“Jenny, God, all I want is to be married to you, but lately, you seem so…so sad and like you’re forcing yourself through the motions with the wedding.”

To his dismay, she began to cry.

Alex put his arm around her and gathered her in close to him, fortified by her reaction to his initial question. “Baby, whatever is wrong, we can fix it, but I can’t help if I don’t know what’s bothering you. Is it me? Did I do something?”

She shook her head vigorously but was crying too hard to speak.

“Jenny, sweetheart, I love you so much. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make you happy. If you’d rather wait a while longer before we get married—”

“No, that’s n-not what I want.”

“Then what is it? Please tell me so I can help.”

She buried her face in her hands as he continued to caress her back.

“Talk to me. Whatever it is, I want to know.”

Lifting her head and looking at him, she said, “I’m so sorry you thought I didn’t want to marry you. That’s not it. I swear. I love you, and I can’t wait to marry you.”

Relieved to hear her say that so forcefully, he said, “Then why do you seem so unhappy? Is it the wedding itself?”

Shaking her head, she sighed. “I know what you’re going to say. It seems ridiculous to me, but I can’t seem to help it.”

“What can’t you help?”

She wiped the tears from her face and looked at him. “I’ve been right here before, right where we are now. Less than a month until my wedding…”

And then he knew exactly what was bothering her and felt terrible that he hadn’t realized it sooner. “Nothing’s going to happen, sweetheart.” He took hold of her hand. “I promise you. Nothing will happen. Not this time.”

“You don’t know that. Every time you leave me, I’m afraid, and I hate myself for feeling that way.”

“Then I won’t leave you again until after we say ‘I do.’”

Smiling even as tears rolled down her cheeks, she shook her head. “That’s very sweet of you, but we both have work to do, and we can’t spend every minute together for the next three weeks.”

“Yes, we can. If it means you’ll relax and stop worrying that something bad is going to happen, we can absolutely do that.”

“It’s not necessary. You’re busy. I’m busy. I’m just being foolish.”

“No, you’re not. I can’t bear the thought of you being afraid every minute that we’re apart for weeks. But you know what was even worse than that?”

“What?”

“Thinking you’d changed your mind about us. About me.”