Page 102 of Reckless
33
Epilogue
Until today, I never knew that having your heart lodge in your throat could really happen.
Until the first notes of the wedding march song blared.
My heart leaped so high that I was sure it got caught in my throat and started beating so fast that I could only catch small breaths between thumps.
I’d asked her to marry me onstage a month before, and I’d wanted to make it official right then. It wasn’t that I was nervous about being married…
Okay, I was nervous.
A wreck.
A sweating, pathetic—
“You okay? You look like you’re gonna pass out, man,” Andy said, leaning close as we stood in the front of the church.
“I can’t breathe.” I wedged one finger under the bow tie that some idiot somewhere had decided had to be matched with a tuxedo.
Andy huffed out a laugh. “You better grow some balls. You’re two seconds from your bride coming down the aisle. You hit the floor, and I get to open the doors to the paparazzi.”
His words shook the fog out of my head that had been making the room tilt to the side. Even though we were getting married in a small church in New Hope, the photographers had shown up early this morning, scoping out the best vantage point. I figured I could put up with it this once because soon, fans would move on to the next hot new band and we’d be left with our private life here in New Hope.
A vision in white caught my eye.
There she is. The one. The only woman who’s ever had my heart.
The dress that I’d heard so many times was chiffon rosette floated around her, the strapless bodice molded to beautiful globes that were accentuated by a silver band around her still small waist. Diamonds dripped from her ears, and her mouth was painted a deep red.
My heart slid down my throat, plunked back into my chest, and my cock awoke. God, I couldn’t have a hard-on standing at the front of a church, in full view of our friends and family.
Kelly glowed, and while I knew some of that was from the pregnancy, she did seem to be glowing extra today, so I took it to be happiness. She looked like an angel or some kind of goddess fairy draped in white as she floated down the aisle on the arm of her mother, who around her wrist wore the chunky gold wristwatch of her deceased husband, Kelly’s father.
My gaze was drawn back to Kelly like there was no one else even in the church. My heart now beat a steadythubumpthat made me wonder if I was going to be moving in slow motion when I finally took her hand. Her hair was swept up and falling down in ringlets at the same time, brushing creamy shoulders that I couldn’t wait to kiss. And lick and bite. My cock agreed, jumping again.
Down boy, tonight you can have your way. Maybe even at the reception.
Blue eyes that were so bright with happiness that they almost hurt to look at met mine, and just like that, my heart and my breathing returned to normal. Kelly was my dream. My everything. And would be my wife if I could keep it together long enough to say those two little words.
When she reached me, the minister said, “Who gives away this woman?”
“I do,” her mother said, tears in her eyes, “and her father would wholeheartedly approve.”
As I took Kelly’s hand, one of several of the small cousins danced her way to my future bride’s side, and she bent down to allow the girl to whisper in her ear.
The cousin, Stephanie, was seven and had been named after Stephen, as she had been born not a week after his death. Due to her being his namesake, the girl had been chosen to wear yet another strange accessory for a wedding. Over her white lacey flower girl dress, the girl wore the letterman jacket that had been Stephen’s, the sleeves rolled up several times at her wrists.
Kelly nodded, and the girl went back to her place on Kelly’s side of the church, next to the other flower girls and bridesmaids.
I raised my eyebrows at her when she blinked rapidly.
She leaned close and whispered, “She said, Stephen gives his whole heart too.” Her lips trembled with a smile and I wanted to take them right then, press a lifetime of happiness into them.
Looking toward the man who I had yet to call Dad, but who turned out to be my father and was trying to be, I watched Kelly’s mother seat herself next to him. She didn’t leave much space between them, in an intimate kind of way. And he patted her arm, and when he was done, left his hand there. Behind them were Ron’s two sons, my half-brothers, older by four and six years—Devin and Erick. We were cool.
My attention was drawn back to the front when Andy elbowed me in the ribs. I started to elbow him back before remembering there was a whole church of people watching. The minister was saying a prayer. I could barely hear his words through the fuzz in my ears, with Kelly’s hand on my arm burning a hole through the sleeve.
