Page 14 of Something Borrowed
Does he mean we’re better than one of our filthy books?
Chapter Eight
Lawson
Watching someone start their forever makes me think about mine.
Standing at the chapel behind my best friend, I cannot take my eyes off Lark. Sitting in the front row, she is beautiful in the afternoon sunshine that pours in through huge windows. Outside the breeze is warm, the air fluttering palm trees and crashing the waves on the sandy shores.
We’ve walked down the aisle a few times, the small group getting it all down for tomorrow. Benji walked with Lark down the aisle before we joined him at the altar. I ought to be listening to all they explain to us. I cannot get weddings off my head. The one tonight--which we will make it to, despite her doubts--his tomorrow, and maybe soon, my own.
Lark sits in a lovely silk dress that plunges in front, showcasing her pretty tits and creamy skin. All that inky hair cascades down her back, pulled back from her face with a braid on one side. There is no one in this room, even the stunning bride, who comes close to how beautiful she is.
Standing this close, I smell her skin. The scent of tiny hotel soaps, her perfume, and...me. Even if she took a shower after leaving my room, she cannot wash that off. Because she is mine and once I took her, once I claimed her as such, that scent has clung to her.
“Listen to the pastor, dick,” Benji teases me with an elbow. “Might be you on the alter someday. If you ever decide to become a grown-up.”
Smirking, I nod. Because he is not wrong. I might tie the knot a lot sooner than anyone expected. I am not going to rush things with us because we have all the time in the world to dothis together. This is not a one night, one weekend, once in a lifetime thing.
This is a lifetime thing.
This connection between us won’t end after this weekend. Neither of us want it to. We might be too afraid to admit it to ourselves or each other, but we both know it’s a fact. Earlier she pissed me off talking about after the weddings, as if there will be an after without me in her life. Not happening.
“Who knows, weddings spawn weddings, don’t they mate?”
“They say that don’t they? People fall in love at weddings all the time. Romance is in the air, a promise of forever. We all want that, don’t we?”
“You know, I never thought I did. Now, now.... I think I just might.”
“Have you met someone here? It’s been great having you at all the wedding shenanigans, but you have been...missing in action a bit.”
Guilt hits me because he is right. Two of the important people in his life have taken time from his special weekend to be with each other. It has been a few months since I have seen Benji, so I should have been more present. I was looking forward to having a hell of a time this weekend with him before he became a married man. Truth is, nothing else seemed to matter once I met his mother.
“What would you think if I said yes?”
Benji turns, eyes wide as he tugs at his beard the way he does when he’s deep in thought. His eyes scan the small group of loved ones here with us to celebrate the wedding. Coming up empty, bypassing his sister first then his mother, he shrugs. Grinning at me, he twists his beard some more before he tells me what I assumed he might.
“Whoever it is, be good to her. You’re a good man,Lawson. They would have a good life with you. Yeah, you have a wandering spirit. Might find someone who wants to wander with you, brother.”
Nodding, I glance at Lark again. Our eyes clash because hers are fixed on me. I grin when she glances away at being caught. Her creamy skin flushes and I want to kiss her pink cheeks and fuss with her dark hair. I want to go to her there in the pew, hold her hand, kiss her brow and celebrate Benji’s wedding at her side.
“Yeah, I think I might have found her,” I declare with a smirk.
From her perch on the pew, Lark reacts to my words. Good. She heard me. I want her to hear me, to see it when she looks at me. See it in the way I look at her. I’ve looked at her this way since the flight here to the island.
I look at Lark as if she is mine—because sheismine.
Not sure I even fully appreciate it until I think it. Until I look at her sitting there in the chapel, beautiful in pink silk, hair wild and soft, eyes searching mine as they gaze up at me. I know it now. I have doubted a lot of things in my life, who I was and was not, where I belonged in life, but this is something I have no doubts about.
We were meant to find each other, here and now.
Her being Benji’s mother does not matter. All that should matter is what he said. I am a good man, and she is the woman for me. Growing up was the loneliest time of my life. I had a brother fifteen years older who had no time for me and parents who forgot about me often. It wasn’t until I met Benji that I realized what a good friend was, what good people looked like.
“Let me get married before we start planning another wedding,” Benji teases as we watch the girls fuss over the flower arrangements that will fill the room.
“It might be small, Benji but...it’s quality over quantity,innit?”
Looking over the crowd gathered for him, I nod. His sister, his best friend Harley. Tori, her friends Hanna and True. Among the handful of folks here, it is clear he and Tori are loved. His father is gone, as is Tori’s mother, but Lark is here, supporting every single want they ask for.
