AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sorry, Mom,” I apologized.
She rolled her eyes. “No, you’re not.”
Gunner chuckled beside me.
“Just promise me you won’t be carrying one at your wedding,” Mom said to me in a stern voice.
“Of course not. Gunner will,” I told her, making her scowl at me.
Gunner held up his hands. “Hey, don’t involve me in this. Remember the cigarettes?”
That got a laugh from Dad. Mom smirked and turned her gaze to Gunner. “You three were in the seventh grade.”
“It’s okay, Mom. None of us understood that you were supposed to inhale. I doubt our month of rebellious smoking did any harm to our lungs.”
Gunner had stolen a pack of cigarettes from his brother. He, West, and I had thought we were the coolest kids in town, although it was a miracle we made it an entire month before we were caught. The smell alone should have given us away.
“Speak for yourself. I was inhaling,” Gunner replied.
“What’s ‘inhale’ mean?” Bryony asked.
“Okay, that’s enough of the talking. Let’s get you to where the wedding planner is,” Mom said, directing Bryony away from us.
Dad shook his head as he looked at the two of us. “Seems like yesterday the three of you were headed to summer camp, and now here we are starting the summer with a wedding. It’s crazy how fast that went. Don’t blink, boys,” he said, then went to follow Mom.
“There’s Nash and Ryker.” West nodded in their direction as they walked our way from the parking lot.
“They clean up well,” I replied.
“Do you remember Ryker being so damn huge back in high school? How the hell did he explode like that?” West asked.
“Don’t you remember how big he was getting his senior year? Then that first year in college he morphed into a massive beast,” I said.
“Higgens, did you just call me a beast?” Ryker asked with a crooked grin.
I shrugged. “Just repeating the media.”
“Can’t always believe the press,” he shot back at me.
It was good to be here with all of us together again so soon. Shifting my gaze back to the chairs covered in fancy covers with flowers on them, I looked among the guests for the groom. He wasn’t with his mother anymore. Instead he was looking out toward the parking lot. He was ready to see his bride.
MAGGIE
The look on his face will stay with me forever. Sure, as a little girl I had imagined my wedding day, but it was a fantasy that was short-lived. My father’s abusive behavior toward my mother had taken that away from me. I had wanted to be the same as everyone else so badly I’d let myself pretend we were. That all married couples fought like my parents. That all dads controlled their wives.
It wasn’t until I watched him take her from this world that I let it sink in that we weren’t normal. My family had never had a healthy home. We were damaged, and in my darkest place I never thought I would find a way out of that place. As much as my uncle Boone and aunt Coralee hadloved me and brought me into their home, it hadn’t been enough.
The night West Ashby kissed me in all his anger and pain, I began to see something worth living for. I wonder sometimes what life would have been like had I not moved to Lawton and met West. I can’t imagine I would have ever found myself again. Being there for him during his darkest days pulled me out of my self-preserving world I’d withdrawn into.
My aunt Coralee asked me once why I had wanted to help West so much so that I was willing to brave the sound of my own voice again. I was willing to face my own demons.
It was because my soul and his were familiar. Something deep inside me wanted to be near him. It had made me willing to do all I could to help someone else even though I was completely broken myself.
Uncle Boone patted my hand, which was hooked inside his arm. “Her aunt Coralee and I do,” he replied, then he let me go. My eyes never left West’s as he reached out his hand for mine.
“I love you,” he whispered as I stepped up to stand beside him.
“I love you,” I replied.
Every word the minister spoke, I listened to, but myeyes never left West’s. This was our beginning. We would build a life together. He would be a loving husband and father. He was everything a little girl dreams of as the man she will marry. He was everything I had once thought didn’t exist.
It was as if my mother had sent me to him. He was my perfect. Finding him in this world had made me the luckiest woman alive. Which made me think there had to be someone looking out for me. Someone who knew I needed this man.
When West turned to face me, taking both my hands in his, I felt my throat thicken before he even began the vows he had written himself. Knowing that what he said to me today was something he felt and not something that was given to him made this more intimate.
“I was lost in a darkness, and I couldn’t find a light. Then you appeared. You made me want to be stronger. Your love for me saved me. Every day that has passed since that moment I realized you were the only girl I would ever love, I’ve managed to find more reasons to love you. More reasons to adore you. For you, I would do anything. I will cherish you and protect you. You’ll never feel alone. When life gets hard and dark times happen, I’ll never let you down. I’d give up everything to protect you. You are my world, the reason I breathe.”
He took my right hand then and placed it over his heart. “I will always be your safety.”
A truer claim had never been spoken. Because that was exactly what he was.
