surprise off his face as he looked at his brother, a silent question in his eyes.
Rus, who didn’t seem bothered in the slightest of the attention now on him, shrugged. “My tastes aren’t singular.”
Kaz wasn’t touching that.
Not even a little.
What his brother chose to do—or rather who he chose to do—was his business.
“Let me walk you to your seat, Mama,” Kaz said offering her his arm.
Once the doors opened, revealing the winter wonderland on the other side, the guests stood. It was only after he walked his mother to the front of the aisle did Kaz go back to make his rounds, making sure he spoke to every single person in the room.
Then he went back to the front of the room, his hands in his pockets, and waited.
“Oh, here let me fix that,” Vera said, batting Violet’s hand away from her face.
Quickly, Vera pinned the birdcage veil back in place properly, bent down to fluff the bottom of Violet’s gown, and then stood straight with a wink.
“Smile, Violet.”
She did, staring beyond Vera to the closed double doors that separated Violet from her present and her future.
A blissful one, surely.
An uncertain one, maybe.
But it was there.
And maybe she wanted to pull the doors open before it was time.
“You good?” Vera asked. “I’m going to go grab my seat with Ma.”
Violet nodded. “Wonderful. I’m great.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you.”
Vera stilled, her fluttering fingers fixing the rose pinned at the shoulder of her dress. For a long second, the two women simply stared at one another.
Violet broke the silence. “For everything, Vera. I know you have reservations about—”
“You make him happy,” Vera interrupted softly. “The rest will work itself out. That is all that matters to me, Violet.”
She respected that more than Vera knew.
“Go grab your seat so we can get this started,” Violet said, grinning a little wider.
Almost time …
Vera fussed over Dina and Nika’s matching silk and chiffon gowns, making sure to tell them to behave. She then disappeared behind the double doors, taking special care not to let anyone see who was waiting behind them.
Still, Violet had managed a tiny peek.
Her heart stuttered in its beats, and her hands tightened around the bouquet of cream-colored roses she held.
While the nerves were heavy in her stomach, she knew it was more about the people who would be watching the wedding and ceremony than the day itself. She didn’t know them—barely any of them—and she had a slight clue that those who knew her had already formed opinions about her and Kaz and their day.
But … Kaz’s voice was louder than her nerves.
Enjoy your day.
You’re only getting married once.
Just thinking about Kaz was soothing to Violet—calming, even.
So all those worries she’d had leading up to their day and all the concerns eating at her and making her look over her shoulder suddenly drifted away.
She suspected they’d be back, but for that moment, they were gone.
This day wasn’t about those things—it was about them.
And they were far too good to be wrong.
Lifting her gaze back to the doors again, Violet waited. Shortly after, Canon in D began to play, the melody of the tune keyed by a pianist behind the double doors.
“Go,” Nika said.
Dina shot a wink over her shoulder and headed for the double doors. Like her older sister, Dina slipped through the doors without opening them too much and exposing Violet and Nika. Violet counted in her head—fifteen seconds exactly—and the tempo of the music changed at a specific point. Nika gave a fleeting smile over her shoulder and followed behind her sister.
Violet waited.
Even the sound of the music seemed to bleed away for those twenty or so seconds that she stood there waiting.
She’d always thought her father would be waiting with her at this point in her life, but strangely, she was happy that he wasn't.
He would never have given her those seconds in peace—those quiet moments just before those doors were pulled wide open.
She would have focused on whatever her father would have said, caught up in some strange mixture of happiness and sadness at being given away.
Instead, her attention was on the doors.
So when they opened, all she saw was Kaz.
She’d barely even heard the change in the piano, the melody changing from the previous song to another she’d chosen for her walk. She didn't really hear the sounds of guests standing from their chairs as she moved in full view, standing in the doorway.
The unfamiliar faces were simply blurs in her vision as she began to walk toward the