Daring Brides by Ava Miles Page A

water.”
    Everyone laughed when he wrinkled his nose for effect.
    “We’re getting close to the time, Abbie,” Mac said, checking his wristwatch. “Is there anything else we can do for you before the ceremony?”
    “I just need to touch up my makeup,” she said and decided to take her champagne with her into the bathroom. “Be right back.”
    “We’ll be here.”
    She was dabbing on more face powder when there was a soft knock on the door. Opening it, she found her son, staring down at his shoes.
    “Are you almost finished?” he asked.
    Since she knew he had something on his mind, she didn’t reach for her lipstick. She could do it after she discovered why he was blushing. Since she knew her son was too much of a teenager to talk to her comfortably while she got herself ready, she stepped out of the bathroom.
    “What’s on your mind?” she asked him.
    He fished out an envelope and handed it to her. “Rhett gave this to me this morning and told me that you and I should open it together.”
    Wishing for her crystal letter opener, she carefully slit the seam with her fingers and drew out the folded paper. Rhett’s handwriting was scrawled across the thick cream linen stock.
    It is my intention on this day, January 23, to formally request to adopt Dustin Maven as my son.
    She had to stop reading because her lips were trembling so much. Dustin took the top paper from her, started to read, and his eyes immediately filled with tears.
    “Oh, man,” her son said in a hoarse voice. “I knew he was going to do it, but it looks like—”
    “He’s sending the papers to the judge today,” she finished. “Right after the wedding.”
    When he’d told her that he wanted to adopt Dustin, she’d never known anyone could ever make her feel so loved and supported at the same time. Mac had been Dustin’s surrogate father for so long, but now Rhett wished to assume that privilege.
    There was a card tucked inside the envelope, so she pulled it out.
     
    To Abbie and Dustin,
    I can’t wait to make both of you mine today.
    Love, Rhett
     
    “Oh, good heavens,” Abbie said after reading the card. That man got to her like no other.
    Tears cascaded down her cheeks, and when she saw Dustin was crying as well, she hugged him to her.
    “We’re really going to be a family,” her son said in a hoarse voice.
    She stroked his hair, rocking him like she used to when he was little. “Yes, we really are.”
    And Rhett had known just how to make this day even more special than she could have ever imagined. He hadn’t just made today about the two of them. He’d made it about all of them.
    “He’s the best guy in the world,” Dustin said. “I’m so glad you’re marrying him, Mom.”
    She kissed his head and allowed herself an unladylike sniff. “Me too.”
    She was more than ready for the ceremony to begin.
     
    ***
     
    Rhett wasn’t lounging with the rest of his buddies on the sofa in his hotel suite. No, he was pacing. And not because he was nervous. He wanted to be with Abbie and Dustin—his new family— right now. Having been raised a Southerner, he knew all about wedding traditions. Respected them even. Found some of them sweet. But when they got in the way of him seeing his bride-to-be and his future son, well, those customs grated on his nerves.
    His mama, the wonderful Eugenia Lynn Blaylock, and his cousin, Charleston Belle Butler, had been henpecking him all day about maintaining wedding traditions. He’d finally coaxed them out of the suite with the promise of never-ending mint juleps in the Ponderosa Room. He loved those women, cross his heart he did, but they sure knew how to drive a man to drink on his own wedding day.
    He wished his poker babes were hanging out with them. They would have sided with him—or at least he thought they would have. But since they were still trying to transition from their roles as his super hot poker babes to his dog walker and publicist, Jane and Elizabeth would be coming