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I headed back around the big house toward the front entrance, a huge grin still on my face. God, my face hurt from smiling so much.
Because once again my thoughts were circling back to my secret joy.
Jeremiah loved me. After all my months of crushing on him, imagining what it would be like to…he not only liked me back, he loved me.
Pleasure and happiness flushed through me. I’d never been happier in my whole life.
Then a tiny voice chimed in, one I’d been trying to ignore all day, and I frowned: He didn’t actually say I love you.
I shook it off. He’d said, “this is what love is,” and that was essentially the same thing. I was being nit-picky and stupid to want him to say it in a particular way, like it was some magic formula.
I pulled open the front door just in time to hear Charlie’s voice sounding tense. “It’s fine, Mom. This is the way I like it.”
“But if you just put in these extensions I brought, you could have a proper updo. There’s still time to change it. Think of the pictures, darling. You don’t want to look like a boy in your own wedding pictures. Or worse, a lesbian!”
“Mother!” Charlie sounded officially pissed now, and I didn’t blame her.
I hurried through the foyer and into the bedroom. “Hiiiii,” I sing-songed. Charlie was seated in front of a makeshift vanity the makeup and hair artist had set up. She was standing off to the side looking uncomfortable as Charlie glared up at her mother. Mrs. Winston stood haughtily beside her, long hair extensions in her hands. If I hadn’t known what they were, I would’ve thought she was holding some kind of animal.
I averted my eyes back to Charlie and I clapped my hands. “Babe, you look amazing!” And she did. Her pixie hair cut was adorable and her makeup perfect. Understated but perfectly done. Her eyes were highlighted and looked huge and Bambi-ish, with long dark lashes. Her hair had been slightly styled with little flowers pinned here and there.
She looked like an elven princess, an effect I knew would only be enhanced once she got into the beautiful, flowy lace dress she’d picked out.
“You’re perfect,” I whispered, just for her.
Her eyes met mine and she smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I nodded.
“That’s what I’ve been telling her,” Olivia said from where she’d been sitting on the bed. She was dressed in a simple sundress, lovely as always.
“Which is good.” I looked down at my watch. “Because guests are going to start arriving any minute and we’re T minus forty until the ceremony starts. No more changes to hair or makeup. It’s time to get into the dress!”
Charlie grinned at me, then up at her mom. “See, no more time to change things.”
“Here,” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I’ll text the photographer so they can come in and get pics of you putting on the dress.”
Everyone nodded and I shot off a quick text. I’d chosen a female photographer specifically for this purpose.
As I finished sending the text, I saw an unread message from Jeremiah.
Thinking of you, gorgeous. You been driving me mad in those sexy leggings all day. Can a fiancé steal a minute with his woman anytime today?
I grinned, but then remembered I had to get dressed myself. I shook my head happily as I shot off a quick text back. Patience is a virtue. I’m getting changed with Charlie. See you when we walk down the aisle.
I felt such a surging thrill as I sent the text. Because as I’d set up everything today, all I could think was that one day soon, I’d be doing all this for myself.
Could life really work out like this? One day everything changes and suddenly you get everything you ever wanted and all your dreams come true?
I would get to stay on the land I always loved, the land my family had worked for generations. Even if I didn’t own it anymore, what did that matter? Could we ever really own land anyway? I’d get to live here, and with the man of my dreams.
It was almost too much. My face was going to hurt from smiling—my cheeks were already sore. Still, I couldn’t stop as I slipped into the bathroom and gave myself a quick sponge bath under my arms to get refreshed. I yanked the deodorant out of my large purse and reapplied it, then hastily put on some makeup.
I rejoined Charlie in just my bra and underwear since my dress was on a hanger in her room. She was just stepping into her gown. Her mother was helping her with the buttons from behind, and the photographer was there, the shutter on her camera snapping away.
I slid behind them and hurried to put on my own dress, a peachy ModCloth dress that Olivia found for me. It was tight on the bodice and then got all floofy at the bottom, like a retro fifties dress. It did look fabulous on me—I was shocked at how feminine I felt when I put it on after it came in the mail. For a girl who was used to wranglers, being covered in mud, and smelling more like cows than perfume, feeling so girly was a nice change.
