I chuckled slightly as I rapidly blinked my eyes and stared at my reflection in the mirror.
Hailey walked up and put both hands on my exposed shoulders. “You look so beautiful, Emme. Landon is going to shit his pants when he sees you.”
Addie sighed from behind me, where she was adjusting my train. “Hailey Lewis. Just once, do you think you could say one sentence without swearing?”
With a roll of her eyes, Hailey replied, “Hell no, Mom.”
I laughed and focused back on myself in the mirror. My blonde hair was pulled back into some sort of twisted ponytail that Hailey had been working on perfecting for weeks. Loose curls hung down to my exposed shoulders, with some framing my face.
My white and silver mermaid dress hugged my curves in all the right ways and led to a stunning array of tulle ruffles that flowed out into a train. I wore a simple silver necklace with a teardrop pearl and matching earrings that were a gift from Aunt Autumn and Uncle Jack.
“Sit down and I’ll put your shoes on,” my mother said, motioning for me to sit on the bed.
Carefully taking a seat, I held out my foot and she slipped the silver shoes on and buckled the faux diamond buckle. She repeated the process with my other foot as I tried to control my pounding heart.
A light knock sounded on the door, and we all turned to see Aunt Autumn peeking in. She gasped when she saw me and then covered her mouth to hide her sobs. “You…you…look so beautiful, Emmerson!”
“Thank you, Aunt Autumn. The necklace and earrings are perfect.”
She nodded and walked into the room holding a small blue box. “This is from Landon. I gave him your gift a few minutes ago, but told him not to open it until the photographer came in to take pictures.”
I giggled as I took the gift from her. “Thank you.”
“Open it! I’m dying to see what he got you!”
Ignoring the fact that my hands were still shaking like a leaf, I opened the box…and almost started crying the moment I looked inside.
“A rock?” Hailey asked in disbelief. “That cheap bastard. It’s not even a gemstone!”
I brought my hand up to my mouth as I tried not to bawl like a baby.
“Your makeup! Oh, sweetheart, no, don’t cry!” Hailey spun around to face the makeup artist who was still in the room. “Tell me you used waterproof mascara.”
Lori looked offended. “Please, this isn’t my first rodeo.”
After all my years of planning weddings, I knew that the one person who stuck by the bride until she was off down the aisle was the makeup artist. And Lori was one of the best. Before I even knew if my fake engagement was going to turn into a real one, I had booked her.
Don’t judge. She booked up fast.
“Emmerson, what in the world is the meaning behind the rock?” my mother asked.
It had to be that moment for my father to knock and walk into the room. He took one look at me crying and started to turn back around. “I’m going to kick his ass!”
“Malcolm Wallace, you will do no such thing!” my mother scolded, grabbing his arm. “Those are happy tears—can’t you see her smiling?”
My father tilted his head and studied me. “All I see is my daughter crying and sitting in a wedding dress, looking like the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.”
Another sob slipped free, and Addie hit my dad on the shoulder. “Don’t make her cry more!”
Daddy looked like he didn’t know up from down at that point. With a sigh of frustration, he asked, “Okay, is someone going to tell me why she’s crying…happy…tears?”
“When I was around ten or eleven, I found this rock.” I held it up for everyone to see. “I told Landon I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and that it had special powers. I told him he needed to keep it in a safe place, and someday, he had to give it to the one person he loved more than anything on the planet.” Tears started to fall down my face again, and Lori whipped out her makeup bag and moved into position. The moment I got my shit together, she would be there to touch up my makeup.
“And he gave it to you,” Hailey whispered as I heard her voice crack. When I looked over at her, I saw her quickly wipe a tear away.
“Oh my, Addie, you raised a romantic man,” my mother said, practically melting into a chair.
Addie sniffled and used a tissue to dab at her own tears.
“Okay, as much as I don’t want to admit this, that was a very romantic gesture on the boy’s part,” my dad added. “If I’m having to let some other man take you from me, Landon is the one man I will gladly let love you.”
“Oh, Daddy.” I threw my arms around him. “I really do love him with all of my heart.”
My father patted my back lightly. “I know you do, sweet pea. You always have.”
When we broke apart, my father pointed to everyone in the room. “If one of you tells Emmit I said that about his son, I swear I’ll deny it!”
Landon
I STOOD AND stared out the massive floor-to-ceiling window that took up damn near an entire wall in Malcolm and Paislie’s formal living room. In the past twenty-four hours, the living room had been transformed into a makeshift chapel, with a beautiful altar that was covered in silver and white tulle with large bouquets of red roses on each side.
Noah stood next to me, rocking back and forth on his heels as he watched the large formal staircase that Emmerson would soon be walking down.
I wasn’t the least bit nervous. I mean, I’d been married to this woman for nearly five months, and we had been crazy happy through all of it. Honestly, life seemed to be perfect. Yeah, I wasn’t nervous at all. What I was, though, was scared to fucking death that this was a dream, and that at any moment I would wake up and be right back in the old days of hiding my feelings for Emmerson.
“How was she when you saw her?” I asked Noah in a whispered voice.
“Landon, she was fine! I mean, she seemed nervous, but aren’t all brides supposed to be?”
I nodded and looked down at the folded note Emmerson had given me as a gift. Noah and my father thought it was going to be a watch or something like that. When I pulled out the old note, they both looked confused as hell. I cried like a goddamn baby when I opened it and read it.
Slowly, I opened the note once again and read the writing of a young boy to the girl he was madly in love with.
Emme,
Someday I’m going to marry you. And when I do, you need to give me back this piece of paper so the preacher man knows your answer when he asks.
Mark yes if you want to marry me. Mark no if you don’t want to. But I hope you mark yes.
Love,
Landon
The paper was faded, the words hard to read, but there were two check marks next to yes. An older one, and one that had been written recently. I had forgotten all about the note, and the fact that she had kept it made me want to ball up while I cried like a baby.
Noah must have seen me reading the note because he moved closer and whispered, “For the love of God, man! Put that note in your pocket before you start to cry again and I have to revoke your man card!”
With a chuckle, I folded it back up and slipped it into my pocket. When the music started playing, I drew in a deep breath and turned around.