The walk back to the hotel was vastly different from the mad sprint away from it. This time, Luca held hands with his fiancé, walking toward their future together as husbands. Gus’s mere presence had given him distance to his mother’s hateful words. The moment he’d felt Gus’s arms around him back at the office, he’d vowed to not let her get to him again.
None of his mother’s predictions had come true. Gus had taken one look at him in the veil and hadn’t been ashamed of him. Instead, he’d seen that Luca was upset, and his immediate instinct had been to comfort. Not until he was sure Luca felt better had Gus paid attention to the veil, and his reaction had been what Luca had expected.
“Is it supposed to be this easy?” Luca hadn’t meant to ask, but the words just slipped out of his mouth as always.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Luca hesitated, unsure how to explain his thoughts to Gus. “I mean, I run out on you minutes before we’re supposed to get married. But instead of getting angry, you chase after me, comfort me, and sweep me off my feet. You don’t demand answers or even ask me why I did it.”
“I swept you off your feet years ago.” Gus grinned like the cat who got the cream and winked at him.
“Hah, if I recall correctly, I was the one doing the sweeping.” Luca elbowed Gus in the ribs.
“Ouch!” Gus whined and rubbed his side and stuck out his lower lip in the saddest attempt at pouting Luca had ever seen.
“Don’t even try. You know I’m the pouting champion in our relationship.”
“Oh, I know.” Gus leaned in as if he wanted to kiss Luca, but wrinkled his nose and straightened. “On second thought, I don’t like the veil,” he muttered.
Luca’s heart skipped a beat. He froze in the middle of a step and stared at Gus with his mouth hanging open. “What…?”
“No, no, I don’t mean like that,” Gus hurried to explain. “It’s covering your face, making it impossible to kiss you.”
Gus sounded genuinely bummed, and Luca burst out laughing. It bubbled out of him, and he couldn’t stop. He gasped for air and clutched his stomach.
When the laughter finally died down, he took a step closer to his fiancé, lifted the veil, and smacked a loud kiss on Gus’s lips. Before he could withdraw, Gus let go of his hand and cupped his face and kissed him, careful not to smudge the gloss. When they broke apart, they smiled at each other.
Gus brushed away a strand of hair from Luca’s face and looked at him with such warmth radiating from his eyes, Luca’s knees turned to jelly. “Yes, it’s supposed to be this easy. Just trust that I love you, no matter what.”
“Okay.” Any lingering doubt Luca had vanished just like that.
Gus let go of Luca’s face and helped him smooth out the veil again, but a buzz coming from his jacket pocket interrupted them. Gus groaned.
“How much do you wanna bet that’s my mom?” He pulled out his phone, glanced at it, and turned the display so Luca could see who was calling.
“I would never have taken that bet. I know her.”
They started walking again as Gus answered the call. “Mom, we’re on our way…”
* * * *
Gus’s mom met them at the door when they reached the hotel.
“You owe me a huge favor, Gustav,” she hissed between clenched teeth. She turned around to run off, but when they didn’t immediately follow, she grabbed them each by the hand and rushed toward the ballroom where the ceremony was taking place. “The officiant wanted to leave,” she explained as they dashed through the hotel. “I thought I was going to have to go down on my knees and beg. Beg! Mona Hanson doesn’t beg!”
“I’m sor—”
“And when I finally convinced him to wait, I had to deal with the caterer.” Her heels clattered on the marble stairs, and Gus and Luca had to fight to keep up with her. She was surprisingly fast for such a short woman. “I’ve never met anyone with a bigger ego than that little French guy. He’s such a drama queen. I thought he was going to faint when I told him we needed to postpone for an hour.”
Luca couldn’t help but smile at her as she recounted what had happened when he’d lost his mind for a moment. He promised himself he was going to make sure she knew how grateful he was for her help.
They came to an abrupt halt outside the ballroom doors, and Luca managed to stop just before he ran into Mona. She turned and looked at them with lips pressed tight, but it only took a second before her face softened. She stepped toward Gus, fiddled with his bow tie, and brushed away invisible lint from his tuxedo.
“You know I’d do anything for you,” she said and walked around him to check him over from behind. “But I expect an explanation later.”
“Ja, mamma,” Gus said.
Luca smiled again. His fiancé tried to placate his mother by speaking Swedish to her. Clever. It always melted her heart.
Satisfied with Gus’s appearance, she turned to Luca. “The veil is lovely, dear,” she said with a smile.
She fussed with it, making sure it flowed in perfect folds. She stuck her hands underneath and straightened the already perfect boutonniere. She raised an eyebrow at the fact that Luca was shirtless under the jacket, but didn’t say anything about it. She twisted the ends of his hair around her index fingers to make the slight curl more pronounced, and she swept away the same errant strand of hair from his face Gus had tried to tame earlier.
“Take good care of my son,” she whispered.
Afraid his voice would break if he tried to answer, Luca just nodded.
Mona took a step back and gave them a final once-over. “Okay, I’ll go in and tell them we’re ready.”
“Mom, wait.” Gus grabbed her hand before she could open the doors. “Is Luca’s mother in there?”
“Yes, of course. She wasn’t happy about the delay, but I managed to talk her down.”
Gus turned to Luca and asked in a low voice, “Do you want me to speak with her?”
“Honey, you don’t have to—”
“I know. But I will. If you want me to.”
The serious tone and determined look on Gus’s face were humbling. No one had ever been on Luca’s side like that before Gus, and his eyes watered. He bit his lower lip to stop it from trembling and reached out and took Gus’s hand. He pressed it to his heart, feeling its warmth radiating into his body.
“Honey, she can stay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, but…” Luca glanced at Gus’s mother. “Maybe keep her away from me?”
“We promise to fill you in, Mom, but please?” Gus pleaded before she had a chance to ask any questions.
“All right, I’ll do what I can,” she said but didn’t look convinced.
Luca wasn’t certain she would have so readily agreed if they weren’t pressed for time, something he was grateful for at this particular moment.
“Let’s get this show on the road.”
She opened the door and snuck in. After just a few moments, the music they’d chosen for their entrance started playing. They opened the door and walked hand in hand down the aisle.