Page 121 of Love in Fine Print

I love you,

YHF

Ben had started signing things to me YHF, which stood for your husband forever.

The dress and my bestie weren’t the only surprises. There was also a glam team waiting in the bathroom.

“How did you…how did he…” I asked as tears filled my eyes, and I touched my dream gown.

“Ben ordered it the day after you turned down the partnership and quit the firm. That’s why I asked you to come in and be a form model for me, I needed your measurements,” Bailey explained.

“You’ve known about this for all those months?”

Bailey nodded as her smile spread from ear to ear. “Come on! We have to get you ready.”

I lowered down on a stool in the bathroom and the glam team started working their magic, Trevor showed up with mimosas.

“Did you know about this?” I asked him.

He tilted his head to the side. “Lovely, I know everything.”

Trevor put on music, and he and Bailey started dancing with Dolly as I sat thinking back to a year ago when I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to a man I was strongly attracted to but didn’t know or love, just so I could be considered for a partner position at a law firm. I couldn’t believe how different my life was.

I was married to a man I was madly in love with, living next door to my mom, running a matchmaking business with my best friend and life coach.

Ben hadn’t just made all my dreams come true; he’d made dreams I never knew I had come true.

54

BEN

I checkedmy watch and saw that it was twenty minutes past two. What if she wasn’t coming? What if she hated the thought of renewing our vows? What if this wasn’t the way she wanted to celebrate our first wedding anniversary?

From the second she’d signed the new contract I’d drawn up, I’d been planning this day. I wanted my wife to have the wedding of her dreams, and I hoped that this was it. But the fact that someone who considered ten minutes early late was not here yet was not a good sign.

I pulled out my phone to check and see if Bailey had sent any updates on an ETA, but I didn’t have any messages.

For some reason, I’d thought this would be romantic. I thought it would be personal. I thought it would be everything she’d dreamed of having when she got married, but maybe I was wrong.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I should have taken her to France or Greece or something. Or maybe she would have just preferred a small dinner at home. My mind was racing with all the things I could have and probably should have done when Declan’s hand landed on my shoulder.

“You okay, man?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“You seem more nervous today than you did a year ago.”

That’s because a year ago today wasn’t a surprise for my wife who hated surprises. She’d come a long way in the past year, but I still knew that she wasn’t a huge fan of things that weren’t planned. She loved a schedule. She loved to prepare. She loved to know what was happening. I hoped that this one would be the exception.

Just when I felt sweat begin to bead on the back of my neck despite the chilly fifty-five-degree weather, I saw Trevor walk into the park with Dolly, and I exhaled. He wore a big smile, and I knew that Olivia would be right behind him.

I glanced out at the people who were gathered to witness our vow renewal. Today was a much more intimate affair than the wedding a year ago. Instead of one hundred and fifty guests, there were eleven.

Trevor, of course, who lowered into a front-row seat beside Olivia’s mom, Bianca. Declan, who I’d asked to perform the ceremony since he loved being the center of attention and since it wasn’t a legal union, he didn’t have to be ordained by the state to do it. Charli who I’d invited not only because she was a close friend but also because she was a crucial part of our meet-cute. She’d treated Olivia, which I knew had given me major brownie points because I hadn’t insisted on her going to the hospital.

Side note: there was some serious tension between Charli and Declan, but neither would say uncle and admit their feelings for the other. At this point, I wasn’t sure if they ever would.

Uncle Mort and Miss B were there, as well as Birdie and Billie Bliss, who had set up a pagoda with fairy lights, and several rows of white folding chairs with a floral aisle between them.

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