AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We’re four steps down the aisle when it happens. Miles’s eyes lock with mine, his gaze so filled with tenderness and love and certainty that my nerves dissipate like so much smoke. I forget about the crowd, forget about the butterflies, forget about everything but the fact that the man I love is waiting for me at the front of the church.
I nearly float down the aisle on Ethan’s arm.
When I get close, Violet breaks away from her mother and comes racing toward Ethan and me. Chloe gasps and tries to catch her, but I just laugh. Then stoop to pick up the little girl who holds as much of my heart as her mother and father do.
“You look pretty,” she whispers to me in her slightly garbled toddler speak.
“So do you, sunshine,” I answer back, giving her a smacking kiss on first one cheek and then the other. “And you taste good, too!”
“Like cupcakes,” she says solemnly.
“Exactly like cupcakes,” I agree.
Ethan’s laughing now and so is Miles, who is close enough to hear the whole conversation.
Then Ethan reaches over and swings Violet from my arms into his as we take the last couple of steps down the aisle.
“Who gives this woman away?” the priest asks.
“Nobody!” Violet answers. “We keep her.”
My heart swells as everyone behind us laughs. Violet’s eyes go wide at the sound, and then she’s burying her face in her father’s neck.
“We’re definitely keeping her,” Ethan agrees as he drops a kiss on my cheek before walking over to stand next to Chloe, who looks half amused and half mortified by the whole scene.
“We definitely are,” Miles agrees, reaching out to take my hand in his.
It’s not the traditional start to a wedding, but then, when has anything I’ve been involved with been traditional? Besides, who cares about tradition when my heart is swelling with love for all the amazing people in my life?
I’m so happy, so excited, so grateful to be right here, right now, that the rest of the ceremony passes in a blur. I know I answer the I do question correctly, know that Chloe hands me Miles’s ring and I slip it onto his finger at the appropriate time. But all the rest of it is a blur, right up until the priest pronounces us husband and wife.
As he announces that Miles can kiss the bride, I push up onto my tiptoes and tilt my head back as I wait for my husband’s lips to meet mine. But Miles just grabs me and pulls me close, his hands sliding down to cup my butt as he lifts me several inches off the ground.
I’m pressed against him now, from chest to thigh, and I stare at him wide-eyed even as my arms wind around his neck reflexively.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
“Solving that height difference problem you were so worried about,” he says with a wink.
I’m about to tell him that this isn’t quite what I meant, but then his mouth is on mine and I forget everything but him, everything but the fact that after twenty-four lonely years, I’ve finally found the perfect place where I belong.
For my mom
Acknowledgments
This book was a long time coming and I want to thank my fans for their patience as I struggled through a very difficult period in my own life as I wrote it.
I need to thank my editor, Sue Grimshaw, and the wonderful Gina Wachtel who have been so kind and patient and lovely
to me. I appreciate you both more than I will ever be able to tell you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support and everything you do for me.
I also have to thank my agent, Emily Sylvan Kim. I know I’ve put you through the wringer over the last eighteen months and I am so grateful that you are not just my agent, but one of my closest friends. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything.
And finally, I have to thank my mother and my three boys, who have stood by me through everything. I love you all so very much.
BY TRACY WOLFF
Ethan Frost Novels
