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“Move, move,” Mark said, forcing his way over to me.
“Shit, he broke his shoulder,” Graham said. “We let him break his shoulder on his wedding day. Shit. Shit!”
“Hold on, hold on,” Mark said, kneeling down beside me and trying to pry my hand off my arm as I rocked back and forth between lying on my back and my good arm.
“Don’t touch it,” I said.
“I have to,” Mark said. “I am a doctor, remember?”
I relented, but only a little, as he held me down for a moment to look at my shoulder.
“What is it?” Graham asked.
“Help him lie flat,” Mark said. “Hold him down.”
“What?” I asked.
“Yeah, what?” Ryan asked.
“He has a dislocated shoulder. I can fix it. Hold him down.”
“All right buddy, this might hurt,” Ryan said, coming over to my other side and taking one hand in his and using his other to hold my arm down. Vic took one leg and Graham the other as I tried to lie still on my back.
“Okay, I am going to slowly move your arm down, then to the side, then up. You might hear a pop. That will be your shoulder popping into place, and it’s a good thing, okay?”
I nodded and felt as he pulled my arm down to my waist. It hurt like hell, but nothing compared to pulling it sideways so it was perpendicular and then suddenly up, like I was raising my hand in class. The pop sound was loud in my ear, overriding the painful shout that was coming out of my mouth without an interference from my brain.
But then, when it popped, there was relief. The tension was gone, and aside from some soreness, the pain was too.
“There we go,” Mark said. “Now let’s get this man home. Ballgame called on account of wedding.”
The boys helped me back up and gathered our stuff before we headed back to the ranch. Immediately, I hopped in the shower, and when I got out, my underclothes were waiting on the bed for me. Ryan knocked on the door, and I let him in. Since I’d had to pick one of them to by my best man, I had them draw straws before the game, and Ryan had won. He was the only other one that had to wear a suit because of it.
“I laid out your stuff,” he said. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to grab my shower while you get dressed.”
I nodded, and he passed me by, heading into the bathroom. I took the chance to get into the suit that I would be married in and begin to spruce up.
An hour later, we were on our way to the large clearing on the ranch, one where I had often thought about putting a little theater venue for just such occasions. It overlooked the rolling valleys on the acreage and was generally the prettiest place on my land. It took a little drive or a ride to get to. By the time we arrived, everyone else was already there, sitting in the chairs that had been set out.
A text from Allison, who was acting as wedding coordinator, twenty minutes later meant it was time to head down the aisle. As I turned and waited for Kristen to exit the carriage that had pulled up at the hill we stood on, I felt my heart clenching. When she appeared, she was a vision in white. Gorgeous wasn’t a strong enough word.
She was perfect.
24
KRISTEN
“This is the part I was most nervous about, you know,” Camden said.
We were waiting in the tiny space between the doors to the outside and the doors leading into the reception hall of the old Masonic building downtown. It had been mostly used as a rec hall in recent years and had been available last-minute for our reception. Mom and the girls had spent what time they weren’t spending with me directly at the hall, decorating for the last two days.
Now we were standing outside the double doors that would introduce us as a married couple for the first time to several of the friends that couldn’t make the ceremony. It was our first arrival at a new venue as husband and wife, and I clenched his hand tight in anticipation. The buzz from beyond the door was audible, and I couldn’t wait to get in there and celebrate.
“Why this part?” I asked.
“The first dance,” he said. “What if I screw it up? I’m no dancer.”
“You’ll be fine,” I said, reaching up for a kiss.
