Chapter 48
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
“ I can’t believe you’re doing a courthouse wedding,” Tilly grumbled, not for the first time. “You could have waited until after the baby. Done a vineyard or resort or something in the fall.”
I pressed my lips together, smoothing my lipstick, and looked at myself in the Multnomah County courthouse’s restroom mirror. “I’m happy.” The eyes that stared back at me sparkled. My vintage style little white dress with three-quarter sleeves was all lace and tulle. I smoothed a hand over the illusion neckline embellished with appliqués. “I love what we’re doing.”
“Yeah—sorry. I’m just, I don’t know, worried you’re shortchanging yourself.”
Turning, I took her by the shoulders. “You’re here. Maria will be any minute. Everyone else is in the hall—and more people will be at the dinner and party. That’s what matters to me. It fits—I’m too shy for a big wedding. Dominic doesn’t want to wait.”
She sighed. “Yeah. Actually, I like it—theoretically. Get the boring part over fast.” Frowning, she adjusted a flower in my hair. “Did you tell Mom?”
“I did.” I’d written a letter to our parents. “They weren’t invited. But I said I’d like to introduce their grandchild to them later this summer.”
Tilly nodded.
The bathroom door flung open, and Maria strode inside, her red dress swishing. She clasped her hands together and grinned. “This is so fun. Oh my God, you look like a 1940s starlet. I love it. Pippa was sad she had to miss it—so I told her about the pregnancy. We’re doing a baby shower.” She bent over and shook out my tea-length skirt. “All these people getting married on New Year’s Eve—who knew it was a thing?”
I handed them each a bridesmaid bouquet. “Thank you for being here. You both look beautiful in red.”
We’d bought them dresses and birthstone jewelry as bridesmaids’ gifts. Dominic had bought gifts for his attendants. Ophelia and his cousin Sebastien rounded out our official witnesses to four. Ophelia was better, still pale but determined to witness the ceremony. My older sister was there with her wife, and Sebastien’s fiancée came along with his parents. Raven, Beau, Autumn, Phoebe, two of my cousins, and the Roberts were also there for the ceremony.
“Are you kidding?” Maria pinched her cheeks in the mirror. “You guys are putting us up in bomb hotel rooms, taking us to a ten-course meal at his vegan restaurant, and hosting a bangin’ party in Dominic’s club. This is fabulous.”
“I hope it’s fun.”
“It already is.” Maria looked me over. “You’re stunning. The photographer is waiting for us. Ready?”
“Yes,” I said. “I am.”
The courthouse was a modern seventeen-story building with towering windows that filled the interior with light. Large-scale artwork enlivened the interior spaces between the three-story concrete columns, steel and glass grand staircase, and walls of colored stone. I took a deep breath, the gravity of what I was about to do settling on my shoulders.
It was too hasty—I knew it was. Dominic, dressed in a gorgeous silver-gray tuxedo, smiled when I met him in front of the doors to the courthouse, and my heart could have lifted me off the ground. He had devoted himself to our future together in a way that had taken me completely off guard.
“You are so beautiful,” he said close to my ear. “Inside and out.”
I was too breathless to speak. We walked into the formal courtroom, a smiling gray-haired judge waiting for us. My chest tight, I tried to focus on taking in air and blowing it out. Then I was turning to face Dominic and he was clasping my hands.
“I, Dominic Lockwood, take you, Kelsey Owen, to be my wife. Before these witnesses, I vow to love you and care for you all of our days. I accept you with your faults and your strengths, even as I offer myself with my faults and my strengths. As bell hooks best expressed, love is about will, intention and action. I choose a life of love with you.”
Somehow, I said my words, my voice too soft. They were simple because I’d always loved the poetry of the old lines: to have and to hold, for better or worse, for richer, for poorer, to love and to cherish, from this day forward . The vows filled me up, even as I struggled under their weight—here, at last, was the belonging I’d wanted all my life. Dominic squeezed my hands and then we kissed while our small crowd cheered.
It started snowing while the photographer shot portraits of us outside. A flock of geese flew by overhead. Dominic hustled me over to our limo, both of us laughing and shaking snowflakes off our jackets.
Alone with him at last, I put my head on his shoulder. “Are you happy?” I asked. “I keep worrying that this has all been too fast…”
He kissed my temple. “I am happy, bluebird. I found my mate.”
“Even though we’re living in what used to be my townhouse?”
“Yours again now. We’ll find our home, or build it. In the meantime, it’s probably good for me to rough it a bit. Live simply. I’d even sleep in a crowded campground for you, darling. If I had to.”
I sighed. “That is romantic.”
“And you, are you happy? When I saw you in your wedding dress, I knew I’d do anything for you. Tell me what you want, and I’ll find it.”
A lump in my throat, I sat up and looked into dark eyes that had become warm and often enlivened by a sneaky and sardonic humor. “You’ve already given me everything I want.” The path of our relationship had even helped me to like myself again. I’d had to be brave and risk losing him. That nagging negative voice in my head had softened—I was at peace with myself. Finally.
He shook his head, smiling. “You make it too easy to spoil you.”