Her logic was airtight, though. If she had to be there, I might as well get fitted for a tux. Equal suffering, apparently.
Except for the fact that she wasn’t suffering. She was thriving while I was the one dying a slow, silent death.
Because nothing, absolutely nothing in the entire world, had prepared me for Aurelia stepping out of that dressing room in a wedding dress. I’d seen Jameson and Callum’s faces when their brides had appeared at the tops of their respective aisles.
That moment ofWhat. The. Actual. Wow.
Honestly, I’d thought they exaggerated the whole experience a bit. Especially Callum, since I happened to know he’d paid Maisie a little visit prior to the ceremony, but either way, he’d looked at her like in that moment, it’d officially dawned on him that she was becoming his and he honestly hadn’t been able to believe it.
Jameson had looked like he was about to either burst into tears, or rip the dress clean off her body and take her right there in the aisle, or stab the eyes out of every other man in attendance. It had been a confusing expression.
So had Callum’s.
I hadn’t gotten it at all, but when Aurelia came out of the dressing in the first gown, a sleek, pearl-white dress that fitted her in ways that made my throat dry, I barely managed to keep it together. I was supposed to be standing still while the in-house tailor fussed with my measurements in a private area of the boutique, but I forgot that he had sharp objects in his hands and nearly made him stab me in the balls with a pin.
“What do you think?” she asked, giving me a quick spin that made her hair brush her shoulders, her eyes twinkling with excitement. “It’s not bad, right?”
I made a strangled noise that was supposed to have been an opinion, but she disappeared back behind the curtain too quickly, calling to me as she went. “I’m not sure it’s the right one, though. I like it, but it’s not quite what I had in mind.”
“Uh-huh,” I managed, mentally trying to brace myself for dress number two, but it didn’t work.
Not even a little bit.
As soon as she came out wearing a dress that was much softer, with layers of tulle floating around her like a cloud, all I could think washoly fuck. We’re actually getting married.
In just a few days, she’d be walking toward me wearing a dress like that, and she’d be wearing it to vow that she’d spendthe rest of her life with me. I was halfway convinced I had died and gone to heaven.
She propped her hands on her hips, studying herself critically in the mirror. “What’s the yard like at your place?” she asked distractedly, turning from one side to the other with the skirt swishing around her legs. She finally looked up, caught me staring like a fish out of water, and giggled. “You’re supposed to be trying on jackets.”
“Mentally, I am,” I said, but then I blinked hard and tried to refocus. “What yard?”
She widened her eyes at me in the reflection of the mirror she was standing in front of, as exasperated as she was amused, it seemed. “The yard at the house where we’re getting married, my dear goldfish. That’s what we’re doing here. Getting what we need to tie the knot. Have you forgotten about all that?”
I swallowed hard, desperately trying to get it together. “Right. The yard. You mean the grounds of the Westwood Estate, right?”
“Yes,” she said slowly, her head tilting like she was genuinely concerned about my health.
Right now, though, so was I.
I finally managed to grab hold of a coherent thought, suddenly remembering that we’d agreed to go over the plans for the wedding while we were doing this. “Uh, the gardens should be fine for pictures and stuff. Provided your heels aren’t too high. If it rains the night before, we might have a problem. The grass right outside my house should be fine for the ceremony itself.”
Like all my brothers, I had my own separate home on the estate.
She glanced down at the soft tulle again. “Okay, well, I don’t think this is the one either, then.”
Between dresses, once she’d slipped back behind the curtain, we talked through the plan a little more. We had decided to have our wedding at my place on my family’s estate. I rarely actually used it, vastly preferring my townhouse in the city proper, but it was the perfect spot. I’d already hired a crew to clean, decorate, and make it look like something worthy of her, though. It would be her first time seeing it. I wanted to impress her.
She’d suggested white roses and twinkling lights. I’d told her I’d string the whole forest around it in Christmas lights if that was what she wanted. Well, not me personally, but those were the instructions I’d given to the crew insofar as the landscaping decorations were concerned. Flowers and lights.
“You’re sure your mom isn’t going to mind us stealing her holiday thunder, right?” Aurelia asked from behind the curtain.
I shook my head. “Christmas Day is CC’s time to shine. We can have Christmas Eve.”
Our plan entailed inviting only our nearest and dearest to our first official party together, and when they arrived, we would surprise them with our wedding instead. Technically, it was the first official party we’d be hosting together, so it wasn’t even a lie. More of a partial truth with a pinch of deception.
When she emerged again, the third dress nearly undid me. I thanked the heavens the tailor had moved away from my crotch area. Aurelia’s dress was all delicate lace, detailed with shimmering crystals and bits of something else that was sparkly. It accentuated her figure in ways that made it very clear I wasn’t getting through this with my sanity intact.
“Is this too much?” she asked lightly, turning toward the mirror.
