Page 26 of Miles
Mrs. Martín steps up and presses her hand to his chest. “Come, now, Emiliano. You know very well that the second you had me in your grasp, I was living with you.”
“You are correct, my love. This is different—she’s my daughter.”
Mrs. Martín laughs, and he turns to look at her with a scowl. “You are being ridiculous. I told you before that this was happening, and you didn’t listen to me.”
She walks up to Elsa with a small pink and white bag. “Sweetheart, I packed you an overnight bag. I’m sure you’ll gather more of your things later.”
“Thank you.” She takes it and sets it aside.
“Dinner is ready,” Carl says. We all go into the dining room and take our seats with Elsa at my right.
“Everything smells wonderful.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Martín. I’ll tell the chef that.”
“Where is the rest of the family?” Elsa asks, looking at her parents.
“They had other matters to attend to, and unfortunately as you know Milo is away on business and won’t be back until next week.”
“Well, I’m glad you could make it,” I state, knowing that he wasn’t too pleased with me.
“So what are your plans? Are you going to be living with my daughter without getting married?”
“No,” Elsa and I blurt out at the same time. I laugh.
“I’m glad you feel that way, Elsa, because we’re getting married as soon as possible.”
“Oh, really? How soon are you talking about? Are you planning to start a family?”
“We’re going to wait some time before we start on grandchildren, but I’d like to marry fast. I don’t see a point in waiting.”
“Maybe take some time to get to know each other,” Emiliano says.
“I’ve known her since we were kids. Yes, there are the little things we don’t know, but I know she loves Mexican and Chinese, but hates pasta even though she loves going to Italy. Her favorite books are crime novels from the past, like nineties and early two-thousands.”
Elsa twisted her head with her mouth wide open. “I can’t believe you know that.”
“Yeah, I noticed it on your reading account online. You have an addiction to some of the older books from those times before technology got out of control and so much of the market was overly saturated.”
“So when is the wedding?”
“We live in Vegas,” Elsa offers.
“Elsa, we can get married in a lavish wedding if you want, but I want to start planning it now and have it ready within the next six months. No need to wait any longer. Hell, other than the dress and the invites, we have access to everything else at our fingertips easily.”
“The dress? Do you think that would be hard?” she asks me.
“No, but I’m not sure where you want to get it or how long it takes to make. Don’t pretend the princess doesn’t want her picture-perfect wedding.”
“I do.”
“Then you’ll get it.”
“Three months should be plenty.”
“Good. We need to start right away.” Her mother rubs her hands together with excitement.
“I’ll send you the calendar for the hotel and then general group schedule for the families, and we’ll see if there’s any major conflicts.”
