Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw everyone sitting around a long table lit with a line of lanterns and candles down the center. Jordan stood smiling and poked Tristan in the arm. “I wasn’t ready yet.” Turning to speak to me, she said, “Wait till you see this.”
She flipped a switch in her hand and above us what looked like hundreds of little white lights lit up. Strung along grapevines that created a canopy above the table, they twinkled like the night sky. I gazed up at the incredible work Tristan had done to make our reception so beautiful and turned to see him smiling at me. “It’s so gorgeous! Thank you.”
“I can’t take the credit. Jordan is the architect of all this.”
I looked over at her and saw her nod. “Your husband here called me as soon as he got home from the hospital and asked for my help. I told him I knew exactly what you’d like. Remember that day we spent looking through all those wedding magazines? You saw that picture of the nighttime garden wedding and loved it. So I told him just leave it to me.”
Looking around at all the beautiful decorations and lights, my eyes began to fill with tears at how wonderful the people in my life were. “It’s perfect. Thank you. And thank you everyone for being here to celebrate this with us.”
“No crying allowed,” Jordan joked. “Tonight is a celebration. So let’s get to eating and drinking. The best caterer in the city has made us a meal to put all other meals to shame.”
Tristan and I sat down at the head of the table as uniformed waiters filled the table with baskets of sliced baguettes and tomato basic garlic crostini. As everyone talked and laughed, a gorgeous summer greens salad was served, and then we all enjoyed our meals of peppered beef and lemon herb chicken home style, sharing our meal together, like it should be.
I watched as the people closest to us enjoyed a night that had been a long time coming. Under the table, Tristan squeezed my hand, and I turned to see him looking at me. I squeezed his in return and whispered, “You did good here, Mr. Stone.”
“You haven’t had any cake yet.”
“I’m not sure I can fit cake in after all of this,” I joked. Of course I would eat a piece of our wedding cake.
His expression grew serious, and he lowered his voice to the merest of whispers. “Are you happy?”
“Crazy, blissfully, in love happy. What about you?”
“Happier than I ever thought I could be. I love you, Nina.”
Before I could tell him I couldn’t wait until everyone had left so I could show him exactly how much I loved him, a waiter wheeled a cart toward us with a towering pink icing wedding cake made from individual cupcakes decorated to look like pink roses. They were exactly like the picture I’d shown the caterer, even more perfect, if that was possible.
“I made them promise me they’d match your bouquet, Nina,” Jordan said with a smile as the cart stopped next to me.
“They’re gorgeous!” I said as I took one from the waiter and passed it to Tristan. Turning toward him, I said with a smile, “And if you try to push that cupcake into my face, we’re going to have our first married fight, Mr. Stone.”
“And ruin a piece of art like this? Never,” he said with a chuckle.
“Gorgeous and intelligent. I love that in a husband.”
Jordan stood and cleared her throat as the waiter poured champagne into everyone’s glasses. When we all had ours, she began her wedding toast.
“Congratulations to Tristan and Nina on their marriage. This day has been a long time coming. I’ve known Nina for years and always told her that good things happen to good people. I believe that. These two people are the perfect example of that. So now, after all they’ve been through, this good thing has happened to these good people. Tristan and Nina, here’s to great things in your future. You deserve them.”
We all raised our glasses, and Tristan clanked ours together as we and our guests said in unison, “To great things!”
I slid my hand over Tristan’s and weaved my fingers through his. He turned his head and looked at me with an expression that told me he wished we were alone. I knew how he felt. I did too.
“I think they’re going to expect a dance from us at least before they let us sneak off to begin our honeymoon,” I said quietly as music began playing behind us.
“Then let’s give them what they want,” he said with a sexy grin.
He lead me to the center of the garden as the harpist played a love song, and there, for the first time, we danced as husband and wife. Later, after all the guests had gone and we were alone in the house, he took my hand and led me to the sitting room where we’d sat together that first night. As I stood in the middle of the room, he turned on the music and we danced to our song as he whispered the words to Nothing Compares To U by Sinead O’Connor just like he had that summer night a year before.
The music ended and cradling my face in his hands, Tristan whispered, “I love you, Nina. You make happier than I likely deserve.”
“You deserve everything good. Remember, good things happen to good people, and you’re one of the best people I’ve ever met, Tristan Stone. So no more talk about not deserving things.”
He kissed me and whispered in my ear, “Then let’s get this honeymoon started.”
Epilogue
Tristan
“Daddy, tell us the story about when you became a pirate!” Tressa squeals as she jumps onto the bed. “Dee wants to hear the princess story, but I want the pirate one.”
Diana, her twin sister, struggles to lift her leg to pull herself up onto the bed, so I reach over and take her into my arms. My reward is one of her adorable smiles, a better payment than anything I could ask for.
With a pout, she says in her tiny voice, “Daddy, Tressa pushed me out of the way. I want to hear the princess story. Tell the princess story, pleeeeeeease.”
Two pairs of brown eyes stare up at me, begging for their favorite stories and making the word no an impossibility. Both girls bounce on their knees as they wait for my decision on which story would be the one for the night.
“Diana! Tressa! Where are you?” Nina calls from the hall. “Are you bothering your father? He just got home from work.”
She appears in the doorway, her arms folded across her chest and her best “Mom” face on to let the girls know she isn’t happy they’ve done exactly what she told them not to. I’m more to blame than they are, though, since they know I love to see them after a long day away.
“Girls, your father’s tired and it’s time for you to go to bed.”
Diana turns to face her and quickly answers, “Daddy said he’d tell us a story. He’s going to tell us about the princess.”
Her sister isn’t going to be beaten on this, though. “No, he’s going to tell us about when he became a pirate. That’s my favorite story ever.”
“It’s okay, Nina. I like this part of my day best, so I think I’ll tell both stories tonight.”
In unison, my daughters throw their arms up in the air and yell, “Yay!” They take their seats next to me and wait for me to begin. Which story to choose, though? I prefer the princess story, to be honest.
Nina walks over to the bed and sits down on the edge, taking Tressa’s long brown hair in her hands to braid it. “You know what story I like.”
I smile at her playful jab. She prefers the pirate story, like Tressa, so now we have a standoff. After pretending to consider my choices, I announce my verdict. “I think the pirate story is the one I’ll tell first.”
Diana’s mouth turns down into an adorable pout much like the one her mother puts on when she’s disappointed, so I pull her onto my lap and whisper near her cheek, “But I promise to tell the princess story just for you, honey.”
Her pout turns into another of her gentle smiles, and she wraps her little arms around my neck. Kissing me on the cheek, she whispers, “Okay, Daddy.”
“One night, your mother and I were at the hotel in the city and she told me that she wished I was a pirate. I told her that I didn’t think saying ‘Aarrgh’ all day during meetings would work, but she insisted that she’d love me even more if I were a pirate.”
Tressa reaches out and points at the patch covering my left eye. “And that’s why you got an eye patch—because Mommy wanted you to be a pirate.”
“Exactly. So now, Mommy gets to say she’s married to a pirate.”
“Daddy, do the pirate voice!” Tressa squeals. “Please?”
In my deepest voice, I do my best pirate imitation. “Aarrgh, matey! Shiver me timbers!”
The ‘shiver me timbers’ part always makes her giggle, and she bounces on the bed again, excited her story has been the first one told. Nina just smiles, like she always does when I tell the story to explain why I wear an eyepatch. It’s far more interesting and less traumatic than saying I got beaten to a pulp when Karl tried to kill us. Five year old girls demand a far more romantic story than that.
“And that’s why you have your pictures on your arms,” Tressa says, motioning on her own body where my tattoos are.
“Yes,” I say with a smile, amused by the way she refers to them.
Diana touches just above my heart and says, “The snakes are for you and your brother, right?”
I nod. “My brother and I were twins like you and Tressa, so I got the snake tattoo to show we were forever together, no matter what, just like you two.”
“Let me see the one about us, Daddy,” Tressa pleads as she tries to push up the sleeve on my right arm to show the tattoo I had done right after the girls’ birth.
I unbutton my shirt at my wrist and slide the fabric up my arm to show the bottom of a tattoo that depicts an intricate pattern symbolizing both Diana and Tressa. Like the one on my left bicep, it’s a tribal design but this extends from my right shoulder down my arm to just above my wrist.
As Tressa runs her fingers over my arm, tracing the tattoo from the crook of my elbow to my wrist bone, Diana whispers in my ear, “Now the princess story, Daddy. Tell the princess story.”
“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. She had long brown hair and the prettiest blue eyes. When the prince saw her for the first time, he saw nothing but those blue eyes staring at him. He took her for a ride in his carriage and got to talk to the princess, and he felt like he’d never felt before. She was sweet and gentle and just the kind of princess he wanted.”
Nina rolls her eyes and smiles. Diana whispers near my cheek, “Say her name, Daddy.”
“And then he found out the princess’s name was Nina.”
“The same as Mommy’s name,” Tressa says as she looks back at her mother.
“Yes, it was. So the prince asked the princess to come live with him and help him make his castle more beautiful. Thankfully, she said yes and she became the princess at his castle.”
Diana whispers again, “And then she painted the prince a picture, right, Daddy?”
“She did. And she made the prince very happy. Then one day the prince and princess had two little princesses.”
“Tressa and Diana!” Tressa screams, throwing her arms up in the air. “No fair, Daddy. That story’s about you and Mommy. That’s why the pirate story’s better.”
“Time for bed, girls. Say goodnight to your father.”
Nina picks Tressa up and carries her out of the room to the bedroom she shares with her sister. “Goodnight, Daddy!”
Diana remains silent on my lap, staring up at me. Looking down into her soft brown eyes, I ask, “Ready for bed, sweetheart?” as I lift her off my lap and place her feet on the floor.
“Are we princesses, Daddy?” she asks in the cutest little voice.
I look down at her beautiful face and see so much of her mother in her, far more than I ever do when I look at her sister. Tressa is a true Stone—much stronger than Diana, who is gentle and kind, like her mother. She’s also very much like Nina with her questions. Tweaking her on the tip of her nose, I nod. “Yes, you’re my princesses.”
“Will I be a pirate like you when I grow up?” she asks, her eyes wide with curiosity.
Picking her up, I hold her in my arms and kiss her cheek. “No, you won’t be a pirate, honey.”
She presses her forehead to mine and studies me before she says quietly, “That’s because I’m a girl, right?”
I have to laugh at her logic. “No, it’s just because there can only be one pirate in the family and I’m already one.”
Diana tightens her hold on my neck as I begin walking toward her room. “I love your stories, Daddy. Do the prince and princess live happily ever after?”
We reach her room and I gently place her on the floor in the doorway. Her little face turned up toward me, she waits for the answer to the question she asks me every night. With a smile, I nod. “Yes, they live happily ever after, honey. Night, night.”
I opened my eyes to see Nina next to me curled up like she always was in the morning. Rubbing the sleep away, I marveled at how real my dream had been. I almost wanted to walk down the hall to see if we were the parents of two little girls. As I struggled to remember the fine details that were already beginning to slip away, I shook my head as if to answer my own doubts.