Free How To Marry Your Husband by Anne Brooke Page B

wants to do is to make him feel awkward. Weddings are weird enough as it is.
    Suddenly it comes to her – must be that second glass of Chardonnay, which always does the trick.
    “Why don’t we walk down the aisle together?” she asks him, laying her hand on his arm. “There surely isn’t a law against it, and I can’t think of anything more wonderful than walking down the aisle on the way to get married with the man I love and want to spend the rest of my life with.”
    He stares at her for a moment and then leans forward and kisses her. “That sounds wonderful, and likewise to what you just said. If your mother and stepfather are happy, then that’s exactly what we’ll do. I love you.”

Chapter Nine: The Cake
     
    Olivia is sure she doesn’t want a white wedding cake. She’s not having a white dress, not as such, so why have a white cake? More than that, she really hates fruit cake and has no idea why anyone would want to eat such a thing. She doesn’t even like Christmas cake (which apparently everyone likes), so tends to stick to the mince pies if allowed the choice. When she raises the question with Kieran, he gulps.
    “I’ve not given it any thought. What sort of cake were you thinking of?”
    Olivia purses her lips. “Our favourite cake is chocolate, so we could opt for that.”
    “Mmm, chocolate, now you’re talking. Sounds good, but what about sending slices to people who can’t come or who won’t be there because we like small weddings? Work people, church people, and so on.”
    This is a good point. Olivia collapses onto the sofa with a sigh and draws her legs up to her chin. “Back to the fruit cake then? Oh well.”
    Kieran shakes his head as he seats himself next to her. “Not necessarily. What about two layers of chocolate and one of fruit? That way, we can keep the fruit one for sending away and eat the chocolate layers at the lunch.”
    Olivia laughs. “I think we might need to share the chocolate cake with our guests, or Mum will have something to say about it.”
    “Shame!”
    Sorted then, at least in terms of the actual cake, but what about the icing and decoration? While Kieran starts reading the next chapter of his latest war book, Olivia flicks through her increasing pile of wedding magazines, hoping to gain inspiration.
    All the cakes in the pictures, though funnily enough she can’t see that many, remained determinedly white. With the occasional pink flowers or mauve glitter here and there, but all in all: white.
    “I don’t know, there’s nothing inspirational in any of these pictures,” she complains at last when she’s flicked through everything at least three times to make sure she hasn’t missed anything. She hasn’t.
    Kieran puts down his book, marking his place with the tiny scrap of paper he always carries around with him for use as a bookmark. Olivia has no idea why he doesn’t use a real bookmark – she has hundreds of them lying around but when she’d offered him use of one of hers once, he’d been most offended at what he’d taken as criticism of his choices. Men can certainly be odd.
    Right now, she can see he’s thinking, and hopes it’s something good. She doesn’t have to wait long.
    “What about green?” he says.
    Olivia blinks. “Green? A green cake?”
    “Yes,” he says, warming to his theme. “The same colour as your eyes. You can decorate it with gold to go with your hair. It will be stunning.”
    Privately, Olivia thinks her loved one may well be taking loyalty a step too far, but she can’t fault his enthusiasm. “What sort of decorations?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. Anything you like. Flowers? Stars? Stripes?”
    Olivia laughs. “Stars and stripes are too American, and I’m not carrying flowers, so it will be odd to have them on the cake. Maybe we can have tiny statues of us, in gold?”
    Kieran stares at her for a full minute with a look of absolute horror on his face before she cracks and bursts into laughter. “No! I’m