Page 142 of The Publicity Stunt
He rests his forehead against mine. “Well, those princes never had Holly Moore as their sister-in-law.”
“What does Holly have to do with this?”
“Your evil sister is out there terrorizing the whole village. I had to wait a whole fifteen minutes before she finally decided to go to the bathroom, hence freeing up this corridor.”
“Why? What is she doing?”
A loud and commanding voice booms through the corridor on the other side of the door.
“I swear to God, if you don’t find my sister in the next ten minutes, I’m going to make each one of you walk into New York traffic and livestream it!”
Reluctantly I look back at Parker. He arches an eyebrow. “You were saying?”
Shaking my head, I stand on my toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Can we get to business now?” I say. “There’s too much dust in this closet and if it ruins my wedding dress, I’ll give Holly a spare key to our apartment.”
“Terrifying,” he teases.
I pull out the tattered piece of paper stuffed between my phone and its casing.
This was wholly and completely Parker’s idea: reciting our wedding vows to each other in a cramped storage closet one hour before the ceremony. He said it was so that neither of us cries when the photographer is busy zooming into our faces. No one wants red, puffy eyes framed on their wall. But I’m sure that wasn’t the only reason. He and I, we share a heart, yes, but we also share the same stupid sentimental brain. He wants this moment to be solely ours, just as much as I do. The twinkle in his eyes or the look on my face the first time we hear each other’s vows, that mental picture in all its glory, tears included, is meant for April and Parker alone.
“You go first,” I tell him.
“Uh, no?” he counters. “What if your vows are better than mine? I need to make mental edits accordingly.”
I roll my eyes and unfold the sheet of paper. “You’re more of a bride than I’ll ever be, Hayden Parker.” My eyes skim over the words staring back at me. The thousands of memories we’ve shared all crammed into this single paragraph.
I tip my chin up to meet his warm hazel eyes. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted a love worthy of movie screens. The way Harry loved Sally, Noah loved Allie, or Jack loved Rose. For the longest time, that’s what I wanted. I wanted someone, anyone, to look at me like I was magic. But as I grew older, I started to realize that maybe it was wrong to expect so much from a life that wasn’t fictional. And I thought maybe I should start lowering my standards to meet those of the real world.” I smile at him. “But then you came into my life. You did everything right without ever meaning to. You did more than just look at me like I was magic. You made me believe in magic. So thank you for never letting me lower my standards. Thank you for rising to meet them. Thank you for trusting me to meet yours. I promise to try my best. But most of all, thank you for giving me my very own love story. Thank you for loving me like Rogue loves Gambit.”
I realize that his hand is still looped around my waist. Squeezing lightly. His eyes are misty and there’s that smile again. That Hayden Parker smile, that only ever comes out for me.
“April …” he whispers.
My own shaky voice cuts him off. “No. If you say something sappy right now, I’m going to cry and never, ever stop. So just say your stupid vows and let’s get this over with. I have a wedding to get to.”
A laugh bubbles out of him and I can’t wait to make him laugh for the rest of our lives. He kisses the top of my head. “I love you.”
A few tears roll down my cheeks and he wipes them off with his thumb. “Vows, please,” I mumble.
Parker takes out a much more neatly folded piece of paper from the pocket of his blazer. His chest rises and falls, then he puts the same folded piece back into his pocket. “I don’t need that. I have new vows.”
“What?”
He folds his hands in front of him. “For the longest time, I mocked the existence of the kind of love you believed in. It didn’t mean I didn’t believe in love, I just had my own definition. But in none of those definitions did I ever think I’d meet the love of my life when I was a kid. And I definitely didn’t know the first time I heard you tell me your name that I’d be repeating it for the rest of my life.”
“April, you once asked me if we’d still be friends if my mom hadn’t forced me to go to that party all those years back. At the time I didn’t have much of a reasoning. Just a feeling. A hunch. But today I have a concrete answer for you.”
He lightly holds the tips of my fingers with his and smiles, his eyes sweeping across my face. “I could’ve been living on a whole other continent. A whole other planet. Even a universe apart and I still would’ve come to find you. Sometimes I close my eyes and try to go back in time to find the exact moment I fell in love with you. But I never can. And I think it’s because I was in love with you even before I knew you. Meeting you was just putting a face to the feeling I’d been harboring for you. You’re my person, April Moore. My entire soul.”
He brings his hands up to cradle my face. “And my best friend till the very end. So my place is wherever you are. Lead the way and I’ll go anywhere you want me to.” He presses his lips tenderly against mine, full of promise and conviction. “You’re my sanctuary.”
My heart swells up, threatening to burst out of my chest.
“Plus you’re, like, really fucking pretty,” he adds.
I glance up at him, eyes prickling with nascent tears. “You stupid, gorgeous asshole.”
He wraps his arms around me, pulling me into a half-hug, laughing into my hair.
