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“Yes?”

“It’s time to queue up”

Paige nodded and walked out of the quiet little entryway into the foyer of the church Tooden double doors loo quietly, and she could hear music

“Dante, Genevieve and Ana are already in place You just wait until I signal you”

Paige nodded, unable to come up with any words

Then, way too quickly, the wedding planner gave her the signal and the doors swung open Paige took a deep breath and started to walk slowly down the aisle, her heart pounding in her head

She didn’t really like having everyone’s eyes on her, because there was a very high likelihood of her tripping or otherwisea fool out of herself, and she really didn’t relish a thousand people bearing witness to her clumsiness

One foot in front of the other

She concentrated on that Onit down smoothly And she didn’t once look up at Dante She found Ana first, clinging to Genevieve, her frilly white dress bunching out around her, a headband with an oversize flower decorating her short hair

Only at the end, when she had nowhere else to look, when it was time for her to take Dante’s hand, did she look at him

And it was like the whole sanctuary, the whole city, the whole world, cracked apart around her and fell away He was beautiful, but he was always beautiful The tuxedo highlighted the hard lines of his tri shadows in the hollows of his face,his cheekbones sharper, his jaw more square

But that wasn’t it

He took both of her hands and the pastor began the cereed to repeat the over her words

But when the coiven to kiss the bride and Dante’s lips touched hers, she realized what it was And it filled her with a sense of bone-deep terror, and a kind of pure, intense elation that she’d never experienced before in her life

Dante wasn’t just her boss He wasn’t just aher He wasn’t just her temporary husband He wasn’t even just her lover

Dante was the man she loved The only man she’d ever loved The man orth the risk TheBecause she illing to fight for hi to risk herself, her heart, for him

Because she loved him