Page 96 of Big Daddy Christmas
Tears burned at the back of Silver’s throat. She wanted to talk to someone, anyone about the worry and fear and joy she’d been keeping bottled up all damn day.
But she couldn’t. Even if she’d told Ice already, today was about Lottie. And a little bit Ruby. No way was she taking anything away from her friends. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”
“Hey.” Pausing with the dress halfway up Silver’s body, Ruby laid a hand on her arm. “What’s going on? Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. I’m just feeling a little emotional, I guess.” She smiled again, praying it didn’t look as strained as it felt. “Weddings always get to me. I’m a sucker for romance.”
“Same.” Ruby's gaze roamed Silver’s face, worry etched into her features. “But you promise you’d tell me if you were sick or something, right?”
“Pinkie-swear.”
For a moment, she thought Ruby was going to push the issue. But her friend let it drop and went to assist Aria, who was looking a bit panicked as she fussed with her straps.
The others helped Lottie into her confection of a dress, and Silver once again had to fight back tears as Lottie’s oldest friends gifted her with the locket holding her mother’s picture they’d all chipped in to buy for her. It was, Silver realized, Eva and Portia’s way of inviting the rest of them into the fold. They could have easily afforded the necklace without anyone’s contribution, but they’d been adamant that the gift be from all of them.
When Lottie was finally dressed and her tears dried, they made their way down to the ballroom where Lottie would soon say her vows to the love of her life. Her father was there, a silver fox in his own right, dressed in a perfectly fitted tux that highlighted his broad shoulders. Aria was looking him up and down, open curiosity in her gaze as she took him in.
Jesus Christ, Aria.
“You look beautiful,” Emmett murmured to his daughter, running his hands down her lace-covered arms to grip her hands, his eyes wet with unshed tears. “Just like your mother.”
“Dad…” Throwing her arms around her father, Lottie clung to him as her body shuddered.
Silver blinked against the tears pooling on her lashes. Fucking hell, she never cried like this.
Just as she was trying to get her emotions under control, a hand clamped around her upper arm, hauling her away from the group and into a hard, familiar chest.
Ice. Turning, she glared up at him, though it was a fight to keep the smile off her lips. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Whatever I want.” His gaze raked down her body, hot and possessive before returning to her face. “You look… delicious.”
Heat pulsed through her veins. “You’re going to have to wait until later for a taste, Mr. Turner.”
“We’ll see.” He glanced over at Lottie, then back at her. “You heard about Ruby and Beckett?”
“Yes.” The grin split her face, impossible to stop in the face of so much love and happiness swirling around them. “It’s very romantic. Gonna be hard for you to top.”
Something flickered in his eyes, an emotion that was there and then gone too quickly for her to place it. “Does that mean if I asked you to marry me, you’d say yes?”
“Of course I’d say yes.” How could he doubt that for even a second?
But then again, hadn’t she been doubting him? Questioning his commitment to her all day? Wasn’t that why she hadn’t told him yet that he was going to be a father?
Ice’s gaze was steady on her face, and as always, she was left with the unsettling impression that he saw far more than she wanted him to see. “Do you want to do the whole thing? The big wedding, the paperwork, the flashy rings?”
“Do you?”
“I want to make you happy, Silver. And if that means a splashy front-page wedding, then hell yeah, I want to do it.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.” All of a sudden, the answer seemed so very big. Important. Like their entire future hinged on what he said next. “Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me, Elias Turner?”
“Baby.” Cupping her face, he brushed a tender kiss across her lips. “I have spent half my life loving you from afar. And I will spend the rest of my life loving you from right here. I almost lost you once, Silver, and it damn near killed me. So yes, baby, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want you to have my name, if that’s what you want. But that’s all just trappings. What matters is you and me, against the world. Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Swallowing hard against the emotion lodged in her throat, she nodded. “Yeah. Listen, Ice, I need to tell you?—”
But before she could get the words out, Holden was there, clamping a hand on Ice’s shoulder and flashing her an apologetic smile. “Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve gotta go take our places.”
Right. Lottie, Braden, wedding. There was time later for her to say the things she needed to say.
