Well Suited (Red Lipstick Coalition #4)(68)

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Katherine Val giggled, losing her balance in the bathroom stall as Amelia peed.

Rin, Val, and I held armfuls of tulle and chiffon with Amelia’s face in the middle, so much fabric that we couldn’t see around it.

“This dress is ridiculous,” Amelia said shortly as she finished up.

“It’s gorgeous,” Rin amended.

“Gorgeous and ridiculous.” The toilet flushed somewhere beyond the layers of white fabric.

She sighed and stood, and we shimmied out of the stall, Val scanning the room to make sure it was empty before an unprepared guest accidentally saw her ass.

Once in the safety of the space in front of the sinks, we helped set her to rights.

“God, Amelia, everything has just been perfect,” Rin said with a wistful smile.

Amelia smiled. “You’re next.”

Rin laughed. “I’m not in any hurry. In fact, I bet Val will be before me. I told Court two years, and I meant it.”

Val snorted a laugh. “If Sam and I get married before you and Court, you and me are going to have a sit-down. Court’s waiting on you, you know.”

“I do know, and he’ll keep waiting until I’m sure he’s not going to club me over the head and drag me back to his cave.”

Amelia gasped. “Oh my gosh—you should have a double wedding like in a Jane Austen novel.”

One of Val’s eyebrows rose. “Would you have wanted to share your wedding day with one of us?”

She laughed. “Fair point.”

“Anyway,” Val started, “who knows? Maybe it’ll be Katherine and Theo next.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Theo and I are perfectly happy exactly as we are. He knows I don’t believe in marriage. We’re partners. We’re committed. We don’t need the party and the ring and the name change.”

“You have to admit, the party and the ring and the name change are appealing,” Val said.

I shrugged. “It makes me more uncomfortable than anything.”

“Okay, what about the tax break?” Rin asked.

“Now, that I can understand,” I answered.

“You two look so happy.” Amelia beamed. “Wedding or no wedding, I’m glad you found him. I’m glad you found each other.”

“Me too.” I beamed back.

She straightened herself up in the mirror, and we talked and laughed as we walked out of the bathroom together.

Effervescent. It was the perfect word to describe how I felt, like fizzy, floating bubbles and sparkling joy. It was an effect of the psyche, I knew. But I didn’t care.

It felt too good to question.

Theo and Tommy stood side by side at the edge of the dance floor like they’d been waiting for us, twin sentinels in midnight suits, hands hooked in their pockets and matching expressions of joy when they saw us. And without forethought, I found myself in his arms.

He kissed me tenderly, and before I knew it, my hand was in his. I thought we would head for the dance floor, but instead, he towed me toward the garden.

I didn’t ask why, didn’t wonder what we were doing, just blissfully followed him.

I’d follow him anywhere.

It was quiet outside the tent, the music and laughter far away. The night was warm and cloudless, the garden lush and green, dotted with low lights. Past a fountain we went and into an alcove of vines and wisteria.

And there we stopped. We said nothing. He turned to face me, the adoration and reverence on his face filling me with a surge of that feeling. The rightness. It was everywhere—skating across our skin, zipping in the air between us, filling our lungs and transferred in our breaths. He kissed me, kissed me with a deep longing, a hundred promises, a thousand wishes.

He kissed me until I was breathless and boneless, my self quiet and my body alive.

“When I met you, I never thought we’d end up here,” I mused, my hands skimming the lapels of his suit.

“Making out in a garden?” he asked with a sideways smile. The Look was on his face, but something about it was deeper. Different.

“Oh, I might have guessed that, but not that I was pregnant. And not that you would become my partner.” I searched his eyes. “I’m so happy I found you. I’m so thankful for you, for the way you understand me. I just…I’m so happy, Theo. And it’s all because of you.”

“Really? Because I think it’s because of you.”

“Why?” I asked with a laugh. “For incubating our baby?”

He pulled me closer, his smile shining on me like the sun, warming me all over. “Among other things.”

“Kiss me,” I whispered with a smile I only granted to him.

So he did. He kissed me softly, a tender exchange, touched with veiled intention that sparked my curiosity.

Theo broke the kiss to gaze into my face with adoration. “Remember when you wished it could be like this forever?”

“I do,” I said with a smile.

“Is that still what you want?”

“More than ever.”

“Good. Then I have something to ask you.”

My smile slid off my face as he dropped to one knee. His hand disappeared into his pocket, returning with a little velvet box, which he opened with a creak. And on a bed of white satin sat a band of gold adorned with a sparkling diamond, shining with moonlight.