CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“The last few months have been a nightmare,” Henry began. “And now I feel like I’m still dreaming because you’ve literally just offered me everything I’ve ever wanted. I’m afraid that any moment I’m going to wake up and realize you aren’t really here and that all of this is some kind of cruel joke.”
Henry had his head pressed against the floor, and his whole body was a tense bundle of nerves. Grace could only think of one thing to do because it looked as though he was about to cry. If he started shedding tears she and her hormones would join right in and they’d never be able to stop.
She reached down and pinched the back of his arm hard, hard enough to bruise a normal person. However, as a shifter Henry was anything but ordinary. He would heal far too rapidly for it to leave behind any lasting damage, but when he let loose a startled yelp Grace knew she’d achieved her goal all the same.
“Hey, what did you do that for?” Henry asked, rubbing his arm as he glanced up at her quizzically.
“Just proving to you that you’re awake. This isn’t a dream. I’m here. I love you. And yes, yes, yes, I want to marry you!”
The latter portion of Grace’s speech was muffled by tears, but they were the happy kind. She slid down to join him where he knelt on the floor, and then they started kissing. One thing would have easily led to another if Nanna hadn’t rapped loudly on the wall, startling the two of them apart.
“You’ll have more than enough time for all that later,” she said loudly, interrupting what had transitioned into a rather passionate make out session.
They both broke apart and gaped at the little old lady in stupefaction. Henry couldn’t help it when his bear let loose a warning rumbling sound in his chest. He was just as perturbed with his grandmother as his animal was.
“We have a wedding to plan, and not much time to do it in. I called your mother and gave her the heads up and the family should arrive any minute.”
Henry wanted nothing more than to sneak off with his woman so that he could make up for lost time and have his wicked way with her. But before he could act on his desires his mother knocked on the door and let herself in.
The look on Grace’s face when his mother hugged her warmly and then thrust a thick stack of bridal magazines into her arms had been so unmistakably rapturous that he’d immediately put a cork in it and sat down beside his soon-to-be bride on the ancient sofa. There was no way in hell he was going to come between his mate and the wedding of her dreams.
His family was like an army of worker ants. The moment he or Grace voiced an opinion on a cake or a flower someone would rush off to another room, phone in hand to place an order. When someone from the bridal boutique arrived with a rack full of maternity wedding gowns all of the men were cleared from the room, including Henry who had thrown an enormous fuss until his father had slapped him on the back and reminded Henry that he wouldn’t have to share her with anyone else on the honeymoon.
“And it’s bad luck to see the bride in the wedding dress before the wedding,” his mother shouted after them.
When Michelle walked in on the heels of the seamstress all the talking ceased and it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Then without warning Michelle was sobbing and apologizing for her big fat mouth and shortly after that Grace was hugging her and assuring her that “of course she forgave her” and “obviously they were still sisters and best friends.”
“You’re just in time to pick out your maid of honor dress,” Grace gushed warmly, patting the seat beside her where Henry had been sitting up until the point where all the boys had been kicked outside in the cold.
Parker retreated outdoors to join the other men as soon as he was certain that Michelle and Grace were okay, releasing a relieved breath. It had been a rough few months watching his mate blame herself endlessly for running her friend off, and for her horrible bout of verbal diarrhea.
“I’d like to throw you a baby shower when you get back from your honeymoon,” Michelle said after a while. Part of her was still wondering if she’d be shot down, or if she’d truly been forgiven. But she needn’t have worried, because grace was one characteristic her friend had in abundance.
“I’d love that, although I don’t know if anyone will come.”
Nanna had been sitting right across from the two women and therefore had been shamelessly eavesdropping as she kept up a nice rhythm in her wooden rocking chair.
“Look around you and pay close attention. There isn’t a single person here that doesn’t love you, Henry, and that precious baby you’re about to bring into the world. I know it was different for you in the past, but you have a real family now,” Nanna said with feeling.
“And a clan,” Parker interrupted, coming to stand beside Nanna.
Grace began tearing up and Parker gave her a big brotherly hug before disappearing back outside where the men were working to erect a large tent. Thanks to a commercial grade generator and a series of heaters, they had the space toasty warm in no time, and after that they moved on to setting up row upon row of folding chairs.
When the flowers began to arrive from different nurseries in other nearby towns, members of the clan jumped in to help decorate until every single surface was accented with bright pink carnations. Meanwhile, inside the house, women from the local beauty parlor were curling Grace’s hair and doing her nails and makeup with stern admonishments that she was not to cry again.
The bridal party was small. Parker was the best man, and Henry’s dad was going to marry them because he’d already gone through the process of being ordained for a friend’s wedding. The boys changed into their tuxes inside the tent while the caterers staged food and tables in a smaller tent, ready to transition for the reception portion of the evening.
Grace stared at herself in the antique mirror in Nanna’s room with disbelieving eyes. Could that beautiful woman really be her? All the clan’s members had their phones out to capture the special moments. Half of them had been assigned the task of taking videos that would be professionally edited later, and the rest were taking still photos with various filters.
“I didn’t think it was possible to put together a wedding in one day,” Grace murmured softly. Someone handed her a lovely bouquet of pink carnations, baby’s breath, and miniature red roses. It was exactly what she’d longed for from the flowers right down to the pale pink and white ribbon trailing from the end.
“Anything is possible when you set your mind to it,” Nanna said, squeezing her hand tightly as she prepared to walk her down the aisle. Only in her nightmares would she allow her biological father that honor. Nanna was the only person she’d wanted by her side during the most important walk of her life, well and Henry of course.
“And when you have a real family,” Grace whispered reverently, her eyes taking in the endless line of cars parked willy nilly all over Nanna’s extensive property.
There was a giant table situated outside of the tent and it was heaped with beautifully wrapped wedding presents. Suddenly it made sense why Henry’s mother had been continuously asking her which glasses and sheets and other home goods she’d liked best. She’d been filling out some sort of last minute gift registry.
When Jackson winked encouragingly at her and parted the tent flaps so that they could walk inside, Grace’s eyes grew wide as saucers. There were literally hundreds of people crammed inside the tent. She would have been absolutely terrified if they’d all been strangers, but they weren’t.
These were all clan members she’d met at one point or another throughout the course of the day. Every single person in every single chair had put their day on hold to help bring together her dream wedding in one single wonderful, impossible day. They’d all heard when Michelle blurted out about the drug addiction that used to control her but no longer did. But none of them were holding her past against her. She was starting to realize that this clan was just as wonderful as her new family.
A hush fell over the crowd when the music began. It wasn’t the typical wedding march, it was just one man playing an acoustic guitar. And that one man just so happened to be the love of her life. When Henry started singing she straight up forgot how to walk and froze in place. She was so entranced by him that she forgot about all of the people watching her.
She listened to him sing a song that she somehow already knew. This was the melody that had soothed her nightmares endless times, a tune that had always lingered somewhere in the back of her mind when she thought of Henry.
Nanna tugged on her arm and got her moving again, and at last she stood there, poised before the man of her dreams. Her pulse beat wildly as Nanna pulled the veil back to reveal her face. Her heart was lodged in her throat as she struggled against the wave of tears that threatened to burst free, but then she’d promised not to cry.
“That song, I thought it was a dream. But it’s been you all along hasn’t it?”
“I’ve known you were my mate from the moment you first climbed into my car.”
“All I knew was that you were very, very naked,” Grace muttered, and the audience laughed loudly in the background as everyone enjoyed the exchange of a very unique set of wedding vows,
“I broke down a door to get to you the first time I heard you cry out in your sleep. And that’s when I wrote you this song. I named it Grace’s Lullaby.”
Grace reached out her arms, ready to pull him in for a kiss before they were interrupted by Henry’s father clearing his throat rather vociferously.
“No jumping ahead to the kiss. We’ve got to get through the official stuff first,” he said projecting his voice loudly so everyone in the audience could hear them.
There were more titters from the crowd, but the resulting blush on Grace’s cheeks just made her look even more beautiful. Henry’s dad said all sorts of important stuff that Grace and Henry would get to relive over and over for years as they watched the video footage, but the most important part was when he said, “Do you Henry Towns take Grace Hubbard to be your lawfully wedded wife and mate . . .” and Henry said, “I do.”