“I’m a mess,” I tell him, my voice shaking a little at the admission.
“You aren’t—”
“I am. I’ve never held a job, I don’t have any money or clothes or even a place to live. I drink too much and I have a very bad habit of leaping before I look.”
“I love that habit of yours.”
“Well, of course you do, right now. It got you laid and will probably get you laid again before the night is over.” I give him a wink to let him know that I’m more than okay with that possibility. “But I want you to know that I’m working on all of that. I’ve got a job, one that I think I can be really good at. I’m working on making better decisions—”
“As long as one of those decisions is being with me, then I’m happy with whatever else you decide.”
“It is. If you’ll have me.”
“If I’ll have you? I just drove through the night because I don’t want to live without you. When are you going to understand that?”
Considering he’s the first one besides Chloe who has ever wanted me, it’s a hard thing for me to wrap my head around. But I’m willing to try, because I don’t want to live without him, either.
“As long as you know that I’m not always going to be this disaster. You don’t have to worry that you’ll have to fix me. I’m going to fix myself.”
“Do I look worried to you?” Miles asks as he once again pulls me against his hard chest. “Besides, you’re not the only one in this relationship who needs fixing.”
“Well, that’s true.”
He just laughs. This time when he lowers his mouth to mine, I don’t try to fight him. Instead I give myself up—to the moment, to him, and to the knowledge that just because we’re flawed, just because we’re broken, doesn’t mean we can’t be perfect together. And that is all that matters.
Epilogue
“You sure you want to do this? We can still make a run for it.”
I look up into Ethan’s wicked blue eyes and laugh, because we both know he’s kidding. Just like we both know that I’m as gone over Miles as he is over Chloe. “I wouldn’t get very far in these shoes.” I pull back the skirt of my dress to show off my white beaded Manolos with their six-inch heels. They were a gift from Miles, an answer to my concern about how awkward our height difference would look when he bent to kiss me in front of a huge room full of people.
“Good point,” Ethan agrees with a grin. “So I guess we’d better do this thing then, huh?”
“I guess so. It’s what people came to see, after all.”
He holds out his arm and I take it, letting him lead me to the big double doors at the front of the vestibule. Once we’re there, I get my first glimpse of Miles. He’s standing at the front of the crowd in a gorgeous black tuxedo that makes him look more like a model than an engineer, his eyes dancing and a huge smile on his face.
Butterflies are rioting in my stomach, but he looks as calm and as steady as he always does.
Of course.
Miles Girard may be a lot of things—brilliant, absent-minded, even a bit of an asshole when he’s working—but when it comes to me, he’s also steady as a rock. It’s something he’s proven over and over again as I’ve put my life back together these last eighteen months and something I know he’ll continue to prove for the rest of our lives.
“Feeling lucky?” Ethan asks as music swells through the church.
“Always.”
His eyes are on Chloe as he answers, “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
My best friend—and matron of honor—is also at the front of the church. She’s on the opposite side of the altar from Miles, though, in a deep purple gown that does gorgeous things for her complexion. She’s clutching Violet’s little hand as my adorable flower girl continues to throw rose petals by the fistful onto whatever surface she can reach. Chloe had wanted to have the nanny take Violet after her walk down the aisle, but I’d insisted she stand up at the altar with the rest of us.
This wedding is a family affair and Ethan, Chloe, and Violet are as much my family as Miles is going to be.
The thought fills me with a happiness I never thought I’d feel. The same happiness that permeates my whole life these days. The day Alex leaked that sex tape was the luckiest day of my life—I just didn’t know it at the time.
“Okay,” Ethan murmurs, giving my hand an encouraging squeeze. “Here we go.”
I nod. Here we go. I ignore the butterflies as I take my first step toward the rest of my life.