Page 187 of The Slayer
Luis walked Chuito’s mother down the aisle, because Nova had the good grace not to offer. She looked beautiful. Her dark hair was upswept with tiny white flowers decorating it, and she wore a blue dress that brought out her light eyes.
The sunshine made it a little too obvious that her gaze was glassy, which made Chuito amend his statement that he never wanted to see her cry again. He just never thought she would have something nice to cry about.
Neto’s daughter was the flower girl, looking very excited about it despite Neto and his wife, who were both clearly stressed about their four-year-old possibly ruining the ceremony, but she did fine, and Chuito’s mother swept her up and sat Maria on her lap as if she needed the distraction.
Then Katie stepped out of the house with a big smile on her face, wearing a pink dress that was low cut and showed off all her best assets.
A fact Marcos didn’t miss or fail to comment on.
“Coño.” He groaned next to Chuito. “I hadn’t seen her dress. Look at her—”
“No.” Chuito cut him off with a shake of his head. “Just no.”
“I never get tired of looking at them,” Marcos admitted. “Marrying her is like the gift that keeps on giving.”
Chuito actually laughed, because hearing how much Marcos still enjoyed being married was sort of nice. Then Alaine showed up at the top of the porch with Tino by her side, and Chuito felt like he’d lost the ability to breathe for a moment.
“Coño.”
Chuito didn’t even hear the preacher cough, because all he could do was stare at Alaine. Her hair was swept up, with the same tiny white flowers standing out in the red curls. Her dress wasn’t big and poufy like he’d expected. Instead it clung to her in all the right places without being too tight. It flowed with her, soft and feminine, making her look more gorgeous than he could honestly process.
Her shoulders were bare, and she didn’t wear any sort of necklace.
She didn’t need it.
Alaine never needed adornments to be beautiful.
Their future was unpredictable at best, but for the moment, Chuito felt like the luckiest man in the world, and he couldn’t imagine that changing anytime soon.
Because despite his flaws, his commitments, all the darkness and danger…this woman loved him enough to spend eternity with him.
Chuito didn’t see the Italians sitting on Alaine’s side, or the Boricuas on his.
All he saw was Alaine, walking down the aisle, with Tino by her side because he was the one they’d both decided had earned the privilege to give her away. Even if Tino had argued the exact opposite, saying he was the last one who should give her away, he was there with a knowing look on his face as he smiled at Chuito.
When they reached the gazebo, the preacher asked, “Who gives this woman away?”
And Tino said, “I do.”
Alaine smiled and turned to place a kiss on Tino’s cheek, leaving the stain of lipstick. Then she stepped forward, and Chuito reached out for her, grasping her wrist with the excuse of helping her, despite the fact that she was holding her bouquet, because he couldn’t resist touching her.
“I love you, mami,” he whispered, knowing that everyone could probably hear his emotions, because they were right on the surface. “You’re beautiful.”
She smiled, her light eyes watery as she said, “I love you too.”
The preacher coughed, and Chuito turned to him and apologized, “Perdón.”
“It’s fine.” The preacher gave him a smile as Alaine handed her bouquet to Katie.
Then Chuito grabbed both her hands, not really sure if this was part of the ten-minute rehearsal Nova had forced on them last night, but he didn’t care. He just needed to touch her.
Chuito thought he said his vows right.
Alaine did fantastic with hers. She was great with things like that, even if tears rolled down her cheeks as she said them.
When Marcos handed Chuito the rings, he had to turn to the preacher and say, “I have to give her two rings.”
So the preacher amended Chuito’s vows, allowing him to say, “With these rings, I thee wed.”
