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Their heads whip to the door.
Dylan drops his bags. "I couldn't miss my best friend's wedding."
-CAMERON-
I don't know which of us get to him first, but we all end up in a pile on the floor with him at the bottom. After several jokes of is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? we finally let him go.
Turns out he's on leave for two weeks. He came back yesterday but was staying with a friend in LA. Dylan, not being that technical, or social, never had a Facebook account so he didn't really keep in touch with many people. He saw his friend logged on last night and decided to check up on all of us. When he saw that we were getting married tomorrow, he took the first flight out.
I'm not too sure what happened with him and Heidi, but she's been quiet, a little standoffish. They sit together, but they don't touch, they barely speak—not that that's strange for Dylan.
We ask him questions about being deployed, and he says he'll answer them all—after the wedding.
The girls only hang around for a little while before they head off back to the main house. They'll be staying there overnight and we'll be here.
At around midnight, I get a text from Lucy asking to meet her at the dock. I tell the guys I have to help Tom with something. I'm sure they know exactly what I'm doing, but they don't question it.
She's sitting at the end with her shoes off and her feet dipped in the water. "What are you doing, fiancée?"
She turns quickly, almost shocked by my presence. "Nothing. I just miss you," she says, looking back out at the lake.
I kick off my flip-flops and sit next to her, my arm outstretched behind her. "You all good?"
"Yeah," she lies.
And my heart begins to race. "You having cold feet or something?"
She laughs quietly. "No. Nothing like that. I'm just... I don't know. It just doesn't seem real. Tomorrow we'll be married, and I'll be your wife."
"Yeah, that's kind of what I was going for with the whole proposal thing."
She shoves my shoulder with hers. "You know what I mean."
I wrap an arm around her waist.
She sighs and leans in closer. "I don't like not being with you. Even for one night. I know we shouldn't be seeing each other, but I had to see you."
"I'm glad you did, I was going a little crazy."
She leans up and kisses me quickly. "Let's stay until the sun rises," she says. "It'll be the perfect start to our new lives."
So that's what we do.
We talk all night about anything and everything. And even though we spend every spare second together, we never run out of things to say. She cries a few times, mainly about missing her mom, and remembering everything that we've been through. I sit, and I listen, and every second that passes, it's like a reminder of why it was so easy to fall for her so many years ago—why when Logan asked if there was a defining moment, I didn't have an answer. Because I think I've always loved her.
Always.
And forever.
***
I take one more look in the mirror, and chew my lip.
"You nervous?" Mark asks.
I release a breath. "Yeah. I'm kind of shitting myself, actually."
"Why? Doubts? Second thoughts?"
I shake my head. "Not for a second."
"Then what is it?"
"You know that feeling you get? That sense of calm, right before something bad happens? I feel like that. I feel calm. Almost too calm, and that's what's making me nervous."
He rubs my shoulders. "Maybe you're calm because you're just that sure."
"Maybe."
"Or maybe you need a shot of whiskey to get you through the calm."
***
We didn't want a big wedding. Just something with our closest friends near the dock by her lake. She wanted it in the afternoon so we could say our vows and then party as the sun sets. I told her it was perfect, because it was. It was everything I didn't know I wanted.
"You're making us all look bad," I whisper loudly to Dylan as I stand at the altar that I designed and Tom built. Everyone else is wearing matching tuxedos, but Dylan's wearing his Marine dress blues. He said he didn't have much of a choice considering he had a day to prep.
"Hey, you think I can borrow it later?" Little Logan asks him. "I think the girls would love it, you know?"
Dylan ignores him.
I look down the line to where my groomsmen stand next to me. All of Lucy's brothers, Dylan, Jake, Logan, and by my side, my dad. "You good?" Mark asks.
I nod.
"Still calm?"
I nod again, wiping my hands down my pants.
He smiles, but stays quiet.
Turning around, I eye the bridesmaids one by one. Claudia, Micky, Amanda, and Heidi.
Amanda lets out a sob as she wipes her cheeks. The girls console her, but she tells them she's fine. She's just so happy for us.
"Keep it together, Marquez," Logan whisper yells. He shakes his head, but he's smiling. "I can't take you anywhere."
She sobs again. "Shut up, asshole. I love you."
That gets laughs, even from the pastor standing between us—the same one that helped us with our Hope.
The guests gasp and I know it means they can see Lucy.
I stand there, and I wait.
Wait for my forever.
"Breathe," Marks says. I turn to him now, my eyes stinging with tears. And there's that same feeling I had from when I was in the hospital waiting to see her. All my senses are off. As if I'm under water, unable to hear, unable to breathe. The pounding in my chest gets faster, harder.
