At one point Tyler grabbed a microphone and—after the squeal of feedback—he asked for everyone’s attention. He started off congratulating Angie and Evan, talking about how they were always meant to be together, and generally delighting the crowd.
“But enough about them,” he said. “I have an announcement to make, and it seems to me that a wedding is the perfect venue.” Beside him, Sloane was turning a little bit pink, which I found both baffling and amusing since she very rarely blushes.
“Earlier today, I asked Sloane to be my wife and she did me the honor of saying yes. Thank you,” he added in response to the burst of applause. “But I have to add that Evan is no longer the luckiest man here today. He has to share that title with me.”
“Why not?” someone called from the crowd. “You guys share everything. For that matter, where’s Cole?” At which point all eyes turned to find me—not Cole—and I felt my cheeks turning even more red than Sloane’s.
Fortunately that’s when the staff called everyone back into the pavilion, which now overflowed with food and wine and wonderful music from a band playing softly in the far corner.
I hung back a bit, trying to find Cole, who’d gotten sucked away into the crowd when we’d all been herded outside. I couldn’t find him, so I re-entered the pavilion, hoping to see him there. I didn’t—not at first—but I did see Sloane. She was on the dance floor in Tyler’s arms, and her face was alight, as if candles warmed her from within. She caught my eye, and her smile grew even broader. She lifted her hand, pointed toward the ring, and mouthed diamond district, then laughed like a child as her newly minted fiancé twirled her into his arms and kissed her hard in the middle of the dance floor.
And then the other dancers parted, and there he was. Cole. He was watching them as well, his expression both wistful and happy. He must have felt the weight of my gaze, because after a moment, he turned and his eyes immediately found mine. For a moment, there was no one else in the world but us. Then he smiled, and the spell was broken, but that was okay. I could handle the rest of the world just fine, because I had this man.
He ignored the dancers and cut across the dance floor, taking the shortest route to my side. “Someday,” he said. He took my hand and gazed at me with such longing it made me tremble. “Someday you will make a beautiful bride.”
My heart skipped a beat or two, but before I could think about his words—before I could process them, or even allow myself to wonder if he truly meant what I hoped he meant—he’d swept me onto the dance floor as well, and we were lost in the music and the crowd and the gaiety of the moment.
Happy. Such a simple word, but it packed so much punch. That was how I felt with Cole.
There were so many other emotions as well, of course. Desire, lust, need, discovery, hunger, tenderness. And on and on.
But at the core, he made me happy, and the thought was so huge, so powerful, that it propelled me through the rest of the evening.
I was still grinning foolishly hours later, after the cake had been eaten and the stretch limo had whisked Evan and Angie away to begin their fantasy honeymoon. I was standing there, hugging myself near the champagne fountain when Damien and Nikki came up to say goodbye.
“I wish we could stay longer,” Nikki said. “We’d love to spend more time with you and Cole, and I’ve barely seen any of Chicago. But maybe some other time.”
“We’d love it,” I said sincerely.
Damien gave me a kiss on the cheek, and I noticed the looks of awe and jealousy from some of the other female guests who’d been surreptitiously taking photos with their phones all evening. “You better be careful,” I said wryly, “or that’s going to end up on Facebook.”