Read Online Awakening Veronica by Heather Rainier - Free Book Online Page B

to the large white reception tent set up in the grassy lot next to the rose garden.
    Grandma Kate patted her arm and waved her hand. “Go with Ethan and Grace, sweet girl. I’ll keep Hank and this fine-looking young man company while you’re gone.”
    Veronica wanted to hide her face, which felt like it’d turned beet red, but she couldn’t think of a thing to say. Both men’s eyes twinkled as they nodded and helped Grandma Kate from her chair.
    Veronica followed after Ethan and Grace, feeling stiff and decidedly ungraceful. She tried to dredge up the feelings she’d experienced when she’d first seen herself in the dress Grace had loaned her for the wedding. Because she rarely attended formal functions, and quite honestly avoided them like the plague, she hadn’t had a thing to wear to the wedding.
    After discovering that she wore the same dress size and shoe size, Grace had brought her several dresses and pairs of shoes to try on. Grace and Kate’s faces had lit up when she’d modeled the red for them. She had to admit she’d felt like a model when she had turned to the full-length mirror in the master bedroom and gotten a glimpse of herself.
    She was used to wearing yoga pants and baggy T-shirts because they were comfortable for work, and she was always working. She let out a deep breath and watched her step as she walked up the path, aware of the warmth that coursed through her body. She wondered if they watched her but refused to look back for fear she might lose her footing and topple in the red heels.
    The entire throng moved back up the walkway and she was quickly separated from Ethan and Grace but didn’t want to push in between people. By the time she reached the tent, she was out of breath and worried that she’d disrupt the ceremony if it was already in progress.
    Grace and Ethan smiled when she slipped through the opening which had been drawn closed. Grace waved her over and said, “We waited for you. Maizy told me she’d love to chat with you later, if you’d like.”
    They’d waited for her? Veronica tried to hide her shock and smiled and nodded. “I’d love that.”
    The ceremony that proceeded, with Ethan officiating this time, was a more intimate joining that included Heath and Spencer. Veronica couldn’t help it when her tears overflowed.
    Grace smiled and handed her tissues as each man knelt in front of Maizy and pledged his life, love, faithfulness, and support to her, and slipped a slim diamond-studded ring next to the wedding band that already adorned her ring finger.
    In turn, she spoke vows to each of them, binding her heart with theirs, and slipping heavy gold bands on Heath’s and Spencer’s fingers that matched Cody’s. Maizy sniffled as each groom kissed her hands, still on his knees, and then wrapped his arms around her waist and embraced her with pure love in his eyes.
    Veronica was so enthralled by the whole ceremony that she wasn’t even sure she blinked until it finally ended.
    She planned to ask Grace later if this was typical in Divine, if the attention and love lavished on the bride during the binding was the norm or the exception. She wondered what it would be like to be the recipient of such adoration.
    As if on some cue, her phone vibrated in her purse again. Darn it! She’d been ignoring Brent’s texts and e-mails but something inside her got a little irritated and she took out her phone and opened up the long thread of all of his text messages. They all carried the same theme—all fifty of them in the last week . “Chubbs, come home so we can talk this out.” “Call me so we can talk about this, Chubbs.” “It’s not over until we both agree it’s over.” She rolled her eyes and her fingers flew on the keys as the guests milled around the tent for a moment.
    “Stop texting and e-mailing me. Pack your belongings and move out, Brent. We are through.”
    His reply was lightning fast . “Tell me where you are so I can come to you. I want to talk this