Jessica Hart - Here Comes The Bride

With those words, the two of them became Carly and Fabio.

Reese immediately slipped into the role and peered at Fabio from beneath the rim of her hat. “Is it true you’re going back to Italy after the wedding?”

His black eyes narrowed. “Why do you ask?”

Reese’s whole body throbbed with pain. “Just answer me, dammit!” she cried in a hushed tone, her eyes filling with tears.

He put out a finger to catch a drop, then rubbed the moisture around with this thumb. “Tears. From you?” he mocked. “I didn’t think it was possible.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“Did you ever give me the chance, bellissima?”

“I’m giving it to you now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t listen to her!” Melissa broke in on them with a maniacal look in her eyes. “I heard her tell Miranda she was in love with you, but she was lying! All this time she’s been sleeping with Carlo.”

Carly gasped. “That’s not true and you know it,” she whispered, enraged.

“Give me a break-” Melissa fired back. “Think about it, Fabio. That’s why you’ve never been able to get Carly in your bed.”

“You’re wrong, Melissa. The only reason I haven’t slept with Fabio is because I knew you were in love with him. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Ooh. You really know how to play hardball, don’t you?” Melissa’s furious gaze switched to Fabio. “The only reason she’s hitting on you now is so she can get her hands on your portion of the Andretti fortune.”

“There is no fortune, Melissa,” Fabio declared with quiet menace. “I gave it to the church when I entered the priesthood.”

“I wouldn’t want it anyway!” Carly cried. “Money means nothing without love. How can you stand there and accuse me of such lies? Carlo’s old enough to be my father. He’s always been in love with your mother. They’ve been like parents to me. Don’t listen to her, Fabio.”

“Don’t listen to her, Fabio,” Melissa mimicked brutally. “Get ready to die, Carly!”

Melissa pulled a gun from the thigh holster beneath her dress. But before she could shoot it, Fabio wrenched it from her hand.

“I might have known you’d try to ruin your mother’s wedding day,” he said with cold fury. “My uncle told me how their first wedding ended in disaster because of you, but you’re not going to get away with it a second time. Get out of here, Melissa!”

Two ushers seating people rushed into the vestibule. “What’s going on? The guests are waiting.”

“Escort this woman from the church and call the police to pick her up for threatening Carly with a deadly weapon.”

While one of the ushers dragged Melissa, who went kicking and screaming, the other one relieved Fabio of the gun.

After he disappeared, Fabio turned to crush Carly in his arms. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” She struggled for breath. “Fabio-you didn’t believe her, did you?”

“What do you think? According to Carlo, she’s been unstable for years. Maybe she’ll finally get the psychiatric help she needs.”

“She was actually going to kill me.”

“Don’t think about that now.”

“How can I not?” she cried. “Oh, no-the wedding march has started up!”

“LET it!” Fabio fired back. “You were about to say something important before she tried to kill you.”

“There’s no time to go into that now.”

“Carly-Melissa just said that you told Miranda you loved me. Is it true? Tell me.” He shook her gently.

She swallowed hard. “Yes!” she cried at long last. “Even though you’re too old for me and I’m too young for you, it’s true. The difference in our ages no longer matters to me. I don’t care that Melissa loved you first. I can’t live without you, Fabio. W-what would you say if we got married today? We could make it a double wedding with Carlo and Miranda. She knows how I feel about you.”

A stillness ensued. “You’re asking me to marry you?”

“Yes.” Her voice trembled.

“You’re not joking.”

“No.”

“I didn’t know women in America did things like this.”

“They do when it’s a leap year. Today is February twenty-ninth, the day when a woman can ask a man to marry her.”

“That’s right…it really is the twenty-ninth. You do love me!” he cried.

“Yes, darling. In fact I took out a wedding license and signed it. All you have to do is sign it in front of the pastor after the ceremony, and our marriage will be legal.”

“Let me see it.”

She plucked it from the basket. He unrolled it and examined it, then lifted his head as if dazed.

“This is the real thing… All those times you told me you hated me and begged me to leave you alone, you were lying?”

“Yes!”

He folded the certificate and put it in his pocket. “I want to hear you say those words to me. Look at me, Carly, and tell me you love me.”

Don’t call him Alex, Reese. Whatever you do, don’t call him by his real name!

She finally lifted her eyes to his. “I’m in love with you, Fabio. I always have been, from the moment Miranda first introduced us. But I knew Melissa was in love with you, too.

“Out of respect for both of them, I didn’t dare let you know how I really felt. Also, I didn’t think you could be interested in someone like me who’s lived such a sheltered life. But the thought of living without you is unthinkable at this point.” Reese’s heart was on fire for him. “Will you marry me today? Right now?”

He flashed her the heart stopping smile for which he was famous. “That all depends. How long do you intend our marriage to last?”

Reese had been waiting for him to slip in a line that wasn’t in the script. With that last question, he hadn’t disappointed her. It was his way of having some fun with her for the last time.

“Forever,” she whispered fervently.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited to hear those words?” His voice rang with raw emotion. “Here’s my answer.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her as he’d always kissed her for the camera, as if he really meant it. But it was a stage kiss, pure and simple. Unfortunately his acting ability was so incredible, Reese almost forgot the scene was being taped.

“I love you, Fabio, but we’re holding up your uncle’s wedding.”

“I don’t care. When he finds out we’re getting married, too, he’ll understand.”

“Fabio? Please-we mustn’t make Miranda any more nervous than she already is. By now she probably knows Melissa tried to kill me. We can’t do this to her!”

“Do what?” He captured her mouth again.

“We have to think of everyone in the church waiting for the wedding to begin,” she cried when he eventually let her catch her breath. “It wouldn’t be fair to hold it up any longer.”

“You’re right.” He slowly relinquished his hold. His eyes played over her in adoration. “After the ceremony, we’ve got the rest of our lives to be together. Come on, bellissima. I can’t wait to say our vows in front of everyone.”

With her whole body throbbing from the hungry kiss he’d given her, Reese slipped her arm through his. Alex clamped it tightly against him. They began their walk past the vestibule doors and down the aisle. The guests seated in the pews stood up.

Reese knew her cheeks were on fire from the heat of her emotions. Since that last kiss they were spinning out of control.

She studied the smiling faces of all the cast members who were dressed up for the occasion looking splendid. Every face was dear to her.

As memories of two wonderful years flashed through her mind, she smiled back through the tears. Her aunt would have loved this scene. She would have been sitting on the front row beaming at the two of them.

Alex gave her hand a little squeeze before she took her place at the left of the altar. No doubt the hidden gesture was meant to congratulate her for improvising a line at the last second.

He took his place next to Carlo, and the wedding march began.

They turned to watch Titian-haired Miranda, who approached the altar with paced steps. She was dressed in a white silk suit. Every woman should look so beautiful at forty-five. She carried a sheaf of fresh white flowers and had eyes only for Carlo.

Many times during an emotional scene, the cast members forgot they were acting. This was one of those moments. Reese could believe Miranda and Carlo were getting married for real.

When Miranda reached Carlo’s side, the pastor entered the front of the chapel through a side door. Reese didn’t recognize him. Evidently Phil was sick today and someone from the acting pool had been called in.

The pastor looked out over the crowd. “Please be seated,” he said with solemnity.

When the congregation did his bidding, his gaze fell on the people standing directly before him.

“Dearly Beloved, we’ve assembled in this place to witness the marriage of two of God’s children. There is no holier union on earth as Carlo and Miranda have already discovered. It’s the reason they’re renewing the vows they spoke to each other five years ago.

“The bond between them has grown stronger through adversity. Today they wish to celebrate their great happiness with their friends.

“Miranda? If you’ll let Carly hold your flowers?”

Carly reached for the bouquet.

“That’s fine. Now, Miranda? I want you and Carlo to take each other by both hands and look at each other while you repeat your vows.”

For the next few minutes Reese listened to the words. The ceremony was as stirring as some of the real weddings she’d attended at church.

“Pastor Wood?” Fabio broke the silence.

A cry of surprise echoed through the congregation.

“Forgive me for interrupting, but when you hear what I have to say, I know Carlo and Miranda will understand.”

He cleared his throat, as if he was having trouble keeping a rein on his emotions. “A few minutes ago, Carly did me the great honor of asking me to marry her, and I said yes. She has made me the happiest man in the world.”

Cries of delight came from the congregation. Everyone looked at Carly, but the only eyes she saw were those of Fabio, staring at her with burning intensity.

Alex was a magnificent actor all right.

His gaze finally swerved to the pastor. “Carly and I have been listening to the ceremony as if it were our own. With your blessing, Pastor, we would like to say our final vows with Carlo and Miranda. I have the marriage license in my pocket for you to witness and sign afterwards.”

Reese’s pulse started to run away with her. Even though this was all scripted, more than anything in the world, part of her wished it were really happening.

The pastor smiled. “I can’t think of anything that would please me more, Fabio. There had to be a reason you left the monastery to enter the world again. Your union with Carly will be holy, too. The children born to you will bless that union even more.

“Carly, my child? I’ve felt your love for Fabio. I’ve seen it in a dozen subtle ways over the past year. I know what has been in your heart. Therefore I couldn’t be happier to marry you to the man you’ve loved in secret. Now that love can be let out into the open where everyone can rejoice with you.

“If you’ll give the flowers and the basket to Christine, I’ll ask you to join Fabio over here.”

Christine, played by one of Reese’s favorite actresses on the set, was seated on the first row. She relieved her of her props.

With each step Reese took toward Alex, her heart thudded harder.

“Carly? Take Fabio by both hands.”

At the moment of contact, she felt light-headed. To lift her eyes and look at him without giving herself away was the hardest acting she’d ever had to do. The pastor took them through the vows.

“Repeat after me. I, Carly Shaw, take thee, Fabio Andretti, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to love and adore from this day forth.”

Long ago the line between Fabio and Alex had blurred for her. Looking into his jet-black eyes, she said, “I, C-Carly Shaw, take thee, Fabio Andretti, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to love and adore from this day forth.”

“Fabio? Repeat after me, I, Fabio Andretti, take thee, Carly Shaw, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to love and adore from this day forth.”

He gripped her hands tighter. “I, Fabio Andretti, take thee, Carly Shaw, the most beautiful love of my life, to be my lawfully wedded wife. I promise to watch over you, to care for you in sickness and in health, to love and adore you from this day forth, and forever.”

Alex’s elongated speech was his second deviation from the script. It sounded heartfelt. Every fan out there would melt on the spot.

The pastor smiled at all four of them. “Now, by the power invested in me by the church, I pronounce both Miranda and Carlo, and Carly and Fabio, man and wife.