Men Love Witches Read online

  On the morning of our wedding, I woke up in our bed with Boots nestled against my side. Adam had crashed at Nick’s, along with Lucas and a few of his local friends, following his bachelor party. Alternately, Scarlet and Meryl were sleeping in guest rooms at the inn, after we’d all stayed up drinking wine and eating our weight in salty snacks as we plowed through half a dozen cheesy romantic comedies. I couldn’t remember most of the movies—we’d talked and laughed through most of them—but it was a night I’d remember for a long time.

  After pulling on a pair of leggings and a lightweight sweatshirt, I padded downstairs, expecting to join the gaggle of ladies for a prewedding brunch. Instead, I was greeted by Adam, dressed in a pair of jeans and his signature black leather jacket. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what the boys had gotten up to the night before, but he didn’t look any worse for the wear. Granted, he rarely did. His shifter genetics could quickly sweep away the effects of too much alcohol or salt with a little extra hydration.

  “Good morning, gorgeous,” he said as he reached for me. He pulled me in for a kiss and I wanted to melt into it for the rest of the day.

  “Isn’t this breaking some kind of rule?” I asked, smiling when we parted. “I thought you were staying at Nick’s to get ready.”

  He grinned. “Forgot my suit.”

  I laughed and nodded. “Aha.”

  “But while I’m here, I figured I could help with setup,” he added.

  I planted one hand on my hip. “Scarlet told you we were having brunch, didn’t she?”

  Adam chuckled as he swooped in close and kissed me on the cheek. Grinning, he took my hand and tugged me toward the kitchen. “It might have come up in conversation. Something about chocolate-filled croissants and mini Bundt cakes.”

  Laughing, I let him lead me away. Evangeline, Scarlet, Harmony, Anastasia, Lucy, and Cassie were all in the kitchen, gathered around the table. The spread was impressive. I couldn’t fault Adam for coming over to raid the food.

  “What are you doing here?” Evangeline exclaimed, making a shooing motion at Adam. “It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding!”

  “Hey, she’s not in the dress yet,” Adam protested as he weaved past Evangeline and nabbed a croissant from a plate.

  Evangeline sighed dramatically as she tossed her hands into the air. “Shifters! Always thinking with their stomachs.”

  I giggled and went to grab a coffee cup. “Yours says Bride on it,” Cassie told me as I approached the three cardboard travel trays loaded with Siren’s Song cups.

  I spotted the marked cup and freed it from the tray. “Thanks, Cass.”

  “You’re welcome.” She placed a hand on her bump, smiling serenely. “How was last night? Sorry I couldn’t stay. I just get so tired these days.”

  “Well, you were missed, of course,” I replied as I turned back to face the group, leaning against the counter, “but we had a good time. I ate way too many cheese puffs. I was starting to worry I’d have orange fingers today.”

  Adam winked at me. “Luckily for you, you’re marrying a man who would only find that more attractive.”

  I rolled my eyes and laughed along with the others.

  Adam polished off his pastry, snagged another for the road, and crossed the kitchen to the back door. “I’ll leave you ladies alone,” he said, reaching for the knob. “Thanks for breakfast.” He exchanged a glance with Anastasia, then smiled over at me. “Remember, if you think about bolting, I’m faster than you.”

  “How romantic,” Harmony quipped. “What would you do? Tackle her and drag her caveman-style to the altar?”

  “Hey, whatever it takes,” Adam teased.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I replied, flapping my free hand at him. “Get out of here before I confiscate that scone.”

  Grinning, he blew me a kiss, took a bite of said scone, and ducked out of the kitchen.

  “He’s so happy,” Anastasia sighed dreamily. “It’s adorable. I love a happy groom.”

  “Shouldn’t they all be happy?” Harmony asked, reaching for a bite-size chocolate chip Bundt cake. “I mean, even the ones marrying the crazy bridezilla brats must be happy to some degree, right?”

  Anastasia pulled a face and then held up her hands. “Look, I can’t name names, but let’s just say I’ve seen more than my fair share of grooms who looked like they’d rather march off a cliff than march down the aisle.”

  “To be fair, he could just be giddy about the pastries,” I chimed in with a grin. “Sugar is his true soul mate. I’ve come to accept this about him.”

  Everyone laughed and then Anastasia jumped up to pop open a bottle of champagne. She whipped up mimosas and the ladies all took turns toasting me, which made me grateful I hadn’t yet applied my makeup as we all ended up teary-eyed by the end.

  When we finished eating, I started to clear away dishes and package leftovers, only to be interrupted by Anastasia. She took me by the arm and told me that she needed my input on something happening out back, where the ceremony was set to be held. We’d hired a crew of people to build the archway and set out the rented chairs and other decorations. They must have been at it all morning, because as we approached, I realized it looked nearly done.

  Scarlet's assistant, Lizzie, was standing at the archway adding roses and greenery, but the other arrangements we’d ordered were already in place. Rustic metal buckets overflowed with hydrangea and dark green boxwood, one placed at the beginning of each aisle. Overhead, strings of white and petal-pink paper lanterns hung, waiting to be illuminated. A small platform sat off to the right where the string quartet would set up when they arrived.

  And at the center of it all stood my groom. He waved me over and I glanced at Anastasia. “What’s going on?”

  “He has something he wanted to show you, before we get you dressed,” she told me. She smiled at Adam and then squeezed my arm before departing back to the manor.

  “Oh, good, you’re still here,” Adam teased as I joined him amidst the arranged chairs.

  “Well, we both know I can’t run in slippers,” I said, glancing down at my feet.

  He laughed softly and took my hand. “What do you think? Is it like you imagined it?”

  Smiling, I spun around and took it all in. “And then some, I think.”

  “Good.”

  He started walking toward the front and Lizzie glanced up from her work to smile at us. “Morning, bride and groom.”

  “Morning,” we said in unison.

  “That looks beautiful,” I told her, gesturing at the archway. “All of it does. You and Scarlet outdid yourselves.”

  “I’m so glad you like it,” Lizzie replied. “I’m going to run to the van and get another bucket of flowers.”

  The blonde scurried off, leaving Adam and me alone. My gaze hitched on something in the front row. Four chairs were marked with reserved on either side of the aisleway.

  “Wait, who are these seats for?” I asked, pouting at the four chairs in the front row. “Your parents and grandparents are sitting on that side, aren’t they?”

  Things had been a bit of a blur, but I couldn’t remember requesting reserved seats for my side.

  Adam gave me a small smile. “Well, I thought Posy and Earl deserved to have a good view. So, they will sit here,” he pointed at the two seats farther in from the aisle. “And then, this pair is reserved for two special people who would have done anything to be here today—”

  He released my hands and took a few steps back. Pulling a silver picture frame from behind the wooden podium, he turned it around so I could see the photo. My breath caught in the back of my throat at the sight of the two faces smiling back at me. It was a photo from my parents’ own wedding, the two of them arm in arm, looking deliriously happy.

  “Adam,” I croaked, my throat swelling shut.

  He came closer and gently placed the photo so it stood on one of the two reserved chairs, then opened the small box to reveal a beautiful corsage. Reverently, he placed it on t
he chair beside the framed photo. “I think you told me once that your mother’s favorite flowers were hyacinths, so I had Scarlet make this one for her.”

  I couldn’t stop the tears. Adam gathered me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. “Thank you,” I whispered, my cheek halfway squished against his chest. Luckily, he hadn’t changed into his wedding suit, and I hadn’t yet begun putting my makeup and dress on.

  “I love you, Holly.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Adam cleared his throat and I looked up to find tears shimmering in the corners of his dark brown eyes. “Well, now don’t you start,” I sputtered with a laugh, “or I’ll never be able to stop, and we’ll both be a soggy mess!”

  “Right, right.” He coughed into his fist and then chuckled. “All good?”

  I reached up and swiped away the tear on his cheek and smiled. “All good.”

  Adam and I said goodbye and he left—wedding suit in hand—to go back to Nick and Meryl’s to get ready. There were still a few hours till the ceremony, but there were four bridesmaids to get ready in addition to myself, and with my thick, wavy hair, we were going to need as much lead time as we could get. We’d taken over the sitting room and turned it into a makeshift bridal suite. Anastasia had borrowed a three-way mirror from somewhere and used some type of magic—literally—to transport it from her condo in the Seattle Haven to the manor.

  Cassie was serving as my matron of honor and wore a halter-style gown in a dusky pink. Harmony, Anastasia, and Evangeline all wore strapless gowns in a softer, petal pink color. All four styled their hair differently. I’d left that decision up to them. Harmony’s hair had grown out quite a bit in the past months, and now just brushed her bare shoulders. Her affinity for bright colors remained though, and she currently had it all one color, a deep eggplant purple. I smiled to myself, wondering what my just-about in-laws would think.

  Evangeline had her waist-length raven locks back in an intricate braid. I still had no idea how she managed to style all of her hair. There had to be some kind of magic involved. Either that or just really dexterous fingers. Anastasia had arranged for someone to come in from the Seattle Haven to style my hair. We’d prepped her ahead of time not to talk about magic, and I hoped the instruction would hold. Having a member of my bridal party get mind-wiped by the SPA would put a damper on things, for sure.

  The ladies raced around getting themselves ready as the beauty witch worked on my makeup and hair. As it was a garden wedding, I was keeping things understated. My auburn waves were tamed into pretty waterfall curls and then the top layer was pulled back into an artful knot, secured with the crystal pins Adam had gifted me. I wore Posy’s sapphire earrings and the larkspur necklace as my only jewelry.

  “As promised, I have your something borrowed,” Evangeline told me as she came into the sitting room in her gown. She held out a glossy red shoebox to me and smiled. “These aren’t mine, but I was able to borrow them on your behalf. So, I suppose that makes them your something borrowed that’s borrowed?” She paused. “Hopefully that doesn’t break the rules.”

  “Yes, now Adam and Holly are doomed for sure,” Harmony replied, rolling her eyes.

  I laughed and lifted the lid from the box.

  “I wore these in the wedding episode of Wednesday Witch,” Evangeline continued while I swiped away the layers of white tissue paper. “They might be a little much for a garden wedding, but in my opinion, a killer pair of shoes goes with any setting!”

  My corneas were nearly seared by the blinding shine and sparkle bouncing off the shoes as I peeled back the last of the thin paper. The word “shoes” didn’t really seem to fit the diamond-encrusted pieces of art nestled in the box.

  “Merlin’s beard!” Harmony gasped and immediately choked on her piece of bubble gum.

  Evangeline smacked her on the back as she sputtered and coughed. When she was breathing again, she leaned in closer for a better look at the shoes.

  Cassie giggled. “Merlin? You all have the funniest expressions.”

  “Evangeline, are you sure I can wear these?” I whispered, not daring to place so much as a fingertip on the exquisite shoes.

  “Yes!” she exclaimed. “They’re all yours, at least until Tuesday. I promised I’d send them back by then.”

  “I didn’t think we wore the same size shoe,” I said absently.

  “Oh, well don’t worry about that, they’re magi—”

  Harmony sucked in another breath as Evangeline realized her mistake and stopped, her eyes flicking toward Cassie. “They were a little big on me, so they should fit you just fine,” she hurried to say, flashing an uneasy smile.

  Grimacing, I resisted the urge to look at Cassie and see if she was buying the strange cover-up. Instead, I squealed my delight and fumbled with the first shoe to put it on. As Evangeline had almost confessed, they were enchanted, and as soon as I slipped my toes inside, the rest of the diamond-studded shoe arranged itself to fit like a glove. I put on the second shoe and stood up to consider the full look in the three-way mirror. The shoes were far too fancy to go with the garden wedding theme, or my mother’s dress for that matter, but they were somehow perfect, too. A little piece of Evangeline, a friend who’d come to mean so much to me over the past years.

  My eyes misted over and I frantically flapped at them. “Nope! Nope, nope, nope!” I chided myself.

  The others laughed and came to join me at the mirror. “You look stunning, Holly,” Evangeline said.

  “Absolutely perfect,” Cassie agreed.

  Anastasia nodded. “The most beautiful bride I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

  “You kind of remind me of a Barbie, actually,” Harmony added.

  Anastasia needled her younger sister with her elbow.

  “What?” Harmony asked. “It’s a compliment!”

  I smiled at their faces reflecting in the mirror. “Thank you, all. So, so much. None of this would have been possible without you.”

  A silver form flew into view, above the others, and my heart did a somersault. Evangeline noticed my gaze shift and cleared her throat. “Why don’t we all give her a moment. We can go get our bouquets from Scarlet!”

  She shepherded the others out of the room, leaving me alone with Posy. The ghost floated closer, her hands clasped together in front of her mouth. “Oh, Holly, you look beautiful.”

  I touched a finger to my left earlobe. “Thank you again, for the earrings.”

  “You wear them well,” she replied, her eyes shining. “How are you feeling, dear? The guests have started to arrive. Twilight will be falling soon.”

  Shifting my gaze back to the mirror, I caught a glimpse of my mother staring back at me, the way she’d looked in the photograph Adam had placed in the reserved seats. She was with me. They both were. Along with everyone else I loved and cherished, to witness me exchanging my vows with the man I loved more than I could have ever dreamed possible.

  Nodding, I turned back to Posy. “I’m ready.”

  I walked down the aisle on my own, smiling at our gathered friends and family members. As we’d made the preparations, I’d wondered what it would actually feel like to walk toward Adam and meet him at the altar. I thought I would be nervous about all the eyes on me, or be worried about forgetting the words to my vows, or making sure to get the right angles for the photographers, but when it came down to it, all I felt was pure joy. The questions and doubts and worries were erased, silent and banished from my mind. When I reached Adam and passed my bouquet off to Cassie, he took my hands and smiled, and everything else melted away.

  The minister we’d hired led a short, simple service, focused on our love and the commitment we were making. If asked later, I likely wouldn’t have been able to recite a word. I was somewhere else entirely. But the words Adam spoke in his vows would stay with me, stamped on my heart, until the end of time itself.

  “Well, we finally made it—” he began, pausing as the audience laughed softly. Grinning,
he continued, “All teasing aside, I would like to say, first and foremost, that I am officially the luckiest man in the world, today and every day that I get to spend with you. Holly, you are magic and fire, light and love, and I will forever be amazed that I somehow convinced you to take a chance on me.”

  He paused as we exchanged a knowing smile, both likely recalling the first of his many attempts to ask me out on a date.

  “Now, here we are, ready to take this huge step, and I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life. I promise to be there for you in all seasons of life. To never leave you or make you wonder if I still care. I’m going to be there to make you breakfast in bed on your birthdays, to follow you all over the woods in search of the perfect Christmas tree each winter, to buy you flowers and your favorite chocolates on Valentine’s Day. But even more than that, I promise to show up every day in between. To find new ways to show you how much I love you, even if it’s nothing but a boring, rainy Wednesday night in the middle of October. I promise to make you laugh, or at least do my best, and we both know that if all else fails, my Elvis impersonation will do the trick.”

  He popped a little hip action and everyone laughed. I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help giggling along.

  Adam smiled and took my hands again, holding them a little tighter than before. “I love you, Holly Boldt. You’re my best friend, my lover, my partner in everything I want to do in this life, and if there’s a life after this one, well, then we’ll be partners there, too, if you’ll have me.”

  Nodding, I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I will.”

  “And Holly, your vows to Adam,” the minister prompted.

  Smiling, I drew in a breath. “Wow. Kind of hard to follow that up.”

  The guests laughed politely as I took a beat to collect myself. “It seems like most little girls dream of fairy tales with dashing princes who slay dragons or climb tall towers to rescue them. Growing up, I don’t remember wishing for one of those princes. After all, I had something even better to aim for, a higher example, and that was my dad.” My voice broke and I glanced quickly to the framed photograph sitting in the front row. Returning my eyes to Adam’s, I continued, “I saw the way he loved my mom. The way he would do anything for her. Go anywhere. It might not have been battling dragons or evil queens, but it was the simple, steadfast everyday kind of love. That was what I wanted. Someone who would always be there, every day. That was my fairy tale.”