Page 133 of Vow

“I’ll see you tonight, Daddy,” Haven said. “I love you.”

“Love you, too. Try to call your mom.”

“I will.”

Haven hung up the phone, but kept her head lowered even as she turned to face the room again. She really just needed a second or two in order to get her sadness under control. This was still her wedding day.

“I’m sorry,” Kim murmured.

Haven shook her head. “Things happen, right?”

It wasn’t like they could control everything.

No matter how powerful they were.

“Yeah, but we still want someone there, too. That doesn’t change no matter what.”

“True. I really wanted at least one of them here. I know I could walk myself down the aisle—I just wanted him to do it for me.”

“I have an idea,” Catrina said out of the blue, smiling slyly. “Give me five minutes.”

The red-headed woman didn’t give anyone the opportunity to ask her anything before she was gone from the room. Kim and Jordyn, on the other hand, distracted Haven with putting the finishing touches on her look including another layer of lipstick, and placing the birdcage veil. Kim was just clasping the rope of diamonds—a gift from Andino’s grandparents—around Haven’s throat when an unexpected form graced the bedroom doorway.

Dante Marcello had an … imposing way about him. Even on his good days when the man was in a pleasant mood, it was sometimes hard to tell. Right then, however, he smiled when Haven’s gaze met his. Behind him, Catrina gave her a wink and a nod.

“Would you give us the room?” Dante asked.

Kim shot Haven a reassuring smile before she slipped out of the room with Jordyn close on her heels. Dante waited until the women were out of his sight before he stepped inside, and closed the door behind him. Haven wasn’t the type to get nervous, really, but Dante had that effect on people.

Up until recently, he hadn’t exactly been fond of her.

“First things first,” Dante said, his smiling softening as he looked her over, “you look beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m sure I’m not the first to tell you that today, and you can rest assured I won’t be the last. Second—I need to apologize.”

Haven’s head snapped up, and her eyes widened. “For what?”

“For not giving you a chance at first.”

“Oh.”

Dante chuckled under his breath. “They call me a traditionalist—my brothers, I mean. They say in our life, I am the one who is still stuck trying to keep everything as it always was, and I don’t like change.”

“Are they wrong?”

“Not at all.”

Haven smiled; she couldn’t help it. “It’s okay.”

“It isn’t,” Dante returned. “Time moves forward, and the rest of us—mostly me—needs to get in line. The person who comes after me can’t be expected to be me, or do everything as I would. That’s not how we continue to thrive in our life.”

Andino, he meant.

Haven understood.

“And I hope you’re ready, too,” Dante added, “for everything that’s about to change in your life. It’s not easy to be this man you’re staring at—it’s harder to be the wife of a man like this, Haven.”