Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
She gasped and was about to insist it wasn’t her fault, when the music changed.
Another Beach Boys song, “God Only Knows,” rang out, this one slower, sweeter, and talking of love as Bob Spencer walked his beautiful daughter down the aisle. Lyssa wore a lovely sarong patterned with butterflies, her skin bronzed against her matching bikini top. The bouquet she carried was made not of flowers, but of silk butterflies that seemed to float in the slight breeze. And atop her pretty head, taming her wild curls, was a wreath of silk butterflies.
As Bob, in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, walked his daughter along the red carpet to the yacht’s steps, Cal threaded through the wedding party throng to help his bride aboard. He broke protocol to kiss Lyssa sweetly on the lips before Bob led her to the arbor.
The officiant asked who was giving the bride away, and Bob answered, “Her mother and I do.”
Michaela caught herself before she gasped again. “Your brother Dane is their officiant?”
Troy’s mouth spread in a wide smile. “Lyssa and Cal both asked him to do it. They give him credit for getting them together. I’ll tell you the whole story later, but Dane went right out to get a license to officiate at their wedding. He was so damned proud.”
Her heart was beating hard, and she couldn’t say exactly why. Maybe it was that these two families, the Harringtons and the Mavericks, seemed so tightly bound together now. They had become one huge family.
For so long, it had been just her and her mother. As beautiful as their bond was, she recognized how much she’d missed out on. Her father had left her, and her grandparents had rejected her. Only her mother had been there for her. The backs of her eyes suddenly ached with unshed tears for what she’d never had, but even more for what her mother had lost. Now Flo was in the throes of a brand-new romance, and all Michaela had done was try to throw monkey wrenches into it.
She’d been so unfair, slapping her own worries and fears onto her mother when she should rejoice that Flo had finally found some happiness. Reaching for her hand, she gave it a squeeze. When Flo squeezed back, smiling at her, Michaela mouthed, I love you.
Then she glanced down. Walter clasped her mother’s other hand, his thumb gently caressing her skin. Raising her eyes once again to Flo’s, she mouthed again, Be happy.
She knew her mother understood.
Bob returned to his seat next to Susan, and on the yacht, Lyssa and Cal began their wedding vows.
Holding Cal’s hands in both of hers, Lyssa gazed into his eyes with love shining through that even Michaela could see. “I loved you from the first moment I saw you. I was never too young to know my own mind, and all I ever wanted was you.” Her soft laugh reached the assembly through the lapel mic on her bikini top. “Thank God for that trip to London, where you finally saw the light.” She shot a look at Dane. “And I thank Dane for making that trip possible.” Their audience chuckled, and Michaela couldn’t wait to hear their story.
Lyssa went on, her words heartfelt. “I thank you for our beautiful son and the beautiful life we have together. I will love you until my last breath. I will make it worth every long minute we waited to be together. I love you, and I’m so happy to become your wife.”
If there was a dry eye around her, Michaela couldn’t see it. Even she felt misty listening to Lyssa’s words.
Then it was Cal’s turn. “You’ve been in my heart from the very first day. You were always an old soul, but I still had to wait for you to grow up. I’ll never regret how long we waited, because I was able to watch you become the amazing, wonderful woman you are, the woman I love with all my heart. I love the beautiful son we’ve made together with everything in me. I’ve waited so long to make you my wife.” He grinned at Dane then. “Believe me, even without that London trip—” He turned his gaze to Lyssa once more. “—I would have found the courage to make you mine. You are the light of my life, and I will love you until the end of my days.”
Then it was time for Dane to say, “Now, by the authority vested in me by the State of California and the County of Monterey, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.” Then he grinned at Lyssa. “Or you may kiss the groom, depending on how you want to look at it.”
The crowd burst into laughter with him.
Cal pulled Lyssa in for their first married kiss. He was so gentle, so sweet, as if it were their first kiss, until it blossomed, their bodies melting together, Cal cupping his wife’s face and taking her mouth with an all-consuming passion.