Sam paced in front of the window and checked the clock. Cordray had been gone almost thirty minutes, Josie hadn’t returned, and she had no idea what was going on and when she needed to be ready for the big walk down the aisle.
The lights had flickered twice, so it didn’t take much to realize what was keeping Cordray.
Just when she was about to risk Micah seeing her in her dress by heading out in search of someone who could tell her when she needed to be ready, Cordray burst through the door.
“Hi, sorry!” Her face was flushed, her hair mussed, and the skirt of her dress more wrinkled than it had been when she left.
She slammed the door behind her and hurried across the room, where she checked her hair and makeup in the mirror.
She made a noise of disgust. “I’m a mess.”
Actually, she didn’t look that bad.
She waved both hands back and forth in front of her as if erasing her image, then spun toward Sam. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix it. I’ll be ready by the time the ceremony starts.” She grabbed Sam’s hand and tugged her toward the settee beside the vanity. “Sit.”
Sam did as she was told. “Are you okay?”
Cordray flashed a bright smile. “Yep.”
This wasn’t the same worried Cordray who’d left her a half hour ago. “Did you tell Trace you want kids?”
She nodded brusquely as she dug though her makeup case. “Yep.”
“And . . .?”
Cordray froze, hands still in her case, and practically lit up the room with her smile. “I’m pregnant.” She pulled out one of her hands and placed the palm on her stomach. “I’m pregnant, Sam.”
“What about Trace? Is he okay with—?”
“He’s thrilled about it.” She went back to digging through her kit. “Turns out he just spooked himself into thinking he’d be a bad father. We’re both so exhausted that it’s not such a stretch to think we both got too far inside our own heads about the whole thing. Oh, and he wants to adopt Aiden and Null. He says they’re our kids now.” She pulled out a velvet box and took a seat beside Sam on the settee. “I’m pretty fucking jacked, if you can’t tell.”
Understatement. She was triple-shot-of-espresso hyper.
“I can.” Sam nodded dramatically, doing her best to keep up with Cordray’s mood. “I told you he was just being a bonehead.”
“Yeah, well, everything’s fine now, so we need to hurry and finish getting you ready. Today’s supposed to be all about you, right?” She popped open the lid on the box and held it out as if presenting Sam with a crown.
Sam gasped when she saw what lay inside.
“Something borrowed,” Cordray said with a wink. “And something blue.” She plucked the sapphire ring from the slotted-velvet cushion and held it out to Sam. “I don’t know where human wedding customs come from, but when I read a bride needed something borrowed and something blue, I found this in my things and thought it would be perfect.”
“It is.” Sam hardly dared to breathe as she gingerly took the ring from Cordray. “But, Cordray, this is too much.”
The faceted, slightly rectangular sapphire was the size of her thumbnail and sat in a bed of diamonds and silver.
“Nonsense.” Cordray took it back and slid it onto the middle finger of Sam’s right hand. “See, perfect.”
Sam lifted her hand and angled it so the stone caught the light, making it sparkle like a tiny universe of stars.
“It’s gorgeous.” And a fortune. Between the diamond-and-pearl tiara, the Harry Winston necklace, and matching bracelet, Sam had to be wearing close to half a million dollars.
It was enough to make her feel a bit faint.
“Now for something old.” Cordray returned to her makeup box and dug out another jewelry box.
Inside was a pair of antique silver barrettes. They were small and shaped like flowers. Nothing extraordinary. But as Cordray clipped them into her hair, Sam couldn’t hold back the emotions that welled up inside her. Sam had wanted a perfect wedding, but this was beyond anything she could have imagined. Was there anything more perfect than perfect? If so, today—this very moment—was it.
When Cordray finished fixing her hair around the tiny barrettes, Sam turned and pulled her into a hug.
“Thank you, C. Thank you so much for helping to make this day so special for me.”
Sam had once been human. The customs she was used to weren’t those of vampires. For Cordray to have gone through so much trouble to learn the traditions of a human marriage so the day could be that much more special for Sam meant a lot, especially with Trace in his calling.
“Well,” Cordray said, hugging her back, “I figured since you’ve got a life with Micah ahead of you, you needed all the luck you can get.”
Sam laughed and fought back the tears bubbling up on the rims of her eyes. Once again, she found herself longing for her parents. If only they could have been there. Then the day truly would be beyond perfect.
Cordray pulled away and grinned like she had a secret and couldn’t wait to share it with her.
Sam dabbed at the inside corners of her eyes. “What?”
“I have one more surprise for you.” She crossed the room to a door connected to an adjacent room. “Someone no woman should be without on her wedding day.”
Sam didn’t dare to hope.
“Who’s in the other room?” she asked, holding her breath.
Cordray grinned with the kind of pride that only comes when you’ve been able to keep the ultimate surprise under wraps until the moment you were ready to reveal it, then twisted the brass knob and pulled before stepping out of the way.
Sam covered her mouth as a sob broke in her throat.
“Mom? Dad?”
Her parents were perched on the front edges of two club chairs situated by the large bay window overlooking the dark backyard. The moment they saw her, they slowly rose off the chairs. Her mom started crying and covered her mouth with her fingertips.
Sam’s shocked gaze found Cordray’s. “How . . .?”
Cordray pulled her into a hard hug and whispered, “We weren’t going to let you get married without your parents here, Sammy.”
“But . . .” Wasn’t this against some kind of vampire law or something? Bringing humans to the royal mansion?
“Ssshh. Don’t question, Sam. Just enjoy. My brother adores you and insisted they be here, so . . . go on.” She pulled away and gave Sam a nudge. “Take all the time you need to visit with them. Tell them anything you want, just know that before they leave, I’ll have to strip out anything they can’t take back into the human world, such as the location of Bain’s home.”
“What about the rest? The vampire stuff itself.”
A private smile tilted up the corners of Cordray’s perfectly painted lips. “We’ll see.” She motioned for the door leading from the bedroom into the hall. “I’ll be downstairs helping Josie get Aiden and Null ready. I’ll come back and check on you in a bit.”
Sam clutched Cordray’s hand, feeling like the floor was falling out from under her. “Cordray?”
The other female stopped and looked back at her, as feminine as Sam had ever seen her, which was saying something, because, until recently, there hadn’t been much about Cordray that was girly.
“Thank you,” she said.
Corday squeezed her hand. “You’re welcome. Now go.” She nodded toward her parents. “And be thankful I used waterproof makeup on you. Oh, and I’ll never be girly.” She winked.
Sam laughed as she let go of Cordray’s hand, but it was the manic kind of laugh that hinted at overwhelmed emotions that were about to come undone.
Cordray slipped out of the room and quietly shut the door behind her.
Sam stared after her for a moment, feeling the tears sting the backs of her eyes, and then rushed into her parents’ waiting arms, sobbing as they hugged her. “Mom . . . Dad . . . I’m so glad you’re here.”
“My little angel,” her father said, squeezing her before pulling back to drink in her face. “You’re so beautiful.”
Her mom sniffled and dabbed a tissue under her eyes as she nodded, then cupped Sam’s cheek. “We haven’t heard from you in so long we were beginning to worry, and then we heard you’re getting married! I’m so relieved, honey. So relieved that horrible man is finally out of your life. That horrible, horrible man.” Her mom seemed intent on not saying Steve’s name as she hugged her again, rocking her back and forth as if she were a child.
Nothing could ruin this day now that her parents were here and the man she loved more than anything in the whole world waited downstairs to give her all that she’d asked for and more.
Micah, Micah, Micah . . . how he always found ways to surprise her and make her smile. She hadn’t spoken of her parents in months, and yet Micah had known instinctively that her wedding day wouldn’t be complete without them.
“So, who’s this young man you’re marrying?” her mother said.
What a loaded question. “He’s the greatest, most incredible male in the world.” Figures that the one time she remembered Micah was a “male” and not just a “man” would be when she was talking to her human parents, who probably found her word choice odd.
“What’s he do?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
But she would try. She had Cordray’s blessing to tell her parents anything she wanted.
And as she began the retelling of all that had happened to her since January, she felt Steve’s specter slip further into the shadows.
Further into obscurity.
Right where he belonged.