Page 19 of The Marriage Mission

"Just keep her on mute," said Jacqui.

"Right. I love you, Jacqui-Bear."

"Love you too, Jule-bug."

Once Jules left the room, Jacqui winced. She knew it was coming. And come it did. Bunny rounded on her.

"Spill it."

"Spill what?"

"I know you were with my sister the other day. With your husband-to-be. Birdy wouldn't talk. Something about client confidentiality. Which means you're her client. What are you three cooking up?"

Jacqui could keep things from her sisters, but she couldn't keep anything from Bunny. The two of them were a couple of peas in a pod. Bunny was also the eldest sister. She'd understand.

"It's just temporary so?—"

"So that you'll get your inheritance."

Jacqui nodded.

Bunny cursed under her breath. "So you signed a prenup? Is that why you were at Birdy's?"

Jacqui nodded.

"Okay, at least you're being smart about this insanity. But are you sure? About him?"

Jacqui's thoughts drifted to Noah. The memory of their conversation in Birdy’s office came back to her, clear and poignant. His words had touched something deep within her, revealing layers of connection and care she hadn’t dared to acknowledge until that moment. He hadn't wanted anything from her. She'd never experienced that before. Except with Bunny.

"It's going to be all right. If not, Birdy will rake him over the coals and then hand him off to you."

That seemed to satisfy her best friend. "All right, but if you need an out, you give me a signal, and I'll object so loud and fast it'll make his head spin."

"I love you."

"Love you, too. You insane woman."

"I'm getting married."

"You look beautiful."

Jacqui looked at herself in the mirror again. She did look beautiful. She wondered what Noah would think. Then she immediately shut that kind of thinking down.

A gentle knock on the door pulled her from her reverie. "Jacqui, are you ready?" Jules' voice, tinged with excitement, filtered through the door.

As Jacqui stepped through the softly lit corridor leading to the small, flower-adorned arch where Noah waited, her mind wandered back to the days of her childhood, to the love she had observed between her parents. It had been a gentle, steadfast sort of love, one that filled the corners of her childhood home with laughter and warmth. Her father’s eyes would light up whenever her mother walked into the room, and her mother’s laughter was a frequent, comforting sound that echoed through the hallways.

That warmth had dimmed far too soon, extinguished by a sudden, tragic twist of fate when her mother passed away from an aggressive form of cancer. The shock had barely worn off when, less than a year later, her father followed, his heart seemingly unable to bear the weight of his grief. Jacqui had always believed he'd held on just long enough to ensure she was old enough to take custody of Jules and Jami, to keep them together as a family.

The losses had seeded a deep wariness about love in Jacqui’s heart. To her, love was a dangerous, debilitating force that could tear you apart from the inside, leaving nothing but sorrow in its wake. This wariness had shaped her into a woman who viewed relationships as transactions, safeguards against loneliness rather than genuine emotional connections. Today, her impending marriage to Noah was framed in her mind as a strategic move for financial stability, not a leap of faith in love.

As she approached the sun-drenched patio where the ceremony was set, her thoughts were interrupted by her first glimpse of Noah waiting for her. He was clad in his military uniform. The white suit highlighted the broad set of his shoulders and the quiet strength that emanated from his stance. Seeing him like this—so handsome, so ready, so hers—made her heart perform a traitorous leap. For a moment, Jacqui’s carefully constructed defenses wavered, and warmth seeped through the cracks of her guarded heart.

ChapterThirteen

Noah stood at the altar, his best man Fish beside him, both decked out in their dress whites that fit slightly tighter after these last couple of years. Neither man had grown a dad bod. Instead, civilian life seemed to have made them bigger. Probably all that sleep they were getting these days. There was something to be said about rest days in the adrenaline and exercise cycles.

The town church was quaint. Beams of sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows. The beams cast colorful patterns on the polished wooden pews where their closest friends and family sat. Well, Jacqui's closest friends and family. Noah only knew one soul in here.

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