Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Caden smiled. “Lilibeth Elizabeth, will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Crying, I nodded my head. “Yes! Yes, nothing would make me happier!”
He took the ring out and reached for my left hand. He slipped it on, and we both stared at it. It was a perfect fit.
“How did you know my ring size?”
Caden stood. “I didn’t. This ring was my grandmother Nellie’s. She gave it to me a number of years ago.”
My head jerked up, and I almost asked if he’d proposed to Rachel with this ring. Instead, I bit my lip and focused on the ring. As usual, he read my mind.
“I didn’t use this ring when I asked Rachel. I’m not sure why, because I’d had it for years by then. Somehow…it didn’t feel right.”
When I looked back up at him, I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
“This ring, just like my heart, was made for you, Lili. The perfect fit only proves once again that you and I were meant for one another.”
I threw myself into his arms, causing him to take a few steps back. He managed to keep us both upright as he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight.
“I love you so much, Caden.”
Letting me go, he cupped my face in his hands. Our eyes locked, and he gave me that same smirk of a smile he gave me when we first met.
“Oh, I love you more, Flower Child.”
Laughing, I reached up and kissed him.
Lilibeth
The wedding was, of course, held at the very same spot where Caden had asked me to marry him. It was a small event, with family and close friends only. Ensley and Vivianne had thrown all their energy into helping me plan it. Honestly, they’d pretty much planned it all. Caden and I didn’t want to wait long to get married, so we set the date for October 6th. The leaves were changing, and the weather was still nice enough for an outdoor wedding.
When it was time to think about wedding gowns, Nellie had brought her gown over for me to see. When Vivianne took it out of the box it had been preserved in, we all gasped. It was a three-quarter-length gown of silk with a tulle overlay.
“Oh, try it on, Lilibeth!” Emeline said, as she rocked Jackson. Ensley was holding baby Nellie.
Looking at Vivianne, I asked, “Will you help me?”
“Of course!”
We’d taken the dress to my bedroom, where I’d slipped out of my clothes. Vivianne carefully lifted the dress over my outstretched hands, and we’d shimmied it down over my body.
We both just stared into the full-length mirror for a long moment.
“It fits like it was made for you,” Vivianne had said, smiling at me in the mirror.
I’d held up the engagement ring. “Just like the ring.”
Vivianne had blinked back tears. “Yes. Just like the ring.”
Now, standing and looking at myself in that same mirror, I had to place a hand over my stomach to calm the butterflies.
I lifted my arms as Emeline put the white belt around my waist. The top of the wedding dress had a scooped neckline, the white tulle that covered the entire dress draped elegantly over the tight-fitting bodice. The buttons weren’t in the back, but on the front.
“You look like you’ve stepped out of 1950’s movie,” Emeline said, her chin on my shoulder as she looked at me in the mirror. “One last touch.”
My mother walked up with a hatbox. She reached inside and pulled out a small, round hat that would be pinned to the side of my head. My hair had been done up the same way Nellie’s had been during her wedding. There were so many pins in my hair to keep the rolls in place, I wasn’t sure how we’d get them all out later. I was the picture of a 1950’s pinup girl, but in a wedding dress.
Once the hat was pinned on, I turned and looked again—and blinked back my tears. The hat had belonged to my grandmother, and it was the only thing she’d kept from her wedding. Mom didn’t know why my grandmother had kept the hat, but I was glad she did. It matched the wedding dress perfectly.
I reached up and felt the diamond pendants that my parents had given me last night. They’d also belonged to my grandmother, Rose, and had been worn on her wedding day, and my mother wore them on her wedding day. It was my something old. My something blue was an embroidered handkerchief that once belonged to Sarah Wilde, Caden’s great-great-grandmother. It was also my something borrowed.
Vivianne handed me a big box. “It’s a tradition in the Wilde family to give this gift to each bride.”
“What is it?” I asked, feeling like a kid in a candy store.