All the Love in the World: A Holiday Anthology
Page 35
This man takes my breath away. He already owns my heart, I don’t need the air. He’s everything I need. Love, breath, life. He’s standing there, watching me and I’m watching him, pulled toward him like gravity and it’s everything I dreamed it would be and more.
I barely notice Claudia, Gemma and Jocelyn smiling and sniffling to one side of him, nor do I see Mateo’s groomsmen, Alberto and Warren, not even when Josh leaves me to stand beside them.
All I can do is gaze into Mateo’s dark, shining eyes and feel every ounce of blood in my veins throb with big, real love.
“We have gathered here today,” the officiant says in English. “To bear witness of the love between Mateo Casalles and Vera Miles, to see God bring them together in holy matrimony.” He goes on before switching to Spanish and repeating the same thing all over again for the Spanish speakers in the crowd.
I’m not listening. Mateo isn’t either. He’s holding onto my hands, staring into my soul and making a home there. I’m nervous, shaking a bit, afraid to look at the crowd, worried how I might look, wary of the cameras that click away and yet his eyes hold me in place. They soothe my fears. They fill me with love until the world fades away.
It’s like this for the whole ceremony. I know the minister makes a few jokes, people laugh, Mateo and I smile in response, but really we’re smiling at each other at how lucky we are to be here.
And then it comes time for the vows. We wrote our own and I’m so nervous I can barely remember mine. Thankfully mine are short, for this very reason, though I have no idea what Mateo’s will be.
I clear my throat, it feels thick and muddled, and square my shoulders.
“Mateo,” I tell him, my voice quivering. “When I first came up with the idea that we should do our own vows, I regretted it moments later. Because I knew that no matter what I said to you, it could never express the way that I really feel. It could never tell you what you truly mean to me. And, well, I knew you’d come up with something a million times better.” I grin and pause and as I had hoped there are a few chuckles from the crowd. Everyone who knows Mateo knows what an emotional, sensitive and romantic man he is. I’ve got nothing on him.
Still, I continue. “So I’ll only say that I love you, more than I can ever tell you or show you, more than I can even understand. It’s this love for you that governs every thing I do, every thought I have. It controls me, moves me, in the best possible way. Because I’m beyond lucky to love you and have your love and I promise that no matter what happens, through good times and bad, I will do whatever I can to be the best wife I can be, to honor our love and commitment. You’re mine and I am yours and nothing will ever change that.”
Beside me I can hear Claudia sniffing loudly and I try and drown the noises out of my thoughts because I’m close to crying, my voice nearly breaking up over those last words. Jeez, this whole vow thing was harder than I thought it would be. I’m not the best at public speaking but at least I managed to say everything I meant to.
“Vera,” Mateo says, watery-eyed, and just my name on his lips nearly makes me crumble to my knees. He holds my hands tighter, strength and warmth flowing through me. He clears his throat. “Vera, I also feared this vows, mainly because I would have to say them in English and we both know how things get…lost in translation sometimes.” He looks briefly to the crowd. “One of my very first English lessons with her was to learn that getting buzzed had nothing to do with bees.” The audience titters at that and even I giggle at the flashback.
“But I decided it would only make my English stronger, to stand up here in front of friends and family and tell the world how much you mean to me. And to tell you, because even though I know that you know how I feel, it can’t hurt to hear it again.” He takes in a deep breath, his eyes latching onto mine again. “Vera Miles, from the moment I first saw you I knew that we were fated to belong together. It was never something I understood before that moment, the concept of fate, that there was something written in the stars. But then I looked at you, into your eyes like I’m doing right now, and I saw the stars. I saw us in them. I saw a whole future I never thought possible. And throughout the ups and downs, the endless challenges, the setbacks and fears, I never stopped thinking about that, believing in it as I believed in my love for you. That we are meant to be. That thought alone got me through many trying times, as you can imagine, yes?”
I nod, the tears welling in my eyes already and threatening to spill over.
He continues. “But I’ve come to realize lately that it is more than just a love written in the stars. Our love is the stars and beyond. It’s the universe and galaxies and the endless eternal. You see, the way I feel for you Vera is big. A love so big that it humbles me. A love too large for our hearts to contain, a love that exists beyond this world, out in the stars. We are not written in the stars, Vera, we are the stars. And I plan to sit beside you in the big, dark sky and shine on until the end of time.”
I can’t even see him, the tears are flowing and he’s a blur but I know he’s there. I can feel him inside me, beside my expanding, racing heart. I feel like I’m going to burst and turn into rivers of hot champagne, bubbly and joyous and alive. So fucking alive!
And while all this is going on, while I’m hanging onto my love for dear life and sniffling and feeling everything there is to feel, the rings are being brought out and the minister is saying something and suddenly I’m saying: “I do.”
The ring slips over my finger and when it settles, I feel whole.
I slip his ring on his finger and when it settles, he feels it too.
Two wholes, two stars. Burning eternally.
“I now pronounce you man and wife,” the minister says, repeating the same in Spanish. “You may kiss the bride.”
He doesn’t have to translate that one.
There’s no need.
Mateo places a hand at my cheek and leans in, his lips enveloping mine, sealing the deal, sealing our hearts together. We are fused, we are one, we are everything.
“Mrs. Casalles,” he whispers to me, lips at my ear. “I will love you my Estrella, until the sun burns out and we are the only two left in the sky. And I will love you beyond that. Always and for eternity.”
Fuck.
I am the luckiest woman in the universe.
Then he raises my hand to his lips, kisses it, and then raises it to the crowd for everyone to see.
Everyone is standing up, cheering, clapping and that’s when I notice each person. My mother and Mercedes, actually smiling. The entire team of Atletico Madrid with wild, enthusiastic applause. Mateo’s parents and sister. And Chloe Ann sitting beside her mother. Wait a minute? Even Isabel is here?
But before my heart has a chance to do anything but fly, I see that Isabel is also smiling and clapping politely. She may or may not like that I’m the next Mrs. Casalles but the fact that she’s here, that she’s putting up a good front, means the entire world to me, especially when it comes to Chloe Ann.
Maybe, just maybe, everything’s going to be okay.
And then I remember I’m now married to Mateo Fucking Casalles.
Of course everything is going to be okay.
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About the Author
Karina Halle is a screenwriter, a former music & travel journalist, and the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of The Pact, A Nordic King, and Sins & Needles, as well as sixty other wild and romantic reads.
She, her musician husband, and the
ir adopted pit bull, Bruce, live in a rainforest on an island off the coast of British Columbia, where they operate Raven Ridge, a B&B that’s perfect for writers’ retreats and romantic getaways.
In the winter, you can often find them in California or on their beloved island of Kauai, soaking up as much sun (and getting as much inspiration) as possible. For more information, visit www.authorkarinahalle.com/books.
Also by Karina Halle
Contemporary Romances
Love, in English
Love, in Spanish
Where Sea Meets Sky
Racing the Sun
The Pact
The Offer
The Play
Winter Wishes
The Lie
The Debt
Smut
Heat Wave
Before I Ever Met You
After All
Rocked Up
Wild Card (North Ridge #1)
Maverick (North Ridge #2)
Hot Shot (North Ridge #3)
Bad at Love
The Swedish Prince
The Wild Heir
A Nordic King
Nothing Personal
My Life in Shambles
The Royal Rogue
The Forbidden Man
Lovewrecked
One Hot Italian Summer
The One That Got Away
Romantic Suspense Novels by Karina Halle
Sins and Needles (The Artists Trilogy #1)
On Every Street (An Artists Trilogy Novella #0.5)
Shooting Scars (The Artists Trilogy #2)
Bold Tricks (The Artists Trilogy #3)
Dirty Angels (Dirty Angels #1)
Dirty Deeds (Dirty Angels #2)
Dirty Promises (Dirty Angels #3)
Black Hearts (Sins Duet #1)
Dirty Souls (Sins Duet #2)
Discretion (The Dumonts #1)
Disarm (The Dumonts #2)
Disavow (The Dumonts #3)
Horror Romance
Darkhouse (EIT #1)
Red Fox (EIT #2)
The Benson (EIT #2.5)
Dead Sky Morning (EIT #3)
Lying Season (EIT #4)
On Demon Wings (EIT #5)
Old Blood (EIT #5.5)
The Dex-Files (EIT #5.7)
Into the Hollow (EIT #6)
And With Madness Comes the Light (EIT #6.5)
Come Alive (EIT #7)
Ashes to Ashes (EIT #8)
Dust to Dust (EIT #9)
The Devil’s Duology
Donners of the Dead
Veiled