Chapter 250
Chapter 250
"Did you ever think about coming back?" he asked.
"I did," Rachel said.
She didn't say which time specifically, and Edmund didn't press her.
He picked up his glass and took a sip, then put it down and stood up, walking around the table to her side.
He didn't say anything, just stood there and looked down at her for a few seconds, then bent down and placed his hand on hers where it rested on her glass.
When Rachel's fingers were touched by his, she felt his knuckles were a bit cooler than hers. She said something in a voice even lower than before: "You didn't say 'nothing to be happy about' today."
Edmund didn't speak, but he took her hand off the glass, threading his fingers through hers and locking them together, palm against palm.
When he lowered his head, Rachel saw his eyelashes cast a very short shadow in the lamplight, then the shadow disappeared as his forehead gently pressed against hers.
"Next time, tell me whatever you're doing," he said. "I won't say things like that anymore."
Rachel didn't answer. She just raised her other hand and placed it on the back of his hand, feeling the warmth from his palm slowly rising.
The living room light was still on. Wind from outside slipped through the gap in the curtains, stirring the surface of the remaining wine in the two glasses on the table, creating a ring of very fine ripples.
This certainly wasn't the first time they'd been this close, but this time, something seemed to be starting to change.
The next afternoon, Vivian sat at the table scrolling through runway photos on her phone. Riley had sent over some of the day's return shots.
On the third one, Vivian noticed a figure in a dark gray coat at the edge of the platform in the distant background. The outline was blurred, but she recognized the color of that coat.
Arthur came out of the kitchen with two cups of coffee and placed one beside her. Vivian put away her phone and picked up the cup for a sip. The temperature was just right—warm but not scalding.
"I'm thinking about something," she said, holding the cup. "Can we do something... with a sense of ceremony?"
Arthur sat down in the chair beside her and glanced at her, as if waiting for her to finish.
"Like have a wedding," Vivian said. When she said "wedding," her speech was slightly faster than usual, and the ending fell a bit unsteadily. She lowered her head and took a sip of coffee, pretending that sentence hadn't carried anything extra.
Arthur didn't answer right away. He sat there looking at her profile for a while, then asked, "Where do you want to have it?"
"Country M," Vivian said. "We've come so far on this road. It started here."
Most importantly, she hadn't divorced Patrick back home yet, but she'd been removed from the household registry there, so that marriage certificate didn't really mean anything anymore.
The wedding preparations didn't take too long, but took a lot of thought.
For the first time, Vivian felt that a wedding wasn't just one person's thing. From choosing the wedding dress to choosing the venue, Arthur stayed with her the whole time, personally involved in every step.
On the wedding day, the weather in Country M was unbelievably good.
The sky was that kind of pale blue that looked like it had been washed with water, with thin cloud layers like someone had smeared a few white streaks across it with their fingers.
The venue was at a private estate outside the city center. The main building was a pale beige estate with two rows of shrubs trimmed into round balls planted at the entrance.
A white canopy was set up in the center of the lawn, taller and wider than ordinary wedding canopies, with white fabric hanging from the top that rose and fell slowly in the breeze. Inside, the decorations were all white flowers and light green branches intertwined, with several strands of thin light strings hanging from the top. The warm white bulbs weren't lit yet, but in the sunlight you could already see the arcs they formed as they hung down.
A row of white chairs was placed on each side of the canopy, with light green ribbons tied to the chair backs in loose, casual knots.
There weren't many guests, but every one of them was smiling.
Dr. Hoffman was the first to arrive. He wore a royal blue suit, bright enough to pick out in a crowd at a glance, with a white shirt underneath with the top two buttons undone. He walked under the canopy and circled around, looking up at the hanging flower strands and light bulbs, then turned to someone arranging things nearby and said, "This is way better than the one I went to in Pinecrest last time."
After speaking, he took a few more steps to the chairs and flicked one of the ribbons on a chair back with his finger.
Dr. Hoffman firmly believed he was the biggest help in this couple's journey of love, so he had to sit in the front row.
When Riley arrived, she brought a bouquet wrapped in newspaper.
She handed the bouquet to the person in charge of arrangements, then walked to a seat near the front of the audience area and sat down. Today she wore a light grayish-purple dress with a slightly puffy skirt that spread out from the waistline, the length just above her ankles.
Her hair wasn't tied up like usual but hung loose over her shoulders, the ends slightly curled. She looked up at the canopy and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
Today she'd deliberately done very elaborate makeup so people wouldn't immediately notice she looked like Vivian.
Today's star would only be Vivian.
Sadie arrived a few minutes after Riley. She wore a mint green short jacket with a white dress underneath that had a ring of very fine lace trim at the collar. She carried a small woven basket with a few dried flowers wrapped in kraft paper inside. She sat down and turned her head to look at Riley, sizing her up, then said in a voice light enough but loud enough for people nearby to hear, "You're dressed pretty formal today."
"So are you," Riley said.
"I'm doing this to take good photos." Sadie held up her phone to take a photo of the canopy, then turned to take a panoramic shot of the seating area.
Dr. Hoffman walked back from the front and sat down beside them. He straightened the hem of his royal blue suit, leaned against the chair back and crossed his legs, then turned to Sadie and said, "What's in that basket of yours?"
"Dried flowers. A gift for them to put in their house."
"Oh." Dr. Hoffman nodded, then moved his gaze back to the canopy. "I prepared a gift—a bottle of medicinal wine I made myself. It's good for the body."
Hearing this, Sadie looked at him. "You're giving newlyweds a bottle of medicinal wine for their health?"
"What's wrong with that? It's way more practical than all your flowers and plants," Dr. Hoffman said matter-of-factly. "They've been running around Country M for so long lately, their bodies definitely need some care. This medicinal wine recipe came from an old lady—you can't buy it anywhere."