Read Online A Marriage of True Minds: A Sasha McCandless Novella by Melissa F. Miller - Free Book Online Page B

resort.
    Destination
wedding or no, there had to be a cookie table. Sasha glanced back at the rows
of dark wooden tables laden with tray after tray of tea cakes, biscotti,
chocolate brownies, heart-shaped sugar cookies, fruit-filled cookies, coconut
and lime cookies, and, front and center, Valentina’s own homemade ladylocks. It
looked like a bakery had exploded.
    After pulling
together the display, the waiters had joined the rest of the wedding guests.
Given what everyone present had just lived through, she and Connelly had
invited the entire staff of the resort to attend the impromptu wedding. Extra
chairs had been set up in hasty rows. Her older nieces and nephews, some
wearing pajamas and clutching stuffed animals or blankets, looked around
wide-eyed.
    It wasn’t the
wedding she’d envisioned, yet somehow it was better. Less storybook. More real.
    Of course,
Bricker was still out there, somewhere, intent on revenge. But even that
couldn’t take away from what was about to happen. She was going to marry Leo
Connelly. And nothing—and no one—could stop her.
    The music
paused, and Sasha knew Chris was about to start playing “Ode to Joy.”
    “Game time,” she
whispered to her father.
    He squeezed her
arm, and she pretended not to see the tears glistening in his green eyes, so
like her own.
    The soft chords
floated on the air, and she stepped forward. Then she hesitated in confusion.
The music was wrong.
    She glanced at
Chris but his head was bent over the keys.
    “Come on,” her
dad whispered.
    She started to
walk again, trying to recognize the song. The notes were light, lively, and
then they swelled like a wave. The music softened, and the tempo slowed.
    Whatever the
song was, it was beautiful. Sasha felt her mouth bow into a smile.
    The song buoyed
her along the path. She snuck a look over her shoulder at Aroostine and Hank.
At Daniel and Larry, their bravery and selflessness shining as brightly as the
stars. Her heart was full, threatening to explode.
    This is really
it.
    She glided
forward quickly, unhampered by the mermaid skirt. The slits she’d hastily
slashed in the delicate fabric parted with each step as she crossed the pebble
path to the bower and the man she loved.
    Marisole hadn’t
had time to repair the gown—although she had doused Sasha liberally with soda
water in an effort to remove the bloodstains. Even she drew the line at
getting married while drenched in someone else’s blood.
    She shook the banditos out of her mind and pinned her eyes on her groom, who stood waiting for her at
the end of the path under a bower lit with twinkling fairy lights.
    And then, somehow,
suddenly, there she was, standing right in front of Connelly.
    Her father shook
Connelly’s hand firmly, bracing his future son-in-law’s upper arm with his left
hand, almost in a half-hug.
    “Don’t bother
trying to take care of her. Trust me, that’s impossible,” he advised. “Just
love her as best you can.”
    Connelly nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
    Sasha kissed her
father’s cheek and turned to Connelly with a slightly embarrassed eye roll.
    “Hi,” she
managed around the lump that had suddenly materialized in her throat.
    “Hi, yourself,
beautiful.”
    Connelly stared
at her with a bemused smile.
    He looked happy.
And tired. And banged up. A bruise traced his cheek, and his split lip had
swollen to twice its normal size. But there was a deep well of love shining in
his gray eyes. He was amazing, perfect, hers .
    The music
stopped, and Father Alexander looked at the two of them, his eyes kind and
serious.
    “Hang on a
second, okay, Father?” Sasha asked.
    Before the
officiant could respond, Sasha turned to look at Chris sitting on the piano
bench.
    “That was
beautiful,” she said in an emotion-soaked voice. “Did you write that?”
    “I did. My gift
to the two of you.” He smiled.
    “What do you
call it?”
    Chris looked
over her shoulder to include Connelly in his answer. “Boundless Love.”
    “Okay. We