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It was why he had banished all his fantasies of kissing her. Because not only would he corrupt her with that, but eventually it would lead to this. Somehow when he’d decided to marry her he hadn’t let himself think about the fact it might include this. Because they’d gone their whole friendship, all their lives, without ever really getting into the details of this. Not by accident. So why the hell he was doing it now, he didn’t know.
She’s your wife.
It’s different.
But he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t do it.
He was anyway.
“I don’t know why, but when my mom had me, he thought it was suspicious. He didn’t trust the timing. Whatever. But he didn’t think that I was his son. That was our secret, of course. His, mine and Mom’s. Iamhis son, just to be clear. Not only have I done those ancestry DNA things with my brothers, which, we are very Scottish, and I am very much their full brother, but he’s definitely my dad. You can tell by the look of me. You can tell. Buthecouldn’t. He hated me. Hated me on sight. So the smallest things, the littlest things, they would just get him in a total rage. He used to throw beer bottles at me. Kick me like a wounded dog if I was in his way. Sorry. You don’t need to hear about this.”
“I do need to hear about it,” she said. “I didn’t realize that he abused you worse than he did the others.”
“I mean, in the end, Gus got the worst of it. Let’s be perfectly real. And everybody—except Brody—dealt with physical abuse. It wasn’t just me.”
“He didn’t hit Brody?”
“No. Trust me, that’s a mind game all on its own that Brody has had to deal with. Nobody came out of that house unscathed. We were all a mess by the time we were adults. There was no coming out of it without scars. So it doesn’t matter what happened to me, not when you compare it to what happened to Gus, or even to the emotional manipulation that happened to Brody. I’m not unique. It’s just the same effect of living in the house with a psychopath.”
“But he hit you the most.”
“Like he breathed. He hit me like it was on his to-do list. That’s why you had to patch me up so many times. They weren’t even big blowups. They were just...casual. I think that’s the worst part. When he hit me and he wasn’t even visibly angry. He just did it because I was there.”
He gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to think about this now. Not on the heels of what had been really kind of a wonderful day.
“So yeah. I didn’t think about the future. And I really didn’t think there was something good waiting for me. Much less a wedding. Where the bride wore a white wedding dress, and there was cake, and my friends were there and my family was there. It feels like a minor miracle, all things considered.”
“Why were you up the other night?”
Something like fear made his stomach jump. “I told you. I couldn’t sleep.”
She didn’t need to hear about all of his issues. Not all at once.
“Lachlan...”
“Tonight’s our wedding night,” he said. “I want it to be about us. The two of us together. I want it to be about how much I care about you. I don’t want it to be about anything else. It’s you and me. Together.”
“Okay.”
When they pulled up to the cabin it felt momentous. He wondered if he should’ve taken her to a hotel. The wedding had ended up so traditional that he wondered if he was messing up here. He should’ve done something grander, more spectacular.
Like she could read his mind, she put her hand over his. “I’m glad that we came back home,” she said. “I really am.”
“Good.”
They got out of the truck, and for a moment he just stood there, staring at her, the moonlight illuminating her and her gown. He went over to her and took her hand, drew her to him and spun her like they’d done in the barn. There was no music, but they started to sway back and forth.
His bride.
His wife.
Charity was his wife.
Charity McCloud.
“You know, that day when I went into the woods... I was hiding. My dad was looking for me. This was after Gus had been burned, of course. But it didn’t stop things. And my dad... He just got worse and worse. Gus got rid of him soon after that. That’s why you never had to know how bad it was. But... I went into the forest hoping to hide, and I found an angel. I think you’re still saving me, Doc. I really do.”
“I think you saved me,” she said, reaching up and touching his face. “I was so lonely. And so strange. I didn’t know any other kids. I didn’t have friends. You taught me how to laugh.Reallylaugh. You taught me sarcasm, which my dad was fundamentally incapable of. He was far too sincere and literal. Always. I would stitch you up a thousand times, and still not even come close to doing for your outsides what you did for my insides.”
