The music lilted into a wedding march rewritten for Charlotte and Gabriel, snapping him back to the here and now. And there came Charlotte, lovely and radiant. She was walking up the aisle on her own—she desperately loved her parents, wanted to honor them by walking with their memory at her side.
Jake had been hanging out in her kitchen with her when she’d shown him the heart-shaped medallions she planned to attach to the backs of her heels. One held the name of her father, the other the name of her mother.
“So they can walk me up the aisle,” she’d said thickly, wiping away her tears with one finger.
Her eyes were luminous behind her veil today, full of an incandescent love, all her attention on Gabriel. His big, brawny brother looked awestruck. Gabe was always in charge, the CEO of his life and his world, but when it came to Charlie, he was a man slayed by emotion.
Jake’s diminutive future sister-in-law was the only person he knew who could stand toe to toe with Gabe and get Gabe to back down. He knew they’d be happy, the same way he’d known Sailor and Ísa would be happy.
Both couples had between them the indefinable something shared by Jake’s parents—a sense of bone-deep comfort that existed beyond the passion and the love. The knowledge that this person would accept them always, even as they changed and grew through the years to come.
Gabe stepped forward to take Charlotte’s hand in his. A gentle laugh rippled through the entire church at his readiness to do this. He grinned, unashamed about his desire to make Charlotte his wife.
Their pastor, a smile on his seamed face, stepped forward. “Dearly beloved…”
Juliet’s stone heart was taking a beating today. First, all that ridiculously beautiful love among the women, sprinkled with sparkling little-girl joy, and now this. Gabriel Bishop, one of the toughest men to ever grace the rugby field—the freaking Bishop—had his petite bride’s hand clasped firmly in his, his heart in his eyes and his eagerness to be her husband unhidden. And Charlotte, just glowing, her happiness a physical pulse that took them all down like sniffling bowling pins.
Juliet couldn’t believe she was about to cry. She swallowed in desperate self-defense against the stupid wedding virus. She’d girded her loins for this, told herself that she was proof against wedding bells and goofy lovestruck eyes. Her armor of cynicism, tough as a crocodile’s skin, would protect her.
After all, the one genre of book she refused to read was romance. She wasn’t a snob about them, had devoured hundreds as a teen. But she couldn’t make herself believe in happy-ever-after anymore, not after everything that had happened. Except there it was: a great big fat happy-ever-after right in front of her.
The Charlotte whom Juliet had first met had been a shy mouse with fear shadowing her world. It had been surprising and utterly delightful to see her bloom under the attentions of the Bishop, of all people. Big, tough, relentless Gabriel who ate mice for breakfast.
Turned out Charlie was indigestible.
Now here the two were, their devotion so deep and true that Juliet expected to see little cartoon love hearts popping up over their heads.
And oh my God, Ísa was making goo-goo eyes at Sailor, and had she just seen Joseph Esera, senior member of the Samoan community and stiffly formal in his mien, send his wife an “I love you” look?
Ugh. This family was going to test her decision to stay cold and cynical.
Jake was still scowling at her. The sight perked her up; at least some things never changed. A scowl was Jake’s default expression when it came to Juliet. He’d never been able to grasp why his good-girl girlfriend was so loyal to her bad-girl best friend.
Poor Callie, Juliet had always thought, stuck with such a stuffy stick of a boyfriend. But, having seen how he’d smiled and encouraged his daughter just before, Juliet was forced to grudgingly accept that maybe Jacob Esera had his good points.
That Esme was a child confident in her right to be loved was obvious, and though Juliet wanted to credit the elder Eseras for that, the fact that Jake kept a spare pair of child-sized eyeglasses in his car smashed her favorite theory to splinters.
Gabriel’s voice—very firm—as he said, “I do. Definitely. Forever. No out clause.”
Juliet grinned through her incipient sniffles.
Charlotte’s response to the pastor’s question was softer but just as vehement. “I do. Forever and ever.”
Seriously, they had to stop being so adorable—how was she to keep up the curmudgeon act? She was smiling so hard that her cheeks ached, fluffy happy rainbows dancing in front of her eyes.
“You may kiss the—”
Gabriel lifted Charlotte up by the waist before the pastor finished, and she threw her arms around his neck. The kiss they shared was hot and loving and went just a bit too long for the staid old church—and probably for all the tut-tutting aunties who lived to lecture everyone on acceptable behavior.
But even the pastor was grinning at Charlotte and Gabriel’s enthusiasm, his brown face marked by life and lit with love. Lips kiss-wet, the bride and groom turned to face the guests, and the whole crowd rose up to cheer and shower them with flower petals as they walked back down the aisle.
4
It Involves Jake’s Thighs
Juliet had missed the wedding rehearsal because the plumbing in her kitchen had chosen that day to pack it in, flooding the entire area. She’d felt terrible for canceling, but Charlotte had assured her it was fine. She’d then sent through a quick list of instructions, so Juliet was prepared to slide her arm through Jake’s as the bridal party followed the newlyweds.
Molly and Fox. Ísa and Sailor. Mei and Danny. Aroha and Harry. Juliet and Jake.
She’d actually found the idea of seeing Jake again in this context kind of funny. Who would’ve thought the two of them would end up arm in arm in a church wedding? Had a fortune-teller forecast that back when they’d been teens, they would’ve both gagged and asked for their money back while Callie groaned.
Anyway, it was just a short walk. No biggie.
Except for the frisson of… something that had hit with a vengeance the first moment they laid eyes on each other in his brother’s backyard. She wanted to brush it off as irritation or annoyance, both things she was very used to feeling around Jake, but she knew full well the weird fluttering in the pit of her stomach was nothing of the kind.
The last time she’d felt anything near that flutter, she’d been on her couch eating strawberry-swirl ice cream while wolf whistling at the fit actor who played her favorite doctor on Shortland Street. But that had been a mere whisper in comparison to this massive reverberation that had zapped her entire system to speechlessness.
Guilt bit into her.
She shook it off, almost able to see Callie rolling her eyes at her. Her best friend knew Juliet’d had zero salacious thoughts about Jake when he’d belonged to Callie. Her thoughts had leaned more toward culpable homicide. She had no reason to feel guilty just because her adult body was insane enough to be attracted to Jacob Esera—who smelled far too good next to her.
Like freaking mountains and manly man and all that other stuff they talked about in aftershave commercials. She’d always made fun of those commercials, but now she was like the token brainless woman in the most recent ad, the one who wanted to snuggle up to her man and just smell him.