Both Dante and Mercedes couldn’t believe what they had accomplished in the last three months, but life ran smoothly and living together turned out to be a perfect arrangement.
Dante won the U.S. Open and is now number one in world in tennis. Mercedes made her world appearance as a talk show host and the revelation that M. McFadden was a woman.
Max and his company had everything in order for them to travel to tournaments as a couple, and she had organized her life to write on the road, forward everything to her brother and he would take care of her articles.
Dante and Mercedes’ brother, Max, stood at the altar with the priest, waiting for the Wedding March to begin. The groom and his best man and both of their fathers were dressed in white tails with red cummerbunds and a red rose in their lapels.
The mothers of the bride and groom were dressed in matching floor-length dark green silk suits with rhinestone buttons and wore gardenia corsages.
Dante took a deep breath when the music started and the violinist joined the pianist and he looked at Max, raising his eyebrows slightly, worried Mercedes wouldn’t show. Then his shoulders lowered and he smiled when Faith began walking down the white cloth carpet.
Max gave an almost silent cough when he watched Faith smiling at them. She was dressed in a floor-length dark red sheath with a split up the left leg that ended above the knee, and she carried a cascade of gardenias with a red rose in the center of the bouquet.
The moment Mercedes and her dad began their walk up the aisle toward the altar, Dante felt his chest fill with love and his cheeks blush.
He had chosen Mercedes to be his bride and still couldn’t get over the fact that she had fallen in love with him. He truly felt like the luckiest man on earth. Their eyes connected and he couldn’t move waiting for her father to give her away in marriage to him.
Everyone attending the wedding smiled and whispered sighs and oohs and ahs when Mercedes walked by. She was dressed in a sleeveless white satin full-length gown that hugged her body like it had been painted on her slim figure. The skirt melded into a short train that gathered on the floor behind her.
She carried a cascade of red roses with a gardenia in the center. Her hair was pulled back into a twist of curls. A veil was secured in her hair, covered her face to her bust line, and fell to her waist in the back.
There was a slight evening breeze as the sun began to set in the background. Mercedes and Dante couldn’t take their eyes off one another and Dante felt her hands tremble slightly when he professed his vows and said I do.
After the priest pronounced them man and wife, Dante lifted her veil over her head. And before the priest could say, “You may now kiss the bride,” Dante drew her close and put his arms around her and felt her bare skin, realizing for the first time that her gown was backless.
He whispered in her ear, “Don’t you have your dress on backward?”
Mercedes laughed and answered, between giggles, “No, Dante, this is not a scoop neckline!”
He hugged her closer and whispered, “We’ll see about that,” and they laughed together embracing one another.
The priest shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier couple, even though I’ve no idea what they said and have a feeling I shouldn’t ask. Dante, you may now kiss the bride.”
A word about the author…
Bette McNicholas is an author of fiction and non-fiction. She has created stories in historical fiction and romantic suspense. Love/Forty, her new contemporary novel, is a story with conflict and humor combined. Her stories focus on women who face and survive the difficulties in life they’ve been dealt.
After nearly twenty-five years of living in an empty nest, Bette and her husband now have a full house of seven in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. Bette enjoys reading, knitting, and writing!
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