Jane gave him an affectionate kiss on the forehead. It was sweet how he pretended to be aggravated, but she knew he didn’t mind.
After all, he’d changed everything for her. The penthouse that used to be cold and sterile was now warm and homey, with comfortable furniture and knickknacks that testified to the fact that people actually lived there. She’d even hung framed photos of them on the walls with his blessings. Was it only last year that he was complaining about having a Christmas tree? She almost couldn’t believe how much things had changed, and all for the better.
She served the pot roast along with a fresh garden salad tossed in homemade dressing and a few dinner rolls. “What kind of wine do you think would be good?” she asked. She was learning more about how to pair food with drinks, but wine was so complicated.
“Well, a red.” Iain got up. “Maybe a merlot? I have just the thing.” He grabbed a bottle out of the temperature- and humidity-controlled wine cellar. He’d bought it for on her birthday. With deft hand movements that she couldn’t help but admire, he uncorked it. “Should do pretty well.”
She sighed. “Perfect. Thank you. I’m still not good at this.”
“It’s just wine. Most people can pick their own.”
“You’re probably right…but I wish I could make recommendations, you know?” She sat down with Iain. “If I had Mark’s talent for recognizing the exact year and vintage from just a taste…”
“What he does is cool, but it’s basically a party trick.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “I think it’s more amazing that you can cook.”
She grinned. “You’re flattering me.”
“I’m not.” He chewed on a bite of pot roast. “This is great. What’d you put in here?”
“Not telling.” She flushed. “It’s my secret ingredient.”
“Crack? Something just as illegal?”
She laughed. “Of course not. By the way…I saw your mother like we agreed.” More like he’d insisted.
“Oh? How’d that go?” His tone was entirely too casual. Jane bet he was already salivating over victory.
She grinned. “She said she’d help with the wedding planning, and that we should let my dad pay for the wedding.”
Just like that his zen vanished. “What?”
“She said she would help—”
“No, no, the second part.”
“That we should let my dad pay for the wedding.”
His face scrunched. “Ah, jeez. Was she drunk?”
“No! Totally sober. I went to see her in the morning.”
“Ugh.”
“Poor baby.” She patted his shoulder. “It’ll be okay.” Iain wanted to pay for everything. He didn’t see why he should have his future father-in-law spend a penny when he had so much money. She’d disagreed, so Ceinlys had ended up being their unwitting tie-breaker.
Iain’s eyes were closed, and she knew he was mentally repeating a mantra or something. “Not much time until Christmas Eve,” he finally said.
“But your mom did say she’d help. And Sophia volunteered as well. We had lunch this afternoon.”
The tension in his face didn’t disappear. “Everything’s going to cost more because of the rush.”
“It’s okay. I’m not marrying you for a fancy ceremony, Iain. If I have you, that’s enough.”
He let out a long, shuddery breath and opened his eyes. “Yeah, but… I want you to have a fairy tale wedding, you know? The kind every woman dreams of.”
She slid off her seat and knelt by him, making sure to keep her eyes on his. Her hand reached out and linked with his bigger, heavily callused one. “Iain, really. Who cares about a fairy tale wedding? I already have a fairy tale life, complete with my own fairy tale prince.”
“Jane…” He pulled her onto his lap. “You slay me.”
She smiled. “We slay each other.”
* * *
Iain would’ve gone ahead and cleaned up, but Jane got that look in her eyes and wagged a finger at him. She was so damn protective of her copper pots and pans. He didn’t know why she babied them. If anything got damaged, he could just buy her a replacement. As a matter of fact, he’d just bought her an entire copper mine so she could have as much of the metal as she wanted. It was going to be a wedding present.
Since he had nothing better to do, he went to the master suite, shut the door and dialed his mother. She picked up, her voice as smooth and cultured as usual.
“Iain. What a pleasure. Congratulations on setting the date.” Her tone was warm, but not entirely without the distance that had been there for so long. Still, the gap was much narrower now. She’d accepted his apology last Christmas, and he knew he’d been able to muster the courage to give it because of Jane.
But he needed to put his foot down before he lost control of the situation. “Yeah…about that.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you tell Jane her father should pay for the wedding? You know it’s going to bankrupt him to have the kind of ceremony that would be acceptable, right?”
“Is it?”
“Mom!” Damn it, too loud. He didn’t want Jane to hear what he had to say. He shut his mouth so fast he almost bit his tongue. At the rate the conversation was going, he would have to meditate to regain his calm. Or maybe he would seduce his fiancée. That worked, too. “You know what I’m talking about,” he hissed.
“Actually I don’t.”
Iain closed his eyes. His extended family could be snobs when they wanted to be. They never said anything, of course—oh no, that would be vulgar. But they would judge with silent stares, the kind that made people feel so small, so unworthy that they’d want to be sucked into the dark vortex of hell. Tension crept into the back of his neck, and he rubbed the muscles there.
Ceinlys continued, “If you want to increase the budget, we can move the date to next Christmas Eve.
His eyes snapped open. “Not a chance.”
“I thought so.” She paused. “Iain. Jane only cares about marrying you, not about having a particular sort of ceremony. Besides, you have to consider her father’s position. He’s letting his baby girl marry a man he doesn’t know or understand very well, and she’s going to live on the opposite end of the continent. He will want to do this for her.”
If her father had been that worried about her, he could’ve shown more support for her when she’d been back home. On the other hand…if he had, Jane might’ve never left West Virginia, so Iain probably owed him one for being unsupportive and insensitive.
Which was precisely why Iain should pay for the wedding.
Ceinlys laughed softly, as though she sensed his inner turmoil. “It’s going to be fine. I’ll make sure to stay within the budget. I also suggested that perhaps you should be allowed to foot the bill for the reception. So we can have a simple but beautiful ceremony and have a grand reception afterward. She said she would talk to her father, but I don’t intend to budge on this issue. I told her I would speak to her father myself to wrap up the money issue.”
Iain exhaled slowly. This was more like it. “Okay. And Mom…thanks.”