Page 146 of Luck of the Draw

Skye’s breath hitched. “Baby, I’m so sorry.” Her voice was pinched, and he turned his head toward the door, more to make sure he could hear her than to try to see her. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are you about to run away from me after all, sweetheart?” he asked in a gentle teasing tone.

She scoffed and then sniffled. “No. But I…Brennan…” She dropped her voice to whisper-yell at him, “Are you crazy?”

He turned his face forward again, tilting his head back and leaning it against the wall. “Crazy about you.”

“Did you see how many people are out there?”

“I did. There’s a lot.”

“Yeah.” She paused. “What if I can’t do this?”

“Well, sweetheart.” His gaze drifted as he weighed his words and chose them carefully, but truthfully. “Honey, you can do anything. You have already proved that to everyone in the world who matters. You can do this, too. However, I know this isn’t the wedding you dreamed of. I know you never really had the opportunity to dream of what you wanted your wedding to be. And I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry that our wedding has to be a huge, frickin’ society ordeal with a bunch of people I barely know, and you don’t know at all. That’s one thing in my life that I don’t have control over the way I wish I did. But this wedding isn’t going to last for more than a few hours, and then I swear to God I’ll do a better job protecting you from things like this.”

“You haven’tnotprotected me. Not even with this. I understand these kinds of things are just part of who you are, just like all my crap is just part of who I am.” She paused for a long time, and Liza inched to her left slightly, tilting her head sideways like she was peeking at Skye. “I just wish I was someone who has any kind of business marching down the aisle in front of three hundred rich people at St. Louismother-fuckingCathedral.” She paused again. “Sorry. I know you’re not supposed to swear in a church. Especially not one like this, butJesus Chr—” She paused a third time. “Sorry.”

“Now, now, baby doll, Luke has already desecrated this place with his language all afternoon, so no need to worry about that. As far as marching down the aisle…” Brennan automatically glanced in the direction of the door; an involuntary search for her with his eyes. “Are you wearing the tiara?”

“Yes.”

“And you remember the night we met?”

“How could I forget?” There was a smile in her voice.

“And remember when I said I owned this town?”

Her sweet, musical laughter drifted around the corner and echoed slightly against the hard walls of the stone hallway, and he smiled. “Of course.”

“Well, that’s how nearly all three hundred of those people out there think of me. And they’re at this wedding because you’re marrying me. I sound like a really self-absorbed douchebag saying something like that, but unfortunately, that’s also part of the world I live in. So I want you to focus on that tiara, and hold your chin way up high, and march through those doors like you are the mother-fucking Queen of New Orleans. Because Idoown this town, baby, and you are my wife.” He lifted his free arm to glance at his watch. “In about twenty minutes, that is.”

Lowering his arm again, Brennan caught Liza silently snickering behind her hand while she stared at the exit door. Skye was quietly laughing behind the door again. And Brennan was just smiling like an idiot.

“But more than that, my love, you are the queen of my heart,” he continued. “I don’t get to say the vows I really want to say in there, so I’m going to say them now.” He paused and rested his head back against the wall again, closing his eyes. “I love you. You’ve given me your heart, and I promise I’ll never break it. I know you love old New Orleans jazz, so I promise to put a record on every morning so we can slow dance barefoot in the kitchen while we wait for the coffee to brew. I know you love bubblebaths, so I promise to draw you one every night and sit with you until the water gets cold. I know sometimes you have trouble falling asleep, so I promise to lay with you and stroke your hair until you feel nice and sleepy, and then I’ll snuggle up as close to you as I can get while we drift off together. I know you’ve been afraid a lot in your life, so—”

His words did a head-on collision with a sudden, massive boulder in his throat. For the first time in his life, Brennan had to pull out the handkerchief typically reserved for misty-eyed women in his midst. Dabbing his eyes, he saw Liza across from him, lips pinched tight while tears streamed down her cheeks. He lobbed the handkerchief underhanded through the air, and she pushed off the wall to catch it.

Brennan cleared his throat and absently watched Liza dry her eyes while he continued. “I promise to make sure the safest place in the world for you is in my arms. I promise to kiss you like you deserve as much as I can. I promise thatitwill feel like making love every time. I know you’re still working on a lot of this, so I know you’re going to be sad sometimes, so I promise to sit with you and hold you and kiss your head until you feel better again. Every day, I’m going to tell you how beautiful you are over and over and over, so many times that you’ll tell me to shut up, but I still won’t. At least, not until when you start worrying about gray hair and wrinkles, and then I’m just going to tell you even more than before.”

He paused, smiling to himself. Liza was snickering behind the handkerchief, and they caught each other’s gaze as he continued. “I’ve always had a lot of love to give, honey. But I’ve never had the opportunity to give it to anyone. And all I’ve ever really wanted in life is to find the person I was meant to give it to.” His heart gave a subtle pang at the sight of Liza’s trembling bottom lip, and he offered her a quick half smile. “And that’s you, baby girl. All this love that’s been trapped inside me belongs to you, and I promise you’re going to feel it every second for the rest of your life.Reallove, Skye. I promise to love you with real love. I promise to always be patient with you and kind to you, to protect you, trust you, believe in you and hope with you for every last one of your precious little heart’s desires. I promise to persevere with you through the hard times as much as the easy times.”

Liza was now full-on silent sobbing behind the handkerchief, and he could hear from the other side of the door Skye’s quiet sniffling.

“Bottom line is I promise to love you like you’re the best thing I’ll ever have the privilege of calling mine,” Brennan concluded, stroking his thumb across Skye’s hand. It was nice and warm now. “Because that’s what you are.”

The hall went silent other than the sound ofseveralwomen crying and sniffling away tears. Not just two.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Riley,” Frankie blubbered from inside the room. He could hear Ophelia utter a teary laugh, and one of his sisters chimed in with something else equal parts tears and laughter.

“I mean honestly, y’all,” Frankie went on, sounding like she’d moved away from the door and farther into the room. “I always wondered how he managed to sweet talk so many women into bed, but I guess he’s just got a fucking way with words.”

All the woman chortled—albeit tearfully—at that, and Brennan rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Frankie?”

“Sorry!” came her snarky retort from even farther away.

“Okay,well,” Skye cut in with a small, teary giggle. “You do have a way with words, but I don’t. But I like to read a lot—y’know…now that I’mallowedto—and I read a poem that I decided was about us.”

Ophelia stepped into the hall long enough to hand him a piece of paper, wink at him, and step back inside.

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