Page 52 of Her Billionaire Hero
Warner shot Patton a what-the-hell look. “Hey, man. Don’t go giving Baldwyn any reasons to start freaking out. She’s a little late is all. She’s going to come down that aisle any minute. Sloan won’t flake on him.”
Flake on me?
I’d had no doubts. But now that the idea of Sloan changing her mind was brought up, I had many doubts. “She’s been nervous as hell about this. She’s changed her mind a hundred times about where she wanted the wedding, how many people she wanted here, and if she wanted a formal wedding at all. I thought she was settled on this small wedding with just a few of our friends here. But now I’m not so sure.”
Cohen cleared his throat. “Don’t let them get to you, bro. Sloan is definitely going to go through with this. She loves you.”
“Yeah,” I tried to calm myself down. “Yeah, she does.” But she hates being the center of attention. “I should’ve just taken her to Vegas to do this. I shouldn’t have told her that I wanted all you guys here for this. Maybe it’s too much for her. Man, I’ve messed it all up.”
Stone brough the preacher into the conversation, “Hey, preach, did the bride look nervous to you when you saw her?”
“She did.” He nodded as he looked at me. “But they’re always nervous. It’s a nerve-wracking time, getting married. Even if you do it in Vegas.”
“Yeah,” Patton agreed. “But at least when you do it in Vegas, you can get screaming drunk beforehand. That would make it easier. This is brutal. We’re all up here, waiting and waiting, while everyone just watches us squirm. I’m not going to do this. I can tell you that right now. If I ever get married, and that’s a big if, because I like the ladies—all the ladies—I’m gonna do it Vegas style.”
“Don’t you want to be able to remember when you said your vows, Patton?” I asked him. “That’s sort of an important memory. And the way you’re talking, you’ll be so shit-faced …” I looked at the preacher, who frowned at me. “Pardon my French.” I looked back at Patton as I went on, “You won’t recall a thing about the best day of your life.”
“Whoa, this is what you think is the best day of your life?” Stone asked with raised brows. “I thought that day when we went cliff diving was the best day of your life. You yelled that exact thing all the way down to the water.”
“Come on, you guys.” I couldn’t believe any of them. “The best day of any man’s life is when he gets married. Everyone knows that.”
“Well, there are better days,” the preacher interjected. “Like the day your children are born. Those are right up there too. And you’ll be just as nervous then as you are now—maybe even more so.”
Warner jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow as he stood next to me. “Babies, Baldwyn.” One brow shot up. “Yikes!”
The mention of babies made a lightning bolt shoot through my head. “Shit!”
“It’s not that bad,” the preacher said. “Kids are lots of fun, Baldwyn.”
“No, it’s not that.” I hadn’t meant that I hadn’t thought about having kids. “Sloan told me something last week.” I knew she didn’t want me saying anything about what she’d told me in confidence. So, I clamped my mouth shut.
All my bothers stared at me, waiting for me to say more. Cohen was the one to ask, “Well, what did she tell you?”
“I can’t say.” But I knew that had to be what was holding her up. “She must be worried that she won’t make me happy, or I’ll be disappointed in the future.”
“And why would that happen?” Stone asked.
Because she thinks she can’t have babies.Not that I was going to utter a word to anyone about that. “You know, people worry about disappointing other people all the time. And Sloan tends to worry a bit. But she’ll never disappoint me—not ever.”
“Well, don’t put her up on such a high pedestal,” the preacher said. “You will disappoint her, and she will disappoint you. We’re all only human. We all disappoint at one time of another.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. I just mean that if she’s worried about marrying me because of this thing we talked about, then she doesn’t need to worry because I will never be disappointed about that.” I knew I sounded looney, but I couldn’t breathe a word about what she’d told me.
Something moving at the other end of the room caught my eye and I saw Delia waiting at the other end of the aisle, holding a bouquet of pink and yellow flowers.
The music started and my brothers and I lined back up. My heart pounded so hard I couldn’t even hear the music.Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!
Delia moved so slowly, that at times I thought she must be walking backward. The yellow chiffon dress hit her at the ankles, and it swirled around her silver sandaled feet with each step she took. My eyes were glued to the swirling action as my heart felt like it was about to explode out of my chest.
Finally, she took her place on the right side of the altar and then I heard the music change from the light twinkling music they’d picked for the maid of honor to walk down the aisle to. Sloan had chosen a song instead of the usual Wedding March.
One lone guitar played softly as the female singer began the song. “It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart.”
Sloan hadn’t told me what song it was. And I hadn’t heard this song in years. But it summed up how she felt about me perfectly. And I felt the same way about her.You speak right to my heart too, baby.
Sloan still hadn’t come out yet and I found myself craning my neck to get a look at my bride as the singer went on. “Without saying a word, you can light up the dark.”
I just wanted Sloan to step out into the aisle and light up my world.
