minute they’re apart.
Even the beautiful song my cousin Milah sings for us becomes one more awesome moment crammed into a breathtaking day, even though my hands burn in screaming applause and she wipes a rare tear from her eye with congratulations.
By the time it’s over, people swirl around us on the balcony like restless crows.
While dinner’s being plated out, I drag Ward around to each table to thank our guests personally.
Eventually, we reach the Whinthropes’ table.
“Thank you for coming,” I say.
“We wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Ross Winthrope says. He looks at Ward. “She’s
a beauty. Keep her happy, and let her keep you honest.”
“Glad as hell we could work things out, and it’s all thanks to her,” he tells Winthrope, his arm around me tightening.
“Aww. I love you,” I whisper, pecking irresistibly at his cheek.
“Love you too, sweetheart.” He kisses my forehead.
“Paige, I don’t know what’s more beautiful—the ceremony or the reception. The lake outlined by the night skyline is hard to beat.” Mrs. Winthrope taps her husband on the shoulder and points into the distance. “Look, you can even see the new hotel site from here.”
Ross follows his wife’s finger with his eyes. “You can. How about that. Once again, I’m thankful cooler heads prevailed.”
“That makes two of us. Now we’re ahead of schedule.” Ward grins.
No sooner do we turn and step away politely than there’s another tall figure waiting. The silver tiara perched on her head catches the light and flings it back so it’s almost blinding.
“There you are! You’re a hard lady to catch.” Beatrice walks up and hugs me. “Welcome to the family. You’re the daughter I always wanted.”
Mom appears behind her. “Careful, she’s my daughter.”
“She’s a Brandt now,” Beatrice says intently.
“Maybe so, but I brought her into this world to join your lovely family.”
“Ladies, there’s plenty of me to go around! I love you, Mom,” I say. “And I love you too, Beatrice.”
“Take a page from Ward and call me Grandma. You’re family now.” Beatrice stares at Mom. “Surely, I’m allowed to call her family, right?”
Mom smiles.
“I suppose. It’s just...it’s hard losing my baby.”
Ward’s arm around me drops. He steps forward and hugs my mother.
“You’re not losing a daughter. You’re basically a Brandt now too, and I’m grateful for making my family bigger and better,” he says, his words so heavy in my ears.
After everything they’ve been through, I’m glad too. There’s something special about becoming the thread that joins Ward, Beatrice, and Nick more tightly.
Mom laughs. “Hopefully, you’ll stay out of trouble?”
“I think I have to. Your daughter gets mean when she’s mad,” he says with a wink.
Brina comes up and hugs me. “Congratulations! For the hundredth time.”