Chapter 44
CHAPTER
FORTY-FOUR
Sia
So apparently this wedding was happening really soon. Lettie proposed holiday nuptials. Holidays as in this holiday. She didn’t trust her dad not to elope after she returned to school (her words). I guess Maxim really wasn’t into pomp and circumstance, and the last time Lettie tried to throw him a birthday party he bribed her not to with her Jeep. This totally sounded like him, and neither I nor Maxim fought her on her plans to spearhead the whole thing.
It made her happy.
Anyone could tell that as she deep-dived into appointments and ordering holiday arrangements. Before I or Maxim knew it, Maxim’s home was filled with enough wedding garb to make a party planner piss his pants in glee. We didn’t need one with Lettie at the helm, and she’d definitely put a sizable hole into Maxim’s bank account. His black card was probably on fire with how much she had him swiping it.
And he did. He did every time and, not only that, he came to each and every appointment and was actually adamant about his attendance.
“Girl, I’ve never seen him act like this,” Lettie said, scanning some fine crystal at a small boutique in the city. She was registering Maxim and me for gifts and was very serious about it. She glanced between the crystal vases. “This is like the third store, and he’s still here.”
Her dad was still here. Again, he’d been adamant about attending any place Lettie or I went. I thought it was for security. I mean, he’d been pretty freaking crazy about that when he found out I started school and had no one with me, but he’d called Val to come with us today. His head of security went to every shop we did so Maxim wasn’t needed. He could work, but he wasn’t.
Mind you, Maxim didn’t look particularly thrilled to be here doing all this, but he was here and mostly present. He and Val were signing over by the shop’s doors. Any place Lettie or I went into Maxim and Val shut the place down so Lettie could have her attack of it, and I tried not to watch them too much after I caught tidbits of something they signed at the first shop.
Maxim had asked Val to be his best woman for all of this. He’d asked her and actually smiled when she signed back she would. It’d been an intimate moment and one I wasn’t quite sure I interpreted completely. I was still learning my signs, but I was pretty freaking sure that was what happened.
Lettie only confirmed it.
Lettie did know her signs, and she saw that exchange between her dad and Val too. It’d been another time she said she’d never seen her dad act this way, and I think we were all surprised Lettie was here and we were doing this. I guess Lettie had come home early from Bali to spend Christmas with Maxim and see me. She’d said that. She’d actually said that. Somewhere along the way this girl and I had developed a friendship beyond a temporary community service stint, and though she’d been surprised by all this, she’d been supportive. Val had too, and honestly, her lack of surprise by Maxim’s and my relationship had surprised me. I guess we hadn’t been too great at hiding it.
I studied Maxim, now in a handsome gray suit. It hugged his muscular build sinfully, and I tried not to stare again if only for Lettie. She was supportive, but I didn’t want to make things weirder for her than they already were.
“I haven’t seen you like this either,” she said, noticing my stare, and my face shot up in fucking heat. She laughed. “It’s like you’re alive. It’s like he’s alive and,” she paused, staring through a crystal vase she picked up. She smiled before putting it down. “He lights up when you’re in the room, Sia. I mean, it’s my dad so it’s more like a strong flicker, but there’s light.”
I glanced his way. His signs were very expressive with Val. He even made a joke and nudged her, which was crazy. The man didn’t joke.
He had light.
I did too, and I couldn’t deny that even if I wanted to. I felt like I was on a cloud even before he proposed.
“It’s nice to see,” Lettie said, smiling a little. She scanned a goblet. “I’ll admit that I didn’t know how to feel about all this, but there’s no denying, well, all this. Besides the fact that he can’t leave you alone for a second it’s just all over him in general. He loves you, Sia, and you clearly love him.”
I did. Though, ironically enough, I hadn’t told him yet. We seemed to be doing everything backwards, him and me. I overhead him tell Lettie he loved me, but he hadn’t said it either.
It honestly kind of made me laugh internally. Maxim and I were so backwards, but we just made sense. I played with my hands. “I know this is all weird.” It was for me too. I mean, she was my friend first. I pushed back my curls. “It honestly just kind of happened, Lettie.”
I heard Maxim say the same thing to her, and though she’d said she was cool with it to both of us, I’d yet to pull her aside. Part of that had to do with the fact that Maxim was so close, but I wanted to. She deserved that.
“I know,” she said. “And I am happy for you guys. If you make my dad happy, then that’s who I want him to be with. I want you happy too. You deserve that.”
I found out she knew all about my history. Maxim had told her, and I said that was okay. I wanted her to know. We were about to be family, yeah, but Lettie and I really did have a friendship. I cared about her.
“But I will say calling you my stepmother would be weird so…”
“Oh, please God no ,” I said, waving my arms, and borderline cringing. She laughed, and I did too. I smiled. “We’re friends.”
She hugged me. “Closer, Sia Reynolds. Much closer.”
I felt the same way, and when I told her that, I think it choked us both up. No way would I ever be considered this girl’s stepmom, whether legal or otherwise. But friends? Great friends? I’d take that.
She rubbed my arms. “Good. Now that’s settled, let’s finish up and see about getting both of us dresses,” she stated before scanning a final vase. She winked. “Maybe we can convince my dad to go stalk someone else for a minute because he is not coming wedding dress shopping.”
Did she know her dad? I had a feeling she’d be hard-pressed to convince him to go somewhere else.
Even still, I decided to let her try, and I was happy for these moments we had together. I didn’t have a lot of people in my life I considered family. In fact, I had no one before her and Maxim. I’d been alone for so long, and I think I convinced myself that was okay. I think it had to be.
It was nice things no longer had to be that way.