Marry Me Now: An Arranged Marriage Collection

Jasper laughs. “It’s fine, Sofia.”

Sofia extends a hand to me. “I never thought I’d get a chance to use this dress. It doesn’t fit me, now I’m starting to show, but… well, come and take a look, Dee.”

The next day is a whirlwind. Word slowly makes its way through the armada of cousins, and together, Jasper’s family pulls together everything almost as smoothly as though this had been the plan the entire time. I know it’s a whirlwind, but somehow, after wearing his engagement ring practically since the day we met—first the fake one and now the real one—and after calling him my husband for days, it doesn’t feel rushed or hurried to be getting married to him now.

It feels like it has been inevitable all along. Like somehow, deep down, from the moment we first met, this was always going to turn into the real deal.

And having Jasper’s entire extended family in town for it only makes it more perfect.

The resort is accommodating, too. Originally the fourth night we were here was supposed to be a big family dinner, for which Jasper’s father rented the ballroom banquet hall in the resort.

Now, however, when that fourth night arrives, I peer through a crack in the door into a room transformed. Jasper’s little cousins, Sofia’s kids and Chloe’s twins, helped tie together bouquets of flowers, which dangle from wall sconces and decorate the backs of the chairs Jasper’s uncles lined up in neat, orderly rows. With the chandeliers lit, and candles all around the front of the room, where the hotel helped set up a little dais with an archway above it, the place looks like the kind of wedding hall you’d plan for months to get perfect.

Instead, in what seems to be our luck, we just stumbled into it by accident.

I turn back around for one last double-check with Sofia.

“You look stunning,” she tells me, smiling wide. She’s in a jaunty little green summer dress, ruched and lovely on her. She’ll stand next to me at the altar, as my maid of honor, and Jasper’s father will be his best man.

“Thank you again for the loan,” I say, taking another spin in her gown. It’s a beautiful white off-the-shoulder dress, knee length and made from silk that feels amazing against my skin. It could pass for a cocktail gown dress in summer, but on me now, paired with the bright blue heels we borrowed from another cousin and with a veil one of Jasper’s aunts dug out of her suitcase pinned into my hair, it looks like exactly the type of wedding gown I would have chosen for myself. Subtle, not too over-the-top, but beautiful in an understated way.

“Of course. But actually…” Sofia smiles at me. “I shouldn’t be the one walking with you right now.”

A frown-line appears between my brows. “What do you mean?”

“Jasper sent one last little surprise…” Sofia steps aside, crosses to the far end of the little alcove where I’m waiting, and sticks her head around the corner. “Come on in.”

Melissa steps into the room, a huge, ear-splitting grin on her face, dressed in a gorgeous blue dress that compliments my dress perfectly.

“Holy shit!” My jaw drops. Before I can even properly react, she’s launched herself across the room and wrapped her arms around me tight. “How did… how’d you even…?”

“Jasper found me on your Facebook page,” she admits into my shoulder. “He noticed we’re listed as sisters on there.”

I laugh into her hair. An old joke, that sibling listing, which we put up years ago. Because Melissa’s my only real family left, and always has been. “But…”

“He emailed me last night. Explained everything. Offered to book me a flight here, all expenses paid. How could I say no to Greece?” She smirks up at me. “Oh, and I guess my best friend’s wedding, that too.”

I laugh and hug her again. “I can’t believe him.”

“You’ve got a real keeper, Dee.” She squeezes my shoulder. “I’m so happy for you. You ready to do this thing for real?”

I glance from Melissa to Sofia, beaming. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” The three of us turn together to face the aisle before us.

Through the gap in the door, I can see the whole family assembled. And there, at the head of the dais, waiting for me beside his cousin Alexander, who it turns out has one of those online minister degrees we’d joked about in our fake wedding ceremony, is Jasper. He’s wearing a tux and black tie, and with his hair falling across one eye, the way it always does, and his beard freshly shaved, he looks like he could be modeling for GQ right now.

Is that really the man I’m about to marry? Part of me has to resist the urge to pinch myself and make sure I’m not dreaming.

“Go get him, girl,” Melissa murmurs, right before she and Sofia open the doors to stride up the aisle before me.

Right on cue. Somewhere in the distance, Jasper’s aunt Alyssa strikes a cord on the piano. A song I recognize begins to play, and I have to smile to myself at the choice. Jasper picked a song we listened to on our first getaway in Newholme, at a little beachside cafe with a string quartet playing for coins out on the boardwalk outside.

To that, I walk through the double doors and into the next chapter of my life.

17

Jasper

I hold Dee in my arms and spin her across the floor. With the makeshift wedding room we put together now cleared away into dance floors and buffet tables, we have plenty of space to move. I spin her through the air, away from me and then back again, catching her in my arms and dipping her backward over my arm a little.

Her eyes flash when I pull her upright again, and I’m struck all over at how lucky I am. How impossibly perfect Dee is.

“Are you enjoying yourself, Mrs. Quint?” I murmur as I pull her flush against me for the tail end of our first dance. The music fades out, a new song strikes up, and my cousins, aunts and uncles flood the dance floor in pairs and gaggles.

“More than you could possibly know, Mr. Quint,” she whispers against my ear. The whisper of her lips against my skin drives me wild. All I can think about is tonight, what I plan to do to her once I get her back to our suite, all alone in my arms.

My wife.

A few days ago I was already calling her that, and it sounded so right, despite the fact that it was all a sham. Now… Now it just feels natural. Normal.

Perfect.

“I don’t know about that,” I murmur in response, pausing to nip playfully at the soft spot on her neck just below her ear. I savor the faint sigh of desire she makes. “I think I have a pretty good idea how enjoyable this whole day has been. And every day, in fact, since the day I first met you.”

She turns her gorgeous smile on me then, and I can honestly say I have never been happier in my entire life.

We eat, drink and dance the night away with my family. We listen to my father’s embarrassing toast about how he can’t wait for the grandkids. Melissa, Dee’s best friend, who I mistook for her sister online, but who’s turned out to be an even more perfect addition to this wedding, delivers an equally embarrassing toast about Dee’s exploits. Dee dabs her teary eyes through my mother’s toast about how overwhelmed with gratitude she is about being able to witness our special day and be here with us for it.

Sofia cracks us all up with story after story of the crazy shit I did when we were growing up together. Then Alex starts in on more embarrassing details about my childhood, and I finally have to intervene and save the day.

“Dee,” I say, when I take the microphone from—well, more like wrestle it off of—Alex. “When I first met you, I knew there was something different about you. Something remarkable.” I hold her gaze, hope she hears the note of humility in my tone. I do still feel bad about what made us pull her file out of the pile, what made Greg recommend her to me. But not that bad, because if Greg hadn’t picked Dee to be my fake wife, we wouldn’t be here today. I’d never have met her, never have gotten to know her vivacious personality and everything else that makes her impossible to forget.

“Every day since then,” I continue, “you’ve proven to me, over and over, that I wa

s right that first day. You’re the perfect match for me. The perfect wife. And I promise you now, I will strive to be the perfect husband for you, in turn, in all the days left to come. Thank you for shaking up my life, Dee.” I flash her a secret little smile. “And for forcing me out of my abject bachelorhood.”

Laughter fills the room.