And So I Ran - Complete

Chapter 61

"Are you ready, Miss Steele?" Sawyer asked. I was standing in the great room at Escala with Daddy and Kate, everyone else had already left for the church.

"Annie?" Daddy checked. "It's not too late to back out. We'll get Kate to stall 'em. I can have you in Mexico in just a few hours!" he teased.

I had been starting to get nervous, but that made me laugh.

"I'm ready," I said, carefully lifting the small train on my dress. "Take me to Christian, Sawyer."

Sawyer went downstairs first, bringing the car right up to the lift so when we followed a moment later, I could climb into the vehicle quickly, minimizing the chance of me being observed. I sat in the back with Ray, Kate climbing into the passenger seat. She looked absolutely magnificent, and if Elliot didn't have thoughts in the matrimonial direction after seeing her dressed as she was today, then there was something wrong with him.

"I can't believe my little girl is getting married today," Ray said, grasping my hand as we drove out of the parking garage and through the streets of Seattle to the Capitol Hill church. The weather was fine. Despite a vacillating weather prediction all week, today had dawned bright and sunny with just enough cloud cover to make ideal photo taking conditions José had assured me. Now at 5:00 pm, the sun was lower in the sky, but it was still bright.

"You look so beautiful, Ana," Kate said, turning in her seat to smile at me. "Christian's going to melt when he sees you!"

"You're sure it's not too much?!"

"You're perfect Steele!" Kate replied. "Everything is just perfect!"

We'd had such a busy day. Between Franco and his team, Stephanie with our dresses and Neil with the flowers, we'd had people in and out of the apartment all day. Neil had been delighted by all the cloak and dagger necessary to avoid tipping off the media. I'd suggested that delivering the flowers in his usual brightly emblazoned van might be a little indiscreet, and perhaps couriering them to Escala reception would be a better choice. Instead, the enterprising man had borrowed his brother's meat van and smock, and the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnières had been packed in styrofoam boxes and brought up by Neil and his nephew Alphonse posing as delivery men for his brother's organic butchery.

Lost in my thoughts, we were soon in Capitol Hill. I could see the church, now, and I gripped Daddy's hand tight. He'd been emotional since the moment Mom had brought him in to see me after I was dressed. We'd spent five minutes together, just Daddy and me. Sitting on the edge of the bed I shared with Christian, Ray had told me how proud he was of me. How hard it was to hand me over to another man to protect, and how much he would always love me.

"This is it, Annie," Daddy said, pulling me from my reverie as we pulled into the treed driveway of the church.

The photographer saw us pull up, and dipped inside - presumably to tell everyone we had arrived. Ray got out, coming around to open my door and help me from the car. Kate had our bouquets, passing mine to me. The florist, Neil, had told me he'd intentionally included the same variety of white roses Christian had sent to me after my first day working at SIP. A sweet nod to our past, it seemed like a lifetime ago, now.

"You ready?" Kate asked as Dad was discussing something with Sawyer.

"I can't wait, Kate. I love him," I said, starting to tear up. I just wanted to see Christian.

"You do," she admitted with a laugh, hugging me hard. "And he loves you. We can all see it."

"Really?"

"It's so obvious – you're one another's happily ever after."

Kate, Ray and I moved to stand inside the vestibule. The photographer took some last photos before moving into the church ready to capture the walking down the aisle moments. We heard the recording of Pachelbel's Canon in D starting. I had seriously considered a string quartet, but the more suppliers and people we involved, the more like our secret was to be exposed, so in the end, I'd decided on a recording.