Left Together (41 page)

“Sweetheart?”

“You
want to marry me after only knowing me for a year?”

“I
knew I wanted to marry you after only knowing you for a
month
, but I’m
pretty sure you would’ve freaked the hell out if I asked you back then.” He
laughs uneasily. That’s probably because he’s waiting for me to answer him.

“You
do realize I don’t need any of this to give you forever, right? You already got
that from me.”

“Maybe
you don’t need it, but you deserve it. We deserve our version of happily ever
after.”

I feel
my eyes starting to water. They’re only now recovering from the shock of it
all. I tug on Evan’s hand to get him to stand and bring him to me. His arms
wrap around my waist as my fingers tangle in the back of his hair. “Yes, I’ll
marry you…on one condition.”

He
sucks in a deep breath and lets it go as his forehead rests on mine. “A
condition?”

“Just
one.”

I feel
his body vibrate with his laughter. “Let’s see. The first time we had sex, you
had me so damn wound up that I tracked your ass down in a dressing room at the
mall. The first time I told you I loved you got all screwed up because you were
trying to make me leave you alone in a hospital bed. Now you’re tainting my
marriage proposal, which is pretty damn epic, with a condition. All right. Lay
it on me. What’s this
condition
?”

“You
better stop knocking our firsts. How those two things happened were absolutely
perfect for us and our relationship.”

“You’re
right.” He laughs and raises his hands to the sides of my face, as mine lower
to grip the sides of his shirt at his waist. “It’s just not the way I would’ve
planned them to happen. Not with you.”

“I
didn’t plan on you and look where we are.” My eyes close briefly at the brush
of his thumb along my cheek. “I’ll marry you if we do it now.”

“Now?”

“Yes.
I don’t want some long, drawn-out engagement or some big ass wedding. I don’t
care if it’s just you and me.”

“Sweetheart,
I’ll take you anywhere in the world you want to go. We can leave right now and
I’ll marry you the second we get there.” I smile at the thought of how
wonderful that sounds. “But when we get back, you’re going to be the one to
tell Jade, Noah, Meg, and Aunt Grace what they missed.” I bite my lip and he
laughs. “You’re totally second-guessing that now, aren’t you?”

“Maybe
a little. Okay, fine. Something small and local, but soon. Very soon?”

“Are
you really going to marry me?”

“I
am.”

“I
seriously love the shit out of you.”

“See
how perfect we are?” We laugh. “I love you,” I say more seriously. “I’ll love
you forever.”

His
lips mold into mine. Even after a whole year, he kisses me the same way. He
starts with a glimmer, he leans in slowly making my heart stop, then he takes
my breath away. How does that keep happening when I know he’s going to do it?
The kiss itself is always just as powerful and meaningful as a first kiss, as
memorable as a last one. I’ll gladly take this for the rest of my life.

Evan pulls
back, but doesn’t let me go. “Man, I was so afraid you were going to tell me
no.”

“What?!
Why would I do something crazy like that?”

He
sighs. “I guess because you’re only twenty-two, at least for a couple more
weeks. When I was that young...”

“When
you were this young, you didn’t know me.”

“That’s
true.” He smirks. “Do you want your ring now?”

“You bought
me a ring?” I hadn’t even realized he wasn’t holding one when he asked me.

“Of
course I did,” he says, guiding me over to the swing. He lifts up the flowers
and turns me to sit down. The daisy bouquet gets placed on my lap and he sits
down next to me, setting a pink box on top of the flowers. “I didn’t want to
distract you from what I was saying.” He winks at me playfully. “If you don’t
like it, I’ll get you something else. I want the ring you have to be your
favorite thing to wear.”

“It
already is, Evan. Just because it’s from you means everything.” He leans over
to lightly touch his lips to my forehead.

“Okay.
Open it.” Why the hell is he so nervous around me today?

Slowly,
I flip the box open to reveal the most beautiful piece of jewelry I’ve ever
seen, let alone owned. I want to scream how much I love it, how much I love
him, but nothing comes out. Again, the bastard has me speechless. I must look
like a total idiot sitting there staring at it, but I don’t want to take my
eyes off of it. Evan puts his arm over my shoulders and leans his head into
mine to look at it, too. “It’s…perfect,” I whisper, unable to come up with a
better word at the moment.

“That’s
exactly what I said when I saw it finished.”

“What
do you mean?”

“I had
it made. Meg’s friend, the one who has the jewelry store in town, did it for
me. I picked out everything and he put it all together. It took forever. I was
afraid he wasn’t going to get it done by the day I wanted to give it to you.
Good thing I went into see him months ago. I would’ve been pissed if it wasn’t
ready.” Our eyes meet. He’s been planning this for months? “I wanted to make
sure the aquamarine stones were in there. I know how much you like them.
Nothing I saw anywhere came close to what I wanted. Believe me, I’ve looked.”
He takes the box out of my hand to remove the ring. A tear escapes as he slides
it onto my finger. It fits perfectly, which doesn’t surprise me. He wouldn’t
have had it any other way.

I set
the flowers on the swing next to me and turn to him. It’s not good enough, so I
situate myself on his lap to face him. “Why the garden?” An odd expression
crosses his face. It makes me think he hadn’t planned on me asking. “Why did
you do all this out here?”

His
hands rest on my waist as if he’s afraid I’m going to fall. “Because every time
you come out here, there’s a little bit of sadness in your eyes. I was hoping
if you had another happy memory to associate with being surrounded by all these
flowers, it would go away. Sweetheart, I wasn’t lucky enough to meet your
grandmother, but I doubt you feeling sad in this beautiful place the two of you
created would be what she’d want for you. I know
I
wouldn’t want that.”

This
whole time, I’ve been able to keep the tears to a minimum, but that’s not
possible any longer. “Evan Pierce, you just guaranteed yourself to be the sole
owner of my heart for all of eternity.”

“That’s
exactly what I was hoping for.”

Kacie

Selfishly,
Evan and I keep to ourselves for the rest of the night. There is never even a
moment where I consider leaving his side to pick up the phone to call anyone. I
don’t have an urge to run next door and show off the ring to my best friend,
who’d feel the same way. It’s not that I want to keep our engagement a secret
or that I’m not excited beyond belief. Part of me wants to scream it from the
rooftop of the tallest building I can find. Most of me, however, is quite
content in the arms of the only man I’ve ever loved. That doesn’t happen nearly
as often as it should.

The
next morning, I’m stirred from a deep sleep by fingers stroking my bare arm and
a deep voice at my ear. “Waking up next to you wearing nothing except that ring
has got to be the sexiest damn thing I’ve ever seen.”

I
smile without opening my eyes. “That really happened?” I tease him. “I wasn’t
just dreaming?”

His
teeth nibble at my ear. “Oh, it definitely happened.” He sighs, clearly pleased
with himself. “It finally happened.”

I roll
over to face him. “You say that like you haven’t been living in this house for
the last ten months. Like you never had a chance at forever with me. Who the
hell asks someone they barely know to move in with them? How have you not
figured out that you own every ounce of me?”

“You know
me.” He places a soft kiss on my lips. “From the beginning, you’ve known me
better than anyone ever has.”

Guilt
washes through me. “That’s not true,” I reluctantly disagree. “Don’t you
remember? At first, I thought you were just like any other guy…not interested
in committing.” I sugarcoat my original thoughts a tad.

“That’s
exactly who I was or, at least, who I was pretending to be. Everyone was
convinced that was the real me. I even believed it. Until you. You showed up
and changed all kinds of stuff. But, deep down, I think you knew that wasn’t
the real me.” I inch closer to rest my head on his chest. “I don’t know who you
thought you were, waltzing into town like you owned it and screwing with my
head,” he mumbles, acting as if I wasn’t supposed to hear him.

I
laugh. “You’re welcome.”

“Wait.
Did you say I
owned
you?” His hands roam down my back. “Because if I own
you, there’s a whole bunch of things I really want to do to you.” My body
squirms as he trails his fingers lightly over my skin. “But that’ll have to
wait until later.”

“Why?”
I ask, disappointed. “Do you have somewhere more important to be?”

“More
important? No, but we were summoned for breakfast, so get that sexy ass of
yours up and ready before Jade comes looking for us.”

“Why
didn’t you just tell her we were busy?”

“Because
today is the day I tell everyone that I’m marrying you.”

***

By the
time we’re walking through the Quinns’ door, I still haven’t figured out how to
tell them. I don’t want to just blurt it out. Okay, I do, but that’s not what
I’m going to do. Jake and Kyle are sitting at the table and Jade is scrambling
through the kitchen.

“It’s
about damn time,” Kyle says, not looking up from his laptop. “I’m fucking
starving over here.”

“You’ll
live,” Jade grumbles.

Evan
laughs, kisses my head, then goes to sit with the guys. Maybe he’ll say
something and I won’t have to.

“I
stopped by Skyline last night. Meg said you cut out early,” Jake says.

“Yeah.
I had something to take care of.” I can hear the happiness in his tone, which
is reflecting in his eyes when I glance over.

A high-pitched
scream scares the shit out of me! “What the hell is that?!” Jade hollers.

Kyle
jumps up, running to her side. “What’s wrong?”

Jade
picks up my hand to look at the ring sparkling in the overhead light. “Oh, that…”
I smile innocently.

“Damn
it, Jade! I thought it was a fucking spider the size of an alligator.” Kyle
relaxes as his girlfriend starts bouncing up and down.        

“When
were you going to tell me?”

“Now.
I got distracted for a second,” I say, glancing at my boyf…fiancé.

“Congratulations!”
She hugs me tightly. “This is so awesome! Oh, my god! Did you set a date yet? I
need to know how much time we have to plan this. I’m wearing pink, right? It
doesn’t matter if it’s light pink or dark pink, I’ll rock either one. How did
he ask you? I bet he was scared shitless. When did he ask you? Please, please,
please tell me I’m the first one to find out. You know my heart will break if
I’m not.”

“Of
course you are,” I assure her, laughing.

Evan
interrupts us. “Aren’t you glad we didn’t elope last night? Look at all you
would have been denying her.”

“You
were going to elope?” If there was ever a time my best friend wanted to punch
me in the face, this was it.

“No.”
I glare at him. He’s smiling from ear-to-ear. He looks so much more at ease
than he did in the garden last night. He’s leaning back, his elbow resting on the
chair beside him. “That was
his
thought. Mine was to do this soon,
before he can change his mind.”

He
winks. “Not going to happen, sweetheart.”

“How
soon?” she wants to know.

“As
soon as I can pull it off. Few weeks, max.”

“My
only request is that we wait for Ethan to come back,” Evan says. He really has
thought all this through. “Jake will need help being the best man. He’s not
capable of taking on the duties all by himself.”

“Hold
on a second!” Jade lets go of me to join Evan and Jake at the table. “You
expect me to walk with my
brother
in a wedding? That’s not going to
happen, Evan Pierce!”

“I
don’t give a shit who you walk with. Kyle’s in the wedding, too. Walk with him,
for all I care.”

“Who
the hell am I going to walk with then?” Jake blurts out.

I knew
he’d have Kyle in it since the two of them have become so close. It’s not like
they have a choice with how often they’re together because of me and Jade. I’m
surprised about Jake, though. After what happened, I didn’t expect that. “Meg,”
I tell him.      

He
nods. “I can handle that.” Smiling, he gets up from his chair and comes over to
kiss my cheek. “Congratulations, Kacie. If there’s anyone who deserves this,
it’s you.”

“Thanks,
Jake.”

“Congrats
to both of you! This is fantastic news. I’m excited. It’ll be a blast,” Kyle
says. “Now, will you
please
make breakfast?” He returns to his chair at
the table. After Jade walks away, I hear him whispering to Evan, “Thanks a lot,
douchebag. Now I’m going to hear about this shit until
she
gets a damn
ring.”

“No
problem,” is his cocky response.

***

The
rest of our family and friends react pretty much the same way. We stop by my
brother’s house and he makes me swear to him that I won’t get married without
him being there. He still feels terrible about missing my college graduation
and refuses to miss another milestone in my life. If he only knew how much I
love him. After that, we go tell Evan’s aunt and uncle. Aunt Grace cries and
doesn’t let me go for a long time. Uncle Tim jokingly asks if I’m pregnant,
which earns himself an evil glare from his wife. Meg happens to be walking in
with Luke, and she smiles proudly. It’s obvious she wasn’t as surprised about
it as everyone else. She admits to being there the day Evan picked up the ring
and has been waiting anxiously for this ever since. I’d give her a hard time
for not telling me, but her mother gives her more shit than she gave her
husband about his comment. Aunt Grace can’t believe her own daughter kept something
this big from her.

On our
way home, we call my mom. She gets choked up, but doesn’t cry. I explain to her
that I want this to happen within the next month, and she immediately offers to
get it set up at the hotel where she works, along with a whole floor of rooms
for all of the guests. There’s a place on the beach there where people can get
married. Evan and I discuss it. He says since both of us just want to get
married, we let her do this. He thinks it will help with some of the guilt she
feels over leaving me. I’d give anything to erase it, so I call her back and
give her the go-ahead.

As time
passes, everyone gets more and more excited over the approaching day. My idea
of a small wedding has grown, but only because there are so many people we
couldn’t possibly leave out. I’m pretty sure everyone who works at Skyline will
be attending. Once we set the date, Uncle Tim announces he’s closing the club
so no one will miss it. From Shining Stars, Dr. Kelly, Monica, and a few of the
teachers I’ve become close with are coming. When you add in all of our friends
and family, it’s almost out of control. Evan has confessed to hoping that would
happen. He says he’s never been one for weddings, but marrying me is something
he has every intention of celebrating big. No surprise there.

A few
days before our wedding, we go to the airport to pick up Jenna and Ethan. Evan
refused to let them drive back down again, so he hired movers to pack up their
stuff and bring it down, which won’t be here until next week. The only reason
Jenna didn’t give him a hard time about it was because she didn’t want to miss
the wedding. She knows how important it is to Evan for Ethan to be here.

“There’s
my favorite little guy!” Evan greets his nephew as he comes running toward us.
He was up all last night waiting for this very moment.

“Uncle
Evan!” he shouts, jumping into his arms. “I haven’t seen you in so long!”

“It sure
did feel that way,” Evan agrees. “How did your last day of school go
yesterday?”

“Okay.
Some of the girls in my class hugged me and said they were going to miss me
next year.”

“That’s
my boy.” Evan laughs. “Hi, Jenna. How was your flight?”

“With
this overly-excited little munchkin? Very, very long.”

“Same
here,” I tell her. “I’m exhausted because someone kept me up, pacing all night.”

We
walk to baggage claim to collect the few bags they brought with them, then take
them out to lunch. Evan waits until dessert comes to talk to Ethan. “Remember
when you asked me if Kacie and I were ever going to get married?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re
getting married on Saturday.”

“So
will Kacie be my aunt then?” he wonders as his bright blue eyes widen.

“Yup.”

“Can I
call her Aunt Kacie now?”

Surprisingly,
it’s Jenna who answers him. Teary-eyed, she says, “Yes, you can. She’s been
your aunt since the day she met you. You’re a very lucky boy to have so many
people who love you.”

Evan
smiles, then turns back to Ethan. “Do you think you’d want to be my best man? I
need someone who will stand next to me while I wait for Kacie. You know girls.
They take forever. It’ll be fun. Jake and Kyle will be there, too.”

“You
mean…I get to go?”

“Of
course. There’s no way I’d let you miss it.”

“Living
in Florida is going to be so much fun,” he says to no one in particular, taking
a spoonful of ice cream.

Evan
chuckles and rubs Ethan’s head. “Yeah, it really is.”

***

The
day of our wedding has finally arrived. Jade and Kyle pull into the hotel valet
parking area behind Evan and myself. As we exit our cars, my mom comes out to
greet us. She’s not working today, but there’s no way she’ll let anyone else
handle anything related to my special day. Other than getting to marry the love
of my life, this wedding has brought her and I even closer than I thought
possible. Over the last month, we’ve spent countless hours on the phone,
emailing pictures of different things back and forth, and had meals together at
least four times a week to make sure I was happy with how the arrangements were
progressing. She was floored when I asked her to meet me and Jade at the bridal
shop to pick out my dress. Seeing her excited about doing something so
important for me makes changing my mind about the small wedding I originally
wanted completely worth it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Evan had planned this,
as well.

After
our belongings are being carted off ahead of us, Jade kisses Kyle. “Make sure
you don’t let him out of your sight. Kacie belongs to me until six o’clock
tonight.” I have no idea what she’s talking about.

Kyle
shakes his head. “You better be making it worth it for me. He’s going to be so
fucking miserable.”

“I
always
make it worth it for you.”

“What
the fuck are you talking about?” Evan says, grabbing onto my hand.

“Let
her go, Pierce. You can see her later.”

“No.”
He grips me tighter.

“Oh,
stop being such a baby.” A crowd of people are coming toward us. Jade sighs
with relief, clearly expecting them. “Perfect timing,” she mumbles.

Jake,
Evan’s aunt and uncle, Meg, Luke, Joe, Danny, Mike, Jenna, Ethan, Noah, Addie, Walt,
and our friends, Danielle, Brittany, and Amber make their way over. They don’t
have to be here until the wedding starts at seven, so what are they doing here
so early? The sound of cars pulling in the driveway behind us gets everyone’s
attention. Two limousines come to a stop. “Okay. Guys in the first one, girls
in the second.”