Dating the Don (Savage Crime Lords #1)

EXTENDED EPILOGUE

Cristiano

Five Months Later

Everyone gets cold feet.

Annalisa’s voice in my head isn’t exactly what I want to be dwelling on at a moment like this. My mother and father were perhaps the most in love and perfect-for-one-another couple that I’ve ever had the fortune of witnessing in my life. It seems wholly and utterly impossible that either would have been nervous on their wedding day. Still, she had felt that it was proper to lecture me good and long as I had been getting ready for today. Just in case, she had said. She had straightened my black tie and been on her way. The mending of our relationship has been a rocky road. I know that my mother only meant well as she wants the best for me and Ada, but it was hard to forgive her for the things that she had said to Maeve. Even longer for Maeve to understand that it had been for the greater good and because of her promise to her mother, not because she actually felt that there was anything undeserving about my bride.

There’s nobody more perfect for me than her, and everybody invited today knows it.

I’m not nervous. I’m excited. The anticipation itself is making me feel almost anxious. By nature, I’m not a very fidgety person. Yet, I find myself crossing and shifting my hands in front of my body, shifting my weight from foot to foot in anticipation as I stand here at the altar.

In fact, the only thing that worries me at all is Maeve suddenly deciding to come to her senses and realizing that a life with me means that she will always be in danger. Perhaps that’s why Ada keeps poking her head around the open doors at the other end of the aisle and winking at me. She must know how my irrational fear of abandonment is going to make Maeve run away from this wedding before it even happens.

My mother and Ada were the ones who wanted the large traditional wedding. After the lengthy church ceremony, we will all be heading to a reception that’s going to carry well into the wee hours of the morning. I’m happy to do it so long as Maeve gets her night of celebration, but I would have been just as happy with just the two of us and the preacher. She’s all I’m ever going to need.

In less than a few months, she’s become my right arm. She’s my pillar of strength. Even the men have accepted her as if she has always been there. I feel like there’s absolutely nothing I can’t overcome with her by my side.

Unlike now.

I don’t like standing up here alone. I want her here. I want her where I can touch her, feel her energy near me. I want to tether her soul to mine for the rest of our lives and I want to do it now. I’m ready.

Every inch of this chapel has her touch to it. The area is adorned with vibrantly colored flowers that are arranged in elegant bundles. Maeve declared that everything about the customary white gown was too “sterile” and that she didn’t want to do anything with it other than wear it. I had never seen bridesmaid dresses designed in such vibrant colors as she and Ada had. Sure, elegant, but oh so very Maeve.

Once more, my attention is drawn to the same burst of color coming from the opposite side of the aisle. Ada gives me a thumbs up, poking her head out of the open passage and giving me one more wink. That must have also been her cue to the small quartet to begin the wedding processional. All the guests stand up at once and turn to face the same spot that has captured my attention.

Then she’s there, in all of her stunning glory.

I think my knees go weak. I reach a hand out to grasp Al’s shoulder where he stands directly beside me to keep myself upright. We exchange a glance as I nervously smile. Godzilla could crash into the building and I don’t think I would notice. I couldn’t tear my eyes from her stunning beauty for anything in the world. Even the music seems to fade like I’m struck with tunnel vision for Maeve and only Maeve. My wife. My partner. My everything.

I knew that her wedding dress would be breathtaking. Everything that Maeve makes is. But, she hasn’t made too many things for herself so I was not prepared to be so gobsmacked.

My feet move down the steps of the altar to meet her before I can stop myself. I turn and hold my arm out to her to escort her up the last few steps. It is such a surreal thing to do. My mother had offered to walk her down the aisle on her mother’s behalf, but Maeve had insisted that she needed to do it by herself. She needed to be the one to take the steps into this next phase of her life on her own and standing tall. We all respected her wishes.

At least I am trying to.

At least I manage not to put my hands all over her the moment she is within reach because that’s what I really want to do. I want to throw her over my shoulder like a damned caveman and start our wedding night right this very second.

Maeve smirks up at me like she knows exactly what I’m picturing.

Now I can’t help but wonder what she’s got on under that perfect dress. I hope it’s nothing.

I need to calm down before I embarrass myself in front of this whole congregation. I swallow thickly and take her hands in mine, turning to face one another as the ceremony begins.

I think that I’ve always dreamt about this moment. Even when we were much younger, I imagined that she would be my wife. I had hoped against hope, despite always having the very distinct feeling that she was wholly and utterly off limits. I never imagined that I could be lucky enough to have her love me too. I’ve always supported her from behind the scenes. I would have done so for the rest of her life no matter what happened.

But this?

A reality better than my wildest dreams as she repeats after the preacher that she is taking me as her husband, in sickness and health, for better or worse, till death do us part.