The Billionaire Takes a Bride (Billionaires and Bridesmaids, #3)(82)

They’d gone with different types of gowns for the bridesmaids, all with a similar hem length. As soon as Audrey had started to lose her baby weight, Greer had swelled up with her own baby. So now Greer was in an empire-waisted dress, Audrey was in a corseted one to cinch her post-baby body, Taylor was in an asymmetric Grecian-style dress, Kat had a boatneck with a low waist, Bronte was in a strapless gown with a sweetheart neckline, and Chelsea’s gown had a scoop top and sheer lace back. She wasn’t the most girly of girls, but even she thought the dress was beautiful and princessy. And she’d seen Gretchen’s dress, and it was utterly stunning. She couldn’t wait for the groom to see his bride on the wedding day.

“Sooo, did you hear?” Gretchen asked Chelsea. “I made another match in the wedding party.” She looked smug.

“No! Who’s left?” Chelsea grinned. Greer was pregnant by one of the groomsmen. Edie and Magnus were together. She’d even heard that Kat Geary was dating Coop, which was a weird pairing to her—the aggressive sales-oriented agent and easygoing Cooper—but they were happy.

“Remember Levi? Magnus’s brother? He dropped out of the wedding and was being a snot about things, so Hunter pulled in a cousin of Griffin’s. You know Griffin, right? The Belissime royalty guy that’s one of Hunter’s friends?”

Chelsea blinked. “Vaguely?” Not really, but the story was too interesting to interrupt. She waved a hand, indicating Gretchen should continue.

“So Griffin’s cousin—apparently his name is Loch and he’s from Europe or some shit. Titled. It’s nuts. He needs to be in the states for a bit and so Hunter’s doing this as a favor to Griffin. Go figure. I told my boo I didn’t care as long as Loch looked good in a tux.”

“And does he?”

“Boy, howdy. He’s a total stud. I met him. Taylor’s been licking all over him for months now.”

“Huh.” Chelsea never talked with Taylor much. It seemed like she was missing out. “I should meet the guy.”

“Oh, he’s fine,” Gretchen said enthusiastically. “Big arms and big, uh, heart.” She snort-giggled. “He’s no Hunter, but I’m happy for her.”

“Me, too,” Chelsea said. If everyone was half as happy as she was, that’d be just wonderful.

Gretchen was eyeing Sebastian curiously, though. “There’s not a jealous bone in his body, is there? He didn’t bat an eye when I started talking about Loch and his equipment.”

“I won’t worry unless she brings out her skates,” Sebastian said easily, shading a bit of Gretchen’s chin on paper.

Chelsea’s face went red and she batted at his shoulder. “Now, now.” They were mostly past the skates. Mostly. Now she just wore them for fun.

“So that’s how you roll, eh?”

“That is a terrible pun.”

“Not gonna let me skate by with it?”

Chelsea groaned again. “Stop. Just stop.”

She thought for a minute, then shrugged. “I think I’m tapped out anyhow.”

To Chelsea’s surprise, Sebastian shut his notebook and put away his graphite pencils. “We should probably get going anyhow.”

“We should?” Chelsea looked surprised.

“Dinner,” he agreed.

“Dinner?”

“For our anniversary. Didn’t you remember?”

She gasped. She was terrible with details. “Is that today?”

“Someone’s in the dog house,” Gretchen singsonged, sitting up and clutching the sheet to her. “You two kids have fun. Happy anniversary and stuff.”

She murmured her good-byes to Gretchen as Sebastian took her hand and they left the house. Had it really been a year since they’d been married in the shotgun wedding down in New Orleans?

It seemed like a dream.

Chelsea curled up in the backseat of the sedan with Sebastian as they drove back into downtown Manhattan. “So where are we going for dinner?”

“You’ll see,” he said mysteriously, and pressed a kiss on her brow.

When the car stopped in front of the derby arena, she was doubly confused. “Why are we here?”

“We’re meeting someone.” Sebastian got out of the car and offered her his hand. “Coming?”

Of course she was coming with him. Puzzled and intrigued, she followed after him, hands joined.

It wasn’t until they got into the derby arena that she started to get an inkling of what was going on. The Rag Queens were there, completely in uniforms and pads. They began to cheer as she and Sebastian entered the arena, and she saw the skate pads were down on the flooring, the skate lanes marked off. The other local teams were there, too, and they all cheered and yelled as they approached. Someone shoved a pair of skates into her hands as she passed, and then someone else put a veil on her head. When she turned to look at Sebastian, he was slipping on a jacket and a top hat had been jammed over his head.

As they strode forward, she saw one of the referees standing at the center of the rink. In his hands was a Bible. On roller skates, Pisa stood next to him, clutching a bouquet that she held out to Chelsea.

“What is this?” she asked, laughing and crying at the same time. “Sebastian, what—”

“We didn’t have a real wedding last time,” he said, kneeling in front of her and taking one of the skates in his hand. He gently slipped it on her foot and began to do up the laces. “So I thought this time, we’d do it right. We’d get married in front of your family.”