“I love it.” I’d known the second I’d laid eyes on it; it was the one. I hadn’t even tried any others. We found each other and it was meant to be.
Just like Nicco and me.
“Okay, now all that’s left is your something borrowed and something blue.” Nora approached me, a small silver and sapphire hair pin. She leaned over me, sliding it into my hair. Before flinging an ivory and lace garter at me.
“Nora!” My cheeks flushed
“What? It’s tradition. Tell her.” She looked to my mom and Genevieve who nodded.
“La giarrettiera.” Genevieve winked.
“Thank you.” I choked out over the lump in my throat.
“And something new.” Alessia approached me next, a small jewelry box in her hand. “Nicco wanted me to give this to you.” She flipped the lid, revealing a silver bangle. “Can I?”
I nodded, desperately fighting the emotion swelling inside me.
“It’s says, ‘tu mi completi’.”
“You complete me,” my mom sighed. “So romantic. My turn.” She advanced toward me. “You can’t walk down the aisle without your something old. It was my mother’s, and hers before that.” She lifted the small butterfly brooch and slid it into place on my dress. “Vola in alto, farfella mia.”
Fly free, my butterfly.
“Mom…”
She wiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry, for everything. But today, this is your day, Arianne.”
“Damn right,” Nora added, cutting the heavy tension. “And Nicco is going to die when he sees you.”
“Hopefully he won’t,” strained laughter spilled from my lips, “I kind of like having him around.”
We were currently living in the apartment in my father’s building. Nora had officially moved back to the dorms, but unofficially, she still stayed over a lot. I think we both knew once today was over, everything would change, so we were clinging onto each other for as long as possible. Nicco didn’t seem to mind. In fact, more often than not, it was his idea to invite her over. Sometimes Matteo came too. Alessia even stopped by on the odd occasion. But never Enzo.
“We have five minutes before Allegra shows up and starts barking orders.”
Allegra was the wedding coordinator, but Nora liked to call her Bitchzilla.
“Be nice,” I said. “It’s her job.”
Genevieve ushered the girls over to the door, arming them with their posies. Nora would walk in first with Tristan, and Alessia would follow with Matteo. Then I would enter while Enzo waited upfront with Nicco.
God, I couldn’t wait to see him. It felt like it had been days when it had been a little under twenty-four hours.
“Did he come?” I asked my mother, but her grim expression told me all I needed to know.
“He loves you very much, Arianne, but this has been hard on him.”
“He made his choice.” I stuffed down my feelings toward my father for another time.
Nothing would ruin today.
I’d made my choice just as he had made his.
“You should know he loves you very much, Arianne, we both do. Gosh, sweetheart, this is it. The first day of the rest of your life. Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?”
“I have never been more certain of anything.”
She gave me a small nod.
“It is showtime,” Allegra’s voice rang out down the hall. “Grazie a Dio, you look sensational. Niccolò is going to stop breathing.”
“Can we please stop with all the death jokes?” I gave her a tight smile.
“You remember your walk, no?”
I nodded.
“One, two, together. One, two, together... We keep our heads up and our eyes forward.”
Nora caught my eye and pulled a face.
I smothered a laugh. “I think we’ve got it,” I said, trying to placate Allegra who took her job very seriously.
“Of course you have got it.” She clapped her hands together, sending my heart into a tailspin. “Let’s go get your man.” Allegra marched out of the room in the same whirlwind she'd arrived in.
“She’s really something,” Nora chuckled as we met at the door. I inhaled a shaky breath and she frowned. “Nervous?”
“Yes, and excited.” There were a hundred butterflies in my stomach. “I just want to get to him.”
“I’m so proud of you, Ari.” She air-kissed my cheek. “Now let’s go get your guy.”
The Blackstone Suite was filled with one hundred of our closest friends and family. Really, they were mostly Nicco’s aunts and uncles, but I’d been shown more love and acceptance from these people in the last month than I had my whole life.
I spotted Michele and his wife, Marcella; Matteo’s sister, Arabella, beside them. The Boston family sat behind. Dane must have felt us standing beyond the