But he doesn’t add anything else, and I’m left with the distinct impression there’s more to his question than he’s letting on.
He walks out, drying his hands on a towel. “We should get down to the courthouse. Story and Ruby are meeting us there with Max. Bags are packed and being taken to the plane separately.”
I roll my eyes. Just like yesterday at our pre-wedding dinner, Story declared that once we’d signed the paperwork and fetchedthe license, we had to stick with the tradition of the bride not seeing the groom. I didn’t ask if the rules applied to fake weddings.
“I don’t know why we need to go through this pretense. I saw her this morning. We should have just left from there.”
“You know Story.” Hendricks grins, the rest of his sentence hanging in the air, but I don’t pick it up.
While Story has been my brother’s best friend since we were kids, I was never her biggest fan. But as she’s now back in Hendricks’s life and he’s finally truly happy, I’ve made peace with her. Doesn’t mean I don’t think she’s a ridiculous pain in the arse, though. I’ll just keep it to myself.
Standing, I take one last look in the mirror and give myself a nod of approval. Story might have mentioned no jeans, but I had even less desire to go shopping yesterday than Ruby seemed to, so I’m wearing the only clean pair I have, paired with a crisp white cotton shirt from Hendricks.
This will do. And the next words out of my mouth are ones I never thought I’d utter.
“C’mon. Let’s get me married.”
We aren’t the only people getting married in Aspen today, and it takes me a couple of minutes searching through the waiting room to find Ruby. When I do, I wonder why I didn’t find her immediately.
My mouth dries. The chatter around us quietens to nothing.
I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful.
She is stunning.
When I saw her earlier this morning to finalize the paperwork, sign documents with Story as our witness, and load the ponies for their flight home, her hair was in its usual thick braid. Her face was bare save for the mass of freckles dancing across her cheeks and nose.
Now she’s almost unrecognizable.
Her loose and shiny hair falls in a mass of soft waves. Her almond-shaped green eyes look impossibly big, framed by long black lashes and sparkling with a dusting of gold. In lieu of a dress, she’s wearing a jumpsuit in the subtlest shade of pink, which brings out the color of her eyes, and dear God . . . the way it’s hugging her arse should be illegal.
And don’t get me started on what it’s doing to her boobs.
I’m about to throw down with every man in here who’s even thinking about looking at her.
EvenIdon’t know whether I’m supposed to look, or if looking will earn me a punch in the face, because I totally believe Ruby will deliver the latter with relish. Butfuck me.They are spectacular. High, round, soft. Enticing. I never thought of myself as a boob man, but if Ruby’s are anything to go by, I am.
My brain churns overtime while I wrestle with what to do, because I’m going to be living with this woman for the rest of the summer, and I can’t fall at the first hurdle.
In the end, I take the path to safety and lean down to brush a kiss on her cheek. “You look beautiful.”
The pink blush she’s wearing deepens. “Thank you. So do you.”
Her words have a strange effect on me.
I don’t expect shame to curl around my bones, but it does. I know I look good, I always do, but right now I know I don’t have anything on Ruby. Regret is another sensation I’m not used to, but I feel it right now. I wish I’d tried harder to look good forher because bubbling up is a need to impress her, something else alien to me.
What the hell is the matter with me?
“Thank you.” I dip my head and hold my hand out. “Shall we do this?”
“Let’s go.”
Her ruby brushes against my fingertips as I curl my hand around hers, reminding me of what we’re about to do, like it was made for this moment. And I can confidently say that, regardless of all the shit waiting for me in Englandbecauseof what we’re about to do, I don’t think there’s anywhere else I’d want to be.
As I push my other hand into my pocket, my fist curls around the velvet box I slipped in earlier. Before we head to the courtroom, I remove it from my pocket and tug Ruby to face me.
“I have something for you.”
