I can’t say I was surprised that Henry proposed to Nadia. I’d seen a difference in the way he interacted with her from the beginning. Despite her local fame, Nadia was down-to-earth, fun, and a real friend. I was over-the-moon for Henry and I was delighted for me because it meant I got to keep Nadia in my life too.
It also meant Nadia came to me to organize the wedding. Bree was ecstatic, and I had the promise of a very nice bonus if I pulled the wedding off without a hitch. So I had my friends’ happiness and a lovely bonus motivating me to get this day exactly the way Nadia wanted. Ever since Henry had proposed to her, she’d transformed into this crazy woman I barely recognized. I could forgive her for the crazy. My experience in wedding planning in the last two and a half years had shown that most brides (not all, though) transformed into hyper versions of themselves. I had every confidence Nadia would return to normal upon her departure for her honeymoon.
Thankfully I didn’t have the opportunity to become one of those brides, because Caine and I didn’t have a huge wedding. We invited our closest friends and family—Effie, Henry, Nadia, Rachel, and Jeff—to witness our very small, very private wedding at Caine’s (now our) summerhouse in Nantucket. I didn’t invite my grandfather, even though I wanted him there, because it was unfair to Caine. So I was shocked to discover Grandpa there on the morning of the wedding, ready to walk me down the aisle. Caine had surprised me by inviting him for me, and that just made me love my husband a million times more than I already did.
Three months after my attack Caine asked me to move in with him. Actually it was only a few weeks after. It took three months for me to agree. It was more about finally giving up my beautiful cozy apartment than not wanting to live with Caine. We were living together anyway. If I didn’t spend the night at his, he was at mine. Finally he got fed up of the back-and-forth and lack of permanency. A month after that he proposed, and two months after that we were married.
His apartment was now our apartment—it was also barely recognizable. Gone were the white leather kitchen stools and the stark black color scheme. In their place was comfortable and gender-neutral furniture with not-so-gender-neutral cushions and throws strewn on them to emulate the coziness of my old apartment.
Caine didn’t even say a word.
To be honest, I think he barely noticed.
He was used to my style now, and wasn’t a guy who was interested in soft furnishings.
“I don’t remember you being this crazy when it was our wedding.” Caine scowled down at the massive folder filled with Nadia’s wedding arrangements.
“That’s because I wasn’t. Moreover, Henry and Nadia’s wedding is for a hundred and fifty guests. We had six.”
“I liked ours better,” he murmured, sipping his coffee.
“Me too.” I laughed at his petulance, but I really couldn’t blame him. Nadia and Henry’s wedding seemed to be taking over my life at the moment.
“If they weren’t our friends.” He eyed the folder again.
“You can’t burn it,” I said.
Caine grinned at me. “Get out of my head.”
“I don’t want to.” It was my turn to grumble. “I want to dive into your head and take you to bed and have my wicked way with you.” I pushed the map away from me. “Instead I’m spending today hopping from one bridal boutique to the next trying to find the perfect bridesmaid dresses because Nadia has become obsessed with using homegrown designs.” I bugged my eyes out in frustration. “She’s not even from Boston.”
His lips twitched. “This is why you shouldn’t work with friends.”
“We did okay.”
“We were lovers. We were never friends.” To make his point he got up to put his mug in the sink and as he passed me he pressed a kiss to the side of my neck.
Three years on and he still made my toes tingle. “That’s not true. You’re my best friend.”
In answer Caine wrapped his arms around my waist and drew me back against his chest. “You’re mine too, baby. That’s why I’m asking you to put the folder of doom aside tonight so we can go out for a nice meal and spend some time together.”
There was nothing in this world I’d like to do more. “We can’t. We’re having dinner with Nadia and Henry.”
My husband dropped his forehead to my shoulder and groaned. “There’s such a thing as too much ‘friend time.’ ”
I shook with laughter. “We made these plans ages ago. We’re going to the opening of that new restaurant, Smoke.”
“Oh, that sounds appetizing,” he remarked dryly as he pulled up the stool beside me so our knees touched. “A restaurant opening. That means the media will be there.”
He looked weary just at the thought of it and I understood. From the moment Caine and I moved in together, the society papers went nuts. It was even worse when we were seen out and about with our friends. Caine, Henry, Nadia, and I would turn up to events together and the photographers would go mad trying to get pictures of us. Of course, it was a juicy story that Nadia was dating a Lexington. It was an even juicier story that the black sheep of the Holland family (that would be me) had accused her half brother of attempting to have her killed, and was now dating one of the wealthiest men in Boston.
Oh yeah, that was good tabloid fodder.
Not so good for my family.
To his credit, Grandpa had stood by me throughout the whole ordeal. Perhaps part of it was to make amends for his involvement in covering up Caine’s mother’s death, but I knew it was a difficult time for him because my grandmother had left him. Their relationship remained strained and distant up until Matthew’s hearing, where it was decided we had enough evidence against my brother to go to trial. My grandmother started to see sense then and she and my grandpa worked on patching things up.