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“We’re not in love, but we are attracted to each other,” Emmett said. He wouldn’t lie to this family. And he wouldn’t lie to Stefanie. “The marriage works on both fronts. We can explore our attraction, and Blake no longer has a leg to stand on.”
Rider was a wall of displeasure, his face creased, his martini glass empty. He glared at Emmett for a long beat before jerking his eyes to his daughter.
“How long are you planning to carry on with this farce?” Rider asked her.
“It’s not a farce, Daddy. We’re really married. I have the license in the car. I have photos. I’m sharing them on social media later. I wanted to tell you all in person.” She let go of Emmett’s hand to pull out her phone. She handed it to Penelope, who swiped through the pictures while Zach and Chase looked over her shoulder.
“You continue to embroil this family in scandal,” Elle said, her chin trembling with anger. “First you slept with Chase’s opponent, and then you marry Emmett without so much as one second’s notice to us? And what’s with your running off to feed the poor?”
How Elle had said that and made it sound like Stef had run off to join an escort service Emmett couldn’t understand.
“It’s a noble cause,” Stef said. “Some families can’t afford presents or a family dinner. I was able to provide a filling meal, a beautiful venue and wrapped gifts for their children.”
“Did you vet these people? What if they were addicted to drugs or alcohol? What if they were lying or simply overbudgeted themselves?”
“They were families in need of kindness during a difficult holiday season,” Emmett said, unable to keep silent any longer. It was as close as he had ever come to snapping at the matriarch of the Ferguson clan. “Your daughter has a beautiful, giving heart. I saw the tears in the eyes of parents in attendance. She provided a service they needed badly.”
He glanced down to see his wife’s brows bent with gratitude. She stepped closer and he wrapped a protective arm around her while he spoke.
“Not everyone has the luxury of silver spoons,” he continued. “It’s a testament to Stefanie’s character—and yours—that she would think of people who don’t have what she’s always had. Your daughter’s also a grown woman and you should respect her choices, even if you don’t approve of our marriage.”
Or me, he mentally added.
Elle had probably pictured her daughter marrying someone well-bred and brought up in the same kind of luxury as Stef was accustomed. Not a man who was an underling to her eldest son.
“I know what I’m doing.” Stefanie rested her hand on Emmett’s waist as she snuggled closer to him. “Emmett wasn’t railroaded.” She sent a scathing glare over her shoulder at Chase. Next, she pegged Pen with a gaze, though it was a softer one than the one she reserved for her brother. “And your suggestion may have planted the seed, but it was my idea to propose to Emmett. I know he’d never hurt me. And our attraction is real.”
Zach’s mouth turned down like he’d tasted sour milk.
“You married some random woman in Vegas and told no one,” Stefanie pointed out to him. “And then you two—” her gesture included both Pen and Zach “—pretended to be engaged when you weren’t.” She went after Chase next. “And you and Miriam were splashed all over the Dallas Duchess blog before any of us knew you were reunited.”
She let go of Emmett to stand in the circle of her family and address them.
“I’m my own person, like Zach. Like Chase. Like Emmett. Just because I’m your youngest child,” she said, spinning to peg her father with a stern glare, “doesn’t mean I’m incapable of making decisions without your approval.”
She took her parents’ hands with her own. “I love you both, but this had nothing to do with you.”
“Marriage is about love,” Elle argued. “Not arrangement.”
Penelope regarded her shoes. Zach even managed to look sheepish.
“I think it’s wonderful.” Every head snapped around to Miriam, who’d linked her arm around Chase’s. The mayor looked like an emotionless Easter Island statue, but at least he wasn’t fuming any longer.
“And married on Christmas?” Miriam smiled. “It’s romantic. This calls for a celebration.”
Stef smiled back at her future sister-in-law and mouthed the words thank you.
“Sometimes things happen out of order and that’s okay. That’s life.” Miriam shrugged before peering up at Chase. “Right, honey?”
Then and only then did Chase’s rock-hard facade chip. He gazed down at his fiancée both tenderly and lovingly. “Right.”
Stef faced Zach and Pen next. “Right?”
Zach, his daughter a physical reminder that things definitely had happened out of order for Penelope and him, managed a reluctant “Right.”
“Okay then. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s eat.”
Stefanie took Emmett’s hand and pulled him toward the dining room. He followed, feeling the entire Ferguson clan’s eyes on his back.
