Page 99 of She's Like the Wind
The fountain trickled in the background.
Somewhere, someone played a trumpet.
We were standing beneath a wrought-iron balconywhen a woman passing by said appreciatively to Naomi, “You look gorgeous, honey.”
Naomi laughed and waved her off, but something about it stuck in my chest.
I had planned to do this in Paris—when we finally got there, which was going to berealsoon. We hadn’t been able to go this past year because we both got busy.
But somehow, right now felt like the right time.
I turned to her.
Heart pounding.
Palms suddenly damp.
“Baby.” I took her hand. “I didn’t get you a ring.”
She tilted her head. “Huh?”
“I didn’t get you a ring,” I repeated, stepping in close, “because you’re not something I want to own.”
Her eyes flickered—soft, knowing.
“But if you want forever,” I added, “I’ll give you all I’ve got.”
She didn’t look surprised. She smiled. “I wanted forever with you before you even believed in it.”
Then she reached into her clutch and pulled out a small velvet box.
My heart stopped. “What is that?”
She laughed, that deep, knowing laugh I’d missed every day I was too stupid to stay and make her mine. “We both seem to have had the same idea. Open it.”
Inside was a platinum tie clip in the shape of the Lafitte House.
I lifted it out, turned it over in my palm, andengraved on the back was a tiny sketch, barely recognizable, of the blueprint for the Lafitte House.
This was the first job site I took her to. The first time I saw her fall a little bit in love with what I did. Maybe with me.
“So, you never forget the foundation we started on,” she explained softly.
She put it on my lapel. I stroked it with shaky fingers, and then kissed her in the courtyard, under a sky full of ghosts and music and second chances.
CHAPTER 36
Naomi
We didn’t want a big wedding.
We wanted big gumbo pots, and bigger laughs, and the kind of music that makes your feet move before your brain can argue.
I wanted a Cajun one like Lisette’s, but I told Gage there was no way he was wearing a Saints jersey under his suit.
Some things were just wrong!
So, we got married in Lou and Della’s backyard, under a pecan tree strung with paper lanterns and tiny lights that blinked like fireflies.
