“Best dad ever. Two big weddings in a year,” Gloria said.
“I should have made it a double wedding to save costs,” Vince Serafini groused. “But I couldn’t do that to my princesses.”
“You save a dance for me,” Chrissy said. Her throat thickened, and her eyes misted because at that moment she couldn’t be happier.
“Shoo, Vince Serafini,” Rose instructed, “before you make my daughters cry and ruin their makeup.”
?
?Later, my lovelies,” he said with a big grin. “I’ll be waiting for the bride outside the church door.” He gave them a wink and then left, shutting the door behind him.
The three women stared at each other. Then Gloria ripped the zipper on the fullest garment bag, and a dream of white satin, lace, and sparkly beads fell out.
“Oh, Mama!” she said. “It’s gorgeous.”
Chrissy stared at the dress, jaw agape as her skin prickled with goose bumps. “It’s perfect,” she breathed.
“Lucky you,” Gloria grumbled, sticking her lips out in a pout. “You won the coin toss.”
“Gloria, your dress will be just as pretty, perhaps more. Besides, the oldest should marry first.”
“That’s Grandpa talking,” Gloria groused.
Rose gently pulled the dress off the hanger. “I’ve been working on this a long time.”
Chrissy’s brow arched. “How long?”
“Oh, just a year,” her mother said. “I started after you got that job in New York.”
“But—”
“Yes. You weren’t engaged yet. But a mother knows these things. You were off to the big city, and you were going to find yourself. And then you would know that you wanted a husband.”
“I think,” Chrissy said, “that Dad watching work on this dress gave him ideas that he passed along to Grandpa.”
“Who knows? Besides, it was Anthony’s uncle who approached us. You know that. Now. Let’s get you in this before that handsome man of yours decides he doesn’t want a woman who keeps him waiting.”
No matter how long she took, though, Chrissy knew he would wait for her, and he did. When it was finally time to walk down the aisle with her hand in the crook of her father’s arm, she thought she’d burst from smiling so much. Never could she have imagined the flood of happiness and love she felt when she saw Saks standing at the altar, waiting for her in a perfect tux.
He beamed at her as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and even from afar, on their happiest day, she saw the slightest glint of mischief in his eyes. He was her Saks, and though she didn’t want to waste a moment of their day, she couldn’t help but dream of what would come later that night.
She would’ve married the man who waited for her in a paper bag had she needed to, but instead she was given everything a woman could have ever wanted in the world. She had the perfect dress, a family that loved her, and a man who let her be who she truly was.
As she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm, she felt not a Mafia princess but the princess of her biker’s heart.
THE END