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“Like you ever fantasized about marriage at all.” Malcolm smiled when she shrugged. They both knew it was true, even though she’d even been engaged once before.
Malcolm and Trenton both understood part of the reason she was insistent on getting married now, despite his friend refusing to say it out loud, even after Malcolm had ambushed him that week and pushed him to release the words. Trenton had come close to punching him, a punch Malcolm figured he deserved and was more than willing to take. Anything his friend needed to help him deal with his fear.
But Celia’s worry about what would happen to her when the baby came was only one reason she had decided not to wait to marry Trenton. As Malcolm opened the door and pushed his cousin down the aisle, her smile bloomed. Trenton looked like he was about to cry as he stood waiting for his bride. His returning smile was wobbly, but the tension faded from his shoulders.
After Malcolm had given Celia away, Trenton sat in a chair beside her as they clasped hands and faced the wedding officiant. He’d come up with the idea when they’d rehearsed it the night before, not liking the feel of being too far from her.
Trenton and Celia only had eyes for each other as they said their vows. Malcolm realized the weeks since Celia had found out she was pregnant had changed his cousin. It was as if the extra difficulty of the time had been just what Celia needed to finally feel like she was good enough—not a bad seed, not crazy, nothing like her mother.
Malcolm sat beside Jami, who held his hand. He didn’t need the comfort, but wouldn’t have pulled away from her touch for the world. Words swelled in his chest as he glanced at the woman he loved, ones that he would continue to tell her now that she wanted him to.
When the officiant pronounced them husband and wife, Trenton kissed his bride to the cheers of their friends, then immediately scooped her up in his arms. “Right,” he announced. “Time for bed.”
“Hell, Trent,” Blake said from the opposite side of the aisle. “You already knocked her up.”
“Christ, Blake,” Malcolm muttered, but he laughed when Trenton blushed.
“That’s not—” he started to explain, but Celia grabbed his face and kissed him to the additional catcalls Katie and Erin couldn’t resist making.
Trenton carried Celia back to the bedroom, and Malcolm starting rounding up the crew. Everyone had been on board with a ceremony and no reception, Celia most of all. She took the prescribed bed rest very seriously, which was why she’d first asked for just Malcolm and Katie to huddle around the bed as witnesses while she and Trenton said their vows.
His sister and cousin had been getting closer ever since Celia had moved back to town, but there was something about them being pregnant at the same time that had finished forming their bond.
Malcolm glanced around when only Trenton’s mother was left to help him tidy up, wondering how he could have missed Jami leaving. When Trenton exited the bedroom, a dazed happiness clinging to him from holding everything he loved in his arms, Malcolm slipped back into the hallway to say his own goodbyes, as long as Celia was still awake.
He was surprised to find Jami in Celia’s room along with her. “I’m so happy for you,” Jami murmured, rising from hugging her friend.
Celia smiled, her eyes finding him in the doorway. “Malcolm looks pretty happy too. I heard you moved in together officially.”
He didn’t miss the way Jami blushed. “I didn’t want to wait. I know I’m still broken, but—”
Celia grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. “I understand. I do. But you’ll never heal if you keep calling yourself broken.”
Jami’s lips tightened.
“Having someone tell you you’re not can help, but it’s still not enough. That’s what a lot of people don’t understand. The repair is never complete.” Celia looked over at Malcolm.
His throat had tightened. There was nothing for him to say.
“But having people love you mends a part of it. Then it’s all about choosing happiness.” Celia’s eyes moved past Malcolm, and he knew who stood in the doorway behind him. Her hand let go of Jami’s.
“So I make you happy?” Trenton asked, smiling as he crossed to her side. His hand moved over her stomach, and Celia’s fingers linked with his.
“Like you doubt it,” Celia said, tilting her face up to his.
Jami and Malcolm left the room while the newlyweds kissed. He followed her out to her car. She bit her lip, and he brushed her hair behind her ear.
“See you at home?” he asked.
Jami rose on tiptoe, her lips brushing over his, and he trembled at the gesture. “Yes. Home.” She kissed him again, deeper this time as his arms slid around her, and he wished they were already there.
Chapter 29
ClassesstillmadeJamigiddy. She couldn’t wait to tell Malcolm what the professor had shared with them that night. He’d still be at the tavern, she reminded herself, and there was a bounce to her step she couldn’t prevent as she pushed through the doors and out into the community college’s courtyard.
She heard a voice then, a voice she had started to forget. “My sweet Jami.”
Andrew stood under one of the campus’s bright fluorescent lamps. His face showed no marks from his altercation with Malcolm, and even the cast she’d heard he’d needed for his arm had been removed.
