Luke White was the first groomsmen to arrive at my place just before 11 that morning. He was the baby in the White family and at 22 had just graduated college from The University of Kentucky with a degree in business, though due to his unbelievable skills on the basketball court, he’d soon be playing in the NBA after having been recently drafted.

Luke was tall, like 6’4 tall, and thin with long arms and big hands perfect for a professional basketball player. He had a head full of blond hair so light it looked a shade off of white and when he smiled, a row of perfectly white teeth gleamed at you. With his dark blue eyes and dazzling grin, he was a favorite of the ladies and was sure to become a success both on and off the court. And as Eve’s baby brother, he was one of my groomsmen.

I let him into the house and he greeted me with the grin that had made him famous in college ball. “Sup, bro.”

I shut the door behind him. “Not much. How ya’ doin’?”

Luke gave a nod and set his duffle bag to the side and out of the way. “Doing real good.” He arched his brows my way. “I hear you made an early morning wake up call. Or at least tried to.”

I made a little face. “I just wanted to see her. Is that so wrong?”

“Of course not,” the tall blond shrugged some, “but you shoulda known Paige would be gunning for ya and be prepared.”

I snorted. “Whatever. But um hey,” wetting my bottom lip I felt my heart kick up a notch, “you think you might could help me get ahold of Eve?”

My almost brother-in-law eyed me cautiously. “Paige warned me you might try to use me. You know I can’t do that.”

“I know, but I really need to talk to her.” I was trying really hard not to sound alarmed or worried or panicked, but Brett’s words were still echoing in my ears and I desperately needed to talk to my fiancée.

“Dude,” he put a large hand on my shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze, “you’ll have plenty of time to talk to her after you say ‘I do’.”

I realized that, but I needed to talk to her now. My attorney’s words were hanging heavy on my heart and I knew I couldn’t go into a marriage without talking about it with her first. “Look,” I tried to watch Luke as seriously as I could, but without alarming him. No one but Eve needed to know what was going on, “normally I would agree with you, but…I really do need to talk to her.”

Suddenly his blue eyes narrowed. “You’re not getting cold feet, are you?”

“No,” I shook my head vehemently, “not at all.” Truth be told, the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, maybe it was because I was too preoccupied with much more pressing matters.

Luke relaxed at that and slapped my shoulder, which with his strength propelled me a few feet away from where I had originally been standing. “Then it can’t be anything that can’t wait till after the wedding.”

I rubbed my now sore shoulder and frowned. Maybe if Luke wouldn’t help me, I could enlist one of my other groomsmen.

But the opportunity never arose and when I tried to mention it to one of the other guys, I basically got the same response as I did from Luke. And then things got busy and the photographer and assistant to our wedding planner arrived and it got chaotic for a bit.

Before I knew it, we were dressed and polished up and being sent off in a white Hummer limo toward the venue where the wedding was being held and I still hadn’t gotten to talk to Eve. It made my heart race and throat threaten to close up as I thought about not getting to speak with her before the ceremony.

When we reached the venue, which was a beautiful historical mansion surrounded by flowers and ornately designed hedges and fountains and even a labyrinth, I was whisked to one room figuring Eve was on the opposite side of the building.

Pacing back and forth in the groom’s dressing room, I fiddled with the phone in my hand. I should try to call her; maybe I’d get lucky and she’d be the one to answer. Holding my breath, I pushed the memory for her phone and held mine to my ear, waiting with baited breath as it rang. And rang and rang and rang then went to voicemail. Damnit.

I lowered the phone then tossed it over in the corner with my stuff. I had to get out of here and find her. Glancing around, I announced that I needed to step outside a minute for a quick smoke. No one seemed concerned about that, so I slipped out into the hall, keeping my eyes peeled for signs of anyone who might keep me from my bride.

On a hunch, I crossed over the rear foyer and headed for the narrow, back staircase. She had to be upstairs somewhere and I was determined to see her. I really should have known Paige would position guards outside the bride’s dressing room and later I would have to thank my sister-in-law for her ingenious thinking, because one of those guards just happened to be my own mother. A big round of applause for Paige.

My mom spotted me as I cleared the landing and I think she nearly started to cry. “Oh, Alex,” she breathed out as she left her position and approached me. “You look so handsome!”

Paige had thought that my mother might be a good deterrent, but I might just be able to pull a fast one and use this to my advantage. “Thank you, Mom,” I smoothed my tuxedo jacket then leaned and kissed her cheek. “And you look absolutely stunning.” I took her hands in mine and looked her over; admiring the deep mauve gown she was decked out in and how it complimented her green eyes and red hair. Next to Eve, my mother was the most beautiful woman on Earth.

“I can’t believe you’re getting married today.” Her eyes started to mist up and she withdrew a tissue from her handbag, using it to catch any stray tears. “I’m just so proud of you.”

Her words made my own eyes want to grow damp, but I held them at bay. “Thank you, Mom. That means a lot coming from you.” And I pulled her into a hug, holding her tight for a moment.

When we separated, her cheeks were damp and she gave a half laugh-half cry sound and wiped at them. “I’m trying not to think about it like I’m losing my son. I’m doing my best to think that I’m gaining a daughter.”

“That’s right.” I kissed her forehead and squeezed her shoulder. “And speaking of daughter,” I wet my bottom lip and felt my heart start that beat it did when I got slightly panicked, “do you think you could get Eve to come out here for just a minute?” I spoke again quickly as I saw that familiar look of disapproval in her eyes, “Just really quick, Mom. I really need to speak with her.”

“Alex,” she sighed some, “you know I can’t do that. Paige specifically asked me to keep you away from Eve.”

I gave a sound of protest in my throat. “Mom, it’s really, really important.”

My mother watched me with her green eyes, a look of concern appearing. “Is everything okay? You’re not…getting cold feet are you?”

Why did everyone think that because I needed to talk to my fiancée, I was going to call the whole thing off? “No, Mom, it’s got nothing to do with the wedding. Please, go ask her to come out here.”

“Is something wrong?” She touched my arm. “You know you can talk to me, Son.”

I debated it for a very brief moment. It would be easy to spill to my mom and finally get it off my chest. I think at that moment telling anyone might just help ease my mind and make me feel better. But then I decided against it. No, Eve is the first person I needed to tell. Then together, we could tell my mom. Besides, knowing my mother, she’d have it posted on her Facebook before the wedding even started. Love her to death, but she just cannot keep a secret.

“No,” I finally shook my head, “nothing’s wrong, I just need to see Eve.”

“What are you doing up here?”

We both turned to find Carli White, Eve’s younger sister, standing just outside of the bride’s dressing room. Paige, Eve and Luke had all gotten their mother’s blond hair and fair looks while Carli was blessed with her father’s genes. She was beautiful in her own way with long raven colored hair that was currently piled atop her head, stray locks framing her heart shaped face and olive colored skin. Though the most fascinating feature about the slender woman were her gray eyes as round as two quarters and had the habit of changing shades depending on what color she was wearing. At this moment they had a hint of purple to match the wine colored maid of honor gown she was dressed in.

“I was looking for my mom,” I answered with. I didn’t need someone else chastising me for trying to see Eve.

Carli eyed me warily. “You’re supposed to be downstairs.”

“And he’s going right now.” My mother turned me toward the stairs and patted my shoulder. “Everything is going to be just fine, honey. I’ll see you downstairs.”

I sighed and reluctantly followed the trail I’d taken up to the second floor. Frustration was screaming through me and if I didn’t care about pissing people off, I would have barged right past everyone and flung the door open to find Eve myself. That was the old Alex. The Alex I was now just hunched his shoulders and retreated, trying to follow the ‘pre wedding’ rules the best he could.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get another chance to try to see Eve. As soon as I was downstairs I was swarmed and whisked off for more pre ceremony photographs and last minute reminders from the wedding planner.

Everything was pretty much a blur after that. The guests had been arriving and taken their seats out in the large garden which had been done up with coral, red and wine colored roses, the music was playing, the minister joined my groomsmen and myself in a quick prayer then led us out to the front of the aisle where we would wait and watch the bridesmaids and my fiancée join us.

And then the ceremony was starting and the anxiety in my chest was becoming full blown panic. Sweat dotted my upper lip and I clenched my hands into tight fists. This was my wedding, I was supposed to be enjoying it and savoring every part, but I was so close to having a panic attack that later, I wouldn’t remember a damn thing.

How could I get married and promise to spend my life with someone, promise not to harbor any secrets when one the size of a damn elephant was sitting on my chest? This wasn’t the way to start a marriage. I needed to, no, more like desperately had to, talk to Eve.

And the moment would finally present itself. Eve had come down the aisle with her father, the ivory colored, strapless, ball gown type wedding dress fit her like a glove and made her radiate with the excitement and love she was feeling. It had taken every ounce of strength inside of me not to rush to meet her halfway down. Just seeing her, those vibrant blue eyes meeting mine and suddenly a sense of calmness swept through me. I was finally able to breathe again and when she joined me and her father presented her hand and I took it in mine, peace just melted over me and chased the anxiety away.

After a short prayer and the guests were seated, the minister looked to Eve and myself and spoke about the sanctity of marriage and what it meant and how it was to be honored and held with the utmost love and affection. I tried to listen, I honestly did, and while I felt a lot more calm, the information Brett had shared with me was making my chest feel heavy and I knew that I needed to talk to her before I said ‘I do’.

And that’s exactly when the moment came.

The minister, a man by the name of Reverend Fuller, (he was the minister of the church the White’s had been attending for years) turned to me after one of Eve’s cousin’s finished a reading on love and marriage and had taken his seat again.

“Alexander,” he began, meeting my eyes with his calm brown ones. “Do you take Eve to be your wedded wife, and in the presence of these witnesses do you vow that you will do everything in your power to make your love for her a growing part of your life? Will you continue to strengthen it from day to day and week to week with your best resources? Will you stand by her in sickness or in health, in poverty or in wealth, and will you shun all others and keep yourself to her alone as long as you both shall live?”

I wet my bottom lip and felt the pulse in my neck throbbing. It was now or never. If I wanted to go into this marriage the way Reverend Fuller was describing we were supposed to be, then I had to do something now.

My hesitation was noticed because Eve’s brows drew slightly together and the reverend spoke again, “Alexander?”

I glanced out to the sea of faces watching us then to my beautiful bride. She looked more than slightly worried. “Um...I need to talk to you,” I spoke in a half whisper.

“What?” She frowned some in confusion.

“I need to talk to you,” I repeated a bit louder, giving her hands a squeeze. “In private.” I was pretty sure her heart was beating as hard and loud as my own with what I could possibly need to discuss with her.

“Alex…” she watched me for a moment and glanced toward the reverend.

He looked as confused as she did. “Um, normally you just say ‘I do’.”

“I know, and I will,” I added quickly, “I promise. But…I … I have to talk to Eve first.”

He waved a hand and I thanked him then turned to our guests. “We’ll be right back.” Then I gently tugged her along with me and over to where a small, but quaint, garden shed was. The door was unlocked, thankfully, and I pulled her inside with me and closed it behind us, shutting the entire wedding scene out and leaving just the two of us alone, finally.

“Alex, what is going on?” She questioned me the minute the outside world was shut out.

I looked away from the gardening tools and lawn machines that were housed here and to her beautiful face. “I love you so much.” I touched her cheek.

Eve drew back slightly puzzled. “What’s happening here?”

Suddenly I was scared, afraid to tell her what I’d been trying to tell her since I got the phone call. What if it freaked her out and she called the entire thing off? How could I get through this without her by my side? “You love me, right?”

“Of course I love you,” she motioned a hand toward the door, “today’s our wedding day. Now tell me what’s going on.”

“I have to tell you something.”

Her normally calm and radiant blue eyes were filled with concern and a bit of fear. “…What?”

I could tell she was bracing herself for something horrible. I took her hands with both of mine and gave them a firm squeeze, feeling that nervous rush of anxiety building in my chest. “I…um…my lawyer called me this morning…”

Eve blinked, her long, dark lashes brushing her cheeks. “You…is this about a prenup?”

“No.” I shook my head and lifted her hands to kiss her palms. “It’s about something completely different.”

“Is it about marrying me? You…you do want to marry me, right? We…we have hundreds of guests out there and…and do you realize the money we spent on everything? You can’t just-”

I silenced her ramblings with a firm kiss to her lips, holding her cheek with one hand. Once we separated, I held her face close to mine and met her eyes. “Yes, I want to marry you. I just…” I released her and took a step back. “I just have to tell you something and I had to do it before we got married.”

“Okay,” she spoke slowly with a bit of confusion.

“Okay,” I echoed her and nodded my head. “Don’t say anything, just listen, alright?”

She nodded she would and I ran a hand over my face then spoke again, “Okay, so, like I said…my lawyer called me this morning.” I took a little breath, working up that courage, then continued, “And he had some news for me. There’s um, there’s still some…work and um…well you’ll see what I mean once I explain-”

This time it was Eve who interrupted me, “Alex, take a breath and just tell me. It’s okay.” She reached and took my hand, giving it an encouraging squeeze. “Unless you’ve been messing around on me or something, I can handle it.”

I blew a puff of air from between my lips and nodded. “Right. Okay.” I met her eyes and found the strength to continue, “Brett told me he’d gotten a call from some attorney in Ohio. It seems there was this woman…a Melody Porter…and she passed away from breast cancer a few weeks ago. She had just turned thirty.”

My soon to be wife’s eyes widened then sadness filled them. “Oh gosh, that’s so sad.” Then she paused. “But what does that have to do with you?”

And here came the bombshell. “She left behind two girls; twins. And um… in the will reading…she said that I was the father.” I didn’t realize how hard my heart was pounding until the words were out of my mouth and then I suddenly felt light headed.

Eve just watched me then her brows drew together. “Twins?”

I wet my bottom lip, looked around for a place to sit then moved and sank down onto a stool. The top hat on my head felt heavy and I realized I was sweating. “They’re…four years old. Of course,” I found myself quickly coming up with excuses, “we don’t know for sure they’re really mine. She could have made the whole thing up, but Brett said it’d be a good idea to go ahead and do a DNA test to find out for sure.”

“Twins?” My fiancée repeated herself, not having moved from her spot. It was like she hadn’t heard a word I’d said.

“Yeah.” I forced myself to stop rambling and watched her. “Identical.”

“I-” she opened her mouth, closed it again and pressed her lips together then tried once more. “The mom died and left in her will that you’re the father? And now they want you to take care of them?”

“Pretty much.” I rubbed the back of my neck; it was feeling tight from all the tension. “She um…said that she knew she was dying and that she wanted the father to have the opportunity to take care of her girls. But, that if I didn’t want to then they’d go into state custody.”

Eve opened her mouth to respond, but a soft knock on the door stopped her and Paige stuck her head in the room. “Um…everything okay in here?” She looked more than a little curious as to what was going on.

“Everything’s fine.” Eve waved her hand at her. “We just need a few more minutes. We’ll be out soon and please apologize to the guests for us.”

Paige looked like she wanted to say something, but held her tongue. She nodded then slipped back out and shut the door behind her.

Once she was gone, Eve turned back to me. “Why would they go into state custody? Why couldn’t one of this woman’s family members take care of them?”

And now came the heartbreaking part, as if what had happened wasn’t bad enough. “She doesn’t have any family. She’s not married, doesn’t have any siblings and no one who knew her even knows if her parents are alive or dead. It was just her and the girls.”

“Not even any friends?”

I drew up a shoulder. “I guess not good enough ones if she chose to leave them in state care if I don’t want them.”

And then Eve’s eyes filled with sorrow. “Those poor babies, oh no, Alex.” And she fanned her hands at her eyes. “I can’t cry I’ll ruin my makeup.”

I found the strength in my legs and rose, crossing the room to her and pulling her into my arms. “It’s gonna be okay. I’ll do the test and we’ll find out for sure if I’m really the father.”

“Do you think you are?” Her teary blue eyes looked up at me with such trust it made my heart ache.

“I don’t know,” was all I could think to reply with. I had been racking my brain again and again trying to remember that name; Melody Porter, but to no avail. And if it had happened, it had been years ago and who knows the kind of mental state I had been in at the time. All we could do was the test then sit and wait for the results, hoping for the best either way.

“Alright,” Eve pulled back after a moment and smoothed her dress, “I’m okay.” She reached and took my hand. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” I replied with honestly. “I have so much going through my head at the moment that I’m trying to process. I feel like it might explode from it all. I just knew I had to tell you before we got married, something like this…I couldn’t go into a marriage without telling you first.”

“I’m sure and I appreciate that. I feel the same way” She kissed the back of my hand then held it to her cheek. “I really want to talk about this and figure this all out, but we have a large number of people on the other side of that door waiting for us.”

“I know.” I sighed some and watched her with a grateful expression. “So the news isn’t scaring you off?”

A small grin tugged at her lips. “No, baby, it’s for better or worse. We’ll talk and get it all sorted out tonight, but right now, how ‘bout we go back out there and finish our wedding?”

I could have kissed her. I loved that woman and wanted to shout it from the mountain tops. Instead, I leaned in, brushed my lips lightly over hers then took her hand in my own. “Alright, let’s go get married.”

She smiled then we headed from the building to do just that.