Kallum, Winnie, and the babies left with some good wishes and promises to see Teddy inside, and then Angel turned back to Teddy’s tuxedo, where he’d been making final adjustments to the bow tie under Luca’s exacting supervision.
“Oh Dad, you look great,” Astrid said, coming over to the corner of the greenhouse that had become the groom’s section of the mansion. Steph was somewhere upstairs, right this minute, and ahh, what if she’d changed her mind?
What if she realized that Teddy wasn’t fit to hand her the reading glasses she still insisted she didn’t need?
What if she’d remembered that they had two divorces between them and decided that they weren’t any good at this commitment thing and was already on a plane back to LA?
“He’s spiraling,” Astrid said. “Dad. Dad, look at me.”
Astrid pressed cool hands on either side of his face while Angel continued to pluck at his bow tie. Teddy tried to focus. On Astrid’s round face with its medusa piercing and big eyes, on Angel’s stylish glasses and reassuring smile. How he’d managed to create two of the sweetest, coolest, smartest human beings on the planet, he’d never understood. He didn’t even know how to work his air fryer.
“I’m being a bad dad,” Teddy mumbled. “Kids aren’t supposed to have to comfort their parents.”
“You’re a great dad,” Astrid said firmly. “And Steph is great. Even Mom thinks the two of you are going to last forever. You know she wouldn’t have bothered to come otherwise.”
That was true. Teddy’s ex was very pragmatic, and she managed her calendar with ruthless efficiency. The fact that she was present for the wedding boded well for his chances with Steph.
“Okay,” Teddy said. His voice was thick with unwanted tears. Tears because he loved these kids, these giant kids who’d become so wise out of nowhere. And because he loved Steph. And because trying to hold on to anything good was so, so scary. “Okay.”
Astrid gave him a squeeze right as the tiny phone version of Luca gave Angel his bow tie seal of approval.
“Oh!” Luca said, just as Angel was about to hang up. “Don’t forget to comb his mustache! I willnothave that thing distracting from a Luca original tuxedo, thank you very much.”
For the second year in a row, the Hope Channel team had transformed the mansion’s ballroom into a winter wonderland. Christmas trees filled the corners, wreaths hung on the tall windows, and candles flickered everywhere. In the white chairs in front of him, Teddy could see all the people who had helped bring him to this moment.
Isaac and Sunny, canoodling on the piano bench in the corner, while Sunny waved frantically at Teddy like a kid waving to her dad at a dance recital.
Kallum and Winnie, sitting in the back for easy baby-related departures, Winnie holding both twins on her lap as Grace clambered over Kallum like a jungle gym.
And Bee and Nolan, the two chaotic reasons Teddy had met Steph at all. They smiled back at him while Bee played with Nolan’s hair under its formal beanie.
And there was everyone else—Pearl Purkiss, the screenwriter forDuke the HallsandSanta, Babyand so much else, and Gretchen Young, her girlfriend, who’d directed several of his movies now. Addison Hayes and Krysta Morton, Addison sitting with her legs slung over Krysta’s lap. Jack Hart and a handsome young man whom Teddy heard was a veterinarian who apparently had decided it would just be easier to move in with Jack and check on Miss Crumpets every day. Tall Ron and Denise, and then three tiny ladies with short, immaculately permed hair were sitting in the front, hands tucked primly over their handbags. Isaac’s Cat Advisory Text Thread, who’d somehow—truly, Teddy still did not understand how—turned into Teddy’s Wedding Advisory Panel.
Across the room, Isaac put his hands to the keys and started playing the piano, a soft and lovely Christmas carol that matched the green and gold decorations of the ballroom perfectly. The crowd went quiet, and then Angel appeared in the doorway with Steph’s willowy daughter on his arm. Angel winked at Teddy as they reached the end of the white-carpeted aisle, and then helped Steph’s daughter find her place before coming to stand behind his dad.
Kallum scooped up Grace and took her to the ballroom’s entryway, where she was finally given her flowers, and then with unabashed glee, she started flinging handfuls of flower petals atthe guests. Kallum crouch-walked behind her to try to aim her hand at the ground, and the result was little heaps of petals all along the aisle, and it was perfect.
When Grace reached Teddy, she solemnly handed him the empty basket.
“Thank you,” he told her.
She nodded and then climbed onto Kallum’s foot like it was her trusty steed ready to carry her out of town. Kallum did the preschooler-on-leg walk back to his seat.
And then the music changed.
Teddy’s heart flipped, floated, refused to settle in his chest. He wanted this more than anything, and yet reaching out to welcome it felt like reaching right into a fire. What if he got burned? What if he burnedher? How could he love someone so much and be trusted with their love in return and not hopelessly fuck it up?
But all his thoughts and fears fled the moment Steph appeared in the doorway, her mother on her arm to walk her down the aisle, and Luca lurking with narrowed eyes behind her to make sure his creation reached the front of the room without incident.
Like Teddy, Steph was wearing a Luca original, hers a structured ivory gown tailored as ruthlessly as she red-lined contracts. She wore her signature pearls, her lips and fingernails were crimson, and her hair was smoothed back into a flawless ponytail. Everything about her bridal attire showcased the beautiful, cutthroat Steph D’Arezzo the world knew... everything except for the cape she wore. It was long and sheer and full and soft, and it fluttered around her as she walked toward him. It was like the part of her that only Teddy got to see—the part that was secretly romantic, secretly indulgent, secretly vulnerable. Somehow, Luca had been able to illustrateall of the complex, contradictory perfection of the woman Teddy loved in one outfit.
And when Steph reached him and he kissed his future mother-in-law on the cheek, and then took his future wife’s hands, his heart went from floating to full, as full as this ballroom filled with people he loved and who loved one another.
He couldn’t help it, he dropped a kiss onto Steph’s knuckles, and then behind them, Astrid cleared her throat. She was holding a leather folio in her hands, because she was taking her job as the officiant very seriously. Even though Teddy was tall enough to see into the folio and notice that she’d doodled dinosaurs and cute ghosts all over her ceremony notes.
“Dearly beloved,” Astrid started, her voice filling the room. “We are gathered here today...”
Two hours later, and the mansion was a zoo.
