Chapter 784 - It begins! (2/2)

”Felix! What did I say about not touching the belly?”

”You said not to rub it.”, Felix reminded Sophia. ”I'm not rubbing it… but if you keep moving around, that is the same as me rubbing it…”

Ellie burst into a fit of giggles. Sophia fuming while Sarah and Aiden are ignoring her and Felix is full of smiles pretending that he does not see her displeasure, was just too funny to hold it in.

After few seconds, Ellie saw that Jasper is looking at her intently. She stopped laughing and cleared her throat. ”Do I have something on my face?”

”Yes.”

”What?”, Ellie reached with her hand and patted invisible crumbs from her cheeks.

”A smile.”

Jasper's response caught Ellie by surprise.

Ellie looked away from him and was happy to see that Julia is approaching them.

”It's time… line up, please.”, Julia was trembling from excitement. If someone does not know, they might think it's her wedding.

…

Outside, Jeff is standing at the altar and Elanor is adjusting his necktie and tugging on his lapels (for the fourth time).

”You are very handsome.”, Elanor gushed, visibly excited.

”Thanks mom. Go and take a seat, it will start in a minute.”

The first row was reserved for the closest family members, on the left for JoAnna's and on the right Jeffrey's.

Jeff was surprised to see that his and JoAnna's grandparents sat together on the left, while their parents were on the right. On the right, next to Oscar was also Jeff's uncle, Marcus with his family, and on the left, next to Mary, was Owen.

The biggest surprise for Jeff was that his maternal grandfather, Richard was also present. Richard was on the left between Donald and James while Mary and Barbara sat next to them. All of them chatted in low voices with big smiles on their faces.

Jeff was confident that Richard will be moved to see one of the necklaces he created many years ago around JoAnna's neck.

Seeing them all acting like close friends made him feel that they are really combining two families with this marriage.

The only not-so-happy part of the front row belonged to his uncle Marcus, a woman next to him which Jeff assumed is his wife, and Marcus's two children, Lucas and Samara. They all had indifferent or slightly grumpy faces. Jeff doesn't mind them, as long as they don't cause trouble.

On each side of the flowery pathway are chairs, with roughly about one hundred people seated. Other guests are further away, in the garden area, and can watch the ceremony on one of the three large screens which are showing the live feed.

Out of girls marked to be watched for this event, Harriet Morgan is seated in the beach area. She is not very interested in the ceremony, and her mother silently warned her to stop checking her phone.

Also seated toward the back in the beach area is the Wright family with their daughter Melodie. They arrived early that morning. Melodie earned her spot on the watchlist when Elanor warned them that Wright family is not hiding their desire to make Melodie future Mrs. White.

The background music changed, and the people quieted down.

”It begins!”, few people said in unison.

Jeff straightened his back and looked toward the end of the white carpet, which is laid out over the wooden base from the altar to the end of the beach sandy beach.