Page 58 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

A Hundred Million Words

Blake

I was in my new Le Chameau Chasseur boots, Sorcha was wearing her normal fur, and we were tramping through the first frost that was covering the turned-over-for-the-winter beds of the back garden behind Treverton when Sorcha loped away from me.

I looked to where she was heading and saw Dair shrugging on a navy down jacket with horizontal stitching.

He was heading my way.

Man and dog made it to me but only the man part of that was smirking at my boots.

He’d given me so much shit since I’d bought them, I should be over shoveling it back.

But I was me, Dair was Dair, and we were us.

I had a feeling I’d never get over shoveling it back.

“I’m an English aristocrat,” I pointed out not for the first time, and not only on this topic. “I need a good pair of wellies.”

“Hunters wear those boots,” he pointed out, also not for the first time.

I wrinkled my nose at him before I sniffed, “I need them when I’m mucking about in the stables or tramping around my vast estate. You know, all the healthy, outdoorsy pursuits of the good English aristocrat I am.”

“Your version of ‘mucking about in the stables’ is entering it to mount a horse and then exiting it after you get off that horse.”

“A marchioness doesn’t saddle her own horse, Dair,” I educated him.

“I ken, since I saddle it for her.”

“Yes, that’s your job. To be handsome. Give me many orgasms. And saddle my horse.”

He busted out laughing.

I couldn’t hold the haughty watching him do it, so I was smiling at him before he stopped.

“Are we going on a wander?” I asked after him coming out.

“Aye, but first, I’ve got some news.”

I wasn’t certain about the new expression on his face.

“What?” I asked, not hiding the uncertainty.

“Jeff must have found himself in a bind and needed some fast cash. He sold his story about what he was to your Mum to a rag.”

Well…

Damn.

“Dad called with the news just now,” Dair went on.

“I suppose we should have known he’d do that,” I remarked.

“Dad’s people are monitoring the reaction, and Jeff isn’t coming off so well.”

That was interesting.

“What’s the response?”

“A lot of ‘good for Helena,’ and ‘if you got it, use it,’ and some unflattering, but accurate, epithets for Jeff.”

Now it was me smirking.

Dair added his grin to my smirk.

“Ready to wander?” he asked.

I nodded.

Before we took off, Christine shouted from the back door. “A ploughman’s for lunch?”

“Aye!” Dair shouted back. “Sounds good.”

“Thank you, Christine!” I was also shouting.

“Enjoy the air!” And yes, she was shouting too.

So, okay, I was probably the first English aristocrat that had shouted conversations with my housekeeper like she was my favorite auntie and not on the payroll.

But…

Well…

Fuck it.

That was me.

Dair slung his arm around my shoulders, whistled for his dog who came dancing to us, and we took off across the crunchy turf during a bright, sunshiny, bitterly cold day.

And like we had all the time in the world, which we did, we wandered my ancestral estate.

As the florists left, having completed their tasks a full hour after they should have, with buried annoyance I studied my binder and made ticks next to Flowers Delivered, Flowers Arranged, Florist Departure .

Alex, only minorly showing a baby bump, bustled up to me.

“Dad texted. They’re on their way,” she told me.

I looked to my binder and checked off, Dad’s Text . I was close to checking off Sharp Family Time , but since that was about to happen, and it hadn’t yet, I didn’t.

But before I was solid on that decision, the binder was whisked out of my hands by Mika, who passed it off to Cadence, before she said, “Go.”

She’d obviously received a text too.

The ceremony had been private, and neither Alex nor I argued that.

In this instance, it was whatever Dad wanted, we were happy to give to him.

The only ones in attendance at the justice of the peace ceremony were the bride and groom, Jamie, Dad’s best man (who obviously brought his woman, Nora), and Capucine, Marlo’s best friend and maid of honor (who, I’d recently discovered, was nearly as amazing as Marlo was).

Alex took my hand as we both searched the Rotunda at The Pierre where the small, intimate reception was to be held.

We found them, unsurprisingly, at the bar.

My sister and I headed that way, collected our men, and then we all made our way to the bridal suite.

Rix opened the champagne.

Dair passed him the glasses while he poured.

Alex and I made sure we all had the ivory rose petals.

So when the door opened, Dad and Marlo entered to a shower of downy beauty.

Dad was beaming.

Marlo was radiating.

She was also wearing a simple, but supremely elegant, long-sleeved ivory gown that had a boat neck and a three-foot train.

I started weeping.

Ugh!

When did I become a weeper?

Jamie shut the door, closing us in on Sharp Family Time.

Dad pulled me in his arms, then he reached to Alex to add her to his huddle, and once my sister was there, he immediately drew Marlo to us too.

I felt better when I saw Marlo crying as well.

“I love all my girls,” Dad said hoarsely. His gaze went to Marlo. “Never been happier.”

I hiccoughed a sob.

Alex whimpered beside me.

We all held on.

And then I said to Marlo, “Oh no! You’re ruining your makeup.”

This comment broke our huddle with Marlo dabbing carefully at her eyes, saying, “Worth it.”

“I’ll get some tissue.” Alex ran off.

Rix handed a glass of champagne to Dad. Dair did the same with Marlo. Alex came back with the tissue. And our men gave us our champagne.

Once I was fortified with an alcoholic beverage in my hand, I assured Marlo, “I have a kit fitted out with everything. I’ll fix your face before you go down.”

“Thank you, my sweet,” she replied.

“Can we toast now? Or do you women want to carry on for another hour?” Rix asked.

Alex batted his arm.

Dad raised his glass.

We all followed suit.

“You could talk until you’re blue in the face,” Dad began, “and say a hundred million words, and you would never convince me I’m not the luckiest man on the planet.”

Oh God.

He turned to me.

Oh God!

Dad kept going.

“I have a beautiful, loving firstborn who has such strength of character, it takes my breath away. She doesn’t let anyone walk all over her. And she’ll do anything for someone she loves.”

I managed to hold it together, sniffed and aimed an air kiss Dad’s way.

Dair slid his arm around me.

Dad turned to Alex.

“And I have a beautiful, loving second born who knows her own mind, is wholly herself, spends her time doing good things for people who unfortunately need her to do that work, and will do anything for someone she loves.”

Alex sent Dad a wobbly smile.

Rix already had his arm around her.

Dad turned to Marlo with such a besotted, happy expression on his handsome face, I nearly lost it again.

Dair somehow felt it and pulled me closer.

For my part, I braced for what was to come.

“And now I have a beautiful, loving wife who fills me with such happiness, I cannot wait to start each day by her side, and end it in the same manner. Marlo, my darling, you’ve enriched my life so completely I could use a hundred million words and add a hundred million more and still not express how much you mean to me.

I love you. And I’m so damned happy you let me make you my wife. ”

Marlo lost it and Dad took her in his arms.

So, of course, Alex and I lost it again too.

Thus, Rix held his wife.

And Dair turned me into his embrace.

A half an hour later, after time spent together (and me fixing Marlo’s makeup, not to mention, Alex’s and my own), Dair and me, Alex and Rix hustled back to the Rotunda so the newlyweds could make their grand entrance through the flower festooned double doors.

I went right to Cadence so I could check off what just happened.

When I returned to Dair, he muttered, “I’ll be glad when ye can retire that fucking binder.”

“I still have the one for Alex’s baby shower,” I warned him, and the one I’ve just started for my revamp of the NYC flat and the other one for Davi’s bathroom reno , I did not say.

“Aye, and I’ll be glad when that one’s gone too.”

He said that, but his gaze had wandered.

I followed it to where Davi was sitting with her recently-promoted from-casual-fuck-buddy-to-boyfriend, Ewan, and Kenna was sitting with her new beau, Craig.

I returned to my man.

“You all right?” I asked.

And my all-honest-all-the-time Dair said, “She’s happy. He thinks the world of her and treats her like it. It’s just…I’m not used to it, lass.”

Davi wasn’t used to it either, but she was ecstatic.

Bally knew about it, and he was devastated.

Dair wasn’t used to it, but he’d get used it because of what I was about to say next.

“She’s happy.”

He cast his eyes down to me. “Aye, my love. She’s happy.”

I smiled at him.

“Ms. Sharp?”

I turned to the staff member who was hovering.

“They’re approaching,” she told me.

I nodded. “Thank you.” Then louder, I announced, “They’re approaching.”

Excitement swept through the room, and everyone gathered around the double doors.

“I cannot wait to see what she’s wearing,” Chloe said as she came to stand by me.

“You won’t be disappointed,” I assured her.

She wasn’t, as the happy couple, wreathed in smiles, strode through their arch of flowers.

A cheer went up.

More glasses of champagne were pressed into their hands.

And a hundred million words couldn’t tell you how thrilled I was for my father, my pregnant sister…

And me.

It hadn’t been the easiest journey.

But we made it.

Boy, did we.

Brilliantly.

Dair

“And then, kaboom ! We slammed into the slip about five feet left of where we should have, and that’s…it,” Blake finished.

Dair roared with laughter.

“I’m glad you find it funny,” she said snottily. “I was lucky Dad had attorneys on retainer. He still had to pay for the houseboat repairs and the damage I did to the slip.”

“Remember, lass, your dad mentioned this story last night, and he was laughing about it nearly as much as me.”