I peeked outside of the curtain, watching the models walk up and down the runway, strutting their stuff and obviously showing off Nick’s designs. I couldn’t believe that the show was finally here and that the world was about to see his designs for the first time. Hell, the first of many times to be honest.

I looked back at the woman who was taking up my dress slightly, telling her that it was fine just the way it was. In fact, it was perfect. The main centerpiece of the entire collection and I was wearing it. Another woman walked up to me, patting my face slightly to make sure that my make up was correct.

I wanted to scream, telling everybody to just leave me the hell alone.

“Erin,” I heard my mother say as I turned around. In the midst of size zero models who were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, there my mother stood, with her hands over her face, and looking as if she was about to cry. “You look so beautiful in that dress.”

“It’s not me, it’s the dress so you can thank Nick,” I whispered. She walked up to hug me, trying not to wrinkle up the dress or ruin my make up. “Is the show going okay so far? Nick hasn’t been back here and refuses to see me until I walk.”

“It’s going great so far. I was walking around and heard so many good things. Your father is having a field day with all the compliments people are walking up to him with.”

“And Katie?”

“She’s sitting out there with Lily, Jay, and Nick’s parents,” my mother replied, smiling. “She’s enthused with all the photographers and keeps trying to watch the flashes go off.”

“She does that every time we take a picture of her,” I said, smiling as I looked down at my hand.

“Thanks Mom,” I said, as I looked over to see one of the stage directors motioning for me. “Oh, I think they’re almost ready.”

“Oh, crap, I need to go take my seat,” she said, kissing me on the cheek lightly before looking into my eyes. “And congratulations.”

“For what?” I asked, looking back at her before the director came over, practically grabbing my hand to pull me away.

“Your veil is on and here is your bouquet,” he said, giving me a bouquet of beautiful red roses.
“You’re set. As soon as you here the announcers say your name, you do your thing.”
I stood there, peeking out of another curtain. I was so nervous that my knees began shaking against one another. Of course, you would never be able to see that through the huge, fluffy, fairytale skirt of this wedding dress that I was wearing. I held the bouquet up to my nose, smelling the roses when I heard my name.

Erin Davidson…

Damn, this was it. This was the moment that my father, Nick, and the entire company had been waiting on for the past six months since Nick first walked into our lives – especially mine.

The curtain rose and there I was, center stage with a long cat walk in front of me. I started to realize what Katie was so fascinated with… the flashes of the lights and the cameras. I had experienced this some when I went to after parties for award shows or red carpet events, but never like this. All of the attention was never just on me.

I began my way down the three steps before reaching the catwalk and was stopped. I looked over to my right to see my father standing there beside me.

“I’m going to walk with you. A bride shouldn’t have to walk down the isle by herself,” he said with a smile on his face. I wanted to laugh at him but figured this was his night, just as much as it was Nick’s, and Nick was fine with that.

“Okay,” I whispered as we started to walk down the catwalk slowly. I looked over, seeing my mother sitting with my sister, her kids and husband. Beside them were Nick’s parents, Jay with Katie in his lap, and Lily sitting beside him. I smiled, seeing Jay give me one of his humorous winks, wondering what the hell that was about.

Just as the thought left my mind, my father stopped, and I realized we were at the end of the catwalk.

“Daddy, we have to walk back down,” I leaned over to whisper, but he shook his head in response. I looked behind me to see Nick walking down the catwalk with a smile on his face.

My heart started beating like it had never beaten before.

I hadn’t seen him any that night, not since an hour before the show was to begin and since we were both dressed for the night. He had his suit and tie on, his glasses on to make him look just that much smarter and a little pink bag in his hand.

“Daddy, what’s going on?” I asked, watching him as he took a microphone out from the inside of his jacket. “Daddy?”

“As the announcer said, this is the centerpiece of the collection and well, the future of the company,” my father said, looking back at Nickolas as he walked up behind us. “I will be releasing a statement in the next few days that will announce my retirement at the end of the year and that the company will be passed down to my daughter, Erin, who has proven to me over the past few months that she has grown into the woman that I always wanted her to be and that she would do anything for this company.”

That’s what my mother was talking about.

I looked back at Nick who winked at me. I was doing everything I could to hold tears back but it wasn’t helping. I hoped and prayed like god this was waterproof mascara so that it wouldn’t drip down and ruin this dress I was wearing.

“And, I think Nickolas has a gift for you,” my father said, smiling at Nick. I watched as my father moved to where Nick was standing and he came up and stood beside me as we faced each other. I watched his hand reach down into the little pink bag to pull out a long, velvet white case.

Great, now my father had bought me some huge necklace that I will never wear anywhere since I’ve practically become the mother of a toddler and now a business woman.

“Erin,” Nick whispered, taking my hand in his. I looked down, to see our fingers intertwining and I looked back up, into his eyes. “Considering the fact that we broke down the walls that guarded our biggest fears, together… I thought that maybe you would like to grow old together and keep breaking stuff down and building stuff…”

“Oh just spit it out son,” my father spat out as I started to laugh and then looked back at Nick.

“I think I was in love with you from the moment I saw you and I feel that way each time I see you, and I want to feel that way for the rest of my life…”

“This is a long speech to give me a necklace or bracelet, Nick.” I smiled at him as I looked down to see him open the case.

It wasn’t a necklace or a bracelet – it was a ring.

“Will you marry me?” he asked, looking scared as hell and not very confident at all.

This was the moment I would find out if I had changed at all in the past six months. My life with Nick began when Daniel asked me to marry him and I freaked out because I was afraid of commitment. I realized that I didn’t love him and I wanted out of the relationship.

This was the moment that my father was going to be either proven right or wrong in what he had just said about me growing into the woman that he always wanted me to be.

I looked at Lily and my mother, realizing that they were just as scared as Nick was. My mother had her hands held up to her mouth, probably praying to God that this wouldn’t turn into another Daniel fiasco and that I wouldn’t become known as the “Runaway Girlfriend”.

I glanced at my father who had this weird sense of pride in his eyes as if he was ready to pull out a preacher and start the ceremony here and now. Hell, we had the witnesses, camera men, father of the bride and the parents, a flower girl, and a bride and groom.

Then I looked back at Nick and stared into his eyes for a second. That’s when I realized that I could remember the first time I had looked into them like that where as with Daniel, I really couldn’t remember what our very first conversation was like, much less the first time I looked into this eyes.

I could remember what my first kiss with Nick was like and the first time we made love. I could remember the first time we told each other I love you and the first time we had talked about moving in together. I remembered the first time that Katie cried out for me, not wanting me to leave and the first time she fell asleep in my arms and that’s when it hit me – I really had changed and I wasn’t scared anymore.

“Erin?” Nick whispered, leaning closer to my face. “Will you marry me?”

I moved my arms around his neck, and pulled him in for a deep, passionate kiss. The room was still completely silent except for Katie who was saying “Daddy” in the audience. I backed away from his lips, smiling and nodding my head.

“You will?”

“Yes. I told you that I’m not scared with you,” I whispered, causing him to smile. He took the ring out of the case and handed that and the bag to my father before slipping the ring on my finger. I looked at it and then back up at him and then realized that there were almost a thousand people around, looking at us.

Instead of being a heiress, I guess I should get used to the life of being a president, a wife, and now a mother – but that’s a whole other story and book of confessions in it self.