Music of the Heart (36 page)

              I look up and she is crying and shit, she’s even beautiful when she cries.

              “Cross, I love you so much.  I would love to marry you.”

              “So, that’s a yes?”

              She throws her head back and laughs and cries at the same time.

              “Yes!  Yes, I will marry you!”

              I open the ring box and her mouth hangs open again when she sees the ring.  She holds her hand out and I slip it on her finger.  It is perfect.  Merritt helped me get the ring size right and I couldn’t be happier right now.

              “Cross, it is perfect.”

              She gets down on her knees in front of me and grabs my face in her hands.  She leans in to give me a kiss and then wraps her arms around me in the first hug as my fiancé.  The whole time I see our friends and family crying and jumping up and down and she still hasn’t seen them.  All is about to change as they bring Greer out from the car and she goes darting towards us.

              “Aunt Ashweigh!  Aunt Ashweigh!  What are ewe doing?  Ooh… wook at youwa pwetty wing!  Are youwa getting mawwied?”

              “Greer!  What are you doing here?”

              I tell her to turn around and when she does, she almost breaks down in tears again.    There stands both sets of our parents, Merritt and Dixon’s parents, her sister and brother-in-law, my brothers and their wives and all the guys and girls.  Everyone comes running over to her and immediately she is pulled away from me and embraced in hugs from everyone.

              After many more pictures, I finally get everyone to calm down enough to tell them I have dinner reservations for all of us.  We all head to Fins and my friend who owns it reserved the back room for us and has it all ready with champagne to celebrate.  We go through the evening with tons of laughs and a lot of love.  We did take a moment to ask everyone not to post anything on social media yet or tell anyone else until we had the chance to talk to Ashleigh’s publicist.  That’s the only thing with our jobs is you just can’t shout it to the world quite yet.

              I finally steal a quiet moment with my fiancé.

              “Hey baby.  How are you?”

              “Really Cross? You’re asking how I am?  I’m over the moon.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been this happy before.  I’m ready to get you alone though and thank you properly.”

              I groan at her and my dick stands at attention.  Thankfully, my shirt hangs out enough to cover it up.

              “Well, I think it’s time we wrap this dinner up and I take you home.”

              “Speaking of home Cross.  Where are we going to live?  I mean you have your condo but it’s kind of a bachelor pad.  I have my house which has plenty of room but do you want to find something else?”

              “I was thinking I would keep my condo as an investment and then I figured I could just move in with you at your house this week.”

              “This week?  You’re not wasting any time are you, babe?”

              We laugh together and I kiss the hell out of her.  We make our way back into the room and finish up dessert and finally, we say our goodbyes to everyone. 

              The minute we walk in her house or I guess I should say our house, I strip her and myself out of our clothes and we spend the rest of the night and the morning practicing for our honeymoon.

Chapter Forty

6 MONTHS LATER

ASHLEIGH

              “I can’t find my garter.  Has anyone seen my garter?”

              I am searching frantically around the bridal suite for my garter.  Merritt comes over and tries to calm me down.

              “Ashleigh.  Calm down.  I have your garter.  I have everything.  For the love, I’m the damn wedding planner and one of the matron of honors!  I know where everything is!”

              It’s May 20
th
and it’s finally my wedding day.  It’s been a whirlwind of craziness since Cross proposed last November.  We got through my touring schedule, and the Christmas holidays.  Merritt and Mason got married on January 7
th
and it was absolute perfection.  But I wouldn’t expect anything less from Merritt.  She wasn’t overly thrilled when I told her the date we wanted to get married. That only gave her six months until the wedding day and really only four to five months to plan due to the holidays and her own wedding.

              Cross and I went home after he proposed and immediately chose a date.  I had a big Summer tour coming up and he wanted to be able to call me his wife before I went on the road.  He also stayed true to his word and moved in that same week so we’ve been living together since November.

              I had called my publicist, Kelly the Monday after he proposed and told her about the engagement.  She was so excited and quickly got to work on how we were going to announce it.  Cross and I didn’t want to wait to tell people.  We were ready immediately so she checked over our social media posts we had planned and then contacted People magazine to see if they wanted an exclusive for the engagement.  I could have cared less about the magazine but she insisted people wanted to know all about it.

              Merritt was also not overly thrilled because I traveled some and Cross traveled quite a bit during the engagement which took away from planning.  The last step that made it a little harder for her was I wanted to get married in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama so she had to deal with many different people.

              The day is finally here though and we survived the planning and I am so nervous but at the same time excited.

              Our wedding will take place outside at this gorgeous golf resort and spa in Birmingham.  Our wedding party is pretty big too.  I have ten bridesmaids and he has ten groomsmen. We also have two flower girls and two ring bearers.  The ladies all look gorgeous.  If you know me well, you know I love pink and of course I enlisted the help of Tommy Langner to design my bridesmaid dresses as well as my one of a kind wedding dress.

              The bridesmaids all are wearing the same flowing skirt in pink and Tommy designed ten different tops, each one matching each girls style and personality.  When it came to my dress, I wanted something simple but that also made a statement.  He designed me a gorgeous strapless dress where the top was fully beaded with a thick bead and crystal belt that actually ties in the back with a flowing ribbon.  The skirt is poofy and full and looks like icing on a cupcake.  I opted for no long train on the dress or veil because that just isn’t my style.

              I stand looking in the mirror at myself one last time before I put my dress on.  My hair is perfect, my make-up is perfect and my nails and toes are perfect.  Now, it’s time to get in my dress and get ready to marry my man.  Merritt walks over to me and hugs me from behind. 

              “You okay?  You look a little lost in thought over here.”

              “I’m good Mer.  I’m just really happy right now.”

              “I know you are and you and Cross are going to be so happy together.  I am so lucky to have my best friend marrying my other best friend.  You are truly perfect for each other and I am so happy for you.”

              I give Merritt a big hug and she asks if I’m ready to put on my wedding dress.  I look around the room and see each bridesmaid all dressed and ready to go, my mom looking beautiful in her tiffany blue dress, Cross’s mom all decked out in a beautiful grayish-silver dress and Merritt’s mom in a stunning coral dress.  Everyone is talking until Merritt gets their attention.

              “Okay everyone, it’s time.  Ellis, are you ready to take pictures of her?  Okay, let’s get this dress on.”

              They get me all dressed and ready for our pictures.  I wanted Cross and I to take all the pictures before the wedding but he said he didn’t want to see me until I came down the aisle.  After I informed him that was old-fashioned and it was rude to make everyone wait on us at the reception, he put his foot down.  I believe his exact words were, ‘I don’t fucking care if the guests wait five hours for us.  I don’t want to see you before the wedding and they can all just get over it.’

              He wouldn’t give in on that so we got all the individuals made of everyone.  We also did the group shots of bridesmaids and groomsmen for each of us as well as the family pictures.  All we really had left was everyone together and the bride and groom together.  Ellis promised it wouldn’t take more than thirty minutes if everyone cooperated.  She had a photographer helping her since she was in the bridal party so it should go fast with two of them.  I did tell Dixon to taunt Cross about seeing me already and how beautiful I looked.

              Merritt walks back in the room after pictures are over and let’s me know everything is in place and we have five minutes before we need to line up.  Our moms and grandmothers head out to get ready to be walked down to their seats.  Merritt tells the bridesmaids to start walking towards the door to walk down the aisle.  It’s killing her now because it’s time for her to hand the reins of the wedding over to her assistant, Peyton, as it’s time for the matrons of honor to walk down the aisle. 

              So, here I stand waiting with my two flower girls and my sweet daddy.  As Peyton tells the flower girls to head down the aisle, I look up at my daddy and give him the biggest hug ever.  Peyton walks over and let’s us know it’s time.  Ready or not Cross, here comes the bride.

CROSS

              I hear the minister announce for everyone to please stand and then I hear the wedding march begin.  The French doors open up and I see Ashleigh’s dad first and then I see her beautiful face shining with the biggest smile.  Fuck, my woman looks amazing – drop dead gorgeous.  Dixon and Reed had been taunting me since they had already seen her and they weren’t lying.  She is beautiful and she’s all mine.

              We get through the vows and music and I’m just ready for the kiss.  As the minister pronounces us man and wife, I grab her and give everyone a show when I kiss her.  I can tell she wants to sock me because I embarrassed her.  I sneak one last kiss and then the minister introduces us for the first time as husband and wife, Mr. & Mrs. Hamilton.

              And speaking of Mr. & Mrs. Hamilton, that was another discussion we had to have.  Was Ashleigh going to change her last name?  Of course, you know what I wanted her to do but with her career being so established as Ashleigh Kennedy, we had to really think about what would be best.  Thankfully, she decided for now, to hyphenate her last name so she will start going by Ashleigh Kennedy-Hamilton but just for her career.  Everything else, she said she would only use Harper so that made me very happy.

              As promised by Ellis, pictures went very quick and we were back inside at the reception in no time.  The reception was amazing too.  Merritt and Ellis did an awesome job decorating the room and all the food that Ava helped do looked delicious.  We spent the night having fun, drinking a lot (but not too much), dancing, having our picture taken and eating too much.  I tried to keep a hand on Ashleigh at all times throughout the night but people kept dragging her away from me which didn’t make me happy. 

              We danced our first dance to “All Of Me” made famous by John Legend but a close friend of Ashleigh’s who was on the TV show, The Voice, was here to sing it for us.  After all the dances were done and the cake was cut, I snuck Ashleigh to the back of the room behind the band area.