Yes, Ash was pretty sure that asking Zoey to marry him was the best thing he’d done in years.
Except they hadn’t really moved on any further than agreeing to get married in the first place. Oh, he’d bought her a ring—a vintage sapphire and diamond ring, set in white gold, that he’d spotted in an antique shop on his way home one night and just known, without any hesitation at all, was meant to be on Zoey’s finger. From the way her face had lit up as he’d presented it to her over Chinese takeaway that night, he’d been right.
But that was as far as they’d got. And time was moving on. If they wanted to get married before the baby came, they’d needed to get moving. Venues were probably already booked up, and dresses took forever to alter, he seemed to remember. Zoey would know what they needed to do. She was the wedding expert, after all—not that he planned to mention that to her.
Putting the lid on the pot to let the chicken simmer in the sauce, he crossed over to perch on the arm of the sofa Zoey was sitting on.
‘Hey,’ he said softly, drawing her attention away from the catalogue. ‘I was thinking. We should start making plans—for the wedding, I mean.’
She gave a small shrug and smiled at him. ‘I guess. I figured we’d just see what dates the registry office had free and go with that?’
Ash blinked. He’d been invited to five of Zoey’s non-weddings so far—well, four if you discounted Harry, since the invitations were never actually posted for that one. Not one of them had taken place at a registry office. There’d been two in churches, one in a pagoda by a stream, one in some swanky hotel in central London, then the one out in the Indian Ocean that had brought them here.
The one thing they all had in common was, whoever she was intending to marry, Zoey planned to put on a show. A big display of love and happiness for everyone to share in. Not because she was trying to show off—he knew that wasn’t her style. Just because she wanted her big day to be a big deal.
In her mind, it was always the start of the rest of her life. ‘And I want to start it off with a bang!’ she’d told him once, when he’d asked about the fireworks on a village green somewhere, outside the perfect stone church.
But this time, marrying him, she was planning on the registry office? That didn’t feel right.
‘I thought you might want something a little...fancier?’ he said tentatively. ‘I mean, you know the money isn’t a problem. And if this is the one wedding you actually go through with, I want it to be everything that you want.’
Her smile softened as she looked at him fondly. ‘Ash, I don’t need fancier. I don’t need the show this time. A registry office wedding will be more than fine.’
He almost didn’t want to ask, but he couldn’t stop himself. ‘Why? Why is this time so different?’
Zoey laughed at that, her face bright. ‘Really? Ash, everything is different this time. I mean, I’m pregnant, you’ve been married before, and we’re doing this because we’re building a family together. It’s practical, not romantic. We’re not even sleeping in the same bedroom, for heaven’s sake. So why make a big deal out of the wedding?’
Her words stung, even as he realised the truth of them. ‘That doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Meaningful.’
She shrugged again. ‘And it’ll still be meaningful in a registry office, whether I’m wearing a white dress or not. Is that the chicken?’
The sound of the kitchen timer broke through his thoughts at last, and he dashed back to the kitchen to rescue dinner. But he couldn’t shake her words.
It’s practical, not romantic.
Yes, it was practical. But couldn’t it be both? Why did practical have to mean they stripped all the romance away?
He wanted this wedding day to be a fresh start for both of them. A new life together. Not just a piece of paperwork they needed to make the legalities and practicalities of being a family more straightforward.
We’re not even sleeping in the same bedroom.
Ash dropped the wooden spoon onto the counter as those words drifted through his mind. Was that the problem?
He’d been holding back because he thought that was the right thing to do. She was pregnant, exhausted and nauseous a lot of the time. Plus they’d decided to be friends—but that was before they’d also decided to get married. He hadn’t wanted to push the issue of what their physical romantic relationship might be when they were married, choosing to leave it up to her to define that when she felt ready.