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I didn’t have a burning desire to pull back the curtain and see it. Nor had I had a burning desire to be involved in the planning process. Jessica and Sofia had had lunch discussing the event more than I had. Jessica had not shut up about how much she loved Sofia. About what a sweetheart she was. Sofia was many things, but a sweetheart she was not. Though Jessica would never know that. She would never know the truth of this life.
“Trust me, there is nothing Disney about this,” I told her as she fixed her hair in the mirror.
Jessica looked beautiful. She was my maid of honor and was wearing blood red. The dress was strapless, hugging every one of her ample curves, her hair piled up on top of her head accentuating her features.
Her coffee eyes caught mine in the mirror before she turned around to face me. “Although you don’t think I understand, I knew you weren’t ever going to have Disney, Sienna,” she said softly. “I know you’d never be satisfied with that. I know there’re parts of yourself that you hide from the world.” She paused, crossing the distance between us to grasp my hand in hers. “I know that you’re not going to share those things with me, that I probably wouldn’t understand them. And that’s okay. Although I suspect there’s a whole bunch I don’t know about your relationship with Cristian, I think he understands them. I see something in you that I’ve never seen before.”
She smiled at me softly, squeezing my hand.
Luckily, there was a knock at the door, and I didn’t have to respond to any of that, have some big heart to heart.
“Is it safe to enter?” Aiden asked through the door.
“Yes!” I yelled as Jessica’s eyes bulged in a way that caught my attention. She’d finally accepted Aiden’s feelings, woken up to her own, but he had been surprisingly quiet about the situation since then.
Aiden walked through the door, and both of our mouths dropped open in shock. In all the years we’d known the man, he’d lived in worn band tees and equally worn Levis. He never deviated from that uniform. If it ain’t broke...
But Aiden... In a suit. A sharp suit. Black with a bright red tie since he was my bridesmaid. Despite the warning that Cristian had made about Aiden, he didn’t seem to care that I was having a handsome, straight male friend stand up for me at the wedding.
And he was a sight to behold. Even if he was a little too all-American pretty boy for me, I could appreciate a good looking human. And Jessica was most certainly appreciating it.
Aiden was doing a whole lot more than appreciating Jessica. He looked like he was getting ready to worship her. It would’ve messed with my confidence as a bride when a man was staring at the woman standing right beside her like she didn’t exist. But not me, not when I had my own men look at me like that.
Two, in fact.
Aiden cleared his throat and shook himself. Physically shook himself as his eyes turned to me. They widened ever so slightly. “Sienna,” he gasped. “You look gorgeous.”
“Doesn’t she?” Jessica chirped, just a little too loud. “Um, I just realized, I forgot her bouquet. I need to get the bouquet. And make sure everything is good with the string quartet.”
Jessica all but ran out of the room, giving Aiden a wide berth as she did so.
“String quartet?” I called after her, but she was long gone. My eyes went to the bouquet. Sitting on the sofa at the end of the bed.
Aiden’s eyes were focused on that too.
“Want to explain what’s going on there?” I asked.
“No, today is your day,” he shook his head. “Plus, we’d need a whole bottle of vodka for that conversation, and I don’t want you walking down the aisle shitfaced.”
I smiled at the thought of that. Cristian would definitely reconsider Aiden’s presence if he found out we’d been getting wasted alone together before the ceremony.
Aiden didn’t smile, his face turned remarkably serious. Grave even.
“Listen, Sienna, I may not be dialed in to these sorts of things, but even I’ve heard of Cristian Romano, his ties to the Catalano family. He has a ... reputation.”
Fuck.
I thought this might be coming. Aiden was a protective alpha male, and he had ideas about what Cristian was. The problem was, however bad Aiden thought Cristian was, he was worse.
Much, much worse. Which was why I loved him.
“I know about his reputation, I’m marrying him, remember?” I kept my voice light yet firm.
He frowned. “I do remember, Sienna. And I remember that you were engaged to be married to someone else less than six months ago.” He rubbed his hand over his jaw in that way frustrated, worried males did. “I also know you. You are not someone to jump into marriage with a man old enough to be your father.”
