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Ethan turned to her and she was once again dazzled by his brilliant blue eyes. “Veronica, would you care to join us for the binding ceremony. It’ll take place in about five minutes, in the reception tent.”
Biting her lip, she looked up at Travis and Hank, wondering what to say. Travis saved the moment when he said, “Veronica, if you’re doing research, you should go with Ethan.” He stroked her cheek and added, “Just know that we’ll be waiting for your answer.”
“You will?” she asked, glancing between the two of them, fighting the ball of nerves that tightened in her stomach. Her rational brain told her she was thoroughly exhausted from writing through a majority of the night but the idea of spending time with them was tempting. What could it hurt?
“We will,” Hank murmured, as his gaze slowly stroked her from head to toe, leaving a warm trail that felt like an actual caress.
I wasn’t hallucinating. “Well then…I’ll see you in a few minutes.” She could see the wedding party and a few select others making their way to the large white reception tent set up in the grassy lot next to the rose garden.
Grandma Kate patted her arm and waved her hand. “Go with Ethan and Grace, sweet girl. I’ll keep Hank and this fine-looking young man company while you’re gone.”
Veronica wanted to hide her face, which felt like it’d turned beet red, but she couldn’t think of a thing to say. Both men’s eyes twinkled as they nodded and helped Grandma Kate from her chair.
Veronica followed after Ethan and Grace, feeling stiff and decidedly ungraceful. She tried to dredge up the feelings she’d experienced when she’d first seen herself in the dress Grace had loaned her for the wedding. Because she rarely attended formal functions, and quite honestly avoided them like the plague, she hadn’t had a thing to wear to the wedding.
After discovering that she wore the same dress size and shoe size, Grace had brought her several dresses and pairs of shoes to try on. Grace and Kate’s faces had lit up when she’d modeled the red for them. She had to admit she’d felt like a model when she had turned to the full-length mirror in the master bedroom and gotten a glimpse of herself.
She was used to wearing yoga pants and baggy T-shirts because they were comfortable for work, and she was always working. She let out a deep breath and watched her step as she walked up the path, aware of the warmth that coursed through her body. She wondered if they watched her but refused to look back for fear she might lose her footing and topple in the red heels.
The entire throng moved back up the walkway and she was quickly separated from Ethan and Grace but didn’t want to push in between people. By the time she reached the tent, she was out of breath and worried that she’d disrupt the ceremony if it was already in progress.
Grace and Ethan smiled when she slipped through the opening which had been drawn closed. Grace waved her over and said, “We waited for you. Maizy told me she’d love to chat with you later, if you’d like.”
They’d waited for her? Veronica tried to hide her shock and smiled and nodded. “I’d love that.”
The ceremony that proceeded, with Ethan officiating this time, was a more intimate joining that included Heath and Spencer. Veronica couldn’t help it when her tears overflowed.
Grace smiled and handed her tissues as each man knelt in front of Maizy and pledged his life, love, faithfulness, and support to her, and slipped a slim diamond-studded ring next to the wedding band that already adorned her ring finger.
In turn, she spoke vows to each of them, binding her heart with theirs, and slipping heavy gold bands on Heath’s and Spencer’s fingers that matched Cody’s. Maizy sniffled as each groom kissed her hands, still on his knees, and then wrapped his arms around her waist and embraced her with pure love in his eyes.
Veronica was so enthralled by the whole ceremony that she wasn’t even sure she blinked until it finally ended.
She planned to ask Grace later if this was typical in Divine, if the attention and love lavished on the bride during the binding was the norm or the exception. She wondered what it would be like to be the recipient of such adoration.
