The ballroom of the five-star hotel Graeme selected for the wedding reception is strung up with fairie lights and festive florals that match the ones from the cathedral. Amber chandeliers bathe the room in warm light, illuminating the wooden floor and the vaulted ceiling. The French windows are drawn with thick cream and yellow drapes, skimming the floor just-so.
"Not tired yet?" Levi teases as I spin out of his arms. Our hands are still joined and I laugh as he pulls me back in.
"Exhausted," I say, making a face. "I think I danced with all your single cousins and uncles tonight, Levi. And all of Xander's. There's not a single relative who hasn't asked me to dance yet."
"Except one." His voice is deep with meaning, hinting at the man who's standing with his mother and her new beau with a thunderous expression on his face.
With a shrug of nonchalance, I resume the dance. The band is playing a lively acoustic version of The Fray's How to Save a Life and I swear I can hear every word. "What has he been up to since I left?"
Levi gives me a baffled look. "Why are you asking me?"
As Levi spins me once again, I snatch a glance at the man in question. Wolfram. He sees me looking at him and his expression clears. One side of his mouth pulls up in a smile and he sends me a silent toast of his fourth flute of champagne. It doesn't even bug that I've been keeping track.
Xander and Graeme are energetically dancing in some weird approximation of a boogie. I wince, reminding myself to duck out the ballroom the second they start doing the chicken dance.
"Why didn't you bring a date?" I ask Levi in a breathless rush. "What about the girl in the picture you sent me?"
His lips twist and his cheeks flush, which is all the answer I need. "I didn't...I thought it was too soon. This is a wedding, not a get-together. I didn't think Graeme would like it if someone was in the wedding photos who wasn't going to be a permanent part of our lives."
"True," I acknowledge. "Plus, if you really like this girl, you don't want to introduce her to your crazy family until you've got a ring around her finger. Wolf and Graeme have the tendency to make people want to run away, especially if they tag-team."
He throws back his head and laughs. "My crazy family? You realize that since you're pretty much Xander's sister, you're now related to all of us, right?" At my flabbergasted face, he only laughs harder.
Another spin. Another glower from Wolf.
She goes left and you stay right streams through my mind in tempo with the piano music and it hits me so fast. What are we doing, pretending to be friendly strangers? Like all we share is a best friend?
Some song lyrics make you forget everything. Others make you remember them. "Levi," I say, halting my legs and hips. "Would you excuse me?"
"About time," he says, smirking. He takes a step back and gives me an encouraging grin.
I march over to Wolf and I see his eyes go wide, like he didn't expect me to actually come over. "Charlotte," he says, voice rumbling in a way that makes me go a little weak at the knees.
Rhona smiles. "Wolf, give me your glass."
"What?"
"Give it here." She snatches it before he can protest.
"Whatâ"
"Walk," I say, looping my arm through his.
I navigate him past the doors of the ballroom, through the hallway, and into the lobby. I catch our reflection in the mirrors lining the hall - Wolf looks good in a tux, just as good as he did in jeans earlier.
He keeps giving me startled, sidelong glances, but I don't say a word until we reach the elegant mauve sofas. As we move to sit, an elderly couple gets up, the woman reaching for her purse at the same time her husband folds his newspaper under his arm. They give us warm smiles, probably imagining what a lovely couple we make.
"Let's talk," I say. "For real. Not niceties."
"All right." Wolf crosses one leg over the other.
"You're not the CEO," I state, choosing not to beat around the bush. "Why?"
His fingers lace together and he regards me for a long, solemn moment. "I was the CEO," he says calmly. "I gave it up."
"You gave up theâ" I shake my head. "No way. No way."
Wolf's eyes twinkle at me. "Way."
I don't know what to say to that, so I settle for saying nothing, which is probably the wisest decision since it gives him the opportunity to speak.
"I wanted it until I didn't want it anymore. I thought it would validate my father's hopes for me if I inherited his old position. I thought I'd feel good, thought I would like myself if I became someone he thought was worth liking."
Oh, Wolf. My heart crumples.
"As you know, I was interim CEO. It'd be official when I marriedâ" He pauses, the word you hanging unspoken in the air between us. "Someone," he says, covering fast. "But from the taste of leadership I had in the first three months...I realized that heading the company wasn't my dream. It never was. I knew that five years ago. I told you. I told you all the things I thought but couldn't allow myself to feel or do or become."
I understand what he means, as a girl who has recently re-learned how to become.
"When the three months were up," he says, clearing his throat, "I told them I wanted my old job back."
"You're a lawyer again." I pause, licking my lower lip, uncertain of how to phrase what I will ask next. "Are you happy? Is this what you want?"
"I don't know that it's not what I want," he says. It sounds so reasonable that I almost believe him until I see the tenseness of his mouth.
"You'll figure it out," I murmur. "Everyone does. It just takes some people longer."
"It was driving me crazy watching you dance with everyone in there but me," he comments, and it's so off-hand that I can't help but smile, wondering if he was waiting for the right moment to slip that in there.
"You could have asked me to dance," I can't help but point out, letting my head drift lazily to his shoulders. He feels stiff at first and then, all at once, I feel his discomfort ease away.
"I always do the wrong thing with you," Wolf says. "After all this time, I still can't get it right."
"It's not about getting it right. It's about trying."
It's only after I say this that I realize how true my words are. I've blamed him for so much, held him as the villain in our doomed love story, and set myself on a pedestal of blameless self-righteousness. He's been trying all along, in his own ham-handed, bull in a china shop way, and I've only focused on everything he did wrong. After all this time, I don't know him at all.
Happy isn't a place. It's not a destination I can fly to. It's a journey. And whether Wolf realizes it or not, it's time for him to make that journey, too.
"Will you let me know where you go next?" Wolf asks. "If you're not planning on staying in New York, I mean."
"I'll stay with Brett for a few days. Levi said I have an open-ended invitation to move back whenever I want. Two sets of keys."
"Make that three," Wolf says with a sad sort of smile, like he knows it's an offer I won't take him up on, but I smile in thanks anyway because it feels like he needs it.
"So"âhe glances at my face as though he's memorizing every freckleâ"if I ask you to dance...will you?"
I don't even have to think about it. "Yes."
"And if I ask you for more than a dance?"
"Then I'd say you were pushing it."
He chuckles. "Fair enough." He stands up and offers me his hand. "Shall we?"
I nod. "We shall." I accept his hand. His warmth wraps around me. His smile is magic. The pale skin and full, raspberry lips. The curly springs of golden hair and the metallic glint of his gray eyes.
Right now, all I can offer him is a dance. I don't know where I'll be a month from now, a year from now. Like I told him, I'm living for the moment these days. We blew our second chance, I know that now. But one day he'll come to me and he'll be ready for us, and on that day, maybe I'll be ready, too.
"Hey, Wolf."
He looks at me.
"What would you say about meeting in the Netherlands this winter? Christmas?"
His answering smile has an aim surer than one of Cupid's arrows. As if he heard my earlier thoughts about blown chances, he asks, "Third time's the charm?" as we re-enter the ballroom. The band is playing a familiar Rascal Flatt's song.
Wolf's hand settles on my waist. Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars. Pointing me on my way into your loving arms. This much I know is true, that God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you, trills from the band. Now I'm just rolling home into my lover's arms.
"I hope so, Wolf," I say as he pulls me close. I can feel his breath fan across my face. "I hope so."
"It's a date," he whispers, pulling me back against his chest.
And then I spin away from him, still holding onto his hand.
He lets me go.
THE END
Bonus Chapters (deleted scenes from Wolf's POV) are ahead, so keep scrolling if you want more Wolf!
Continue the saga by adding the sequel, Bitter Brews (available on my profile), to your library or reading list.
Thank you all for reading All This Time. xo