Page 42 of Take Me
Zoe pats his arm proudly.“Such a good guy.”
Jake grumbles something about idiot tourists, while Cassidy gently chides him for biting the hand that feeds him.Dragging idiot tourists out for whale-watching tours is how Jake makes his fishing boat pay in the off-season.
As we chatter and laugh, I soak in the warmth of the Spencer-King family.I’ve always felt like an honorary sibling.They absorbed me as one of their own the first time Mason brought me home.It was just a few months after the accident, when my dad was still learning to navigate life without the use of his legs.He was there, but nottherein the way an eight-year-old girl needs her only surviving relative to be.
“This is Erika,” Mason announced as he led me into his grandparents’ living room.“We play flag football.She likes raspberry bubblegum.”
And that was enough to make me one of them.
All these weird thoughts I’m having about Mason—wet, naked, tingly-kiss thoughts—they’re just that.Thoughts.Mason’s my friend, and we’re practically family.There’s no way we’re risking any of that.
I drink more rosé, feeling buzzy and pleasant by the time someone clangs a big cast-iron dinner bell.“Please adjourn to the east barn,” shouts a woman in a gauzy blue dress.“The ceremony is about to begin.”
Mason takes my hand, and I jolt as I follow him out with the crowd.“I’m glad we did this,” he says as he squeezes my hand.
“Dating, you mean?”We’re surrounded by everyone, so I need to keep up the ruse that it’s real.
“Yeah.It’s so normal, you know?”
“Yep.”I hiccup, then giggle.
Lifting a brow, we make our way to the barn strung with fairy lights and wildflowers bursting from hand-thrown clay vases.We kick through the straw as he guides me toward a row of folding chairs near the back.“Are you tipsy?”he whispers.
“Maybe a little.”I stifle another hiccup.
“Same.”He squeezes my hand again as Kaleb and Brooke slide in beside us.Brooke claims the seat next to me, and she smiles when she sees our intertwined fingers.
“I love this for you.”She opens her wedding program as the cellist in the corner plays take-your-seats music.“And I love the barn wedding idea.”
Kaleb leans in to join the discussion.“It’s an option, you know.We’ve got plenty of barns around Cherry Blossom Lake.”
“We’re still deciding.”Brooke leans closer to me.“I know it’s hopelessly old-fashioned, but I always imagined myself in a big princess dress with a church organ playingHere Comes the Brideand the sun streaming in through stained-glass windows.The bridesmaids would all wear black, but different dress styles to suit their tastes.Oh, and calla lilieseverywhere.They’re so timeless, you know?”
“Oh.”I guess I’m supposed to have a vision of my own?“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
“No, I know.”Brooke gives a self-deprecating laugh.“I’m still sorting out how much of this is me clinging to some cultural norm of how itshould be—which isn’t the healthiest reason to do something—versus just genuinely wanting the whole princess fantasy, you know?”
“Totally.”Something sour coats the back of my tongue.I remember Neil’s words in the weeks leading up to our split.
“What do you mean you haven’t ever thought about what kind of wedding dress you want?”He’d stared like I had sand crabs coming out of my ears.“My sisters say that sets the tone for the whole wedding.”
“I guess it could be white.”That’s as far as I got with a princess fantasy.
“For God’s sake, Erika.Are you picturing something with a huge train, or more like a tea-length thing?Fitted or froofy?This stuff matters.”
I had no idea what tea-length meant, but I rallied as best as I could.“I’d like to get married in the church where my parents did.”
He looked at me sadly, like we weren’t on the same page at all.“That’s fine,” he said slowly.“But someone has to figure out all the flowers and decorations.The theme and the dresses and whatnot.All the girly stuff, right?”
I tried to agree, since things had felt tense for the past several months.“I’ll figure it out,” I assured him.“Have you told your commander yet that you don’t plan to reenlist again?”
“Not yet,” he said, glancing away.“Soon.”
That’s what he’d said for ten years.
Swallowing hard, I pull myself back to the present.To Brooke thumbing through Sam and Maxine’s wedding program, murmuring praise for their chosen font.
The ceremony starts, and God, it’s gorgeous.Sam wears a lacy white dress that trails to the top of fancy blue cowgirl boots.Her eyes shine bright, and her flower crown tilts to one side as she floats down the aisle toward a big, rustic arch made of barnwood and twined with tiny white flowers.
