And it will.
I know it.
I see her the instant the maître‘d ushers her onto the sunny patio. An enormous piece of coconut cake is already sitting in front of the chair she’ll occupy. Samantha loves coconut and I was thinking this could be our wedding cake. Chris will be the deciding vote.
Or is the bride supposed to take care of all that?
I don’t know. And I don’t really care. I believe this will make Samantha happy, and that’s all I need to know. Traditions be damned.
Chris is wearing her hair up. That’s all I notice beyond the huge smile. She’s a pretty girl, but no one turns my head anymore. Not really. I notice them, maybe even appreciate their features, but there’s only one woman for me. It just took me a while to realize it.
“What, pray tell, is all this secret meeting stuff about?”
Like she doesn’t already know! That smile says it all.
I eye her dubiously. “I’m quite sure you’re smart enough to figure that out.”
Despite our very public and very elegant location, she squeals and claps her hands loudly. I can’t help but smile. Now I’m confident I made the right choice.
“Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod! This is it, isn’t it?”
“If you mean that I’m going to marry your sister and make her deliriously happy, then yes. This is it.”
“Oh dear God! I’m so effing happy I could hump your leg right now.”
“Please don’t.”
Chris laughs and her eyes twinkle merrily. “Maybe later. Right now, I want to hear what you’ve got to say, because it better be good!”
“Lucky for me, your approval is not what I seek. Your help, however…”
As always, Chris lets my teasing roll right off. She gives me a dismissive wave and leans forward conspiratorially. “So, what are we doing?”
“With Samantha’s release schedule, she’s going to be pretty busy for the foreseeable future, so I thought we’d take care of most of the planning and details so she won’t feel the pressure of the wedding.”
“But she knows, right? I mean, you’ve already proposed and explained that you’re doing this?”
I shake my head.
Chris gasps. “You haven’t even asked her?”
“No, that’s not how this plan works.”
This is the one area I’m a little shaky on. I have it all planned out in my head, and it’s perfect. The only thing I can’t see with absolute clarity is her answer.
I know she loves me. And she knows I love her. But we’ve never talked about marriage. I don’t really know how she feels about it. We talk about spending forever together, but nothing more specific than that.
But now I want to be specific. I want to know that she’s mine. Forever. That she’s not going anywhere. Ever. And that she’ll bear my name as well as my children.
Children—that’s another gray area, but first things first.
“A-lec’s ner-vous,” she says in a sing-song voice.
“Hell yeah, I’m nervous. But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to tell you what you’re going to do for her for her wedding.”
“Do tell.”
“I want you to design her wedding dress.”
Chris’s face goes comically blank. “What now?”
“I. Want. You. To. Design. Her. Dress.”
“English is not my second language. I understand what you said. I just didn’t understand what you said. I design shoes. You know that, right?”
“But I’ve seen the sketches you’ve done of dresses. And Samantha loves them. I think she’d be pleased if you’d do it. She’d be proud and it would make the day even more perfect if she was walking down the aisle in something you made for her.”
Much to my surprise and dismay, Chris’s eyes fill with tears. “Ohmigod, you really are perfect for her.”
I shrug. “I don’t know about that. I love her, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s part of it. But it’s so much more than that. You’re…you’re…ohmigod, you’re her soul mate. I mean…you really are the one.”
“I sure hope so.”
Tears overflow her lashes and slide down her cheeks. She reaches up to wipe them away and I fidget in my seat. I hadn’t expected this and I’m terrible with female emotion. That was established long ago.
When she pulls herself together, she laughs and reaches over to squeeze my hand where it rests near my glass.
“Oh, you are. Trust me.”
“Does that mean you’ll do it?”
She swats her hand at me. “Of course I’ll do it. And she’ll be the best damn bride with the best damn dress on the Eastern seaboard.”
“With the most modest sister.”
“That, too,” Chris says with a grin and a flip of her hair. “Annnnnd, it gives me something other than Greg to focus on.”
I don’t know what to say to that. Samantha told me about Chris’s decision to move on from Greg and find someone who will love her for the person she really is, but that doesn’t make me any more comfortable discussing it with her.
My eyes fall to the cake. I’d nearly forgotten it.
“Oh and I want you to taste this cake. I think she’d like it, don’t you?”
Chris watches me for a few seconds, her smile never fading. She shakes her head in something like amazement as she picks up her fork and cuts out a bite of the moist white cake.
She tastes it and her eyelids flutter in ecstasy. “Gawd!” she mutters around her full mouth. “That’s heavenly.”
“She’ll love it, right?”
She grins despite her puffed out cheeks. “She’ll love it.” She cuts another piece and stabs it with her fork. “She’s lucky to have you, Alec.”
“No, I’m the lucky one. I didn’t have much of a life before she came along. The least I can do is make one day perfect for her.”
“According to her, you make every day perfect for her.”
I hold back the smile that twitches at my lips. It makes me feel like a sappy kid, but hearing that makes me happier than I care to admit.
“So she talks about me a lot, huh?”
“Ugh! All the time. I get so sick of hearing about Perfect Alec this and Perfect Alec that. ‘Perfect Alec saved my life’.”
That gives me pause. “Did she say that?”
“She says that all the time. Why?”