Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
My chest was tight. Or maybe it was my collar. Either way, I was finding it tough to breathe. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and tried to focus.
“Now, I’m given to understand the two of you have written some personal commitment vows?” the judge asked.
“Yes,” Bianca said. She turned around and handed her flowers to Ellie, then unfolded the vows I’d typed up.
For a moment, I felt bad about what I’d written for her—it was pretty fucking stupid and she was going to hate me for it. In fact, her cheeks were beginning to match her shoes as she glanced at the first few lines. But then she started to read, and all the weird tension inside me eased. It was so fucking funny, I decided I had no regrets whatsoever.
“My dearest Enzo,” she said, clearly trying not to clench her teeth. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know why I was so mean to you when we were kids. I think now I was afraid of the way I felt for you. I had never met anyone so good-looking and awesome at baseball before.” She paused for a breath and hitched her weight over to one foot. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life ironing your shirts and cooking your favorite foods and watching you win the Allegan County Senior Men’s Baseball Championship year after year. It is my dream come true. P.S. I won’t even care if you snore because it is such a manly sound. I love everything about you and always will.”
She looked up from the page, and I swear to God I thought smoke was going to puff out of her ears.
“That was beautiful, sweetheart,” I told her, unable to keep a grin off my face.
“Your turn,” she said, her smile laced with venom.
Oh, shit.
I pulled the piece of paper from my pocket, unfolded it, and began to read.
“My sweet, brilliant, beautiful Bianca, what can I say but that my life before you was a meaningless, shallow void—in the words of the immortal Edward Cullen, it was ‘an unending, unchanging midnight.’” I paused here to give her a look—who the fuck was Edward Cullen?—and cleared my throat before continuing. “You have brought light into the egotistical and immature darkness that was my soul. I see now that you were always my one true love, and I was just too wrapped up in myself to commit to anyone else. But no longer. To sum up, again I quote Edward Cullen: ‘No measure of time with you will be long enough, but we’ll start with forever.’”
I dropped the hand holding the page to my side and gave her an incensed stare, my nostrils flaring with anger.
She smiled triumphantly. “That was lovely, Enzo. Brought a tear to my eye.”
“Well, then,” said Judge Reinhart briskly. “By the authority vested in me by the State of Michigan, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
The last thing on earth I wanted to do right now was kiss the little witch, but what choice did I have? Leaning forward at the waist, I planted my lips chastely on hers, and she placed a hand on my shoulder. A sigh echoed through the courtroom.
We parted, glaring at each other as the judge began to speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Enzo Moretti.”
Our families and friends jumped to their feet, applauding, whistling, and shouting. I offered the witch my elbow and she slipped her hand through it as we made our way back down the aisle and exited the courtroom, followed by our guests.
Out in the hallway, we were swarmed by people wanting hugs and handshakes, so there was no time to give Bianca any shit for those stupid vows. My mother and sisters were crying. My father was bursting with pride. Mr. and Mrs. DeRossi both told me how happy they were—I was the answer to their prayers for their daughter. “Take good care of her, son,” Bianca’s dad said, clapping me on the shoulder.
“I will, sir.” I glanced over at my new wife, who was currently being embraced by all my sisters at once, and felt slammed with guilt. Was this man going to hate me in a few months? Was he going to think I was the sort of man that broke such a promise?
Then it got worse.
“Please. Call me Dad,” he said, thumping my shoulder several more times. “We’re family now.”
“Okay.” I swallowed hard. “Dad.”
This whole thing felt a little out of control.
A few minutes later, we all made our way downstairs and took photos in the lobby and on the courthouse steps, and I tried to smile. In one picture, I had to pick her up and cradle her like a baby, and through my teeth, I whispered, “I’m tempted to drop you.”