Page 108 of Scarlett and the Big Bad Billionaire
To one side were my bridesmaids and matron of honor, my sister Maddie.
Wilder Lowe, Badger, Sharkbait, and Volt stood on the other side, beaming at their friend, whom they would no doubt tease mercilessly for the tender words as soon as they could get him alone.
My niece Trina, the flower girl, had walked down the aisle ahead of me in therightdirection this time, and Vivi had joined Mom and David in giving me away.
Now she was dancing—that’s right, dancing—at the reception, looking about twenty years old instead of ninety. She’d ditched her wheelchair months ago.
Dancing with her was her newage-appropriategentleman friend, Carl. They’d met at Shady Acres, where Gray’s paintingConfluencenowhung in the dining room and where Vivi had gone to live when Gray moved into Indigo Point with me.
She’d persuaded me to keep the estate, though I had my qualms about living in a house the size of a Target store.
“You’ll get used to it,” she promised. “Besides, pretty soon there’ll be children riding bicycles in the grand foyer and sliding down the banisters—just as it should be. Believe me, you’ll be wondering if there’senoughroom in this old castle.”
When we’d tried to convince her to live here with us, she’d turned us down cold.
“No offense, but I want to be with my peeps,” Vivi explained. “I’m glad you’ll be keeping the house—that way I can visit it anytime I like. But frankly, sweetheart, these old walls aren’t as soundproof as you might think. And Carl and I can get pretty loud.”
Though Vivi had designated me in her will as her sole heir, I’d earmarked most of my eventual inheritance to go to the charities I’d spent so much time researching.
For now, I was using my monthly stipend to expand Sweet Scarlett’s. There were chain locations opening in Minnesota and Rhode Island with plans to open in several big cities nationwide.
Gray was taking his non-profit program, Arts Awake, national as well and had left Viridian to run it and work on his Inksy paintings full-time—when he wasn’t paintingme, that was.
“I can’t wait for you to see the groom’s cake,” he said as we danced in the ballroom near Vivi and Carl. “I created the design myself and sent it to the cake decorator.”
“Oh God, please tell me it’s not calledScarlett in Her Bridal Thong,” I begged.
He laughed. “No, but that’s a great idea for a future piece. Come on, let’s go check it out.”
We left the dance floor and crossed the ballroom to the cake tables, where later we’d do the ceremonial cutting and feed each other the first bites.
The wedding cake itself was a gorgeous twelve-tiered red velvet with white cream cheese frosting, decorated with red and pink poppies.
On a separate table, the groom’s cake was frosted around the sides to look like actual gray fur. The image atop it featured a woman in a red, hooded cloak sitting for a portrait while a wolf, painting at an easel, captured her likeness.
“It’s incredible,” I said. “I’m afraid someone’s going to try to steal it or auction it off for millions of dollars before we get a chance to eat it.”
“The room’s full of Viridian bodyguards,” he informed me. “The cake’s safe.Youhowever… are not.”
Cradling my jaw, he lifted my face for a kiss. When it ended, his gorgeous green eyes were twinkling with mischief.
“You know… the design on the cake matches my new tattoo,” he whispered.
“You got a new tattoo? Where?”
“Well, that’s for me to know and you to find out,” he teased. “I guess you’ll have to go searching for it. It’s a real work of art.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh my, what a bigheadyou have, Mr. Wolf.”
“You should see the other one—seriously, I’ve been hard all day seeing you in that white dress.”
Laughing at his silly dirty joke, I followed as he backed away toward the ballroom door, beckoning me with a hand gesture and a seductive smile.
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere I can steal a few minutes alone with you.”
Realizing he was leading me toward the alcove under the grand stairway, I widened my eyes at him.
