Chapter 29 Shep #2
A song popped into my mind then, and I had no idea why, but suddenly it felt like the right choice. If it was available.
Then again, I’d learned over the years that anything was possible for the right price.
“I’ll take care of this one,” I said, lifting Theo’s chin and kissing those sweet lips. “Why don’t you go wait for me?”
“You better not be running out on me. ’Cause I’d find you…”
I grinned and stole another kiss. “You’ll never have to.”
There was nothing I wanted more than to wake up to his handsome face day after day, year after year, and if being apart for a few days had told me anything, it was that.
He’d never have to search for me, because I’d always be there.
That was a promise I could make, and so easily I wondered how it had taken me so long to see it.
I followed Wilson to choose the music, speaking with him quietly so Theo wouldn’t overhear, and I had to respect the fact that the guy didn’t react when I told him what I wanted.
Maybe he’d just seen it all at this point, and my request wasn’t too over the top. After all, we weren’t inviting dead celebrity impersonators to officiate.
After finding what I wanted, Wilson led me to a door to wait before directing Theo around the corner out of view.
“I’ll just get the cameras set up and we’ll begin,” he said.
Those words, and the fact that I could no longer see Theo, had a ripple of emotion surging through me.
Holy shit. I was about to get married. In a few minutes, Theo would be my husband, and it was so wild to think about that my brain could barely comprehend it.
But it felt so right—the peace and contentment I felt, the pride in knowing who I would have walking beside me as my life partner.
The thrill of finally finding my person.
The man I knew would stand beside me, choose me over anything that came our way, the same way I would.
This was what it felt like to find the one.
And I was more than ready to marry Theodore Rinaldi.
The door in front of me opened, an older woman smiling at me as she gestured me inside.
The soft sounds of a violin echoed through the small chapel as I walked inside, buttoning my suit jacket and heading to the front of the altar, where Wilson waited.
It felt like our own private sanctuary, the light in the room coming from the stunning overhead chandelier that had been set to low and the many candles and tealights that were interspersed between elegant bouquets of red roses.
It was perfect. Passionate and bold, romantic and incredibly intimate.
My stomach flipped as I turned to face the aisle and realized Theo would be walking down it any second.
The anticipation was almost too much to take, my heartbeat kicking up so fast I hoped I wouldn’t pass out before he walked in.
Then he was there, filling the doorway, illuminated by the light behind him like the miracle he was—and holy hell, how did anyone do this with others watching?
It was hard enough to keep my composure as it was. But damn, Theo was the most handsome man I’d ever seen, and in minutes he was going to be mine.
I was so caught up in my future husband that when the music started over the speakers and the familiar rhythm played overhead, I’d forgotten the out-of-the-box decision I’d made on our wedding song.
I could only hope the slow smile that curved Theo’s lips meant he approved of my choice.
He shook his head, slipped a hand into one of his pockets, and began to stroll down the aisle with all the charm and swagger I knew him to possess to “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers.
Because really, who wouldn’t walk five hundred—or five thousand—miles to fall down at this man’s feet?
I grinned wider with every step he took, and when he finally reached me I took his hands in mine and drew him in close to me.
As the music faded out and Wilson moved up beside us, Theo rubbed his thumb over my fingers and winked at me.
“Shep and Theo, we are here tonight at your request because you have decided to join your lives together in holy matrimony.”
I raised my brows at Theo, who didn’t even flinch as he stared into my eyes. There wasn’t one ounce of hesitation there. He was as certain of me as I was of him. And nothing had felt more right in my life.
“Have you prepared anything you’d like to say?” Wilson asked, and honestly, it was a shock either of us heard him. It was as though we were in a bubble. Me and him. Him and me forever. Everyone else could leave us alone and we’d be happy right here.
“Shepard?”
Oh right, I needed to say something if I wanted this to end the way my fantasy did.
“We prepared something,” I said, my voice a little deeper than usual as it tried to get past my heart that was suddenly in my throat.
“Theo, we’ve known each other a long time now.
Through our families, then as…colleagues,” I remembered to say for the sake of outside ears.
“We’ve been friends for years. But over the last few months you stepped out of that box and into a brand-new space in my life, an empty space, one that was waiting for someone to fill it—my heart. ”
Theo’s eyes grew a little glassy as he blinked at me.
“I had no idea that the person that would finally complete me was standing right next to me all along. He just wasn’t in focus yet.
” I reached up to run my fingers down his stubbled cheek.
“But you are now. You are all that’s bright, all that’s light in my life.
You step into a room and every other person disappears out of it.
I always thought I knew what love was. But I had no idea until I fell in love with you. ”
“Damn.” He reached up to wipe at the corner of his eye, shaking his head slightly as he met my stare.
“That right there is why I’m in love with you.
I think I have the words to say, just like I thought I had my life planned out, but then you come along and I can’t remember what I thought was so great.
Because life with you is already so much better than I imagined, and considering what we’ve been through lately, that tells me all I need to know about our future. ”
He squeezed my fingers and smiled as a lone tear escaped down his cheek.
“I love that I can be myself with you. That you accept me, all of me, without question. That you know me well enough to know I’d love that fucking song you just played.”
I grinned. “It’s because I—” I stopped myself to add what I’d been practicing in my head. “Je t’aime.”
I’d probably butchered that, but it made Theo’s smile bigger, and that was all that mattered.
“You better,” he said, leaning in to kiss my lips before whispering, “Because I’m gonna be the man that grows old with you.”
“Damn right you are.”
He kissed me again, and to Wilson’s credit, he didn’t interrupt our moment to keep going until we were ready.
“Do you, Shepard, take Theodore as your husband and lifelong companion, for as long as you both shall live?”
Theo’s brow quirked ever so slightly, a mischievous spark still peeking out of those gorgeous blue eyes.
“I absolutely do,” I said.
“And do you, Theodore, take Shepard as your husband and lifelong companion, for as long as you both shall live?”
“Oui. I do.”
“Congratulations to you both. I now pronounce you husbands—” Wilson said, and before he could grant us whatever permission to kiss that was usually said, I’d grabbed hold of Theo and had his mouth under mine to seal our vows.
We’d done it. We’d really gone through with it, and as Theo pulled back and a cheeky smile lit up his handsome face, I realized that holy shit, I’d just married the Prince of Monaco—in Vegas.