part0020

It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I kept getting distracted by the shimmering lake outside the window.

“It’s almost time to go,” Selina said, pulling me back. “Are you ready?”

I gave myself one last look in the mirror. It was hard to recognize myself in the styled hair, painted face, and white dress. Was that really me? It didn’t seem possible that I could be the bride that was staring back at me.

“Almost,” I said, knowing there was one thing I needed to do before we left for the chapel.

“Almost? Your future husband is waiting!” Selina gave me a look that said she worried I had lost my mind.

“I know. Don’t worry, he’ll understand.” I turned to my best friend. “I need you to cover for me, just for a few minutes. I’ll be right back.”

Selina looked doubtful. “I don’t think this is a good idea. The ceremony is supposed to start in less than twenty minutes.”

“Just give me ten minutes.” I hitched up the gown and slipped into my shoes. “You’re the best friend ever.”

“Don’t you forget it,” she said with a frown .

I left the bathroom and crossed the bedroom in hurried steps. A door led out to a small deck that would take me to the backyard. I was still getting used to navigating Nick’s lake house. Our house , I thought to myself as I stepped onto the lawn. Just a few yards away, the dock stretched out into the lake. At the end of that dock, my everything was waiting.

Just six months after professing my love to Nick, we were getting married. It was a whirlwind romance, ten years in the making. Sometimes I still couldn’t believe that we had found each other. We just had to find ourselves first.

We hadn’t made any official plans to meet on the dock before our wedding, but somehow I had known I would find him there. Nick lived an insanely public life, especially since his company had landed one of the biggest IPOs ever for a tech company. The news had been covering nearly every second of our romance. That made us cling desperately to moments like these, the private intimacies that were shared only between the two of us.

“Don’t jump,” I said as I stepped onto the dock.

“We’ll be doing more than jumping soon enough,” he said, keeping his back to me. “We have a pretty big leap to take together today. ”

“Indeed.” I reached out and touched his shoulder. “Turn around so I can see your beautiful face.”

“It’s bad luck,” he said, reached up to touch my hand.

I smiled, falling even more in love with him. “For you, I’ll risk it.”

After I tugged at his shoulder for several seconds, he finally turned. The sunlight caught his eyes, causing them to sparkle even more than they usually did. His lips turned into a radiant smile.

“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He reached for my hand and then pressed his lips to ring finger. “What in the world did I do to get lucky enough to be the man that gets to marry you?”

He was wearing Michael’s tie, the one that he only wore for his most important events- Michael was there with us.

I had to take a deep breath to control my emotions. I didn’t want to become a crying mess before I even made it to the altar. “I never thought I could be this happy, Nick. I was sure that my life was going to be so different from this. I never thought I deserved this kind of bliss. And then one day, that all changed.”

“I know what you mean.” His arms went around my waist, his perfect face just an inch away from mine. “I had given up on the idea of love, and then… ”

I could see that he was struggling with his emotions, too. Stroking his cheek with my hand, I prompted, “And then?”

With his strong arms around me, his loving eyes staring straight into mine, he smiled my favorite smile and said, “And then you.”

Hunter J. Keane lives in Chicago where she surrounds herself with good food, great books, and fantastic friends. She is the author numerous contemporary novels. When she isn’t busy writing, Hunter is fighting crime and solving world peace. Check out more of Hunter’s novels :