Page 112 of Ardently Yours

“If you cry, I’ll cry,” I mouth.

He grins and blinks hard.

The music swells. The crowd rises and turns, all eyes on me.

And I step forward to join this man who is my partner. My friend. My lover.

My future.

When a Man Loves a Woman

Arden

Charlotte laughs and holdson as I carry her over the threshold and into the primary stateroom ofThe Legacy. The younger adult members of her family are still partying hard. There’s a good chance they’ll continue until the sun comes up, but we settled the kids in for the night in a suite with Charlotte’s parents babysitting. The blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea shimmer under moonlight.

And I finally have my wife to myself.

I slide her to stand and rub my thumb over her bottom lip. “I have something I want to give you.”

She wiggles her eyebrows. “I bet you do.”

I laugh. “That too. But”—I look at my watch—“I want to give this to you while it’s still technically our wedding day. I planned to do it this morning before the ceremony, but things got a little hectic.”

She wrinkles her nose with a smile. “You already gave me a wedding gift.”

“Technically, this gift is for Bronnie, but she’s a little young to understand. The boys have trust funds, and my father and I set a few up for her, as well.”

Her eyebrows lift. “Trust funds? This is a thing people do . . . for four-year-old children?”

“I’m not allowing her to feel like she doesn’t belong in this family because her brothers have more than she does.”

Charlotte’s brow furrows, but she nods.

“My father created the largest portion of the trust for her, just as he did the boys.”

“That’s very kind.” She shakes her head. “It’s not what I expected.”

I remove the heavy cream-colored envelope from the bedside drawer and pass it to her. “I included a little something from me too. I named you as trustee until Bronnie is twenty-five.”

She flicks it open, pulls out the papers, and reads, her expression transitioning from confusion to open-mouthed disbelief. “What is this? Did you buy RealFreedom for Bronwyn?”

I shake my head. “I already owned it.” I give her an admittedly nervous smile.Surprise.

She props her hands on her hips. “Youownit? Was it yours all along?”

I watch her put two and two together in front of my eyes. “Yes.”

“Did you give me someone else’s scholarship?”

“No. I created a unique one for you.”

“You paid for me to go to college? All of it?” She doesn’t sound pleased.

Over time, she’s lost her prickliness surrounding my gifts completely. Recently, we began sharing bank accounts and credit cards. I’d hoped this would go better. “You more than deserved it. I never regretted it for an instant.”

I hesitate. “You’re carrying around a credit card with no limit on it. The diamond ring on your finger cost as much as your three years of college at BSU. If you look at it from that perspective, providing for your education isn’t a big deal.”

She gives me a flat glare. “You should have told me the truth.”

---