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Everything was ready and in place. Dale had watched as Max looked like a crazy person organizing the best wedding in Winters Fall. His friend had also said that he was taking it back to where it first started.
“You really think this is goi
ng to work?” Dale asked.
“I’m the one in charge. I have everything in order. I’ve decorated the main high school corridor, right near Molly’s old locker room. I’ve got several people arriving very soon. Everything that is everything is in order.”
“He’s done really well,” Aria said, coming toward them. “The main hall is where the party is going to be, and he’s made sure everyone has kept it a secret. You should be impressed. I am. I didn’t think he could pull something like this off.”
“It wasn’t easy. The priest should be arriving any second, and I’ve got June on Molly duty. Trey’s bringing them both to the school in about an hour. The cake is here.” Max ran through his list.
Dale moved toward the window as he saw several of their old school friends and teachers arriving.
“You invited the school?” Dale asked.
“Look, Molly walked around this place heavily pregnant, and people didn’t exactly have the best response to her. I wanted you to have the chance to put that right. Here and now. By marrying her in front of everyone. Come on, Dale, that’s pretty romantic.”
“It is,” Aria said, sucking on a lollipop.
“I’ve got to go and give everyone the heads-up. We want mostly students in the corridor, and one or two teachers, so the rest can wait in the main hall. Don’t touch anything,” Max said.
“I think he could be a wedding planner.”
Aria chuckled. “He really is something, right?”
“He’s also really sorry about what happened with you,” Dale said.
“I know.”
“You’ve not forgiven him?”
“Maybe just a smidge. Helping him with this has been a lot of fun.”
“I think he’s found his calling, and could end up with quite a few requests.”
This brought another chuckle from Aria. “He’s been waking me up in the middle of the night to go over plans. At first he wanted to do it at some fancy restaurant. When we got the quote because of it being soon, and not much planning, Max told them to go and get fucked. We were looking for locations, and we passed the high school.”
“He broke in to check it out, didn’t he?”
“Yes, he did. He wanted to see if his idea was right. I’d say it was one of the most rebellious things I’ve ever done.”
They both stood at the window as Max organized people and clapped his hands. Through the glass Dale heard him yelling for them to move their fucking asses, and that he didn’t have all day to pull this off.
“That’s Max, through and through.”
Five minutes later Max entered the corridor, holding his cell phone. “June, Trey, and the bride are on the way.”
“How are we doing this?” Dale asked.
“We’ve got two ideas,” Max said. “You could meet her outside and bring her in, or I’ll bring her in and place her against the locker, and you propose. That’s what you did to ask her out on a date, right?”
“Yes.”
“Now, you’re getting to propose to her, and of course, marry her.”
Everything was in place, and Dale nodded his head. “Bring her here. In front of everyone, I want to make it right.”
Max clapped him on the back and left.
“You’re doing the right thing.”
“I know I am. I love her more than anything in the world.” Standing near her old locker, he smiled. Everything was going to be okay.
The corridor was full of old students, who carried on conversations with each other while Aria stayed with him. She offered him a lollipop to help with his nerves. He didn’t need a lollipop. He needed his woman.
Time passed, and finally, silence fell along the corridor.
“Move out of the way, suckers. Luke, Sasha, cover your ears and pretend Uncle Max did not say those things.”
Dale turned to see people part, giving Max and Molly room. June and Trey each held Luke and Sasha’s hands. He gave them a smile as they beamed at him. He wondered if Max had gotten them to help.
“What’s going on?” Molly asked.
Max placed her against the locker. “I can only do so much. It’s now on you.” Max slapped him on the back, and now it was his turn.
Going down on one knee, he took her hand. “Molly Tatum, I fell in love with you long before I asked you out. I was an ass—not a nice guy at all.” He remembered about their kids waiting and listening. “You thought I proposed marriage out of a duty to you when I got you pregnant. The baby you carried in our last year of high school was mine. Sasha and Luke are both mine, but so are you. I didn’t ask you to marry me out of obligation. When you told me you were pregnant, I was the happiest guy in the world, because you picked me, and, Molly, I pick you. I’ll pick you every single day of the week, of the month, of the year. You are the love of my life, and there’s no one else I want to be with. I’m hoping that you will give me this chance as you’ve not taken the ring off that I’ve given you.” He rubbed the ring in question with his thumb. “You will not regret picking me. I promise you.” He pressed a kiss to her hands, and stared up at her. “Will you marry me?”
He’d been so worried that she’d tell him to fuck off, or say no, or something.
“I’m supposed to ask you,” she said.
“Is that a no?” he asked, his heart pounding.
She nodded her head. “Yes. A million times yes, but I wanted to ask you.”
That one word was music to his ears. “I don’t care. I love you. Yes?”
“Yes. I’ve wasted six years. I’m not going to waste any more. I love you, Dale, more than anything.”
He got to his feet and pulled her into his arms, slamming his lips down on hers, pressing her against the locker. She wrapped her arms around them, and cheers rang up and down the long corridor. He didn’t care about the cheers. All he cared about was the fact that he finally had his woman.
“Hey, hey, that’s supposed to be after the priest says the magic words,” Max said. “Stick to the schedule.”
Dale took her hand and lifted it up in the air. “She’s mine!”
Max and Trey both let out a loud whoop, which the corridor copied. Molly curled up against his side, and together they faced the priest.
This was long overdue, and as he held her, promising to love, honor, and cherish her, Dale knew he’d never forget a moment of listening to her repeat the lines, or their vows to one another, which they both made looking into each other’s eyes.
When the time came for him to kiss the bride, he did, in front of their school, exactly as he should have done all those years ago.
He’d put right his own mistake.
Pulling away, he smiled down into her face. “Hello, Mrs. Molly Lewis. Your name finally fits.”
Sasha and Luke rushed to their side, and Dale held them all. His family, now complete.
Epilogue
One year later
“Hello, wife,” Dale said, kissing Molly on the cheek. She held onto the pillow and smiled as his lips trailed from her cheek down to her neck, and as she became awake, she jerked up.
“Oh, no,” she said, rushing toward their bathroom.
Dale held her hair back as she vomited into the toilet. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”
She threw up everything she’d eaten the night before, and then the rest, heaving with each wave of sickness. He rubbed her back, and finally, when she was done, she accepted his help as she brushed her teeth.
He stood behind her, kissing her shoulder and placing his hands on her swelling stomach.
She rested against him, closing her eyes.
“Does it always get like this?” he asked.
“Not all the time. Some of the time.” She was three months pregnant, and the exhaustion and sickness should be ending soon.
They’d been married for an entire year, and she stared at their reflection in the mirror. They had shared Halloween together. Both been there for the birth of June’s little girl, and of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
&
nbsp; They were a family, and when she’d become pregnant, Dale had been ecstatic.
“No regrets?” she asked.
“I got the love of my life to finally marry me. I have two amazing children, a baby on the way, and the family I always dreamed of having.” He tilted her head to the side and pressed his lips against hers. “No regrets for me.”
Molly stared into his eyes, and couldn’t keep the smile from her lips. The moment she entered the corridor and he got down on one knee, she knew without a doubt that she’d say yes.
She’d been planning on asking him to marry her. The ring on her finger was a constant reminder of who she wanted, and Dale was it.
They both turned toward the door as Sasha and Luke charged into the room and started to jump on their bed.
“It’s family day,” Dale said.
Every single day was family day, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
The End
