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After makeup touch-ups and last looks at our hair, the wedding planner rushed us into position for the ceremony. She nearly fell over when we announced that Lili would be walking me down the aisle: she hated that we were lopsided when we reached the altar because Angel had more people standing up for him than me. The wedding planner had once used the words “unseemly” and “unattractive” to describe how the photos would look of the bridal party.
But now it would be fine because someone was walking me down the aisle. I would have rolled my eyes at her, but I was happy by the development myself. Now, I could have someone to lean on when all those eyes were looking at me.
The wedding march began, and Omar escorted Tia Angela down the aisle. Then, it was Lili and my turn, and when I got a look at Angel in a tux waiting for me, I nearly let go of Lili’s hand to run to him. “Steady,” she breathed to me. “He’s not going anywhere.”
The closer we got — why did it seem like a crawl now when it was so fast at the rehearsal? — the more feral Angel’s expression became. Maybe Tia Angela was right about the dress. “Are you sure you’ll make it through the reception?” Lili murmured to me. “He looks like he’s going to eat you.”
I certainly hope so, I thought. “We’ll be fine,” I said with absolutely no certainty of that at all. “We’re adults; we can behave ourselves.”
Lili snorted and tried to cover it up like she was crying, but I knew she was teasing me. “Maybeyoucan control yourself,” she said, “but my brother cannot.”
“Who gives this woman?” Father Davies, the priest from the church that the Castillos irregularly attend, asked.
Lili puffed up her chest, and I nearly laughed. “I do, Father,” she said. “Her sister.”
Father Davies motioned for Lili to pass me to Angel, and the transition happened with minimal giggling on our parts. Once I was in Angel’s hands, however, the ceremony’s tone became more reverent.
He had never been more handsome than he was in his tux. “You look handsome,” I told him and enjoyed watching his face twist as he tried to figure out how to respond.
“Thank you,” he finally whispered, “but I think you stole my line.”
I hushed him just as the priest began talking about love and commitment and all of the promises that a husband and wife make to each other on their special day. I tried to listen and absorb what he was saying, but it was difficult with Angel standing beside me with our fingers threaded together.
His thumb played over my palm, and my eyes nearly rolled back in my head.Soon, he mouthed at me, and I tried to roll my eyes at him, tease him back, but I probably looked hungry and desperate because this wedding was going to takehours.
I didn’t have hours: I needed Angel as soon as I could get him, or all of these people were going to get a free show.
“Angel and Emma are here to make a vow before each other and before God —” Father Davies droned on.
“Did we have to do a full Catholic ceremony with the Nuptial Mass?” I muttered to Angel. He shushed me, but his hand squeezed mine to let me know that he was suffering too.
When it was time for the vows, Angel and I opted to do our own. “Emma,” he said, “I promise to love you for all that you are with all that I am. I promise to love our children and to protect and guide them in our world. I promise that you will be my only love through this life and into the next.” I was still wearing Angel’s mother’s ring, but he slid a matching gold band with a large, solitaire diamond next to it.
Father Davies turned to me.My turn, I thought. “Angel, meeting you was not something I expected,” I said, and everyone who wasn’t a Castillo was probably confused when every single one of them chuckled. “I resented it, actually, because you flipped my world upside down, and I didn’t want that. But then you were there for me, a constant when my world has been anything but, and I fell in love with you harder than I ever thought I was capable of. I promise to love you for all that you are with all that I am.” He raised an eyebrow, and I smirked.So I took a peek at his vows and stole a line or two? He went first; no one would be confused about who stole what from whom. “I promise that I will be your only love in this life and into the next.”
I slid a ring onto his finger. It was a new band made of the same gold as mine. At our first wedding, he hadn’t wanted one, and I didn’t push. But now, I needed the world to know that he was mine, and Angel, despite not liking jewelry, gave in. He’d wanted that denotation too so that everyone knew that he belonged to someone.
“By the power invested in me, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your beautiful bride, Mr. Castillo.”
Angel didn’t have to be told twice. He swept me into his arms and dipped me, kissing me soundly to muffle the shriek. I melted into the feeling of his lips on mine, and when he brought me back up, we were still kissing. It took the congregation of the church clapping for us to stop. I buried my face against his tux, careful with my makeup. “How can you stand the staring?” I asked him as he directed me back up the aisle.
“I’m only thinking about you,” he said simply. “It helps.” He put his arm around me as we walked, but his hand touched my burgeoning baby bump, and as odd as it felt to be touched like that in front of people, I relaxed. As long as he kept touching me, I knew that both me and our baby would be fine, no matter what happened. Angel would always come to our rescue.
CHAPTER34
Emma
Islapped the hand sneaking into the tray of arepas for the fifth time. “If I have to tell you to keep your hands away from the food one more time, I’m going to make you leave,” I said.
“Emma!” Manny whined. “It’s mybirthday. Shouldn’t I get to try everything first?”
Fifteen years old, and he still sounded like such a baby. “You’ll get the first pick of whatever you want,” I assured him, “but you’re not going to get thatandsteal bites before it even makes it to the table. You get one or the other, not both.”
The teenager pouted. “Angel would get to steal bitesandget first pick.”
I shrugged. “There is a good possibility of that,” I said in all honesty, “but I love him a lot more than I love you.”
Manny didn’t believe me. As he flattened out the arepa dough and stuffed it with cheese, he nudged my shoulder. “But you like me a lot more, right?”
