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“You can’t come in,” I said.
“I’m not above begging.” He looked me over. “Were you asleep?”
“Not even close.”
“I didn’t think so. Is it nerves?”
“No,” I whispered, stepping into him. I’d slept without him enough nights while away at school, so now that I’d graduated and lived full time in Big Bear, I didn’t want to sleep alone anymore. “I just want tomorrow to go well. Did you have a good time barbequing for everyone tonight?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how much rehearsing we did, but it’s nice to have us all in one place.”
“Did you ever think, when you built this place, that the bedrooms would one day be filled with people we love?”
“Can’t say that I did. I didn’t think of myself as such a lucky bastard.”
At tonight’s rehearsal dinner, I’d looked around a backyard filled with people I cared about. As my eyes had landed on Manning at the grill, I’d wondered—could he say the same? Henry, Manning’s only father figure, had made the trip with his entire family, and he’d brought Manning’s aunt along as well. Gary was also in town with his wife, Lydia. The absence of Manning’s parents and sister rarely affected us day to day, but this weekend, it would be unavoidable. Since it was my first time alone with him since that morning, I said, “I’m sorry your family couldn’t be here.”
He thumbed the hollow of my cheek. “My aunt came. Madison’s always with me some way or another.”
“But your parents—”
“Don’t mean anything to me anymore.”
I played with his shirt hem. “You were close with your mom before everything, though. I’m not saying she should’ve been here—I only wish things were different for you.”
“And I’m saying that I don’t wish a single thing was different.”
I smiled, fisting his t-shirt to bring him closer. “You are a lucky bastard,” I said, “just not tonight. I don’t think we’re supposed to be cavorting at all.”
“Hmm.” He sighed, rejected and dejected. “If only the wedding police weren’t a real thing.”
“Very funny,” I said. “I’d like to take this moment to remind you that you were the one who wanted a ‘traditional’ wedding. I would’ve been fine keeping it low-key, but you had to have a blessing from my dad, a rehearsal dinner, a bouquet and boutonniere, Blue as a ring bearer—”
“I never said anything about spending a night apart, though.”
“You don’t get to pick and choose which traditions you abide by,” I said, rising to the tips of my toes to kiss his cheek. “Enjoy a night to yourself in the guest room.”
I went to shut the door when Manning caught it with his hand. “Aren’t you the least bit curious as to why I’m here?”
“I know why you’re here,” I said, but the amused look on his face had me doubting myself.
“Give me some credit,” he said. “I can go without it for an evening. I did it four nights a week for years.”
“Not lately,” I reminded him. “Ever since we finalized the wedding plans, it’s as if you haven’t been physically capable of keeping your hands to yourself.”
“That’s ’cause picturing you in a wedding dress drives me insane.” He groaned, massaging the bridge of his nose, as if it actually pained him. “I can’t talk about this or I’ll break tradition and spoil our plans for tonight.”
“Plans?” I asked, checking the clock on the nightstand. “It’s after midnight on the day of our wedding.”
He tugged on the sash of my robe. “Throw on some jeans and tennis shoes, and meet me out front.”
“We can’t go anywhere,” I said. “We have a house full of guests.”
“They won’t even know we’re gone. Come on. Hurry up.”
“I’m the bride,” I said. “I need my beauty rest.”
He opened my robe. “You couldn’t get any more beautiful.”
The way his lids fell as he trailed a finger down the front of my nightie, I had a feeling if I didn’t agree to go out, we’d wind up staying in and sacrificing sleep anyway.
“All right,” I said, stopping his hand in its tracks. “You’d better head out front before we get ourselves in trouble.”
Alone, I flipped on the closet light to change. Truthfully, I was grateful for whatever Manning had planned. Before he’d knocked, I’d been staring at the ceiling, overthinking what we were about to do. Marrying Manning wouldn’t be hard—it was doing it in front of everybody we knew and loved that’d been keeping me up. My suggestion to go to City Hall had been genuine but perhaps one made out of fear. Up until January, he and I had lived in our own private bubble. We’d been spending time here and there with my family, but they’d only known as a couple seven months. It was as if we were all getting reacquainted.
As I left our bedroom and headed down a hallway of closed doors where my parents, Manning’s aunt, and some of my girlfriends slept, I couldn’t help worrying about standing up in front of all of them with a man no one thought I was supposed to end up with. Did they still have their doubts?
