Page 75 of Accidentally Falling For My Best Friend
My mother is toward the front of the crowd, and it’s her voice that I hear cut through the crowd next. “You’re doing what?”
Then Beck, who’s standing next to her, says in the cockiest fucking tone I’ve ever heard, “Who are you marrying, Oakley?” as he stares directly at Parker.
Damn him.Of course, Beck knows and is just trying to ruin my fun when I’m attempting to be all dramatic and surprise everyone. At least he isn’t mad that I’m getting married first when he beat me to the whole engagement thing.
Then Parker surprises me, stepping forward to take my hand before answering, “Me.” He’s loud enough that he cuts through the chatter, and everyone falls silent at once to face us again as he goes on. “Well, legally, we’re already married. But today will be our commitment ceremony and reception.”
“Welcome to our wedding!” I announce again. “If everyone could please make your way to the beach to find a chair, we’ve got everything set up. Family will probably want to sit up front, but fight amongst yourselves if you must. The ceremony will begin in ten minutes.”
There’s more murmuring, and I hear a few phrases like “I didn’t even know they were gay,” and “Are we supposed to give them a present if we didn’t know this was a wedding?” No one seems particularly upset. Glancing back toward my mother reveals Parker’s mom is now huddled with both of my parents, and they’re all smiling, looking excited as they talk.
Parker squeezes my hand, pulling me closer to him. “Was that everything you’d hopedit would be?”
“Honestly, no one yelled or seems mad or anything, so it was kind of more chill than I was expecting,”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“No… I just thought maybe someone would be devastated that I’m officially off the market for good and might object,” I joke.
“There’s still the actual ceremony,” he offers, making me laugh.
Beck and Cody approach us, interrupting any response I might have had. “So, you just had to show me up,” Beck directs at me, the smirk on his face assuring me he’s teasing and isn’t actually upset.
“You had a pretty dramatic year with the whole cult thing. I figured I could draw some of the attention away from you.”
“We’re so happy for you both,” Cody cuts in, his permanent smile even wider than it typically is.
“Thanks,” Parker replies, returning his offered hug, and I do the same.
“Iamreally happy for you guys,” Beck reiterates.
After another round of hugs with him, Parker and I promise to talk to them after the ceremony and rush to catch up with our parents, asking if they’ll walk us down to the beach. My mom is already crying, and even my dad’s eyes look misty as they all eagerly agree telling us how happy they are for us, and that they can’t believe we kept it a secret.
No one is upset though, and as Parker’s mom walks down the aisle created on the beach with her arm through his, I have this overwhelming feeling that I know his dad would have been happy for us too.
Parker turns to face me with all of the love and joy I feel for him shining back in his eyes, and I can’t help but feel like we were always meant to end up here.
I might not have known to what extent when we met all of those years ago and I pointed out that we had similar nature names, but even back then, it was obvious Parker and I were always meant to be.
EPILOGUE TWO-PARKER
A Few Months Later
Turns out we had nothing to worry about at work. Our wedding was a huge success and did in fact go viral. Our professional pictures of the day, along with all of the videos from the guests blew up on social media, and the resort quickly booked all open dates for the next two years. Everyone at the company was thrilled, and if anyone had anything negative to say about the relationship, Oakley’s dad shut it down before we could even begin the first board meeting after the ceremony.
He had loudly congratulated us on our marriage before launching into a speech about how proud he is that his family’s companies continue to be such safe and accepting places for queer relationships. The Caldwell Corporation has been able to successfully launch the resort with a same-sex wedding in the same year that the Werewolves have had their first player come out.
It was all really dramatic and over-the-top if you ask me, but no one was going to dare question the validity of our working relationship after that. HR had already helped us complete the necessary paperwork,so we didn’t need to worry about that. I think it also helped avoid drama with the other board members when they saw that nothing changed as far as our work dynamic goes.
That was a few months ago now, and I’m still the first to rein in Oakley’s wild ideas and keep him on budget, and the financial success of our first major expansion since I took over my position hasn’t hurt either. We’re already exploring other places to revive exclusive destination venues, and Oakley is very excited about the possibilities.
I’m more excited about the things that have been happening close to home, though. We were able to come to an agreement with the owners of the house next to Cody and Beck’s in Oakley’s grandparents’ neighborhood before they even listed it. They casually mentioned wanting to sell to Beck, and Oakley and I were touring the place a few hours later.
It’s perfect. Six bedrooms with a large office on the main floor that we can both work out of since we still don’t like to spend much time apart. We’ve converted the finished basement into a large home gym, but a few of the rooms upstairs remain unfurnished. Oakley and I have talked about both wanting to have kids sooner rather than later, and he’s made a few offhand comments about waiting to decorate until they can be nurseries. I know he probably wanted to come across like he was joking, but I don’t think he was, which is fine by me.
We moved in quickly and the best part has been that we finally adopted a dog from the same shelter that Beck and Cody found Duke at. Buddy is a scrappy little thing, probably only half the size of Duke or Spot, but he clearly hasn’t caught on about that. He’s a pretty chill dog most of the time. He enjoys our walks and loves fetch, but he’s also content to hang out in the office with us if we’re working. But get him around other dogs, and it’s like he wants to prove that he’s the biggest and baddest. It’s adorable to see him try to bark louder than them, or try to chaseafter something like he could possibly be faster when his legs are half the size.
We still have our condo in the city for when we need to work super late, and Buddy seems happy enough there, but we usually have him hangout with Duke next door if Cody and Beck are around, and we’ve been watching Duke when they can’t bring him with them to Montana with all of the work they’re putting in there.
