"Aiden..." I shake my head, eyes fixed anywhere but the gorgeous man next to me.
His hand grips my chin tightly, just enough to make me avert my eyes to his.
"You know you want this as much as I fucking do. I want you to be mine. I want to be the...
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What. The. Fuck
Three exact words play on fucking repeat in my mind, expressing what I feel in a spectacularly correct way and edging me on, alongside the immense amount of nerves consisting of equal parts excitement and insecurity.
My hands remain clammy by my sides. Over a hundred and fifty eyes opposite me aren't to any help, but nothing in comparison to the clock ticking by in slow motion, or the four pairs of eyes boring into the side of my head. Only one looks at me in pure amusement, the other three have underlying threats in them. Ones I'm more than aware are fucking useless, seeing my intentions with their sister.
"You okay?" Joey chuckles from beside Xav, my best man.
"Does he look okay? Stupid question." Xavier mumbles, tugging at the collar of his white dress-shirt with a hint of a smile on his face. Dark five o'clock roughens it up and makes him look older than twenty-seven.
"Yeah, true." My groomsman replies thoughtfully.
I glare at them.
Idiots.
Straightening up, I clear my throat. Clench my jaw. Compose myself. Bite back the dimpled smile I know will make me look like a kid on Christmas morning once she's in front of me. "I'm fine." I answer. Fingers twitch from the restraint of not touching my hair. "Does my hair look okay?" I need today to be amazing, just the way Avery and I have dreamed of for years. Me looking ridiculous and my hair not being a ten out of ten won't make this picture perfect.
Literally.
"Yes. Your hair looks the same way it has for the past five minutes now, Aiden." Tristan answers exasperatedly from down the line of men on my left side. This might be the twentieth time I'm voicing this question.
Nodding, I stare down the wide pathway made up by white flowers and chairs tied with emerald ribbons around the backs. Sweat layers my palms. Fuck...
I'm fucking nervous. There's no reason to be. But what if she regretted this? Woke up this morning and decided that this kind of commitment is too much? What if Avery realised that she's too young to be doing this? What if she decided that this isn't what she wants at all?!
I allow my lungs to expand with air. It's my Avery. The woman who's loved me unconditionally since the beginning.
My slowing heart accelerates pace when the doors of the venue's building open from the inside.
We'd decided to have an outdoor spring wedding in Sicily. The date of our day, tattooed between my collarbones and the same as our engagement's anniversary. Roman letters, a dark contrast to the shiny pendant engraved with her name, dangling from my neck over it. Ry cried when I showed her what I'd gotten inked.
The venue building is old, made by beige stone that illuminates golden in the sun. Vineyards, old chapel and the lake behind me, everything we'd wanted for the setting.
