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“Yes,” Olivia nodded jerkily. “I’ve been thinking this too. All my life I felt like men were looking only to break our hearts. That loving someone would weaken me somehow.”
“Well, her heart was certainly broken,” Ava said, jumping unnecessarily to Meredith’s defence.
“Yes, and our father – whoever he might be – was a bastard. But Cristiano isn’t. And Alex isn’t. And Zami isn’t,” Olivia stressed urgently. “Mum wanted to protect us, but I think she was wrong in this.”
“Me too,” Sophie said, but her smile was forgiving. “But she did the best she could. She truly believed that we would become prey to just the same kind of man our father had been. She meant to warn us against that. How could she know she’d go so far that we almost missed our opportunities for true love?”
“Missed your opportunities?” Ava prompted, an odd sense of nervousness tingling through her.
“Yes. I mean, I wanted every reassurance under the book when Alex proposed. I was so wary. And part of that was me, but a lot of it came from mum.”
“Look at you and Cristiano,” Olivia picked up the thread of conversation. “You are so obviously meant to be together. And yet you let him go three years ago because he was just the kind of man mum had described.”
Sophie laughed and imitated Meredith’s voice, “Tall, dark, handsome with far too much charm and money.”
“And look at how it’s ended up… all of us have gone for just that kind of man. And they’re the best men in the world.”
“Yes,” Ava said, angling her head to the window that overlooked the vines. She couldn’t see the men anywhere. “You have an excellent point.”
Impatience gnawed at her gut. She waited and she waited, and she listened to her sisters without properly contributing anything sensible. Only when the four men appeared at the door, and her eyes locked with Cristiano’s, did she let out a sigh of relief.
She stood, not noticing her brothers-in-law, and walked towards him. “May I speak to you privately?”
He nodded, his expression quizzical.
“What’s going on there?” Alex whispered loudly as they approached Olivia and Sophie.
Sophie smiled serenely up at him. “You’ll see.”
Outside, with the sun setting over the vineyards that Meredith had loved so much, Ava turned to face Cristiano.
“I love you,” she said simply, her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed.
“And I love you.”
She linked hands with him. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“I know this,” he smiled at her contentedly. She always made him feel that – contented.
“I’ve been carrying around this last vestige of worry that my mum taught all of us girls to feel. That when things are too perfect, they’re often about to unravel.”
He frowned. “That’s very pessimistic.”
“I don’t blame her for that. She had a rough life. She made the best of it but that worry was there. She was terrorised by her experiences. But I don’t want to feel it anymore. I trust you completely. I know that married or not, living with you, and being with you, is all I want in life.”
He pulled her to his chest, his heart racing. “Then marry me. Marry me now, while your sisters are here. Let me promise the women who love you so much that I deserve you; and that I will always honour and cherish you.”
She nodded against his chest, and when she spoke, there was not a tear in sight. Just giddy, irrepressible joy. “Yes, please!”
EPILOGUE
“I can do that you know,” Marie called out from the top of the stairs, her hair coiled into two buns that beautifully emulated Princess Leia’s style.
“Why does everyone assume that I’m incapable of working because I’m getting married in a couple of days?”
Olivia strode into the foyer munching on a crisp apple. “Because you’re the bride, and brides are supposed to be slave drivers, not slaves.”
“Not this bride,” Ava assured her sister with a laugh. “Believe me, so far as I’m concerned, my wedding day is just another day.” She finished folding the tablecloths and lifted the pile. “Besides, we have guests due any minute and I’m going to have a very busy day ahead of me checking everyone in.”
