Page 188 of The Wedding

I don’t deserve this woman. How unfortunate was it that Jamie thought that first? “I love you. I desperately want to marry you and call you my wife. I doubt I could ever do any better.”

“Don’t you dare say but.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Then what?”

For the second time in her life, Jamie looked deep into Etta’s eyes while she proposed. Earnest. Determined. Gorgeous. Jamie pushed Etta’s bangs away from her forehead and cupped a hand around her cheek. “You’ll get your pants dirty if you keep kneeling on the ground.”

“I’m not getting up until you tell me yes.”

“Promise me one thing, Etta.”

“I’ll promise you this whole mountain if it gets that ring on your finger.”

“You’ll always love me as much as you do right now.”

“Jamie,” she said, exasperated, “I don’t think I could properly function if I started to love you less. The hole in my heart would be too big.”

The world blurred. Tears? Again? “What if my parents embarrass us? What if we can’t have kids? What if you lose investors and business because of me?”

“Then they’ve done what every set of parents in the history of the world has done. Then we adopt. Then I find other investors who aren’t so petty. Now, I want you to promise me something, Jamie.”

“What?”

“That no matter what, whether I stay a billionaire or lose all my money next week, you’ll stay with me forever. I can brave anything if you’re with me.” She kissed Jamie’s fist, now clenched between both ofher hands.

“I’ll always be with you… if you’ll have me…” Jamie could only whisper it. To say it any louder might tempt the will of fate.

Etta stood up. “Who else is there?” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Her?”

“Can’t you two kiss and make up without involving me?”

They did kiss, Etta wrapping Jamie in her arms as if she were afraid to let go.She doesn’t want me to run away. She wants me here, with her.The heat of Etta’s body and the force of that kiss told Jamie one thing: that she was loved, and that was enough to get her through anything.

Etta drove up to the manor, Jamie in the passenger seat, and Adele driving the little sports car behind them. They expected a healthy number of cars in their driveway, but they did not expect a black SUV beating them there by about three minutes.

“Look at this debacle,” Anne Coleman mumbled, eschewing the help of the driver who brought her there from the airport. Both Etta and Jamie hopped out of the Lamborghini as soon as they recognized her. “No wonder I never came here before. I’m already annoyed by all the excess.”

“I was hoping I wasn’t the only one who thought that way,” Saul, barely dressed in a cotton shirt and shorts, said as he came down the front steps. “These kids and their money.”

The two parents shook hands before heading inside, neither of them acknowledging their children’s presence, even though both daughters were getting married in fewer than twenty-four hours.

Chapter 59

Jamie was up before anyone else. How could she sleep? She got four hours, at best. Was there ever a bride who actually slept through the night before her wedding? Jamie would have plenty of adrenaline to get her through the day.

Nevertheless, Beatrice was quick to bring her a large cup of coffee and a breakfast that was hearty enough to give her strength but hopefully not enough to expand her stomach for a few hours. “Happy wedding day!” she said, smiling as broadly as the windows she then threw open.

Little by little, the rest of Jamie’s entourage awoke. Luna was the first non-employee to burst into the room, commenting on the good weather and all sorts of good omens she divined from her tea and Tarot cards ten minutes ago. This was, of course, after a naked meditation on the walkway where her daughter was to be married in a few hours. More than one of Jenny’s helpers shrieked in surprise.

Jamie was not in a huge hurry to get up, since Raul wasn’t due to style her for another forty-five minutes. However, as soon as she heard a door slam open, she knew it was trouble.

“Hey, you!” Seena burst into the master suite, Natasha trailing behindher. They came up to Jamie’s bed, where she lay on her side facing her mother as they talked about who was coming later that day.

Now there was Seena, then Natasha, and Jamie knew things were underway.

“We’re here, half of us are queer, and you’re gonna get used to it.” Seena leaped on the large bed and nearly rolled onto Jamie, squishing the bride.