Page 131 of Vow

She also had a second one, now.

“Did you decide?” Kim asked. “Birdcage, or traditional for the veil? Jordyn brought both.”

Across the room, the woman in question held up both options for Haven to decide.

“What do you think?” Haven asked. “I like both.”

“If we were in a church,” Kim said, glancing over her shoulder at her sister-in-law, “then I would say traditional. But we’re not in church, and the birdcage would fit your dress better. But that’s my opinion. This is your day. And you can have whatever in the hell you want.”

“Yes, she can,” Catrina called as she slipped between the rooms. “And you should choose the birdcage!”

Haven laughed. “Birdcage, then.”

Kim nodded. “Sounds good. We should start getting you ready beyond …” Her future mother-in-law waved a finger at Haven. “This. You can’t walk down the aisle in a robe.”

True.

Although, Haven didn’t think Andino would care how she came down the aisle to meet him, or what she looked like as long as she did it. He would be there to meet her at the end, of that, she had no doubt.

There was no need for cold feet.

Not today.

“Let me grab your dress,” Kim said.

“Thanks,” Haven replied, smiling.

At least her makeup and hair was done—one less thing to worry about. A quick check of the clock on the bedroom wall told her they were getting dangerously close to the time the wedding was supposed to start.

From the moment she woke up that morning in the Marcello mansion, no one stopped moving. That’s sort of what happened when you only had a month to plan a wedding, and there was a mafia war raging on the streets outside of their safe homes. Everything had to be planned down to the finest of details—nothing could be left to chance.

Even their safety—given how violent and dangerous the streets were right now with the Calabrese family on their rampage—was taken into account every step of the way for this day. In fact, while they were safe inside the Marcello mansion, and would be until the dinner and reception later that night in a Manhattan hotel, there was an enforcer posted at the doorway of Haven’s room.

None of the women questioned his presence. He barely said a thing, and they didn’t even acknowledge him. Not that he seemed to mind—he was there to do a job, and very little else.

He was not the first guard she noticed today.

Or the second.

Apparently, there was a small army of them.

Nothing left to chance.

“Has anyone heard from my mom or dad?” Haven asked.

Stillness and silence responded back to Haven’s question. The wedding had been last minute, and despite her mother’s cancer recurring, her father promised to be there. His flight should have left the night before. An early morning flight that would allow him to get in early. Her mother couldn’t come—fucking chemo—but she promised to take lots of pictures for her, and call her right after the ceremony.

Her parents barely batted an eye about the fact she was marrying a man they only met on a couple of occasions when Andino was able to fly down to Florida with her. They never questioned her beyond, are you happy? And when she said yes, they were all too willing to congratulate her.

It’s why she loved her parents.

She wanted them here.

“I can grab your phone,” Catherine, Andino’s cousin, said, “and you could call your dad?”

“Thanks, that’d be great.”

Catherine quickly left the room while Jordyn closed the door right after. With a bit of privacy from the guard, it allowed Haven to slip into her dress when Kim pulled the mermaid-style, lace-covered gown from the thick garment bag. How she had managed to find a dress this beautiful with it’s detailed bodice and elbow-length, sheer sleeves in such a short amount of time … never mind the fact it fit her like a glove without any tailoring … she would never know.