AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Emily
“Are you nervous? It’s okay if you are. I’d offer to help you escape if you wanted to run now, but I don’t have a death wish.” Ella laughs.
“Josh would never hurt you. He loves you. I’m not nervous. Should I be nervous? I don’t know why, but I’m not. I just feel like I’ve been waiting a really long time for this moment. I wish I could share it with my mum. I wish my dad were still alive to give me away, but I’m not nervous.”
“Do you think your dad would have approved of Josh?” Ella asks, smiling around her champagne glass.
“Ah, no. Definitely not. But he would have come around eventually. He would have seen how much Josh loves me, and that’s all that would matter to him. Are you sure this isn’t too much? I mean, we’re just going to the courthouse.”
I stare at my reflection as my hands skim down the floor-length, white silk dress Ella brought up to me. It’s beautiful. The dress has a low back, the material dipping almost all the way down to the top of my ass. The halter bodice ties around the back of my neck, leaving two long white ribbons dangling along my spine.
It’s low cut at the front, like really freaking low cut. There’s a slit right down the middle of the dress, which goes to my belly button. Ella had to put some sort of sticky tape on the dress to keep it in place.
She’s been a godsend the last few hours, helping me get ready. She’s done my hair in some weird kind of updo with a heap of twists and curls. I couldn’t recreate it even if I tried. I instructed her to keep the makeup light, simple and natural. So, with a neutral nude lip colour and a bit of dark mascara, I’m pretty much ready to go.
“I’m under strict orders to make sure you have a dress that you’ll be able to tell your grandkids about. And this dress is exactly that. Josh was rambling something about memories. I tuned out after I heard the words white dress.”
I can’t help but smile at Josh’s insistence that we create memories together we can tell our grandkids about. I’m still not one hundred percent sold on the idea of kids, but the memories, I’m more than sold on having those to treasure for all time.
“Emily, hurry your ass up. I’m not getting shot because I didn’t get you there on time,” Sam hollers from behind the closed bedroom door.
Ella walks to the door, opening it to an annoyed-looking Sam. He glances over his shoulder at me, his eyes opening wide before he quickly composes his expression. “Wow, there are no words, Emily. Just… wow,” he says.
“Ah, thank you?” I reply. “Okay, let’s go. I’m so ready for this.”
“You know, if you want to run, I can probably hide you really well,” Sam offers.
“I’m done running. I’ve been running from what I want for long enough. It’s time to just start taking what I want. The first thing being Josh. So, let’s go.”
I have no idea why everyone thinks I’d want to run. Have they not met Josh? Any girl would die to be his. And I get to be his. Forever. The thought of tying myself down to anyone used to freak me the hell out. But with Josh, I couldn’t be more at peace with the idea.
Now that I know I’m not a wanted woman, and the incident I left behind in Adelaide is not going to come and affect Josh in any negative way, I’m not running anymore. Granted, there is still the issue of the crazy detective stalker to deal with, but I have every faith in Josh that he will find him before the man finds me.
I just wish I knew what he wanted with me. Why me? Shaking all the negative thoughts from my head, I focus on more positive ones, like Josh and how he proposed to me, the song lyrics still playing through my mind. This is what I need to be focused on: Josh, and only Josh.
* * *
Okay,I wasn’t nervous… But sitting in a judge’s office for the last forty minutes has me a little shaken. Where is he? Why the bloody hell isn’t he here? He said he would be here. He has to just be caught in traffic or something.
“Can you try to call him again?” I ask Sam, who is tapping away on his phone in the corner. He picks his head up. Whatever he’s about to say gets cut off by Dean.
“I’ll call him. There has to be a reasonable explanation for why he’s late, Emily. He wouldn’t miss this for the world. Trust me, there is nothing Josh wants more in this world than to marry you.” Dean walks outside as he places his phone to his ear.
“He will be here. We just have to wait a few more minutes,” I tell the judge, who gives me a patronising, sympathetic look.
“Miss Livingston, we can always reschedule. I’ll give him ten more minutes. If he isn’t here by then, we will reschedule for tomorrow or the next day.”
“He will be here. He wouldn’t stand me up. He wouldn’t do this.” I know Josh. I know he wouldn’t leave me at the altar, so to speak. He wants this just as much as I do. I know he does. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to wring his bloody neck for making me wait as soon as I see him.
“Fuck!” Sam curses as he storms out of the office. “Dean, get Emily home now.” His voice carries through the open door, and I run towards the sound. He knows something and I want to know what it is.
“Hold the fuck up. What’s going on, Sam?” Dean asks, blocking Sam’s path to the lift.
“Your idiot fucking brother went rogue, when I clearly told him not to do anything alone. That’s what. I need to go and find him, and he better not be already fucking dead.”
“W-what do you mean?” I ask, coming up behind him. Sam curses under his breath before he turns around to face me.
“Emily, I’m going to find him, okay? I need you to go home and wait for me there.” Sam walks past Dean and stabs at the button for the lift.
