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“July?” Morgan raised a brow.
“What are you all doing on the seventeenth?”
“Hopefully not still workin’ on this design,” said Beatrice with a long look at her portfolio. “Why?”
“Because I would really love it if you’d be my bridesmaids.”
Lenore’s face lit up, and Beatrice’s grin was brighter than Rose had ever seen it. Morgan’s eyes looked a bit watery, and she wore a small smile.
“Absolutely,” said Lenore.
“Are ye mad? How could I say nay?”
Rose reached for her sister’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “And you all know I love you very much. But I can’t not ask my sister to be my matron of honor.”
Morgan’s tears spilled over, and she squeezed Rose’s hand back tightly. “Nothing would make me happier,” she said.
Epilogue
Chatter filled the ballroom, and it buzzed in Luke’s ears even through the closed balcony doors. The view overlooked a busy street and a large fountain several stories below where he stood, and Luke wondered how long it would take the water to freeze. Night had fallen early, as it always did this late in the year, and headlights lit the darkness below like slowly shooting stars.
He’d brought Rose outside for a few private moments together before they were expected to be on their best behavior for the duration of his mother’s party. She stood beside him, and her touch on his hand was warm and welcome in the cold night air. He didn’t want to spend long out here on a Friday in November when the forecast had been calling for snow all day, but he couldn’t resist a little time alone with his wife.
Her ring glittered in the light cast by the ballroom’s chandeliers. The one he’d given her both times he’d proposed had been fused to a second band inlaid with diamonds after their wedding, and he often caught her staring at it, a smile playing on her lips.
He looked from the ring to her face. Tonight, unlike the last time they’d visited this hotel, there were no masks. Rose’s pale cheeks were flushed, and her hair hung in an elegant braid down the back of her long red gown. It was different from the one she’d worn to the fundraiser the year before—this one had a fuller skirt that trailed behind her when she walked, and though the bustline was a little higher this time, it revealed just enough to tease Luke and send his mind into overdrive as he thought about how the rest of their night would go.
They’d rented a room at the hotel, tonight. Though Luke didn’t expect any trouble from the paparazzi now that the election was over, he didn’t plan on taking any chances, especially now that he had a wife and daughter to think about with every move he made. Eden was going to stay with his parents for the night—they always told him they wanted to see her more, which was hard to pull off, with them living in D.C.—and he was going to have time alone with his beautiful wife. A hotel room to themselves, nowhere to be until the next afternoon, just her skin against his, her perfect lips caressing his own and drifting along his body…
“You okay?”
Luke blinked, and a smirk slid onto his mouth as he leaned close to kiss Rose’s cheek. “More than okay,” he said. “Incredible.”
“Hm. You’ve been staring at me so long I was starting to worry.” Her tone was teasing, and she caught his lips for a quick kiss.
“Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you,” he said. He leaned close to her ear and dropped his voice. “And how I can’t wait to have you,” he purred.
She shivered lightly and squeezed his hand. “You’re going to make me blush.”
“Aren’t you already?” He brushed his lips along her cheek. As he inhaled, the familiar vanilla-and-cinnamon scent of her perfume filled his senses. He’d been meaning to ask her what kind it was, but he supposed not knowing was just as enticing, if not more so.
“It’s just the cold,” said Rose, but the slight tremble in her voice told him that wasn’t entirely true.
“I’m sure it is.”
The chatter behind them died down, and despite his years of preparation for these situations, his stomach jumped. He told himself he should be used to political events by now, but every one of them seemed like a new disaster waiting to happen, and he felt a swell of relief that he and Rose had had the foresight to plan to stay inside afterward. Even if no one was going to follow and harass them this time, Luke was going to be tired of human company by the end of the night, apart from that of his family.
“Thank you all for being here tonight.” His mother’s voice drifted through the doors, and it was as effortlessly confident as ever. He knew she’d had a huge weight removed from her shoulders after she’d won another term in office, and she’d been dying to celebrate.
Rose turned to embrace Luke, molding her body to his as she stretched up to kiss his jaw. “Are you ready?” she asked.
“As I’ll ever be.” He chuckled and entwined his fingers with hers.
Just as it always had, her smile shot straight through him, igniting his every nerve ending and making everything fade but her. He didn’t realize his mother had given their cue until Rose took his arm and nodded toward the ballroom.
He pushed open the glass doors, and the two of them stepped inside. His mother had once again spared no expense on the food and drinks, which filled separate tables on either side of the room with more options than any one person could get through in a night. The dance floor was empty, for the moment, and the guests were seated at their tables that formed a perimeter around the room. Every table was full—Luke performed a quick headcount of the one directly across from where they stood, and he realized there were ten people at each.
His parents and sister stood at the head of the room, Eden in his mother’s arms. At the sight of his daughter, Luke beamed. She had Rose’s strawberry-blond hair, and she wore a white dress with ruffles on its skirt and sleeves. She was scanning the room, and when she saw her parents, she smiled brightly and raised a small hand to reach for them.
