Ella cupped her hands around her mouth and whooped. Grammy Larsen clapped, and Ella’s fiancé, Hawk, waved as the surrounding crowd joined in the choral of cheers, but Suzie rushed forward and trapped Adelie in a hug.
“You deserve this,” Suzie all but shouted in her ear over the noise that resulted from Ella’s catcalls.
Tears stung Adelie’s eyes. She squeezed her sister back just as tightly. “Your turn next.”
Suzie fluttered her lips. “Yeah, right, at this rate I’ll have to be the one who proposes.” She winked at Adelie, lightening her statement, kissed her sister on the cheek, and dashed back to stand by their family. Fletcher gave Adelie a wide, toothy grin, and Adelie waved. Suzie propose? That would be a sight to witness.
Maddox wrapped an arm around her waist, tugging her close to him as they continued strolling a few more feet along the pave stone street toward the looming castle they’d agreed would be their backdrop for this. Adelie leaned her head against his chest. The space behind her ribs tripled in size and filled with so much happiness she could hardly contain it.
“I’m doing this because you wanted pictures,” Maddox said, tugging his lapels.
“Of course. We need documentation.” Adelie adjusted his tie, smoothing a hand over his chest. She’d never get sick of any excuse she could find to touch him. “We didn’t take a single one on our wedding day, and I’m remedying that. I want to hang them all over the house.”
Maddox gave an acquiescent smile. He stood as though he felt out of place. “At least Duncan will be happy.”
“I’m not doing this for Duncan.” Adelie glanced to where Duncan stood, in conversation with Ritchie, who’d bent over to retrieve the camera from its case.
“No, but we should. He’s been a good sport about continuing to remain an investor, even with my ups and downs the past few weeks.”
That he had. Duncan had been Maddox’s most severe worry. He’d let his friend down by pulling the rug out from under him the way he had. Duncan had given Maddox a chance, and it’d been eating away at Maddox that he hadn’t done right by him.
Adelie put her arms around him. “I’m glad you decided to reopen.”
“So am I. I’m glad people are actually coming,” he muttered, squinting around.
Ritchie approached, his camera in hand, black fingernail already on the button. He took his photographer stance and tilted the camera at an angle before his face.
“Don’t move. The light here is perfect.”
He snapped a few pictures, aiming the camera first horizontal, then vertical. “We should get one of you both here, in the middle of the croquet grounds.”
Between a pair of arborvitaes, he directed them where to stand. “No need for you to look lost this time, eh?” Ritchie said as a joke.
Adelie’s smile overtook her. The accompanying joy was too much to contain. No, she wasn’t hiding anything anymore. She knew exactly where she wanted to be, and who she wanted to be with. Thanks to a wild goose chase—or rather, a rabbit chase—she’d found her life, and she never wanted to leave it or Maddox again.
Maddox’s arms encircled her, and she ducked her head against his chest at the catcalls and whistles from onlookers.
“Are you happy, Mrs. Hatter?” he asked.
“More than I’ve ever been.”
“Even with all these people watching you?”
She tugged him closer, tiptoeing up for another kiss. “Let them look. As long as I have you, I can handle anything.”
***
Duncan fiddled with the top button of his dress shirt and nearly tore the thing off before it relented and came loose. Frustration was usually his go-to these days, but he was in Wonderland, overseeing Maddox and Adelie’s wedding photo shoot. Things were back in motion, and Wonderland’s attendance was higher than it had been to date. Which meant his investment would pan out, just as he’d known it would from the start of this whole charade with Adelie.
Why then was he so flat out irritated?
His assistant, Rosabel, sauntered toward him, killing it in dark slacks, a blue, button-up shirt with no collar. Those heels, though. She should know what they did when she walked.
Full lips darker than rubies, she smirked at Duncan and stopped at his side. Her dark hair shined in the sunlight. Duncan stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching out to touch it.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her, not caring that his tone had all the friendliness of a shark.
“Maddox invited me,” she said.
“That’s what I get for trying to be nice,” he grumbled, cursing himself for letting Maddox get to know her.
“What do you care whether I’m here or not?”
“I don’t,” Duncan lied. He still couldn’t figure out what had his temper so on edge. He’d only ever invested in what he considered worth his while, and once Maddox had gotten Adelie Carroll to pose as Alice, Wonderland was culminating as one of the best investments Duncan had made.
Then Maddox had to go and get his heart caught in the mix, pulling everything out from under Duncan. It was a low blow, to say the least. Still, his company would recover, thanks to the closure being so short-lived. As for his friendship, well…
All right. That would recover too. He and Maddox had been friends too long for it not to.
But to do something so stupid for love? To throw his entire business on the line just to prove something to a woman? Duncan prayed he was never that idiotic.
Was that what bothered him? That Maddox had gone and fallen in love with the girl?
He peered at Rosabel. She was a knockout no matter what she wore, that was for sure, from her pointed gaze to her feathery eye lashes, to the sharp remarks she managed to throw back at him. She was exciting in a world of the ordinary.
People at the office already thought they were into each other, which was one reason Duncan couldn’t —absolutely refused to—admit he was falling for
