Page 49 of Choosing Happily Ever After

Hope pulled away and for the first time, looked at the people who up until that moment had been sitting quietly. Now, as she looked around at all her friends and neighbors, a buzz started to rise from the crowd.

“Wait.” Hope looked to Levi, who beamed proudly. “What is happening here?”

“Well, you look the part, and everyone is here in your favorite ceremony location, and I just thought…”

“You thought what?”

“Well, you did say you’d marry me.” He winked and she laughed.

“I guess I did.”

“So why wait then? I’m here, you’re here, all our friends are here, and we both look damn good.” Levi waved an arm around the space, encompassing everything.

“It really is perfect.” Hope had to agree. She’d planned and executed so many weddings over the years, and she’d be lying if she said that in all that time she hadn’t imagined her own special day once or twice. Or ten or twenty times. “But, wait…” Hope shook her head as a complication popped into her head. “What about the license? We need a marriage license.”

Levi grinned and gestured with his head. She turned to find Faith nearby with a smug smile on her face. “Don’t tell me,” Hope started. “Did you pull the twin thing?”

Faith shrugged. “You told me not to tell you.” She laughed. “But I will say, there are still perks to being an identical twin. I just borrowed your ID is all. It’s no biggie.”

Hope laughed. “It very much is a biggie.” She swallowed her laughter as tears threatened to replace the mirth. “You did all this?” she asked her sister.

Faith shook her head and pointed to Levi. “All I did was help. This was all him.”

She couldn’t be sure whether she was imagining it or not, but it certainly looked like there were tears shining in her sister’s eyes. Her sister who didn’t believe in love. She released Levi’s hand long enough to pull her sister into a hug. “Thank you,” Hope whispered in her ear. “Thank you so much for doing this.”

“I told you—”

“I know what you said.” Hope leaned back and looked into the eyes that were identical to her own. “But I also know what you did. So, thank you.”

“I love you, Hope, and I just want what’s best for you. You know that.”

“I do.”

“Can we get this show on the road?” Logan called out, and Faith groaned and rolled her eyes.

“He really is an asshole, isn’t he?”

Hope laughed. “He’s not a bad guy. Give him a chance.”

“I’d really rather not.” Faith’s mouth pressed into a thin line while she looked in his direction, but then she shook her head and a smile replaced the frown. “Are you good with this?”

Hope turned and looked back at Levi, who watched them closely. She winked at him before answering her sister. “Totally.”

It was a short ceremony, but absolutely perfect as they declared their love for each other in front of their witnesses. Hope had never been so completely happy as she was in the moment when she saidI doand kissed her groom for the first time.

A cheer rose from the crowd before they turned to dance their way down the aisle. “That was absolutely perfect,” she said to her new husband the moment they were out of earshot.

“I hope you don’t really think that’s it?”

Hope gave him a look. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, Hope. You’re a wedding planner. Surely you should know that there’s more to a wedding than the vows.” He winked at her and took her hand as he led her to the golf cart. “We have a reception to get to.”

“You didn’t?”

She stared at him and shook her head in wonder as he moved to the driver’s seat.How had he pulled off an entire wedding and she hadn’t even noticed?It was impossible. She noticed everything that went on at the ranch.

Except in the last week or so.

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