At long fucking last, he grinned like a lunatic and shook his head. “We got ourselves an investor. It’s time to do this.” Kemp reached out a hand across the breakfast bar. “Sounds like we’re in business, partner.”

I blew out a relieved breath, still a little uneasy at his disapproval, but he would see. It was going to be fine. “We are in business indeed.”

Chapter 11

Chloe

In all my years, I’d never wasted time daydreaming about being a bride or planning a wedding. Why would I? I’d never intended to get married.

So when I stepped out of the handicapped stall in the county seat courthouse ladies’ room, the only one big enough for me to change into a wedding dress, modest though it might’ve been, and caught sight of myself in white, I sucked in a breath and nearly choked as I inadvertently swallowed my minty-fresh gum.

A girl couldn’t get married with bad breath, after all.

The image of the bride staring back at me from the mirror slowed me down for a moment, only a moment, but then I took the necklace from my purse and hesitated again.

My mom had loaned it to me. She’d come all the way out to my office at the construction site and, apologizing for taking up my work time, told me she respected Holden’s and my decision to have a private wedding ceremony and then presented me with her one request. She wanted me to wear the necklace my dad had given her on their tenth wedding anniversary years ago.

It qualifies as something old, something borrowed, and something blue, all in one tiny little bauble, she’d said with a nervous laugh, as if I would reject her offering. I know you could buy something much grander and nicer, but this is special to me, and I was hoping you’d wear it for your special day.

My eyes moistened now just thinking about it.

Of course I wouldn’t reject it. It meant the world to me to have this little piece of my parents here with me whether this was a true love match or not. The short silver chain had a charm that was two entwined hearts of sterling silver with a teeny-tiny speck of a deep blue sapphire between them. I wasn’t even sure if the sapphire was real, but I didn’t care. The symbol of my parents’ love was what mattered to me, but I understood why my mom would question that.

I was the one who hadn’t gone home for sixteen years.

I was the one who’d inadvertently sent a message that I didn’t want them closely involved in my life. And here I was sending that message again by not including them in the ceremony.