Alpha Billionaire Series

MAKENZIE

One year later...

Iblinked tears out of my vision. I couldn't help it, I kept crying. Every time I thought about what we were doing. With every realization that Holden was finally going to be my husband, I started leaking again. I looked up and pressed a finger below my eye trying to get the tears to stop. I hadn't thought I would be a teary bride, but I was a total crying mess.

I didn’t want Holden's first view of me as his bride to be one where my makeup was streaking down my face.

“Are you ready, kiddo?” Dad asked. I gave him a nod, too nervous to speak.

“Is it time?” Ainsley danced in a circle, spinning in her flower girl dress.

“It's time. Remember just like we practised. Don't run,” I admonished as she hurried down the aisle. She stopped and looked back at me, and then ran back, only to turn around and walk slowly with her step-together-step pace as we had practised so many times. She took do-overs seriously, and she walked down that aisle as if she hadn't gotten excited and started off running.

Alight chuckle spread through our guests.

I was already halfway down the aisle when Travis tapped Holden to turn around. They stood at the front of the chapel, waiting for me to arrive. All of the emotions he felt were clear and bold on his face, from smiling with laughter as Ainsley started to dance to how much he loved me when we finally made eye contact.

A burbling coo drew my attention to Mom as I approached the front of the small chapel. She held Meadow, who at only a fev months old was smiling as if she knew what was going on. She probably simply liked all the music and sparkling lights. I was happy that my baby girl wasn't upset and could be here.

Dad literally handed me over to Holden, and we faced the officiant. Adrenaline surged through my system leaving me jittery and happy, and excited. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.

“We are gathered. The officiant started talking and I couldn't hear anything but the sound of my own heartbeat pounding i my ears. Holden was next to me keeping my hands steady. I felt as if I would shiver apart into stardust and glitter. “Makenzie,” I stared into the officiant’s eyes, and she had to repeat herself.

“Yes, of course,” I said, forgetting everything from the rehearsal the night before. “Oh right, repeat after you."

Isaid the words. I knew my brother had handed me the ring, but at that moment it felt as if it had magically appeared in my palm. I slid the ring on Holden's finger. It was a chunk of gold, a solid gold band, sturdy and steadfast in its representation o our bond and commitment to each other.

Holden had to hold my hand still, as I continued to shake. The ring he slipped over my finger was a V-shape studded in garnet and amethyst representing our girls’ birthdays in January and February. They were close together, but unlike my brother and me, they each had their own birthday.

I continued to stare at the ring on my finger, and Holden's thumb as he stroked it over my hand. The next thing I was aware of was Holden tipping my chin up so that he could kiss me.

We were married. After years of hiding and heartbreak, we were finally together. And married. Holden lifted Ainsley into his arms and the three of us walked up the aisle and out of the chapel.

I hadn't wanted a big ceremony, but both my mother and Holden's insisted on inviting everyone they knew. We compromised. The ceremony was smaller, while the reception took over the entire country club.

I'smiled and thanked people I didn't even know. I lost track of who was supposed to be watching my girls, when I saw my mother without either of my children, I panicked.

“Sh, they are safe” Holden reassured me.

“But where are they?"

He leaned me to the side and pointed through a gap in the crowd. “They're over there”

He was right, they were as safe as they could be with their manny, Ethan. When it had been time for him to return to school in the fall Ainsley had been heartbroken. But after finishing his second year, Ethan returned to Nantucket and asked if he could have his old job back. I still hadn't found a nanny that fit our family as well as he had. With a new-born in arms and a rambunctious four-year-old, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

“Come on, everyone wants us to dance so they can open the dance floor."Text content © NôvelDrama.Org.

I let Holden lead me to the dance floor. I hung my arms around his neck and let him sway me to some song our mother’s picked since they vetoed anything modern that we had wanted. It was fine, it wasn't as if we were going to do some fancy dance moves. Holden was still healing. He was still rebuilding strength in his limbs, but he no longer limped unless he was tired, and he never used a cane anymore.

The song changed, and I was spun off to dance with my father. Dancing with him was work. He insisted on dance moves that had never learned. I barely knew how to waltz, forget about a foxtrot.

“Come on Mak, it's a basic two-step.”

As if I knew what that meant. Holden was dancing with his mother. I knew there was a level of melancholy there without his father being able to see us get married or having ever known that he had a grandchild.

The music changed and I was dancing with Travis. “Save me from Dad. He's a terrible dancer”

I moved easily with my brother. He seemed to know what he was doing, and I felt as if I knew how to dance with him.

He and Holden had mended their friendship. We were still working on ours. He was actually a funny guy when he was trying to make me miserable. It turned out that Travis knew more than just how to dance. His financial investigation skills ended u saving Holden and his mother a lot of money, and any further embarrassment. Several offshore accounts in the islands were located, liquidated, and more properly invested.

He was the best man for a reason. He was still my brother, and we still had our issues. But I no longer hated him. He had even learned enough about the sewing craft industry to be helpful when it came to business decisions.

It felt like hours of smiling, cake, and toasts, so many toasts. Then came the speeches. Travis stood and made an opening fit for a stand-up comic, and then he did something that was worth his weight in gold.

“I'm here to say the things that people at weddings always think, but never say. No one wants to hear me embarrass my sister or my brother-in-law, least of all them. So, this is my speech, and the first of many gifts I hope to give you over the res of our lives. No more speeches. I'm not even sorry if you prepared something. We are not drunk enough to care.”

I applauded him enthusiastically. My mother ran out to the floor and grabbed the microphone away from him. She started tc say something, but he made a “cut it off’ gesture with a finger across his neck and the microphone went dead.

“Travis, what have you done?’

“I've paid the sound guy a lot of money so we can enjoy this party, and not listen to a bunch of windbags talking. Any time someone picks up the mic, he will cut them off”

I kissed my brother on the cheek. “Thank you.”

Holden joined us in the middle of the floor. He crushed me to his side and shook Travis’s hand. He gazed down at me and kissed me. “Let's get out of here.”

Before my mother could protest, Holden had me out the doors and into the back of a limo. When we got home— Ainsley and I moved in with him since we had only been staying in my parents’ house— he swept me up into his arms and carried me across the threshold and into the house.

“Home,” he sighed before putting me down.

“I've never been happier that you came home to me.”

“I've always thought of this place as home, every summer here, with you. And now you are my home. Always."

When he kissed me this time, I knew what he meant. He would always be my home too.