Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
She pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I love you, sister. You deserve all of this and more.”
I choked back tears. “Don’t make me cry yet.”
She laughed. “No. Not yet.”
Then, she walked down the stairs in the matching red dress that Harmony had apparently designed for my bridesmaids. Leave it to Katherine to get the most from her IOU.
Finally, the music shifted, and it was my turn. I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and then walked down the middle of the stairs. Tourists still roamed Central Park, looking on at me in awe. Many of them took pictures as they walked past, but my eyes were only on the bottom of the stairs, where my dad waited, holding a cane. The concession from his doctor to let him leave the hospital. My dad hadn’t been happy, but he’d relented.
“Daddy,” I whispered.
He pulled me into a hug. “You look beautiful, honey.”
“Thank you.”
He offered me his arm and I slid mine through his. He fingered my mother’s diamond bracelet. “It suits you.”
“Thank you.”
“Shall we?”
“Absolutely.”
Together we turned and walked across the cobblestones and through the terrace. When we reached the stone entranceway, we both took a deep breath as we exited out into the sunlight again.
A small group of buskers had been paid to service our wedding. I didn’t know who had arranged that, but three violinists, a female guitarist, a man playing an erhu, a saxophonist, and an actual opera singer were playing the music as I walked down the makeshift aisle toward where our friends and family were assembled.
On my side was my mom, brother, and Carrie as well as my boss, Dr. Varma, his wife, and three daughters. That was all I’d wanted there. On Gavin’s side was his mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and five cousins, plus Locke. His three groomsmen were arranged on one side and my bridesmaids on the other.
And then there was Gavin.
My heart leaped into my throat at the sight of him in a tailored tux that must have been made for him. I was certain that was also Katherine and Camden’s doing. Though he had enough style that it could have been all his. But the beauty of it all was the smile on his handsome face. And how everything lit up at the first glimpse of me.
I stopped with my dad before Gavin, my eyes only for him.
“Who presents Whitley to be wed today?”
My eyes broke for that one second as I realized exactly who was marrying us. And I found Mayor Leslie Kensington in a smart Chanel suit with a wide smile on her face. Of course the mayor had the authority to marry people in her city, but I’d never suspected that anyone would ask her to. That must have been what Lark had said when she said she’d handle it. Holy shit.
The mayor nodded at me once at my look of astonishment.
“I do,” my dad responded to the question.
Gavin stepped forward and shook my dad’s hand. They shared a sincere smile, and then I was walking forward with Gavin, up to the mayor.
Before I could even hope to stop them, tears came to my eyes. I was holding my fiancé’s hands in the most beautiful dress of my life, prepared to marry the man of my dreams. I’d been certain that this day was never going to come. Only yesterday, the entire thing had been up in the air.
Now, I was speaking my vows to him, declaring my heart, body, and soul to him, and hearing the words in return. But right before the moment of saying our I dos, I stopped the ceremony.
Gavin looked stricken. “Whitley?”
I laughed, squeezing his hands. “There’s a tradition in Gavin’s family,” I announced to our friends and family. “To sing the song ‘Love Me Tender.’ I sang it at Margaret’s wedding, and I wish to continue that tradition today.”
I glanced at the buskers, who had no idea what I was about to do. “Any of you know the tune?”
After several seconds of chords being struck, a tune became clear in the middle of it. A song that I’d sung under duress months ago, I sang now with all the love in my heart now. A song that was about devotion and a promise of forever.
It might have been the song that his grandmother sang to all the grandchildren, but now, it was as much our song. Tears came to not just his family’s eyes as I sang the song with so much meaning, but my friends’ and family’s too. This sealed us all together more than even the vows could.
At the end, Gavin brought my hands to his lips and kissed them tenderly. “I love you.”
I nodded. “I love you too.”
“After that amazing tribute,” Mayor Kensington said, “I ask, are you both ready to declare yourself to one another?”