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“Of course, I will.” He placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Hopefully it’ll go better than last time.”
She chuckled. “Don’t hold your breath.”
He smiled.
“So, what are you thinking for your wedding,” Skylar said.
“Will you get married here or in California?” Genevieve asked.
Gus listened contently as the ladies chatted about wedding plans. He couldn’t believe all that had happened in a day. Only hours before, he thought he’d lost everything, and now he had everything he’d ever wanted.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Are you sad?” Gus stood in the doorway of Merritt’s empty Santa Monica apartment, watching her walk through the space one last time.
“I have so many good memories here.” She stopped in the center of the living room. “It’s so weird seeing it empty like this.”
Gus walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. “You can still change your mind and keep it if you want.”
She leaned her head against his. “What would I do with it?”
“It could be our love nest.”
Her soft chuckle brought a smile to his face. “I don’t need it.” She turned in his arms. “I have a home with you, and that’s the only place I want to be.”
He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “For those couple of days you were gone, the house felt emptier than this place does right now.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “I never want to be apart from you again.”
“Neither do I.”
He smiled. His cheeks hurt from smiling so much lately. He’d never been so happy in his life.
Merritt gave him a quick kiss and pulled away to look around the room once more.
He took her hand in his. “Are you ready?”
She nodded, and they headed out into the streets of Santa Monica.
“Can we walk down to the pier before we go?” she asked.
“Yeah, let’s.”
They walked along the street and down to the beach, strolling along the water for a while until they took a seat on the sand near the pier.
Gus wound his fingers through hers and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.
“I’ve been thinking about the wedding,” she said, “and as much as I would love to get married here, I think we should do it in Michigan.”
He looked over at her with surprise. “You do?”
“Yeah.”
“But what about your dream of us getting married on the bluff in Malibu?”
She smiled over at him. “We’ll be splitting our time between here and there anyway. Our families are there. And I think my parents would appreciate it. They’re not much for travel.”
“We can fly them here. This is our wedding, and it should be what we want.”
“This is what I want.”