Page 39 of All In

I stop walking and swallow thickly. “I love you too.”

We walk the rest of the way to the hotel with him sharing more insane details about his cousins’ love lives. When we reach the door, I turn to him and smile sweetly.

“If you love me, you will let me win at the auction,” I say.

“Are you using my affection for you to manipulate me?”

“Absolutely! Is it working?”

“You know it is.”

epilogue

Leo

Three months later…

The sand is warm under my bare feet, and somewhere behind me, my father is fighting a losing battle with his own composure.

“You’re really doing the no-shoes thing,” he says, for what might be the fourth time this morning, like he’s hoping repetition will eventually change my answer.

“It’s a beach wedding, Dad. Shoes would be dumb.”

“I had shoes at my wedding.”

“Your wedding was in a church in November.” I roll my shoulders, more out of nervous energy than any actual stiffness. “Different circumstances. Plus, do we want to use a wedding to KiKi as an example?”

“Heh, fair.”

“Also, this wedding could have been themed, and then you would’ve had to dress up in a costume.”

He visually shudders. “No shoes is much better.”

“I don’t know. You would’ve made a great Orc.”

He scoffs. “I would’ve made a great Zeus.”

“Sure, dad.”

He claps a hand on my shoulder, solid and warm. “You look nervous,” he says, gentler now.

“I’m not.”

“Leo.”

“Okay. A little nervous. But the good kind.”

He laughs at that, and it eases something in my chest, watching him relax into the day a little.

“I was going to give you a speech,” he says. “I wrote one. I’ve read it back to myself probably ten times this week.”

“You don’t have to give it now. Save it for tonight.”

“I know. I just want you to know it exists. That I’ve been thinking about what to say to you since you were small enough to ride on my shoulders. Somehow, none of the words I practiced feel big enough for today.”

He looks out at the water for a second, the late afternoon light doing something soft and gold across the whole horizon. “You’re the best thing I ever did, Leo. I want you to know that before you walk out there. Whatever else happens today, whatever else has happened this whole complicated week with your mother⁠—”

“And the fact that you hooked up with my bride’s older sister?”