Page 154 of That Moment
“Don’t even breathe too hard,” Dolly orders, spraying another layer of hairspray around me like I’m being preserved for a museum. “If you get anything on this couture gown, I’ll personally murder you.”
I laugh, nerves fizzing under my skin. I smooth a shaky hand down my stomach and take another look at myself in the mirror. The dress is stunning; it came out better than I could have imagined. I look into my own eyes in the mirror, taking it all in.
God, this is it. In a few hours, I’ll be Adrienne Slade-Bescher.
“Where’s Amethyst?” I ask, scanning the room.
“She’s right here,” Milly says, spinning her in a little circle while Dolly gets the final touches done to her hair. My niece has half a macaron stuffed into her mouth, pink crumbs trailing down her dress. “Shit,” Milly wipes at the crumbs, hoping I don’t notice.
Brooklyn groans. “If my kids get frosting on Adrienne’s train, I’m disowning them.”
“Just blame it on their dad,” Amelia says with a grin, finally managing to pop the champagne. Foam shoots everywhere, sending Milly shrieking and Amethyst squealing with laughter.
It’s funny all the things you think you’ll care about on your wedding day just fade away when it hits you that you’re about to be a wife.
This is real. I’m about to walk down that aisle. To Scotty.
“Breathe, Barbie bride,” Milly teases, catching my wide-eyed stare.
“I am breathing,” I whisper, but my chest feels too tight. “I just… I can’t believe he’s about to be mine. Him. All of it.”
“Oh, sweetie," Milly’s chin starts to quiver. She pulls me in for a hug. “I felt the same when I was about to walk down the aisle to Trent. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
Of course, Dolly ruins the moment with a dramatic sigh. “If you cry now, I’m layering so much waterproof mascara you’ll look like a raccoon in every photo.”
The room bursts into laughter again. Juniper rushes in, assuring us that the men are actually all ready, something that shocks them all. And me, I just keep glancing at the door. Waiting for when the noise will fall away and Dad will walk in.
Because that’s when it’ll hit hardest. When my dad sees me in this gown and realizes I’m not just his little girl anymore. I’m Scotty’s.
And when that happens, I know the tears are coming, and there will be no stopping them. The chaos slowly ebbs when the coordinator pokes her head into the suite and announces, “Five minutes.”
Suddenly, everyone is scrambling with final lipstick touch-ups, fluffing skirts, and grabbing bouquets. My cousins file out in a blur of satin and perfume, leaving me alone in the echo of my own heartbeat.
The door creaks again. And then it’s Dad, standing in the doorway with eyes already glassy. He fills the doorway in his dark suit, a sight that is only reserved for weddings or funerals. For a moment, neither of us moves. He just stares at me like he’s still trying to reconcile the little girl who used to trail him through the pastures with a rope in her hand and dirt on her jeans with the woman in a gown, about to be another man’s wife.
“Wow,” he rasps, voice breaking. “You look… Adrienne, you look like your mom on our wedding day.”
That’s it. The tears come. I press my hands to my face, careful not to smudge my makeup, laughing through a sob. “Dad, don’t say that. You’ll ruin my makeup.”
He walks to me slowly, as if he moves too fast, the moment might shatter. When his hands cup my shoulders, warm and steady, I feel ten years old all over again.
“I need you to hear something,” he says, his voice catching. “I wasn’t easy on you about Scotty. I worried. Hell, I doubted him, even after our talk. But you… You’ve always known what was best for you. Even when I couldn’t see it.”
My throat closes.This is the man who grilled Scotty at the dinner table. The man I’ve been terrified of disappointing my whole life. And now…
“I’m proud of you,” Dad continues, his thumb brushing a tear off my cheek. “Not because of the career, or the degrees, or the Slade name. Because you fought for your heart. You didn’t settlefor what looked right on paper. You waited for the man who makes you light up like this.”
I glance past him, through the open French doors leading onto the terrace. The venue sprawls out into the mountains—rows of white chairs lined beneath towering pines, wildflowers blooming at the edge of the clearing, snow-capped peaks painting the horizon. The Colorado sky is endless, a deep blue that makes the air itself feel holy. And at the far end of that aisle, I know Scotty Bescher is waiting.
My lips tremble around a smile. “He really does, Dad. He makes me light up, like no one ever has. He just—he’s everything.”
Dad exhales, rough and shaky, before pulling me into his chest. For a moment, I breathe in his cologne and the crisp mountain air drifting in, letting myself just be his little girl again.
Then he pulls back, blinking fast, clearing his throat. “Let’s get you married before I lose it completely.” But then he notices my necklace. He smiles, his chin starting to quiver as he reaches out and picks up the locket. “I didn’t know you still had this.”
“Scotty found it,” I whisper. “Back when we were working on the Mustang. I thought I’d lost it years ago.”
He stares at the photo for several seconds before pulling me in for another tight hug. Then, he clears his throat, coughing. “Okay, enough of that, time for me to walk my baby down the aisle to her future.”
