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“Forever is a long time,” I warned.
Roarke laughed. “That it is. And I want to spend all of it with you.”
It was all I could hope for.
It took me an hour to change and I made Roarke wait in the apartment lobby no matter how much he pouted. He’d never really seen me dressed up, and I wanted to wow him. I put on a blue dress that emphasized my eyes and a pair of black heels, doing a smoky eye and a red lip.
I pulled out all the stops, curling my hair at the ends even though I knew by the end of the night it would fall, and when I walked down to the lobby, Roarke was standing by the elevators, waiting for it to come down.
“Were you coming up to get me?” I asked, and Roarke turned around. He might as well have been like one of those wolf cartoons, his eyes bugging out, and I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand. “You like it?”
“I was about to come bang on your door and tell you to hurry up, but it was worth the wait. Goddamn.”
He whistled low and walked toward me, grabbing me around my waist. “Maybe we should stay in.”
“Absolutely not. And waste me looking like this?”
“I don’t want anyone else to look at you,” Roarke said low in his throat, and that was it.
I didn’t end up going out at all. We ordered in, Chinese food, and it was all Roarke could do to keep his hands off me before the delivery driver got there. I ended up with my curls falling out and my dress ripped, but with a big grin on my face.
Best date ever.
ROARKE
Three months later,I was wearing a new tuxedo and Liam, Elijah, and Richard were my groomsmen. Richard had been present for the last two weddings, but this would be my brothers’ first one. Jo and Jasmine were in the crowd with the kids, and I waved at them. They waved back excitedly. I chuckled.
I thought I’d talk to Magda about maybe having a brood of our own. I was ready. I didn’t know about her, though. Her career had been taking off ever since she made partner, and she was popular enough and with enough clients now that she could have gone off on her own if she’d wanted to.
She didn’t. She was happy with the family business, and I knew that Richard wanted her to take over when he retired. I stayed on as partner, too, although I didn’t work as much anymore. I let Magda take all the cases, and just jumped in on a few of them. I was thinking more and more like if we had a family, I’d want to mostly stay home with the kids.
Magda had stayed with Jo and Jasmine all night at a hotel room, having a mini-bachelorette party, and Jo and Jasmine looked hungover. I laughed, wondering if Magda was, too.
My own bachelor party consisted of drinking more tequila with my brothers and we all drunk-dialed our significant others. It had been what most people might consider a bust, but we had a great time and a big, disgusting fast-food meal the next morning, Brentwood style.
I stood impatiently up at the altar, waiting for my bride to walk down the aisle, and suddenly I was beset with nerves. What if she’d gotten cold feet? I hadn’t talked to her since yesterday morning, and I was going crazy. I kept trying to text and call her but she’d respond by telling me it was a tradition not to see the bride on the wedding day.
Since when had she cared about tradition? We got together by hooking up in our office, for god’s sake. When I heard the music start and could see a hint of her veil through the double doors of the church, I was infinitely relieved. I grinned. Everything was okay. Magda loved me.
She looked incredible in an off-the-shoulder red and white dress. Nothing traditional for her. She’d wanted to stand out, and I was more than happy to oblige, wearing a red silk shirt under my tuxedo instead of a white one so that we would match.
I couldn't help it, as she walked down the aisle I started to tear up, wiping at my face. She just looked so beautiful, and we had fought so hard to get here. She looked a little pale, likely from the hangover, but gorgeous as usual, her hair loose down her back.
The wedding went by in what seemed like a flash, with Magda’s hand shaking as she put on my ring, tears streaming from her blue eyes. I just couldn’t wait for the priest to say, “You may kiss the bride,” and I kissed her halfway through his sentence, and the crowd laughed.
At the reception, champagne flowed freely but I noticed Magda wasn’t drinking any of it.
I frowned. “Are you sick or just hungover?”
“Neither,” she commented, looking away from me.
I took her chin in my hand, forcing her to look at me.
“What’s wrong, Riley?” I demanded to know.
Magda took my hands in hers, dropping them from her face and squeezing them with a smile. “Nothing, baby. Don’t worry.”
Ididworry, though. I had a big surprise honeymoon in Hawaii planned, and if she wasn’t well, we couldn’t go. I tried to sneak around and ask Jasmine and Jo what had happened the night before, but they zipped up their lips as if it was some big secret.
