Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 302

Chapter 293: Wedding One

SEDONA

Nick came into my bedroom at seven-fifteen on the morning of my wedding.

Still in his pyjamas. He looked bright. His hair stuck to one side. I noticed that he was holding something like he’d forgotten it was in his hand.

“Drew checked the weather on three different apps and reported that there was good weather.”

“Tell Drew thank you,” I said. ‘

“Already did,” Nick said. “He wrote it in his notebook. For the record.”

He sat on the edge of my bed and ate his toast, calm and easy, completely himself. I watched him and thought about the first time I’d gotten him back,how careful he’d been then, how braced, like he was always waiting for something to go wrong. He didn’t look like that anymore. He just looked like a kid eating breakfast on a good morning.

That was everything.

The ceremony was in the garden at the Preston house.

My father had one request, and he made it quietly and completely: the Japanese maple had to be visible from where we stood. He’d planted it the year I was born. Thirty-three years old now, its leaves are deep red in October. Exactly the colour it turned every autumn without fail.

“It’s part of the family. It should be there.”

I didn’t argue.

Nick walked me down the aisle as agreed. He’d asked to do it himself, weeks before. Sitting close to me with the careful, serious expression he used for important requests.

“Not half. The whole thing just to me weeks ago.”

“Yes,” I said. “Exactly right.”

He wore a dark suit he’d picked himself. The tie had clearly been chosen with Drew’s input, even though Nick wouldn’t fully admit this. He walked beside me hand in hand. Straight-backed and steady. Like he understood exactly what this moment was and intended to honour it properly.

Drew stood at the front with the rings.

He’d been practicing for months, using a tennis ball instead of a pillow because, as he explained very seriously, the weight distribution was more accurate. He held the actual cushion now with the focused concentration of someone determined not to let months of practice go to waste.

Lake was in the third row with Cameron and Lucian.

He had agreed to stay in his seat. What he had not agreed to was staying quiet.

“That’s the Japanese maple,” he told Cameron, about four minutes into the ceremony. “Grandpa Parker planted it when Sedona was born. It’s thirty-three years old.”

“I know,” Cameron said quietly,

“It’s an Acer palm-shaped. Its red colour is from the anthocyanin in the leaves. I looked it up.”

“Lake,” Lucian said, very gently.

“I’m being educational,” Lake said, a little quieter. “There’s à difference.”

Nobody minded. Lake had been to enough family events by now that his running commentary had stopped being a disruption and started being part of what the day sounded like. Warm. A little loud. Completely ours.

Dante’s vows were simple.

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