Well, kind of. Maybe he wasn’t nervous? This was Ward, after all. Then again, this was a big deal. A huge deal. Not the getting married to Ward part. That part was easy. He loved Ward.
Leo paced across the floor in front of the white arch decorated in snowy garland and white flowers. The reindeer sculptures sparkled like snow, and they made Leo smile. It really did look like a magical Winter Wonderland. Would Ward think so?
“What if he’s not ready? What if he was thinking this was going to happen later, like in months or years? What if he gets mad that I picked Christmas Eve? What if he gets upset that you all couldn’t be here in person.”
“Leo,” Bibi said from the monitor to his right.
Leo looked up at her, her smile making his heart happy.
“Ward is my brother, and trust me when I tell you, you don’t have anything to be worried about. He’s going to be so happy.”
“Agreed,” Saint said from one of the other monitors. “We’re talking about the guy who made my life flash before my eyes when you got hurt.”
Leo cringed. “Yeah, that’s probably not the best example.” King had sort of been at his most rage-y, which was a rare occurrence. Poor Saint.
Val chuckled and kissed Saint’s cheek. “I think what Saint is trying to say is that you mean the world to King. It’s going to be okay.”
Jay sniffed. He fanned his face. “Ugh, I’m already a mess, and the wedding hasn’t even started.”
Ryden opened his mouth, and Jay narrowed his gaze.
“Zip it, Marine.”
“How?” Ryden whispered. “He can’t even see me.”
Leo chuckled and shook his head. These two. Fitz needed to work his matchmaking magic on them before Jay ended up pushing Ryden off the St. Johns County Ocean Pier.
“Hey, kiddo.”
Leo turned to face his dad and sniffed. “Hi, Dad. I’m sorry you guys couldn’t be here in person,” he said, looking from his dad to his sister and her husband.
“We’re here,” Becky said, wiping a tear from her eye. “Doesn’t matter how. I can’t believe my baby brother’s about to get married.”
David chuckled and ran a hand over Becky’s head. “She’s been crying since you called to give us the news.”
Leo couldn’t help his soft laugh. His sister was not a crier, so it said a lot.
“You couldn’t have fallen in love with a better man,” his father said, making Leo teary all over again. “You two take care of each other.”
“We will,” Leo promised.
Clara hurried into the room from the back door. “They’re outside. Everyone quiet now.” She patted Leo’s back. “They just figured out none of them sent the texts.”
Oooh boy. “Good.” He’d worried someone would have said something back at the cabin and the jig would have been up, but they’d been too busy getting ready for what they believed were family photos at the Ice Castle.
When they’d arrived, Leo had snuck off at the first opportunity. Oh! He’d almost forgotten! He spun to Santa. “In my backpack is a little gift bag. There are two tiny figures. Can you pop those onto the top of the cake?”
“You got it.” Santa went off to do that, and Leo took his place in front of the arch. He took a quick look around. Had he forgotten anything? Nope. He even remembered the dog beds. There were four fluffy white dog beds in place of four chairs. Okay. Good. They were good.
As soon as Santa had placed the two figures on top of the white and blue three-tiered cake on the table by the wall, Leo took a deep breath and gave Clara a nod.
Here we go.
Was this really happening? Oh boy. Okay.Breathe.Just breathe.
Clara opened the door, and Leo smiled. To say Ward was surprised would be an understatement. But it was the tears that appeared in his beautiful man’s eyes and his warm laugh that sent Leo’s heart pounding.
The dogs ran, darting to him and making him laugh. Their tails wagged so hard their butts were flying. The guys called the dogs, and his furry friends each took a seat in a bed near their humans.
