Page 1 of Endless Love: Novella

1

COLTON

“We’d better get moving.” It was the third time I’d tried to remind my wife of a schedule we needed to keep this weekend. “I don’t feel like getting my eyes clawed out by Valentina,” I added.

“I’m sure it’s bad luck for a bride to claw out the eyes of one of the groomsmen,” Rose pointed out with a gentle laugh as she finished hanging up the last of the bridesmaids’ dresses, then stepped back with a satisfied smile.

As always, seeing her like that filled my heart until breathing was tough. Before her, I didn’t know what it meant to watch the woman I loved take so much pleasure and purpose from her work.

This wasn’t about work, though. She would wear one of those dresses in three days, as would my sister, Sienna. The other two gowns were concealed by opaque garment bags, being stored in Rose’s office until the night before the ceremony.

When I cast an interested look in that direction, Rose swatted me away. “You’re not allowed to look, remember?”

“I’m not the groom,” I reminded her. “Don’t worry. If either Miles or Evan wander in here to get a glimpse, I’ll keep themaway. Whatever it takes.” I gave a sarcastic salute, and my wife rolled her eyes.

“I’m just saying…” running a hand through her soft, blonde hair, she sighed, “… this would be stressful enough for everybody if it were just one wedding, but a double wedding? That’s double the chance for something to go wrong.”

“I don’t remember you being this nervous for our wedding.” I slid my arms around her waist and touched my nose to the top of her head. The floral fragrance of her shampoo made me smile. The scent of lilacs always left me thinking of her.

“That was different,” she insisted, snuggling into me. “Our wedding was just… the next natural thing to do. But this? The happiness of our friends and family hangs on this. Everything has to be perfect.”

“And it will be. It already is,” I reminded her, tightening my grip when she relaxed against me. “Everything is going perfectly. Even for a double wedding, it’s going off without a hitch.”

That didn’t mean there hadn’t been a fair share of drama. Valentina and Evan got engaged the day their daughter was born a little more than a year ago. They’d focused on building their life together, which meant raising their daughter and growing their businesses. It didn’t seem to matter to either of them when they were married.

It took Aria and Miles’ engagement six months later to light a fire under their asses. Aria had wanted to roll straight into wedding planning rather than wait, then soon, there were whispers of a double wedding. I shrugged it off as a joke for a while, but it was obvious the girls were serious.

Since then, there had been countless conversations, plans were made and then discarded, but finally, it was decided the twins would be married at my family’s Hamptons estate, with Mom and Aunt Evelyn in charge of the finer details. “I will not have you stressing out over planning your own wedding,” AuntEvelyn had told Valentina during a family get-together when the wedding planning was first underway. “You are going to sit back, relax as much as a bride can, and let somebody else handle the details for once. All you have to do is tell us what you want.”

Right, like getting two strong personalities to agree on anything would be easy. Somehow, they’d made it work, and now we were three short days away from what the media was referring to as the wedding of the decade. The daughters of Magnus Miller, entrepreneur and philanthropist, are getting hitched in grand style. It was the sort of event people salivated over that would give engaged girls and those looking for a ring plenty to inspire them.

Meaning Rose’s end had to be perfect to reflect the family brand. “Farrah Goldsmith couture will come out looking like the obvious choice for any discerning bride,” I predicted, kissing the top of my wife’s head. “Let’s get out of here. I’m sure Mom has been pulling her hair out, handling last-minute stuff while keeping an eye on Eloise.”

Just the mention of my daughter brought a smile to my face, even in the context of her being a holy terror when she felt like it. At eighteen months, she was a speed demon with the power to disappear at will and wind up exactly where she wasn’t supposed to be.

“I’ll only need a few seconds,” Rose assured me, flipping the lights off around the store and double-checking the lock on the door once we were outside. It was a clear, beautiful night, perfect for a clambake on the beach.

“Now, your only job this weekend is to have fun,” I reminded her after opening the passenger door of my Mustang. “Understood?”

“Ooh. Is that an order?” she asked with a flirtatious grin when sliding into the car and crossing one lean leg over theother. The hem of her pencil skirt crept up her thigh as she purred, “You know what it does to me when you get all growly and insistent.”

I leaned down, murmuring, “Tell me more. What does it do to you?” Because even though we were on our way to spend the evening with family, I couldn’t resist flirting with my wife.

“I’ll show you later.” She quickly kissed me, pulled the door closed, and left me laughing as I rounded the car.

There was no laughing when I took hold of her knee as I slipped behind the wheel, letting my fingers creep under her skirt’s hem. Two years of marriage, and it still took nothing to excite me. Already my thoughts were buzzing with the possibility of sneaking off with her sometime tonight. As nice as it would be to get together with the family ahead of everybody else descending on East Hampton, I would much rather have spent the night devouring every inch of the woman sitting beside me.

“You better behave yourself,” she teased, swatting my hand away. “Remember. We have to play nice in front of the grownups.”

The idea left me snickering as I pulled away from the store. “Please. You’ve seen the looks my parents still give each other when they think nobody’s watching.”

“Mine, too,” she pointed out, chuckling. “It’s nice, though. That will be us one day.”

She had a way of saying simple things like that and cracking my heart open to make more room. “You’re right,” I told her, took her hand again, and lifted it to my lips. There was no chance of life going any other way. I couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t need her the way I needed air.

There was nothing like making the turn onto the grounds of the family estate when it was full of light and life. The sprawling house gleamed like a jewel, all the lights on the first floor burning bright against the dusk that had begun to fall.

In three days, it would be transformed into something even more impressive than ever. There would be tents set up on the grounds and on the beach, lit by twinkling lights and torches before the reception, and the equivalent of an entire conservatory’s worth of flowers would be set up everywhere possible.

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