“Se agapo,” she murmured against my lips.
I cupped her face in my hands. “Se agapo, Dede.”
The November sun was warm enough that we didn’t need jackets, but there was a breeze coming off the Aegean that kept things comfortable. An archway of olive branches and white roses stood at the edge of the terrace, with rows of chairs on either side facing the water. The florist had outdone herself.
We waited just inside the villa’s French doors, out of sight from the guests. Music swelled, something modern with a deep bass line, and that was our cue.
Tia shifted Yianna to one arm and linked the other through mine. “Ready, Mom?”
Deanna in her wedding dress...
I nodded, not trusting my voice just yet.
We stepped into view, and I could feel every eye turn toward us. But mine went straight to Aris at the end of the aisle.
He stood beneath the archway in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit, and the look on his face when he saw me made my breath catch. Like I was the only person in the world. Like I’d always been the only person in the world.
Santo stood next to his father, holding a sleeping Perry. He was grinning at Tia as we approached.
My gaze swept the guests as we walked. Domna and Irida sat in the front row next to Mama Nettie and Kandi, dabbing at their eyes. Konstantin held baby TJ while Kayla sat beside him. The rest of the Christakis family filled the rows, along with friends from Montrose who’d made the trip.
Kevin sat three rows back on the aisle, and his expression was everything I didn’t know I needed to see. His mouth had actually fallen open. His eyes moved from my dress to Aris waiting at the altar, then back to me.
It had been Aris’s idea to invite Kevin and the rest of Tia’s paternal family to Greece for Thanksgiving weekend. It was a generous gesture on the surface.
In reality, it was a calculated move by a man who never forgot a slight. Kevin had kissed me the previous Thanksgiving, and Aris had been slow-burning about it ever since.
I should have been appalled by the pettiness of it. Instead, I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling as I walked past Kevin’s row.
It didn’t work. By the time I reached the archway, I wasn’t even trying.
When we reached the archway, Tia kissed my cheek and whispered, “I love you, Mom.”
My throat tightened. We’d returned to our pre-Greece mother-daughter relationship, though I hovered less now, trusting her tomake the best decisions for her life and coming to me whenever she needed my advice. That closeness we’d rebuilt meant everything, especially on a day like this.
“Love you too, baby.”
Tia stepped aside to take her place beside me, and I turned to face Aris fully.
He reached for my hands. “You are the most beautiful bride, yes.”
I smiled in response.
The priest began speaking in English, translating key portions into Greek. I barely heard any of it. All I could focus on was Aris’s face, the way his thumbs stroked across my knuckles, and the feeling that after everything we’d been through, we’d made it to this moment.
“Deanna,” the officiant said, pulling me back to the present. “Do you take Aristides to be your husband, to love and cherish, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, as long as you both shall live?”
I didn’t hesitate. “I do.”
“And Aristides, do you take Deanna to be your wife, to love and cherish, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” Aris said, his voice carrying across the terrace.
Santo stepped forward with the rings, and Aris slid mine onto my finger. Then I took his ring and slid it onto his.
“By the power vested in me,” the priest announced, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Aris didn’t wait for the words to fully leave the man’s mouth. He drew me close and kissed me deeply, thoroughly.
