The Love Series: Volume 3
“You definitely accomplished that.” I hurried closer, curious as to why he’d gone to such trouble to give me a present when today wasn’t a special occasion. “How come?”
He flicked the box open with his thumb and plucked a diamond contour band that was a perfect match for my engagement and wedding rings. “Because my girl deserves the memory of an all-out romantic proposal.”
“Oh my gosh.” I pressed trembling fingers against my lips as tears welled in my eyes.
He reached for my other hand and placed the ring on the tip of my finger. “Gracie, my one love. Will you do me the honor of marrying me again?”
“Yes,” I gasped.
He slid the ring into place and wrapped his arms around my thighs, lifting me as he stood and twirling me around in a circle. Then he slowly lowered me, kissing his way up my shoulder and neck as my body slid against his. When I was back on my feet, he claimed my lips in a deep kiss that left me breathless.
“You seem awfully happy that I said yes.” I peered up at him, tilting my head to the side. “I’m not sure how you didn’t realize I was a sure thing since I’m already your wife and the mother of your children.”
He grinned down at me, humor shining from his gray eyes. “It’s probably because I had a brief flashback in time when I referred to you as my girlfriend to Charlie’s guy right before you got here.”
My nose scrunched up as I asked, “Why’d you do that?”
“I needed them to get out of there and didn’t want to waste time explaining why I was proposing to my wife.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “And it worked because they were gone before you arrived.”
I couldn’t imagine that it would’ve taken very long to explain what he was doing, but I tried to avoid asking too many questions when guy logic was involved. “You’re such a boy.”
“You’re such a girl,” he retorted with a huge grin on his gorgeous face. “Which is why I know you’re going to love putting together a huge wedding where we can renew our vows with all of our family and friends surrounding us this time.”
Hudson had given me the perfect proposal, and I could hardly wait for us to have the wedding of my dreams. “I really will.”
* * *
Four months later
It was a good thing that Hudson and I were already married because our wedding was turning into a comedy of errors. On the way to the venue, the limo broke down, and my bridal party and I had to wait thirty minutes for a new car to rescue us. By the time we got there, my hair was a frazzled mess. Audrey called the hairdresser and resorted to shameless begging to get her to agree to come fix the style that had taken her almost an hour to do earlier.
Then we discovered that the florist had somehow mixed up the bouquets for my bridesmaids with the ones for another wedding across town. She was hurriedly trying to create three more for me since the other bridal party was smaller than mine. Luckily, the colors were similar enough for us to get away with using them because the other bride had apparently been reluctant to give up the gorgeous arrangements that were a match to my bouquet. I’d assured the florist that I was totally fine as long as she figured out a way for all of my bridesmaids to be holding flowers of some kind in time for us to walk down the aisle.
But the trouble hadn’t stopped there. The zipper on my dress broke, and my mom had to do a quick makeshift repair so that it would stay up. The clasp on my diamond bracelet wouldn’t catch until my dad came in and used one of the tools on his pocketknife to clamp the metal together. Then Kate, my daughter, pitched a fit and wouldn’t calm down until she saw her mommy. So my mom brought her to the bridal prep room when they should’ve been taking their place in the first row where she could’ve waved at her daddy who was already waiting for me.
By the time I calmed her down, we were running almost a full hour late. But I refused to allow anything to take away from my dream wedding day. I pasted a big grin on my face while my mom carried my daughter out of the room.
Audrey thrust a glass of champagne into my hand. “Here, you look like you could use this.”
Everyone giggled over how quickly I gulped down the drink. Charlie brought the bottle over and filled my glass again. “If you drink that fast enough, I just might be able to pour you a third before we have to go.”