Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 89238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
I’m not saying no to that.
But there is something I have to do first.
Grams and I do a little shopping, heading to a certain jewelry store on Fillmore Street, owned by Rachel. It doesn’t take long for me to find the perfect ring, bright and sparkling, like my wife.
“So this is her third engagement ring?” Grams asks when we leave.
“Yup.”
“You should make it a thing. Give her one each year.”
“Don’t tempt me. I will.”
She laughs. “Don’t I know it.”
Elodie’s at work, so I head to the store, and it’s teeming with customers. I go right up to the counter, like I did the first day I asked her out, with the blue velvet box in my hand.
“What can I do for you, handsome?” she asks.
I get down on one knee, flip open the box, and say, “Marry me again. So all our friends and family can come to our wedding.”
When she races around the counter, saying yes, yes, yes, the whole store erupts into cheers.
A few days later, my brother and his partner return from their trip and take us out to dinner. Zane walks into the restaurant with a shopping bag from what looks like a men’s store in London, Maddox by his side. When we make eye contact, he thrusts the bag at me. “Figured you’d need a wardrobe upgrade for all the dates you’ll be taking your wife on.” Then he turns to Elodie and says, “Thank you for making my brother happy.”
“Anytime.”
One day in February, we invite all our friends and family to an intimate ceremony in the courtyard of The Escape near where we had our first kiss, and then our first official date. Maybe we did this whole romance a little out of order. Or a lot.
But as I wait at the fountain in the courtyard, my brother beside me, watching my wife walk up the steps while a string quartet plays “It Had to Be You,” and Amanda and Eliza by her side, I’m pretty sure everything worked out exactly as it was meant to.
I say I do to Elodie for a second time, then I kiss my bride.