by Dale Mayer
It wasn’t even eleven yet, but it was obviously a big deal. He turned to look for Stone, wanting the reassurance of those gaudy Hawaiian shorts. But when Stone showed up again, his best friend wore a smile on his face and a tux on his shoulders. Levi said, “What the hell, man? I didn’t even know you could look like that.”
“Not only can I look like this,” Stone said, “but you’re not getting away without having a best man.”
“There’s nobody I’d rather have.”
“Well, too bad,” Stone said, “because you’re getting three of us.”
Just then Merk walked up, also dressed in a tux and a matching but slightly different-colored cummerbund. And right beside him, walking slowly with crutches, was Rhodes. He gave Levi a crooked grin. “You didn’t think I would miss this, did you?”
Levi choked up as he looked at the men who had followed him into battle for years. “You know something? This is not a battle I ever thought I would win, but it still feels like I want to have the best men at my side while I forge this path. You’ve had my back all these years. Today is no different.”
“We’re no longer guarding your back,” Rhodes said, with a calm carelessness that just barely showed the emotions he struggled to keep contained. “We’re here to support your back. This is a day very long overdue.”
Chapter 14
Ice couldn’t believe how much fun this was. She was actually enjoying herself instead of being completely stressed and overwhelmed by all the arrangements and panicking to make her wedding perfect. Instead she was relaxed, happy and allowing all her friends to look after her. They finally had her stand up and strip down to slowly redress her, starting with brand-new silky underwear—and not a whole lot of that. She was asked to close her eyes as they gently lifted something over her head, careful to avoid her hair, and slipped it down over her shoulders. When she was finally zipped up in the back, she opened her eyes to see stunned looks on everybody around her. She looked at them and said, “Is it that bad?”
“No,” Bailey said in a harsh whisper. “It’s that good. You’re gorgeous.”
Bailey led her to the mirror on the back of the door, so Ice could see herself fully for the first time.
The Viking warrior had been transformed into a Viking princess—tall, her hair curled and hanging down in simple spirals, yet sophisticated with ice-blue ribbons braided throughout, two beautiful orchids somehow sitting off to the side behind one ear. Then her dress of white with tiny, tiny ice-blue jewels of some kind and little bits of ribbon ringlets down one side. The skirt was full but parted as she walked to show off a short ice-blue underskirt. She stood in amazement as tears collected, then ran down her cheeks.
The women rushed to her. “Oh, my God, do you hate it?” Bailey cried.
In response, Ice reached out, grabbed Bailey and hugged her hard. “It’s beautiful,” she bawled. “Oh, my God, it’s so beautiful.”
Ice had no idea that a dress like this existed. It was long and lean and flowed from her hips, giving her room to walk and to do everything she felt she would always need to do, yet she looked like the most innocent of brides. She stared at the dream look in front of her and whispered, “I can’t believe it.”
“Well, I hope you can,” Bailey said, “because we mulled over this for a long time, trying to find something that would work. And honestly, Alfred gave us all your measurements.”
“That’s not something I want to dwell on,” she said, laughing. “But he does order my combat clothes, so it would make sense.” She slowly twirled the bottom half of the dress, causing it to flow outward, loving the tiny ice-blue panels that peeked as she moved. She said, “It’s absolutely beautiful.”
“Good,” the women all said, standing back.
And then Ice realized half of them were getting ready to leave. “Is it time to go?” she said anxiously.
The women shook their heads and said, “We’ll be back in a little bit.” Six slipped out.
Ice looked over at Bailey and said, “Are you getting dressed?”
“Yes, but I have to make sure the kitchen is ready too. I’ll probably be the last one,” she said, laughing.
“I can’t just sit here all on my own,” Ice said. “That’s so not me. You know I’ll go outside to see if I can help set up anything.”
At that, the women still here stopped and looked at her.
“You have to promise us,” Bailey said quietly, “that you will not leave this room until we come and get you.”
Ice stared at Bailey and the others for a long moment and then slowly sank back in place. “Fine,” she whispered. “I promise.” At that, everybody disappeared.
As she went out, Bailey said, “I’ll be back in a moment.”
Finally alone for the first time in what seemed like hours, Ice got up and walked over to the mirror, where she could really take a look at the dress and her face, the makeup slightly damaged from the tears but overall … breathtaking. Her hair was spun gold. She didn’t understand how the women did it, and, even though Ice was never one to spend time worrying about looks, she looked gorgeous.
She was astonished and overwhelmed with joy. She turned this way and that, checking out her figure in the dress and how it would look. The room was awash in discarded papers and packages. She spent the next few minutes tidying up so that at least, when she came back after the wedding, she could get changed into something more casual.
Then she saw another dress hanging off to the side. It was short, sassy and would barely reach the bottom of her butt. It was a similar ice-blue but with white trim this time, obviously a cocktail dress for afterward.
She smiled as she held it up and whispered, “Well, guys, you really do know me.” She was stunned with joy. On impulse, she picked up her phone and sent Levi a text. I love you.
Ice smiled as she put the phone down on the table. She needed to do that. They’d been at a lot of crosscurrents lately because she’d been out of sorts herself. With good reason. Now that she knew. And she would have to tell him the news sometime.
But she didn’t know when. Or how. She heard vehicles arriving. The sounds outside started to swell, and she realized she had never once considered that maybe more people were coming. At the thought, her mind raced, thinking about all the extra people they could have invited and realized there could be hundreds and hundreds, depending on how far people were willing to come from. That was enough to scare her too, but she couldn’t do a lot now except sit here and wait until somebody came back to free her from her room. With a smile on her face, she picked up a notepad and wrote Levi a letter.
She let all her love pour out on the page. Her fears. Her worries. Her thoughts for the future and the very important thing she needed to tell him at the bottom. She folded the sheet of paper and placed it on his pillow.
Then she realized yet something else. What about vows? Were they doing traditional vows? Were they doing nontraditional vows? She was a very nontraditional person, and so was Levi, yet in so many ways they were traditional. Now she had something new to worry about. She sat back down again, hard.
When her phone buzzed, she picked it up to see Levi had sent her a heart and the same words back. She smiled and placed her phone down. A moment later, Bailey entered with Katina, Lissa and Sienna.
“Thirty minutes,” they announced, and Ice stopped and stared at them.
“Wow, those are gorgeous dresses,” Ice said.
“They are,” the three announced, grinning.
“You see? We all wanted to be bridesmaids, the same as everyone wanted to be best man,” Sienna said. “But we chose three.”
“And so, if you’re okay,” the other three said together, “we’re your three bridesmaids to go with our best men.”
Ice stared, her jaw dropping. “I didn’t even think of that. I’ve been sitting here worrying about the vows,” she said, her gaze going to Bailey, who was also dressed up in a gorgeous champagne-colored dress. She opened her arms to hug each of them in a m
assive group hug and said, “I’ll start bawling again.”
“Which is why we didn’t touch up your makeup earlier,” Bailey said. She brushed away her own tears and said, “You have no idea how much joy this gave us, that we could do this for you.”
Ice shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I seriously can’t believe it. I want to run downstairs and grab Levi and race to the altar, and yet I know there’s this process. I just don’t know what the process is.”
“I know,” Bailey said, “but we have a program, and we’ll go over it with you now.”
At the sound of “program,” Ice’s heart dropped. “There’s so much I don’t know,” she said. “There’s so much I’ll get wrong.”
“There’s nothing to get wrong,” Bailey said. “The part you had to get right, you got right. You love Levi, and Levi loves you. Finished, amen.”
Ice took a deep, calming breath and nodded. “That’s correct,” she said. “That’s the most important part.”
With that, Bailey sat down on the bed. With the other women listening, she went over how they would do the walk to the altar outside by the pool and then the ceremony itself with Levi. And, yes, they would do vows, but they were to be simple vows.
They would have some traditional questions and then it would be the exchanging of rings.
Ice gasped and said, “But I don’t have one for Levi.”
“No,” they said, “but that’s taken care of too.”
Ice shook her head. “Oh, good Lord.”
All the details she hadn’t had a chance to worry about, they had taken off her shoulders. She just stared at them all in awe.
Bailey patted her knee and said, “Forget about it. It’s done. When you’re finally married, we’ve planned a huge reception for the rest of the day and the rest of the night. Then, if you and Levi want to take off tomorrow for a couple days privately, we’ll make sure one of the helicopters is fully loaded and ready to go.”
At that, Ice started to laugh. “That would be perfect,” she said. “I have to think about a place to go.”
They all nodded. “We thought of all these places. If you pick one now, we’ll make arrangements so you have a room to stay in.”
At the top of the list was one of her and Levi’s favorite places. Ice tapped it. “That one.”
“Tonight or tomorrow?”
She thought about it and said, “Tomorrow, after we get to enjoy all of today and tonight.”
“Okay,” Bailey said. “But we’ll let them know ahead of time you might want to come in early.”
“Maybe,” Ice said, “but with so many of my friends here, maybe not.”
“Good point.” Sienna took off with the list, and Katina came over and said, “Now let’s take care of that makeup.”
With her eyes deliberately not on the mirror, they touched up her makeup, and, when Sienna returned a few minutes later, she said, “That’s all done. The arrangements are under Levi’s name.”
“Good,” Ice said, “and do they have a helicopter pad?”
“Ready and waiting,” Sienna said, laughing.
“It’s not the most common getaway vehicle,” Ice said with a wry smile.
“But it’s very much you,” Sienna said, “so don’t worry about it.”
“Right,” she said.
Just then a knock came at the door. Ice opened it to see Alfred standing there with her father. Ice immediately reached out to pat Alfred’s arm and to mouth Thank you.
Her father took one look, and tears came to his eyes. “Oh, my word,” he said, “you are so beautiful.”
She threw her arms around his shoulders and said, “I’m so glad you are here.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said. “You and Levi were always meant to be together. Now, if you’re ready, we need to go down and get in position.”
He wore a matching ice-blue tie to go with her colors too. She reached over, kissed him gently on the cheek and slipped her arm through his. And, with everybody surrounding her, they led the way down to the kitchen and the room off the big deck that led to the pool level. Her father said, “We’re going out this way, so everybody can see.”
She shook her head. “I am so nervous.”
“You are,” he said, “and that’s good. Have you told him yet?”
She stiffened and looked at him and said, “Of course you know, don’t you?”
“Sweetheart, I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been wanting to be a grandfather for a long time.”
“Levi doesn’t know,” she whispered, hurriedly looking around. “No one does. Hell, I barely found out for sure.”
“No. But I’m sure you’ll tell him soon enough.”
She nodded and smiled. “Maybe tonight.”
“It’d probably be a good idea to wait at least until tomorrow, I think,” he said. “Enough shocks for today.”
She laughed at that. In the distance, she heard the music start.
“I wonder what music they chose,” she said with amusement. “I have a lot of songs I like but not that I particularly love.”
“I think they decided something about you was very traditional,” he said, and, sure enough, there came the wedding march.
Ice gasped and shook her head. “How can I laugh and cry at the same time?” she whispered. “I’m so confused by everything they did, and yet I’m so absolutely grateful to miss out on all those preparations.”
“Here we go.” The three bridesmaids arranged themselves in front with the shortest first followed by the next in height. They went down the wide set of stairs that led to the pool, and Ice watched as they headed off at the bottom with Alfred waiting and giving the timing.
As the last one went, her father leaned over and whispered, “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” she whispered, “as ready as I’ll ever be.” And slowly they moved down the stairs and around the corner. Gasps and cheers came from hundreds of people. Her eyes flitted across the crowd in a daze. “Good Lord, how many are here?” she whispered.
“Over three hundred,” her father said quietly. “You’re very well-loved. You should know that.”
She couldn’t even see half of the faces, but she knew they were there, smiling back at her. She saw so many she knew, and damned if Badger and Kat weren’t here too. Her gaze just kept flying across the guests’ faces as she tried to glance anywhere but up ahead.
Finally her father squeezed her arm and said gently, “You might want to look at Levi.”
She turned her gaze to see the love of her life and the man of her dreams standing at the end by the altar, waiting for her. Dressed in a tux, his colors matching hers, he stood with the three men behind, their best friends, who’d been such a big part of their lives for so long.
Perfect.
“I can’t believe it,” she murmured.
“Yeah, do you see the ring bearers though?” her father asked drily. “Apparently the guys have been working on that one for a long time.” And there were two of the roly-poly pups, both side by side in a harness, and between them was a cushion with a ring box. The two pups slowly walked in front of her and behind the bridesmaids.
Ice could hear everybody oohing and aahing as the two puppies walked by, their tails wagging as they got up to Levi. They were ordered to come around Levi and to stand beside the minister, who she didn’t recognize until she got closer and realized it was Foster, a longtime friend and her father’s right-hand man. She stared at him in surprise, tears in the corner of her eyes as the man who’d been there for her and her father through thick and thin waited for her.
He smiled and said, “I’d always planned to do this.”
Ice looked at Levi, and her father handed her off. As Levi’s arm reached out for her, as she had so many times in the past, she reached back, grateful to know he was the only one for her.
And then the minister, one of her best and oldest friends, stepped forward and said, “We are gathered here today …”
When the cere
mony was over, the ring on her finger to match her engagement ring, and Diamond standing there as part of the crowd, Ice didn’t know if she should be smiling or crying. But she was held tight against Levi as the crowd cheered. She finally stepped back a little bit to look up at him, whispering, “I never thought this day would come.”
“I knew it would, just not when,” he said. He kissed her gently again, then looped his arm with hers, lifted a hand to wave and walked her back down the aisle. Alfred was waiting at the other side with a glass of champagne for them. They were then led to the reception area at the pool and were engulfed by friends and family. Hours later, Levi tucked her up close and whispered, “Are you happy?”
“I couldn’t be happier,” she whispered.
“Well, maybe,” he said, “down the road, when you have that child you always wanted in your arms. I know that’s the final goal to happiness in your life.”
She stopped, took the champagne from his hand and handed it off to whomever was close. Then, with everybody watching, she picked up Levi’s hand and placed it on her belly. He stared at her, uncomprehending, then his jaw dropped.
She smiled and said, “Thanks for marrying me, Daddy.”
And the place erupted in cheers.
Levi picked her up, twirled her around several times, then slowly, gently lowered her to her feet and kissed her passionately. She hadn’t lied …
She’d never been happier.
Epilogue
Johan walked through the compound’s huge kitchen area, snagged a cinnamon bun, poured himself a cup of coffee, and walked to where a large group of Legendary Security members sat around in a circle, talking. As he took the last seat, Nico looked at him, grinned, and said, “You’ll get fat if you keep eating like that.”
Johan nodded sagely. “You could be right,” he said, “but I’ll worry about it later. These are too damn good to miss out on.”
“Those are Bailey’s cinnamon buns,” Kai said. “They’re to die for.”
