Chapter 43
One year later . . .
Dove
A knock sounded on the door, followed by Deacon’s voice. “Dove?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t open up yet,” he said quickly. “I need you to hide in the corner so I can use the bathroom.”
I folded my arms and arched a brow at the closed door. “You need me to hide in the corner so you can go pee?”
“I don’t want to see you in your wedding dress before the ceremony. It’s bad luck,” he voiced through the door.
“It’s just a plain, white sundress. You’ve seen me wear it before,” I chastised. I’d dolled up the outfit a little with jewelry and heels. Hannah had done my makeup and braided my hair off my face with delicate purple flowers, but still, at its heart, the dress was just a simple beach dress and I kind of loved that. “You don’t get to see the fancy dress until we’re in Lake Como,” I added, my stomach flipping at the thought of donning a six-figure custom wedding gown.
Deacon and I had decided to have two weddings—a small, informal one in the backyard of the Sea Pearl and a massive, star-studded wedding in Lake Como. The Lake Como wedding had been my idea after People magazine had offered us $2 million for the exclusive, all of the proceeds of which would go to the Simon Lachlan Conservation Fund. We’d also asked all our guests to make donations in lieu of gifts, and the funds raised would support over a decade of future conservation efforts.
The spotlight didn’t scare me the way it used to. Now we had over a dozen critically endangered breeding programs in the works and had successfully reintroduced five species that were extinct in the wild. If people were going to throw money at us for seeing my fiancé’s ridiculously handsome face, then we’d take it and turn it into something amazing. And we would do so much more together, Deacon and I.
I was pulled from my conservation daydreams when I realized Deacon was still waiting for me to hide so he could use the toilet. “Why don’t you use the bathroom downstairs?”
“Because between us, we have four nieces and nephews who are potty training and they seem to be in a constant rotating line for the bathroom,” he replied.
I chuckled. “You can come in. I don’t mind you seeing me in this dress. It’s not the real dress.”
“It is the real dress,” Deacon countered, still not opening the door. “This is the real wedding.”
“I know it is,” I replied. “Just come in before you pee yourself.”
The door opened and Deacon walked in with a hand over his eyes. His other one waved wildly in front of him, feeling his way around our bed toward the bathroom.
“You can’t be serious.” My shoulders shook with laughter. “And you call me stubborn.”
Deacon hit his toe on the bedframe and, with a loud expletive, went tumbling headfirst into the carpet. Luckily, he had quick reflexes, and his hands shot out to catch him before he ended up with a carpet-burned face in all our wedding photos. He and I both exploded into laugher as I rushed over to him. He finally opened his eyes to look up at me, his hand lifting to cover his heart. “Hello, future wife.”
“Hello, future husband,” I replied as he adjusted the purple flowers woven into my hair.
“You look”—he shook his head, his eyes crinkling as he smiled—“so heartbreakingly beautiful.”
“You don’t look too bad yourself,” I replied with a wink as I helped him to stand.
My eyes dropped to a patch of orange fur across the bottom of his jacket. “We’re going to need a lint roller.” I laughed, picking clumps of cat hair off him. “I thought we agreed no Rook cuddles in our wedding outfits?” I wasn’t about to tell him I’d already broken that agreement twice today.
“He was purring so loudly. It’s like he knew today was special. I couldn’t say no to that little face!” Deacon exclaimed, like saying no to our fur baby was an impossible feat . . .. To be fair, Rook Valestrider did have the cutest cat face of any cat ever to exist in the history of the world, and I was definitely not in the least bit biased about it.
Despite all of the things that Cody had once told him, Deacon’s fans actually loved that he was an absolute goofball of a cat dad. If anything, his fandom had grown since announcing our relationship. There were quite a few fan edits of him singing his new love songs to me in the VIP section and even more compilations of him talking about Rook and me in interviews. Apparently, Hollywood heartthrobs didn’t have to be heartbreakers anymore. Thank you, Gen Z.
Deacon reached for his phone and started flicking through his photos. “Simon is carrying Rook around inside his shirt and Rook’s making biscuits on him. It’s so cute?—”
“Sorry, Dove,” Lark called, busting in through the door with her daughter, Lila, and a sheepish Finch in tow. The three of them stopped short when they saw us. “Oh.”
“Are you two having a pre-wedding quickie? Frankie and I did the same thing?—”
“Finch!” Lark snapped, covering Lila’s ears.
“She’s not even three. She doesn’t know what we’re saying,” Finch said, waving Lark away.
“We were not having a quickie.” I rolled my eyes and nudged Deacon toward the bathroom door. “Go pee before there’s a line.”
“Right,” Deacon said, as if suddenly remembering he was busting, and dashed the rest of the way to the door.
I turned to my sisters. “ Why are the three of you wet?”
Lark and Lila’s floral summer dresses were caked in sand, the wet fabric clinging to their bodies. Meanwhile, Finch’s gray linen button-down and slacks were similarly drenched.
“Lila wanted to go swimming,” Finch said with a shrug, as if that were an excuse.
“And?” Lark added, folding her arms tightly across her chest.
Finch rolled her eyes. “And when Lars came to scold us, I pushed her in too.”
I guffawed. “Hence the patent Lark Lachlan death stare.”
Lark forced a tight smile at Finch. “I can’t wait to repay the favor when Frankie pops.”
I let out a low whistle. “You’re in for it then, Finch.”
Finch waved the comment away. “You’ll be back in New Zealand by then.”
Lark walked over and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “I have accomplices everywhere.”
“It’s true,” I replied with a laugh. “Do you want to borrow a dress?”
“Please,” Lark said with relief. “Luckily, we packed about twenty changes of clothes for Lila so she’s sorted. I just need to hose her down in your shower, if that’s okay?”
“Of course.” I waved to the bathroom.
We heard Hannah’s voice calling up the stairs, “The guests are all getting seated in the backyard and the band’s ready! You ready to get married or what?”
“One minute!” I called down.
Deacon emerged from the bathroom. “I’ll go slow them down so the impromptu swimmers can change.” He re-buttoned his blazer, getting one step to the door before making a quick U-turn and storming toward me. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and kissed me with a fervency that had heat flooding my veins. “I can’t wait to marry you,” he murmured across my lips before quickly sweeping out the door.
“Damn,” Finch said, gaping at the open doorway. “I can see why he’s a three-time Sexiest Man Alive winner.”
“Keep it in your pants,” Lark snarked.
“Keep it in your pants,” Lila echoed, and Lark cringed, pointing at Finch. “I’m going to tell Logan that you taught her that.”
“Okay, go shower quickly.” I shooed Lark into the bathroom. “I’m kind of eager to marry the love of my life today.”
“About time,” Finch said with a laugh as Lark and Lila disappeared into the bathroom. Finch ambled over to the bed.
“Don’t!” I warned before she sat her sandy, wet ass on my bed.
“Right, sorry. I actually have something for you,” she said, fishing in her trouser pocket. “I found it in the back of our old dresser at Mom’s house and I thought you might want it.”
She fished out a folded photograph with thumb tack holes in the top corners and passed it to me. I opened it to reveal a photo of twelve-year-old Deacon and me sitting on an emergency room gurney, my hand wrapped in gauze. Dad sat with his arms wrapped around both of us, all three of us smiling and giving thumbs-ups to the camera.
Tears instantly welled in my eyes. “He made the nurse take the photo,” I said, getting choked up. “He said I’d want to remember it one day.”
“That sounds like him. He would’ve loved today,” Finch murmured, her voice getting thick too. “He’d be so proud of you, for the person you’ve become, and since he’s not here to say it, I’m saying it for him.”
“Dammit, now I’m crying.” I swept a finger under my eyes.
I reached out to hug her and Finch stepped back. “You don’t want to ruin your wedding dress.”
“Just hug me already,” I demanded, and she closed the distance, wrapping me up in a tight hug. Lark emerged from the bathroom, and soon she and Lila were wrapped around us too.
“Your dress,” Lark said with a laugh.
“It’s perfect,” I whispered, finally releasing them. I tucked the photograph into the pocket of my sundress and looked at my sisters. “Think he can manage being part of the Lachlan family?”
“He’s been a part of the family for a long, long time,” Lark said with a shrug. “Now you’re just making it official.”
“That doesn’t mean we won’t give him hell though,” Finch added, and the three of us laughed.
I grinned. “I’d expect nothing less.”
I led the way, dress wet and sandy and perfect as we navigated the narrow steps of the seaside house and out toward the backyard. Taking a deep breath of salty sea air, I put my hand in my pocket, closing my fingers around the photograph. I stepped out into the sunlight as Rusty Sky Reverie played me down the makeshift driftwood aisle. Our families gathered, only enough room to stand. As I took the first step, my eyes found Deacon’s and hooked. He wore the biggest smile, his eyes misting with tears as he lifted his hand and placed it on the coin at the center of his chest.