that he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
“I’m glad Rose Petal is doing well,” Carla said, pretending as if she was oblivious to Michelle’s sarcasm. “Thank heavens you thought to have me feed her before we wrestled me into this dress. This doesn’t exactly have an easy access panel for breastfeeding.”
“A failing of the wedding dress industry, to be sure.”
Carla was trying to decide if Michelle was being sarcastic or not – never a sure thing with her – when Keila opened the door. “Christian’s up at the front,” she whispered excitedly. Her friend had told her that she’d never been a bridesmaid before, and had taken to the role like fish to water. “You ready?”
Carla nodded, the butterflies going berserk in her belly. Despite the fact that there shouldn’t be enough room inside of her support garments for an ant to do the conga, butterflies were somehow doing a hell of a lot more than that.
“Is Dad out there?”
“Sure am, dear,” he said from the hallway. “Are you decent?”
“I am,” she said with a light laugh. She was supposed to be walking down the aisle in just minutes. If she wasn’t dressed by this point, she would’ve been in deep trouble. “You can come in.”
Her dad peered cautiously around the door frame as if he somehow thought she might be lying about her state of undress, and then sucked in a quick breath. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered, and dabbed at the corners of his eyes with the sleeve of his suit as he came over and gave her a delicate hug, clearly afraid he was going to mess something up. “Well, my dear, are you ready?”
She nodded and slipped her hand inside the crook of his arm. Michelle, Autumn, and Keila got matched up with their escorts, and the processional music started. She watched her friends disappear through the open door and into the chapel with trembling lips. She’d always been one to cry at weddings, but she was beginning to realize that she was a hundred times worse at her own wedding.
She scooped up her bouquet from the side table – a giant draping concoction of every one of her favorite flowers – and together, they moved to the doorway into the chapel.
At the sight of her, the organist quit playing, the guests stood, and the haunting bars of Storybook Love began to play through the PA system.
Come, my love, I’ll tell you a tale
Of a boy and girl and their love story
Willy DeVille’s voice, singing the iconic theme song from The Princess Bride, rang through the chapel as Carla slowly moved up the aisle. Her dad was snuffling loudly now, as were most of the guests. Carla saw Iris, her brilliant red hair unmistakable, snuggled against Declan, her basketball of a stomach sticking out in front of her. She was due in a month, but looked ready to pop at any moment. She was rubbing her hands across her protruding stomach idly as she watched Carla. She looked up and caught Carla’s eye, and for a moment, Carla was sure her friend was going to break down into tears of joy. Iris blew her a quick kiss and Carla gave her a tremulous smile, her lips quivering.
It was happening.
A movement to her right caught her eye and Carla looked over to see her mother-in-law, María, waving Rosie’s chubby hand in the air. Carla’s arms ached to hold her baby again – she didn’t think she’d been away from her daughter for this long since her birth eight weeks ago – but she knew she was safe in the arms of María. True to her word, María had kicked her brother-in-law to the curb, and hadn’t wavered in her pronouncement that he’d never step foot inside of their house again. Enraged, Nicolás had moved out of state, wanting to make his older brother pay by refusing to spend time in his company any longer.
Not a single fistfight had broken out at a Palacios dinner since then. Funny how that worked.
She said, “Don’t you know that storybook loves
Always have a happy ending?”
And then she looked at the head of the aisle where Christian stood in his tux, his hair slicked back, looking more formal than he ever had before, and probably ever would again. Gone was her cowboy who could wrestle a calf into the dirt, give it a booster shot, and send it on its way quicker than Carla could decide which earrings to wear that day.
In his stead was a quiet, somber, beautiful man. His face was alight with a beaming smile that made Carla’s heart take wing. How was it that this gorgeous being, inside and out, wanted to marry her?
She didn’t know, but she’d stopped asking a long time ago, lest he start to question that fact also.
My love is like a storybook story
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel
The last strains of the haunting music died away, and the Catholic priest cleared his throat. For just a moment, Carla thought he was going to say, “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today,” but he didn’t. She’d asked him months ago if he would, of course, but he’d refused.
Turned out, Catholic priests didn’t think that a lifelong obsession with a movie was a reason for them to impersonate John Malkovich.
Life couldn’t be perfect, she supposed.
After her father gave her away to Christian and Keila took her bouquet to hold during the ceremony, she moved to kneel next to Christian, hands clasped together as they listened to the priest read with total solemnity from the Old Testament.
She felt Christian give her hand a gentle squeeze, and she peeked at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Mawage,” Christian mouthed. “Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today.”
With a suppressed giggle, Carla looked forward again.
Maybe, life could be perfect after all.
Author’s Note
Wiping away a sniffly tear…
Bloom of Love took longer for me to write than any other book of mine, by a looonnngggg shot. Exactly 18 months passed between my last book (Strummin’ Up Love) and the release of this one. It was never my intent to take this blasted long to write Carla and Christian’s love story, but in my defense, 2020 was 12 of those 18 months, so… *shrug* Need I say more?
I begged, borrowed, and stole ideas from a plethora of people in my life to bring Carla and Christian’s love story to life, so please bear with me for just a moment as I give my little Oscar speech.
Thank you to Iris and Matt for showing me what true love was. Only that could entice a guy to get allergy shots so he could move in with his girlfriend…and all of her cats.