Here Comes the Bride
Page 19
Literally. He wiped his brow.
Indecision pulled at her. She’d like to comfort her mother, but her timing, as always, was disastrous. “Mom, I think they’re ready for us.”
Her mother waved her hand toward the door. “Sure, go ahead. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
Setting her small bouquet of pink periwinkles on the bed, Sam gently held her mom’s shoulders. “Look at me, Mom. You and Dad have been married for thirty-eight years.”
“Thirty-nine, but who’s counting?”
Sam squelched the desire to roll her eyes. “Obviously you are. So, what are you so upset about?”
“Look at me,” she said, running her hands over the expensive fabric covering her hips. “I have a lot of life left. There are things I want to do. Faraway places I want to see. This past year away from Cameron has made me see how much I’ve missed out on. I’m scared. Your father changed once. Who’s to say he won’t change again.”
Sam felt a magnetic pull toward Dominic. She wanted to go to him. Needed to be by his side, but she couldn’t abandon her mother at a time like this. She took a steadying breath and said, “Mom, I know you. You won’t let him.” Sam wanted to shake some sense into her. “You and I have grown a lot in these past months. We know what we want. We know what’s acceptable and what’s not. Hell, I won’t ever let Dad treat you badly, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“So you think I should accept his proposal?”
It took everything she had to stay calm. Her wedding day and here she was giving a daughter-mother talk—go figure. “Yes, Mom, I think you should.”
“Okay,” she said, eyes suddenly dry. “I’m ready. I’m glad we had this talk.”
“Me, too, Mom. Let’s do this before Dominic melts and the—”
Damn. She heard the unmistakable roar of the helicopter’s rotors in the distance. The paparazzi had found them.
***
Sweat dripped off his forehead, which Dominic figured was a godsend because now at least nobody would notice how red his eyes were. Not that he’d been crying or anything.
He wasn’t a crier.
He was a man’s man.
Hell, he’d just wrapped up filming a movie where he shot men just for looking at him wrong. He had enough testosterone to take care of the World Wrestling Federation.
And yet, five minutes ago, he’d been thinking about his wife and all the memories they had already made in such a short time. He’d also been going over his vows. Every time he thought about what Sam meant to him, it opened up a floodgate of emotions.
It was pissing him off.
He could do this.
Sam was his moon, his sun, the oxygen he breathed.
There. Easy enough. Fate, that fickle yet powerful force with the ability to predetermine a person’s life, had found him and presented him with Sam.
His eyes stung. Damn.
Forget it. He’d just have to think about other things.
He glanced at the guests patiently waiting. Tom’s wife was pregnant again. Their three-legged beagle went from chair to chair, making sure everyone scratched her back at least once. Rex tried to follow, but he kept getting turned around, bumping into Caesar and then heading off in the wrong direction.
On another note, Dominic had gone to see his father. Figured he’d check up on him. Lo and behold, Uncle Frank showed up two minutes before Dominic was getting ready to leave. Anger simmered within as he recalled the look of surprise on his uncle’s face. As it turned out, his father and uncle had been working together to steal his money. They figured Dominic could just make another movie and another million and everybody would be fine.
Dominic took a deep breath and sadness replaced the bitterness that threatened to ruin his special day. No. He was done. He had Sam, and he had his mother.
Needless to say, they were both in jail. The money they had embezzled was gone—spent on booze and gambling. A little time spent behind bars would force his father to stop drinking. At least for a while.
Glad to have his emotions in check, Dominic put a hand to his chest the moment he spotted Sam. “Wonderful Tonight” played as she strolled up the grassy aisle. With her hair down and wearing a beautiful but simple dress, she took his breath away. The pink of her bouquet matched the soft color of her lips. Striking. Mesmerizing. Simply beautiful.
And when she smiled at him, he felt a rumble deep down at the bottom of his chest.
Her soft hand slid into his, reminding him of their first wedding at the church when she’d startled him with her beauty. Life had not been the same since.
“Are you crying again?” she asked softly.
“No. What gave you that idea? This is sweat. For a moment there I thought you’d gotten cold feet and run off.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’ll never run off. You’re stuck with me, DeMarco. I love you.”
The helicopters arrived. Dust and bits of grass flew around them, which he figured was a good thing because now he had another excuse as to why his eyes were watering. “I love you, too,” he said loud enough to be heard over the deafening noise.
***
Emma patted Winston’s head as she watched Grandpa walk Sam halfway up the grassy aisle before he took a seat next to Grandma. Dominic was crying again. Her friends all thought Dominic was ultra-cool because he played a tough guy on the big screen, but Uncle Dom was a big softie at heart.
Tom was the best man and Emma was the maid of honor—a great decision on the bride’s part, if she did say so herself.
So cool that filming had ended for Dominic’s first Western and reviews were looking good. Twice she’d gotten to visit him on set. His fans had forgiven him and World Studios was still trying to get Dominic to sign on the dotted line.
And even better than that, Sam, after a year of writing and re-writing, had finished her first romance novel. Pretty darn exciting. Her aunt planned to query a few dozen agents, but Emma had researched self-publishing and was convinced that was the way to go. Emma wouldn’t mind going to a few book signings with her. That would be fun.
Emma had been warned that the wedding ceremony would be short and sweet, and they weren’t kidding. Sam had barely taken her place before the minister said, “Will you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” He had to shout loud enough to be heard over the helicopters hovering above, which made the whole thing seem sort of comical, a good scene for Sam’s next romance novel, Emma decided.
“I do,” Dominic said.
“Do you, Samantha Sue Johnston, take Dominic Damarion DeMarco to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
Sam’s eyes widened. “Did he say Damarion?”
A ripple of laughter came from the guests.
Emma had promised to keep her mouth shut, so she didn’t say a word. It was difficult not to laugh.
“You’ll have to take it up with my mom,” Dominic told Sam.
“Wow, it’s been over a year and we still don’t know much about each other, do we?”
“We have our whole lives ahead of us,” he reminded his wife or wife-to-be, whatever.
“We really are going to grow old together,” Sam said with a shake of her head, which Emma didn’t get because they were both already pretty old.
“Shall I repeat the question?” the minister shouted.
“Yes!” Emma shouted back, hoping to get things back on track, move this wedding along so they could get to the good part: eating the strawberry cream cake and watching everyone make fools of themselves on the dance floor.
After the minister said it all again, Sam finally said, “I do.”
Emma gave a great sigh of relief. Samantha and Dominic made a pretty cute couple. In a way, Emma realized, they had managed to bring the entire family back together. Grandma and Grandpa were talking about getting remarried, but Grandma had moved in with Beverly DeMarco and was playing hard to get.
Emma, fifteen and a half now, would be driving soon. That’s all she thought about these days. S
he wanted to be a racecar driver like Danica Patrick. She was pretty sure she would never get married. Mostly because she didn’t see the point. Boys were silly creatures. They got all tongue-tied and weird when she talked to them.
Emma and Tom followed Dominic and Sam down the aisle. And that’s when Emma spotted Jason Marsal.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked when they got to the spot where they were supposed to greet the guests.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me that Jason Marsal was coming today?” Emma felt her chest tighten and her mouth turn to sandpaper. “Somebody should have warned me.”
“Oh, I see. He is cute, isn’t he?”
Emma fanned herself in an exaggerated manner. “Cute doesn’t even begin to describe Jason.”
“Looks like somebody has a dance partner,” Sam said. “Just do what I do out there on the dance floor and you’ll be okay.”
“Are you serious? You dance like a wild turkey looking for a mate. Isn’t that right, Dominic?”
“If Sam’s a turkey, I’m a turkey,” Dominic said.
Emma rolled her eyes. It was all over after that. Sam and Dominic couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It was going to be a very long day.
She felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Jason.
“I heard you like NASCAR,” he said, his expression all cool and laidback as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Emma ignored the sudden racing of her heart. She even followed Jason inside the house, where they found a nice quiet spot to sit and talk about everything. It was amazing how much they had in common. They both liked vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, hated doing homework, thought their families were sort of lame; the list of commonalities went on and on.
Today was going to be the best day ever.
The End
Contents
Title page
About the Author
Other works by Theresa Ragan
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Epilogue