After I Saved Him, My CEO Said We Were Strangers novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Real Wedding

The arch was made of electrical conduit, bent by Bea in my father's back lot, and wound with a thousand white string lights.

The aisle was a strip of fresh plywood.

The chairs were folding ones borrowed from the church next door, and forty of them were taken by people in hard hats they refused to take off.

"It's tradition," said the crew chief.

"Whose?"

"Ours. Starting today."

Dorothea stood under the arch in her pearls and a lilac suit, holding a leather book.

She had been ordained online on Tuesday, and she said it was the best forty dollars she had ever spent.

I wore a plain ivory dress with a long skirt and sleeves to the wrist.

The metal in my collarbone ached, and the sling was gone, and my father had my good arm.

"You ready, kid?"

"I'm sober," I said.

"That's all I wanted."

He walked me down the plywood in his funeral suit, and he didn't cry until the last chair.

Declan stood at the end of it in a charcoal suit with no tie.

He had come early, as promised, and he had been standing there for an hour, according to Bea.

When he saw me, he put his hand over his mouth.

My father put my hand in his and stepped back.

"Ashworth," he said. "She's a menace."

"I know, sir."

"Good."

Dorothea cleared her throat.

"We are gathered," she said, "to correct a clerical error."

The crew roared.

"Declan," said Dorothea. "You have vows?"

"I do." He turned to me and took both my hands, and I felt them shake. "Hallie. You pushed me out from under a beam and I said I didn't know you. I'll spend the rest of my life being known by you."

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