Page 111

Oh shit.

He couldn’t say things like that to me. My lip trembled, and I hiccupped on a sob. So much for not crying!

I burst into tears.

Rain ruined my makeup. If anyone was going to do it, I was glad it was him and not some asshole being a tool.

“Talk about an epic failure,” Romero muttered as he forcefully shoved Rain out of the way. He pushed a tissue into my hands and ordered, “Fix your face before it gets any worse. Hell, just wipe all of that shit off and you’ll be ready to go. You don’t need it. You know you’re pretty as a picture without it.”

And that was supposed to make me stop crying? He couldn’t say sweet things like that to me on today of all days.

Romero usually wasn’t so sweet to people. Maybe I was just now realizing that he was always kind of sweet to me. I should probably pay more attention to him in the future.

My makeup didn’t need that much fixing. I bent down so my face hovered over the little round mirror on the counter and wiped away the mascara running down my cheeks. I touched it up and tossed the tissue into the garbage beneath the sink.

“No more making me cry,” I warned them. Had they forgotten Rain said no crying until the actual ceremony?

“Well,” Romero drawled, “how about we make no promises and see how it goes?”

I whipped my head around and jabbed my finger at him, almost poking him in the chest. “No. Nope. That’s not how this is going to work. I’m tired of crying, even when they are happy tears. Tears suck. I’m so over tears.”

And that was no lie.

“Okay, fine.” Romero waved my words away. “Rain covered your something borrowed, but technically that can be your something old too. But the twins gave this to us to give to you.”

He produced a deep jewelry box and held it out to me. I took it from him with shaking fingers and flipped the lid open. My breath caught in my throat at all the sparkles inside.

“Wow.”

Romero took the box back from me and carefully removed the beautiful bangle bracelets. They were gold, thin, delicate-looking in the extreme, and had diamonds going all the way around the entire outside of each bracelet. There were eight of them, I counted.

“They wanted these to be your something old,” Romero explained as he began slipping them on my wrist one by one. “It’s something their dad bought their mother for Christmas one year and then started buying her a new one every year after that because she fell in love with it. I wouldn’t be surprised if those boys decided to carry on this tradition with you and you got a new one each year after this.”

Deep breaths, Ariel Kimber.

I couldn’t believe Addison and Abel had given me a gift so precious. They had both adored their mother so much that they’d been completely wrecked when she and their father had died. Because she hadn’t been a witch and had been excluded from the community, both boys and their father had worked their asses off to keep her protected and safe. It turned out to not really matter in the end, and that was what made this gift all the more insane to me.

I didn’t think I’d be able to give any of my mother’s belongings away as gifts. Even to the ones I loved most in this world.

“This is from that freak, Julian,” Rain grumbled as he shoved another jewelry box into my hands. “It’s your something new and something blue. If you ask me, he cheated you out of getting an extra gift by combining the two in one. But that’s just my opinion.”

I ignored my dad and flipped the lid open. I eyed the bracelet inside. It was a delicate white gold chain with a bunch of blue gemstones dangling off of it.

“It’s blue lace agate. For hope and unity. For a bright future with all of you together.”

How thoughtful and sweet of him. And finally a gift that made me want to smile instead of cry. I wished he was here so I could hug him. It was perfect and I never wanted to take it off.

Rain helped me put it on my wrist opposite the one my bangles were now stacked on.

With that over, there wasn’t much else for me to do but wait—wait and let my nerves get the better of me. They were off the freaking charts, and I couldn’t remember a time when I had been this jittery before.

If I had been allowed caffeine today, I probably would have rattled my way right off of my seat. I’d been forced to drink water and ginger ale all morning, but as the afternoon wore on and the hour grew later, Rain had allowed me to drink champagne while snacking on a cheese and meat platter he’d forced on me. I had told him I was too nervous to eat, but Rain wasn’t taking no for an answer, and I had been forced to choke some food down anyways.

I was happy about it now because I didn’t want to pass out halfway through the ceremony. That would be a total buzzkill, but boy would it be memorable, to say the least.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror and couldn’t help but think I hadn’t done half bad. My makeup was way heavier than I normally wore it, but it looked good and definitely not slutty. I’d stuck with what I knew and kept it simple. Shiny, light pink lip gloss that had pretty little silver sparkles in it. Mascara in my lashes and a thicker layer of eyeliner than normal. Silver eyeshadow covered in a dusting of silver sparkles drew attention to my green eyes. My cheeks were pink but still shimmered with a light layer of gold dust.

I looked magical, and I’d never worn this much makeup before in my life.