Deidre slips inside, closing the door at her back as her eyes sweep over me. “You look beautiful.” She comes toward me, hands held out. “How are you feeling?”
“Amazing.” I take her hands in mine, wiggling my fingers a little without letting go. “Mariah did my nails.”
Deidre makes a show of looking at my fingertips. “Gorgeous.” She gives Mariah’s shoulder a pat. “You girls are all so multitalented.” She adjusts one of the curls framing my face while smiling warmly at Maren. “You cook, you do hair and nails, you juggle schedules and manage teams.” She grins. “And somehow manage to keep my sons in line.”
Maren snorts. “Some of them.”
Deidre gives her a slow smile. “The strongest stallions are the hardest to break.”
Maren’s expression goes flat. “I was thinking more about how you can’t polish a turd.”
I turn to my spirited friend. “Can you try to wait until after dinner to smash something in Trevor’s face?” I begin to face forward, but turn to Maren again. “And don’t stab him with anything.”
Maren’s eyes widen. “Where did that come from?”
“I’m just covering my bases.” I take an easy breath, standing from my seat. “Is it time yet?”
“Almost.” Deidre steps in front of me, resting her hands on my shoulders. “I want to make absolutely sure this is what you want.” She smiles. “Because, as you know, it’s never too late to change your mind.”
Maren laughs. Hysterically.
Deidre and I both turn to look at her as she wipes the corner of one eye.
Waving a hand at us, she says, “Continue. I’m sorry. The thought of Brooke not marrying Tobias is just bananas.”
I snort, the sound slowly turning into a giggle. Then I’m laughing as hard as Maren.
Because it is bananas. There’s nothing and no one who can keep me from that man.
And they’ve tried.
After taking a minute to compose myself, I straighten, wearing a smile I don’t think I’m going to be able to wipe off my face, as I say to the woman who will soon be my mother-in-law, “I’m beyond sure I want to marry Tobias.”
Deidre matches my smile, clapping her hands together the way she does when she’s truly happy. “I know. I just had to ask.”
After adjusting anything she deems out of place on the three of us, Deidre leaves the room to take her place downstairs.
I turn to the women who are always at my side—and will certainly be today. “You girls ready?”
Mariah pulls my bouquet from its vase, passing off the collection of zinnias in shades of yellow and copper. “Let’s go make you a wife.”
Together, we head down the stairs, then link arms just like we did the day Mariah married Titus. Because it’s not my father walking me down the aisle today. It’s someone who loves me.Twosomeones who love me. And not only do they love me, they want what’s best for me. They support me. They will fight for me.
Just like the man they’re leading me toward.
Tobias stands in our great room, the doors leading to the pool he built to keep me here open wide behind him. I can’t look away from him as I walk through the home we share. Hisbrothers surround him, but I barely register their existence. Because he is all I see.
“Damn.” Maren leans close. “Your husband looks fine.”
He does. Even better than he did the day of Mariah and Titus’s wedding. The suit he’s wearing is perfectly tailored to his broad shoulders, and the tie matches my dress perfectly. He’s been working hard to strengthen the leg that was broken in the car accident, and seeing him standing tall and strong makes my chest tight.
Because I almost lost him. And not just for nine years. For good.
Thinking of having to live without him is nearly impossible. And it makes my heart hurt even more for what it was like for him when I was in California. When I thought I had no choice but to move forward and he had no choice but to admit he couldn’t.
When we reach the altar, Maren takes my bouquet and Mariah gives me a hug, then they leave me with the man I have loved not just once, but twice.
In two completely different ways.
