Chapter 7

" D ante texted that he and Jade are both running late. Gives us a chance to catch up. So, Miss Soon-to-Be-Married, how was Boston?" Marni asked.

"Fantastic. The studio rented us the most charming Victorian house in Cambridge, right off Brattle Street near Harvard Square. Finn would go to work and I'd wander down to this little Middle Eastern café, drink fresh mint tea, and read and write for hours. I also connected with some folks at Harvard and MIT to discuss their research and how it relates to my work. On Finn's days off, we went sightseeing all over the city and had romantic dinners in the North End and on the Seaport. I especially loved all the old brownstones and antique shops on Charles Street. We even drove to Cape Cod for a couple of nights and gorged ourselves on steamers and lobster."

"It's cool that you can travel with him to locations. You've always been a road dog. I know it helps to fuel your work."

"Yeah. Finn and I made a deal that we'd always travel together and make an adventure of life. When we have children, we'll travel as a family and experience the world together. Once our oldest is school-age, Finn promised to only take jobs in LA except for in the summers, when we can all travel together."

"Seems he really is the perfect guy for you," Marni said.

"He is," Ella said, smiling.

"You know me, I find it hard to believe in the whole knight-in-shining-armor thing. I always wonder if they're really just a Trojan horse. So, if it's all the same to you, I'll hang on to a healthy dose of skepticism."

Ella laughed. "Suit yourself. My worry is that my mother may share the same sentiment. She and her boyfriend arrive in LA tonight. Finn arranged for them to have a spa day tomorrow to unwind after their trip, then we're taking them out to dinner where everyone will meet for the first time."

"I remember Carmen being very warm and free-spirited—boho, like you. Isn't romantic love right up her whimsical alley?"

"Lust, yes. Love, maybe. Marriage, not so much. I think she's happy for me, but . . ."

Marni raised her eyebrows.

"I need to prepare Finn in case she says something off-putting. It's just another ball to keep in the air. You can't imagine what a jumble my mind is with the wedding in only three days. There's so much to do, and I just want everything to go off without a hitch."

"It will," Marni assured her. "I may not be the most romantic of hearts, but you are and Finn is, and that's all that matters."

"Thanks."

"But with everything you have going on, why did you come to our meeting today?"

"I missed the last couple of months because of the shoot, and after the wedding, we'll be honeymooning on the Amalfi Coast for two weeks. I don't want to get kicked out of the group for truancy."

"Fat chance. You know I've always had a fondness for delinquents."

Ella laughed. "Besides, before I get married, I wanted a little reminder of who I am. Just me."

Marni smiled. "Well, I may not have the bridal gene in me, but I'm happy for you. To show it, I plan to get rip-roaring drunk at the wedding."

"Do me a favor: if my mother needs it, get her drunk too."

"HEY, SWEETHEART. THE JET LANDED and your mother and Alejandro are being driven to their hotel," Finn said.

"Thank you again for taking care of all the arrangements."

"My pleasure. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have them stay here? There's plenty of room."

"My mother thought we should have privacy this of all weeks," Ella explained. "But maybe after dinner tomorrow, we could invite them over for a nightcap and to see the house, if they're not too jet-lagged."

"Sure."

"And then they're still planning to come over the night before the wedding for dinner with us and your parents."

"Are you sure they really want to cook?" Finn asked. "It's not too late to have Joyce handle it."

"It's their way; they love to feed people Spanish food. We bought all the ingredients so they can make their famous saffron paella and squid ink paella."

"My parents will love it. I picked up a few special bottles of Rioja to go with dinner."

"Thank you."

He noticed her fidgeting with her hair, so he asked, "Is everything okay, sweetheart? You seem nervous. Not cold feet, I hope."

Ella smiled. "Not in the slightest. I'm just a little anxious about seeing my mother."

"I always had the impression you two are close."

"We are. Very close. The whole single mother and daughter thing is tough to explain, but we were kind of everything to each other—family and best friends. It's just . . ."

"What? Tell me."

"I want you to like each other." She took a moment to consider her words. "I've only ever said good things about you, but I visited her in Valencia about a month after Sweden, and I wasn't exactly doing well at the time. I told her how much I wanted to get back together with you, and . . ." He smiled and rubbed her hand. "She wasn't exactly optimistic that it would work out."

"Given the situation at the time, I can understand that. Surely now she can see that it has worked out."

Ella sighed. "I hope so. To her, maybe it's a little like a fairy tale and it's hard for her to believe it's real. My mother doesn't have a lot of faith in marriage. She doesn't think it lasts, which is why she's never been married. After her affair with my father, the way he strung her along and then bailed on us both . . ."

"Don't worry," Finn said, taking her hand. "I'll do everything I can to show her how committed I am to you, even if I have to spend the next fifty years proving myself to her."

Ella smiled. "She's happy for me, really. I'm just not totally sure how she feels about us getting married. I've been afraid to go there with her."

"As long as you know how you feel about it, everything else will work itself out."

"I do."

"Just make sure you remember those two little words for our wedding day."

She giggled.

FINN PULLED UP TO THE CURB IN front of Avra and noticed several paparazzi standing outside the restaurant. He turned to Ella and said, "This is the price of eating in Beverly Hills. I'm sorry in advance. Don't get out until I come around to get you. We can zip inside." The valet opened their doors, and Finn came around and took Ella's hand. They ducked their heads and hurried inside, paparazzi snapping away and hollering, "When's the big day?"

Before they could say a word, the hostess said, "Good evening, Mr. Forrester. Your party is already here; please follow me." She escorted them straight past the bar, up a few stairs, and into a private room that could easily seat a party several times their size.

"Mom!" Ella called as she made her way to the table. Carmen and Alejandro both rose and hugged her affectionately. "Mom, Alejandro, this is Finn."

"I'm so pleased to meet you," Finn said, extending his hand. "I see where Ella gets her beauty. You look so much alike, like sisters."

Carmen smiled, leaned in, and gave him a peck on each cheek. "Well, you certainly are charming. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Finn and Alejandro shook hands, and they all sat down.

"I hope the hotel is okay. How have you been settling in?" Finn asked.

"Very well, thank you. The suite is lovely, and we enjoyed a relaxing day at the spa. Thank you for taking care of everything for us. We feel positively spoiled," Carmen said.

Finn smiled. "We know it's a long trip for you, but it means so much to us that you're here for our big day. We want you to enjoy yourselves."

"We wouldn't have missed it," Alejandro added in his thick accent. "As Carmen said, thank you for the luxurious accommodations. This seems like a wonderful restaurant too; I love Mediterranean food. The fish they have displayed in the other room looks supremely fresh. Very European to serve whole fish, so I feel right at home."

"Ella mentioned you both enjoy seafood," Finn said.

"Yes," Carmen replied. "Although I'm not sure why they insisted on seating us back here where we can't see the fish market."

"Mom, sometimes Finn gets unwanted attention, so he reserved this room special for us," Ella explained.

"I hope you don't mind. I thought we could use a little privacy while we get to know each other," Finn said.

Carmen huffed. "Privacy? I'm surprised that's important to you considering you're the man who proposed to my daughter in the middle of the most famous red carpet in the world, in front of swarms of onlookers and the international media. One might wonder what your intentions were: marriage or simply a grand moment?"

"Mom," Ella cautioned.

"I'm sorry," Carmen said. "That came out wrong."

"Not at all," Finn said. "I greatly value my privacy, but I had just fallen so hopelessly in love with your remarkable daughter that when I finally had the chance to propose, I couldn't stop myself, red carpet or not. To tell you the truth, I didn't even notice that anyone else was there. My eyes only saw Ella."

Alejandro patted Carmen's hand, and a smile flickered across her face.

"Ah, love. The greatest gift in the world," Alejandro remarked.

"It sure is," Finn agreed, draping his arm around his bride-to-be.

Just then, a waiter came over and asked, "Can I start you off with something to drink?"

"Should we order a bottle of wine?" Finn asked.

"Perhaps a bottle of champagne. I wish to toast the happy occasion of my daughter's engagement," Carmen said.

Finn smiled, looked at the waiter, and said, "A bottle of your best champagne, please."

Two hours later, they were laughing at Ella's story about a sex shop she visited as research for her book. "Do you mind?" Alejandro asked, gesturing at the last piece of grilled octopus.

"Please, help yourself," Finn replied. "It was a great idea to order a bunch of dishes to share. The sashimi you selected was fantastic, and so was the grilled vegetable and Halloumi plate."

Alejandro scooped up the last piece of octopus and said, "That is how we like to do it in Spain—small bites and a whole fish to share, and everyone gets a little of everything, family style, as you Americans say."

"Yes, I've quite acclimated to the Spanish way after all these years," Carmen said.

"How did you end up in Valencia?" Finn asked.

"Well, I joke that with a name like Carmen, I was destined to live in Spain."

"Lucky for me," Alejandro said, picking up her hand and kissing it.

"Anyway," Carmen continued, "I've always moved around a lot, as I'm sure Ella told you, although I tried to stay in the States when she was growing up to make it easier for her in school. About ten years ago, Ella's first book had just come out. It seemed she was truly an adult out in the world on her own, and that gave me the freedom to go wherever I pleased. Europe beckoned, preferably somewhere with a warm climate. I was considering Barcelona, but a friend suggested that Valencia might be an easier place to live and boasts a vibrant arts community. I decided to try it for a year or two, but it suited me so well that I stuck around. A decade later, it feels like home."

"I like to think I have something to do with that," Alejandro said.

"How did you two meet?" Finn asked.

"He rented me my apartment. I mentioned that I was looking for a place with good light for my painting. So, he invited me to a local café where artists share their work—guitar, spoken word, poetry. I stopped by, and to my surprise, he was on stage, reading the most beautiful poetry."

"A real estate manager by day, but a poet in my soul," Alejandro mused. "It took me ages to get her to go out with me and years more before she agreed to live with me. These Sinclair women are tough." Finn laughed and Alejandro continued, "Wrote poem after poem for her, professing my love. In the end, I won her over with my art."

Finn smiled.

"Yes, the arts can be quite an aphrodisiac," Carmen said. "They can make the impossible seem possible. A gift and a curse. You two must relate. After all, you met on an exotic film location. I'm sure that makes it easy to get swept up in the romance of it all."

"I've spent my life on movie sets but never felt a glimmer of the jolt I got when I met Ella. I think when you meet the one, it's inexplicable. You just know it. Then it's up to you to lean in."

"I think so too," Ella said, gazing at him.

Carmen watched them and smiled softly. "Yes, perhaps."

"AH, HAVE YOU FINISHED THE TOUR of the house?" Finn asked as Carmen wandered into the living room.

She nodded. "They're still in Ella's office. Alejandro is like a kid in a candy store flipping through the first-edition poetry books you bought her. Truthfully, I snuck away because I was hoping to speak with you alone."

He handed her a glass of port and said, "Please, have a seat."

"Thank you," she replied as they sat on the couch.

"Cheers," he said, clinking his glass to hers.

They each took a sip, and Carmen set her glass on the coffee table. "Finn, I feel I owe you an apology. I was a little hard on you."

"Not at all. You're just looking out for your daughter. I realize it will take some time for us to get to know each other. I'm hoping that life is long and I'll have the chance to prove myself and the depth of my devotion."

She smiled. "Did Ella tell you she came to see me shortly after you two split up?"

"Yes."

"Did she tell you what I said?"

He shook his head. "Only that you were a bit skeptical that it would work out."

"Ella was an absolute wreck. She couldn't stop crying, days on end. I've never seen her like that before. She said she was madly in love with you. I told her that passionate love affairs may not be meant to last and she would need to come to peace with it as a cherished memory. She said she wasn't sure if she could do that." Carmen stopped, shook her head, and continued, "I told her that you're a movie star, that you probably fall in and out of love at every location, and it was all too good to be true. You hadn't called her since leaving Sweden, so I tried to convince her that you had moved on."

"There wasn't a moment that passed that I wasn't thinking of Ella. I didn't reach out because I knew it had to come from her. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I knew we belonged together, that what we share is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. She needed the time and space to figure that out for herself."

She smiled. "I know. I also know that the reason she left you in the first place has as much to do with me as anything else."

Finn looked at her quizzically.

"My lifestyle wasn't easy on her, always moving around."

"Perhaps, but she also said that you made each new place feel like home. ‘Oodles of joy' were her words. You also taught her to have an adventurous spirit, which is something I adore about her."

"You're kind to say that," Carmen said. "I did my best, given who I am. When Ella showed me the mural you had painted for her and the twinkly lights on her balcony, it was clear to me how she remembered her childhood, the good and the bad. It was also clear how deeply you love her."

"I do. I love her with all my heart. I always will."

"Ella had a hard time allowing herself to fall in love because of my relationship with her father, the other men who came and went, my lifestyle before Alejandro. I'm sorry for my role in what you both went through and for not making the road back to each other easier."

"Please, Carmen, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for. You raised the love of my life. Ella is the most extraordinary woman I've ever known. There's nothing I would change about her. It's clear she takes after you in many ways."

Carmen smiled. "I see how much you and Ella love each other, and I'm truly happy for you both. Perhaps for some, fairy tales do come true and passionate love can last a lifetime. That's my wish for the two of you."

Finn smiled, and Ella and Alejandro ambled into the room.

"Ella and I got swept up reading poetry. It's easy to get lost in the beauty of the Romantics and their hopefulness," Alejandro said.

"So, what have we missed?" Ella asked.

"I guess your groom and I were having our own chat about the beauty of hopefulness. Let's just say, he's made me a believer," Carmen said, winking at Finn.

"GOOD MORNING, LOVE," ELLA SAID, running her finger down Finn's cheek. "I can't believe our wedding day is here."

"Me too," he said, smiling. "It's already the happiest day of my life."

"Mine too. I hope my wedding dress still fits. We were pretty indulgent last night."

"That paella was amazing. My parents loved your mother and Alejandro; it seems like they could have talked all night. I even heard them mention taking a trip together."

"I started to wonder if we'd have to throw them all out so we could get some sleep."

He laughed. "I'm just grateful everyone gets along so well."

"Me too. You certainly dazzled my mother. I wasn't sure if it could be done, but once she let her guard down, she could see what an incredible man you are and how we truly feel about each other. She's so happy for us." Ella got quiet for a moment.

"What is it, my love?" Finn asked.

"She offered to walk me down the aisle. Alejandro did too. Jean even texted me when his jet landed yesterday to offer the same. He said, ‘ Ma chérie , since I am responsible for you and Finn meeting, I would be honored to walk you to him if you need an escort. Besides, it would be my first stroll down the aisle that had any chance of working out.'"

Finn laughed.

"I guess they all feel badly that I don't have a father to walk me," she said.

He ran the back of his hand along her cheek. "I'm sorry, baby. Does the wedding have you thinking about your father leaving you?"

"Not really. If anything, it makes me think about how lucky I am to have a man in my life who will always love me."

He kissed her forehead. "So, what have you decided? Who's going to escort you?"

"No one. Today is about us. I want to walk to you on my own, my eyes glued to yours." He smiled and she continued, "My bridal bouquet is going to be tied with a white silk ribbon, like the one on that teddy bear my father gave me the last time I saw him, when I was four years old. It's my way of having him there, and also of letting go."

Finn kissed the tip of her nose. "Everything about you is so beautiful. I can't wait to marry you. Speaking of which, I know you wanted to buck tradition and sleep in our bed together last night . . ."

"After our separation, I can't bear to be apart from you."

He smiled. "But we also said we'd each go to different parts of the house today to get ready so we won't see each other until you're walking down the aisle to me. I'll be the guy in the tux who can't stop smiling."

"Finn . . ." She looked down, contemplative.

He touched her chin and raised her gaze to meet his. "What is it, love? You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"Never. There's nothing I have ever wanted more than to be with you forever. Can we make a pact that no matter what, we'll keep our relationship at the center of our lives? I think that's an important part of making love last, and why it doesn't work out for some people when they add in the stresses of work and family. As much as we love our work, and how immeasurably we'll love our children, you and I, this thing between us," she said, touching his chest, "it will always come first."

"Yes, it's a pact."

"In my heart, I know that's how we can make it work, make it last."

"I feel the same way." He put his hand on her cheek and said, "I know you've always been afraid that if you gave yourself fully and vulnerably to someone, that you might lose yourself. I promise I'll never let that happen."

Ella smiled. "I promise the same to you." She kissed him and continued, "When we say our vows, there will be so many people watching us. It feels a bit strange, since it's the most personal, intimate thing we could ever do. I was thinking that maybe we could say something to each other now, while we're alone, something private and just for us. It can be our secret, real wedding. It doesn't have to be formal vows, maybe just something authentic about how we feel and what we want for our life together."

"I love that idea."

"I'll go first," she said. She traced his jawline with her finger. "Finn Forrester, I love you, body and soul, and I always will. I promise to spend the rest of my life loving you fearlessly with everything I have. My hope is that we live a passionate, adventurous life together—working, traveling, raising a family, and just being us . I want you to be my partner, now and forever. I trust what we have. And because of you, I trust love. I don't know what love looks like or feels like over a lifetime, I don't know what it will do to me or to you, but I want to find out. My heart is wide-open and yours for the rest of my days."

"My beautiful Ella," he said, cupping her cheek in his hand. "You are my world. I love you with all my heart. Together, we can live an adventure of our own making, and I can't wait to see how it unfolds. I know you'll keep me on my toes. I'm not perfect and I may make mistakes, but I will never betray or abandon you. I'm yours, completely yours. When all else fails, remember this: I choose you. I choose us. Always."