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“Oh my God! Ryan!” She squeals in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“I’m doing what I should’ve done a fucking month ago.” I turn to face my dad. “Sorry, Dad, Stella, but this is too important.”
But the two of them aren’t even mad.
Stella laughs.
My dad grins. “It’s about damn time.”
And then, I’m off, heading down the aisle and straight out the doors of the clubhouse.
I couldn’t care less that everyone in the audience is looking at us in outright confusion.
I couldn’t care less that the minister looks uber pissed.
I don’t care about anything but making things right.
“Ryan! Have you gone crazy?” Carly shouts, but I don’t stop until we’re outside and standing in the middle of the clubhouse parking lot, completely away from everyone at the wedding.
Once I set her to her feet, she gets all up in my face.
“What the heck, Ryan?” she shouts, waving both hands out beside her dramatically. “You do realize our parents are in the middle of their wedding right now, right?”
“I do, but this is more important. You are more important.”
That takes her back a step.
But I step forward and close the distance again.
“Carly, I’m in love with you.”
“W-what? Y-you love me?”
“Of course I love you. You’re everything to me.”
Carly
He loves me.
Ryan Miller loves me.
I don’t think he realizes the impact those simple but mind-blowing words have on me, because he keeps going.
“I don’t care about the distance. I don’t care that we’re complete opposites. Frankly, I love that about us. And I could give two shits about the fact that the minute our parents say I do in there, we’re considered stepsiblings. None of it matters, Carly. All that matters is that with you is where I’m supposed to be. When I look toward my future, I’m certain of one thing. I want you in it.”
Tears prick my eyes, and all of the confusion and awkwardness and mental back-and-forth I’ve put myself through the past few weeks just goes poof.
Everything he is saying to me right now is everything I’ve been feeling. Even though I’ve been trying to ignore it, avoid it, squash it down in hopes it would go away, it’s my reality.
He’s my reality.
“I love you,” I say, my voice small but mighty through the tears that are now streaming down my cheeks. “I’ve been a wreck and I’ve missed you like crazy, and I hated the way we left things. There isn’t a single day that’s passed that I haven’t wanted to call you or talk to you or thought about you. I’m literally consumed by you, Ryan.”
He shuts his eyes for a brief moment and lets out a huge exhale from his lungs. “Thank fuck,” he mutters before opening his eyes again.
The utter relief that’s etched across his face makes a giggle jump from my lips. “Were you worried I didn’t feel the same way?”
“Honestly? Yes.” He smirks, runs a hand through his hair, and lets out another relieved exhale. “I mean, I just carried you out of our parents’ wedding to tell you I love you. That definitely borders on insane.”
“Borders on?” I retort. “Oh, Ryan, it’s well past the point of insanity.”
He reaches out and tenderly places a hand on my cheek. “See? I was right. I knew you were a bad influence from the start.”
I lean into his touch. “Like you should talk. You just wrecked a wedding. I only convinced you to TP an old lady’s yard.”
“So, we’re doing this?” he asks and steps closer to me, leaning forward so his lips just barely hover above mine. “I’m yours and you’re mine and we’re in this together now?”
“We’re doing this. You and I.”
“Thank fuck.” Instantly, his lips crash into mine, and he lifts me up into his arms until I wrap my legs around his waist.
“I missed this. I missed you,” he whispers against my mouth.
The power of his kiss and the intensity of our need for each other overwhelms me, and more tears start streaming down my face. They turn our kiss salty, and Ryan leans back to rub his nose against mine.
“I love you,” he says again, and my heart pounds inside my chest, ready to dive right out of my body and into his.
“I love you too.”
“This is the best day of my life!” An all-too-familiar voice fills my ears, and it’s then that I realize we are not alone.
When I look over Ryan’s shoulder, I spot my mom and my sister and Sal and what feels like everyone who is in attendance for our parents’ wedding, just standing outside the clubhouse doors, gawking at us.
“That’s my boy!” Sal shouts and fist-pumps the air. “It’s about fucking time you two realized you’re meant to be!”
“Oh, holy hell,” I mutter, and Ryan chuckles, burying his face into my shoulder.
“How many people are behind us?” he whispers into my ear.
