“This is quaint,” her mom said. “I expected accommodations at a castle to be a bit grander.”
“The castle itself is breathtaking,” Aggie assured her. “The guest cottages are newer. Besides, I like them.”
“I saw the castle on the way in,” her mom said. “It was beautiful. Very romantic. I always thought you’d get married someplace a bit gloomier.”
“Why’s that?”
Her mother chuckled, the sound low and throaty. “Well, you’ve always swayed toward the dark and macabre. And it is Halloween, after all.”
“But I’m getting married tomorrow, not tonight.”
“Close enough.” Her mom grinned and began searching through her purse.
There was a knock at the door, and Aggie opened it at once. Jace smiled at her, but he looked almost as weary as she felt. She ushered him inside and closed the door to the chilly afternoon air.
“We need to meet with the event planner to make sure everything is ready for tomorrow,” he said. “And apparently Eric has cooked up something special for everyone tonight, Halloween being his favorite holiday after April Fool’s Day.”
“I’m not sure I’m up for Eric’s nonsense tonight,” Aggie said with a tired sigh. “I have jet lag from hell.”
He touched her cheek gently and stared into her eyes almost dreamily. “Maybe we’ll have time for a nap before Eric’s Halloween bash.”
“Agatha! Come look at this view!” her mother called from somewhere in the cottage.
“In a minute, Ma!” she yelled. “Do you really think my mother is going to let me sleep?” Aggie asked Jace.
“I wasn’t planning on letting you sleep,” he said. “And I was inviting you to my cottage. The one without your mother.”
“Aren’t you rooming with Eric and Rebekah for tonight?”
“I’m sure they’ll be busy with other things this afternoon.” He leaned close and whispered, “Which leaves the cottage free for me to get busy with you.”
She snorted at his use of “get busy.” “You do know I’m in a really bad mood, right?”
He grinned and lowered his eyes. “Yep. I was kind of hoping you’d take your anger out on me.”
She chuckled and kissed the tip of his nose. So he was after a little pain. Why hadn’t he just said so to begin with? “I think I’ll take you up on that nap.”
“I thought you might.”
He drew her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. Her cranky was rapidly being replaced by her horny. The man had that sort of effect on her.
“Save it for the honeymoon, lovebirds,” her mom said from somewhere behind her.
Aggie stiffened and pulled away from Jace. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I love you.”
Her heart warmed and even her annoying mother couldn’t have put a damper on the joy brought from hearing those three words from him. “I love you too.” Aggie turned toward her mother, who was grinning at the two of them. She looked almost happy for them.
“We’re going to go talk to the event planner and make sure everything is all set for tomorrow,” Aggie said, reaching around Jace to open the door. She prodded him toward the exit, trying to make her escape.
It had been a challenge planning and arranging everything by phone and email, but Charity was excellent at her job and had put Aggie’s fears about the wedding to rest. Mostly.
“Just let me get a cigarette and retrieve my jacket,” her mom said. “It’s a bit chilly out.”
Aggie winced, but didn’t refuse to let her accompany them. Her mom was the only parent she and Jace had between them, and Aggie knew Mom wanted to participate in the wedding. She only had one daughter to marry off, and Aggie was only going to get married once, so this was her only chance to be mother of the bride. Aggie just hoped her mom would make her a believer of miracles by keeping her over-the-top personality reeled in a bit.
“We’ll wait for you outside,” Aggie said and stepped out onto the front step. Jace followed behind her and closed the door.
He took her hand, holding it gently in his warm grip, and they walked slowly toward the main castle so that her mother could catch up with them easily when she emerged from the cozy cabin.
“Do you think it’s cold enough to snow?” Jace asked, glancing up at the overcast sky.
“Not quite,” Aggie said. “But we might get some rain.”
“I miss the snow,” he said. “Let’s go someplace cold for Christmas this year. It’s just not the same when it’s warm and sunny.”
“As long as we stay huddled together in a cozy cabin. No driving.”
His hand tightened on hers, and she knew they were both thinking about the last time they’d seen snow. It had been in Canada two years before, and they’d nearly lost their lives in a bus accident.
“Yeah,” he said. “Some nice cabin in the mountains that allows pets.”
Aggie smiled. “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Brownie,” she said.
“She loves the decorations,” he said with a gentle smile.
Jace’s cat loved methodically stripping Christmas trees of all decorations, as if it were her mission in life. Aggie had been exasperated with the beast last Christmas until after the third time she’d decorated the tree and decided it was a losing battle. Besides, it made Jace laugh to watch his cat chase a wobbling Christmas bulb across the room, and anything that made him laugh was worthwhile to Aggie.
“Do you feel like we’re already married?” Jace asked.
“We have been living together for over a year.”
“Is this really the big deal everyone makes it out to be? I’ve felt like you are my wife for a long while now. Doesn’t it seem like I’m already your husband?”
Until she stood before all their friends and spoke her vows to him, it didn’t feel official to her. “No. I love you as if you’re my husband, but I’m looking forward to marrying you tomorrow. Can’t wait.”
He squeezed her hand again, telegraphing all sorts of mushy feelings she knew he’d never voice, but she understood his affection.
“Me too,” he said, grinning brightly. “Even if we won’t be legally married until we return to California.”
She stole a kiss, unable to resist his appeal when he unleashed that carefully concealed charm of his.
“I hope it doesn’t rain on your wedding day,” Aggie’s mom said from several paces behind them. “Are you two at it again?” she asked.
Aggie drew away from Jace’s delightful lips and tossed a look of annoyance in her mother’s direction. “We’re going to be at it for the next seventy or eighty years, so you’d better get used to it.”
Her mom laughed. “You two are so cute together. Both hard on the outside and soft on the inside. You’ve cracked each other’s shells and are all gooey and mixed up together now.”
Aggie rolled her eyes. She had no idea where her mother had come up with such a silly idea. The idea that Aggie had a soft spot anywhere in her being was preposterous. Well, okay, so she did have one soft spot. But it was very small and well hidden. She only let Jace see it very occasionally. At least that’s what she liked to make herself believe.
Mom took a drag off her cigarette and blew a long stream of smoke from between her lips. “That flight was the longest eleven hours of my life. I’m going to have chain-smoke for days to get caught up on my nicotine.”
“You could have used the flight as an opportunity to quit,” Aggie pointed out. She didn’t like the smell of the smoke, or the nuisance of having a smoker in tow, but mostly she wanted her mother to quit because she worried about her health.
“And you could have used it as an opportunity to learn to speak Mandarin,” Mom countered, taking another drag off her cigarette.
Jace chuckled, which earned him a squeeze around the shoulders from his soon-to-be mother-in-law.
“You are so cute when you laugh,” she said, words that immediately wiped the smile off his face.
They crossed a wide field of gr
ass, found a pathway around the immense castle—which was even more beautiful and romantic than Aggie remembered—and climbed the steps to the building’s main entrance. Mom paused at the bottom of the steps to finish her cigarette near an ashtray. At least she wasn’t crushing her butts into the landscaping. Aggie paused at the top of the stairs and turned to wait for her, but found her lighting up another cigarette as she scrunched out the cherry of the first. She hadn’t been joking about her need to chain-smoke.
“I’ll find you in a minute, don’t worry about me,” Mom said, waving them into the building.
Aggie shrugged and turned to Jace, who was gazing across the lawn toward a garden.
“Jace?”
He didn’t so much as blink.
She waved a hand in front of his face.