Sweet Nothing (28 page)

He reached over, plugging in another extension cord. The rest of house lit up. The doors, windows, and even the floorboards were aglow in every color of the rainbow.

He tapped his phone, and our song began playing from a speaker across the room.

I clapped. “
Ah!
I love it!”

“That present isn’t actually yours,” he said. “I just didn’t have the heart to tell you.”

“It’s not?”

He shook his head. “It’s the dog’s. I got him a new collar.”

“You did?” I squealed, looking out our baby’s new bling. Something scratched my hand, and I turned the collar. “A new tag, too?”

“No.” Josh chuckled. “Not a tag.”

I tugged on it gently, and the whole collar came loose. “Oh, no!” I panicked until I saw the gold band with the small but perfect princess cut diamond between my fingers. “Oh, my Go—Josh?”

“Avery Jacobs,” he said, shifting to get on one knee.

“Oh, my God,” I breathed, unable to say anything else.

“I …” he blinked. “I had this all planned out, and my mind just went blank.” He laughed and then rubbed the back of his neck.

I laughed and covered my mouth with one hand. “Josh!”

“I’m so damn nervous. To hell with it, Avery … Will you marry me?”

I stared at him, unable to move, unable to speak without sobbing.

“I know it’s too soon. I tried to wait, I swear to God, but … I love you more than anything, Avery. I mean that. More than
anything
. I haven’t been able to think about anything else but putting a ring on your finger.”

I threw my arms around him, tears streaming.

“Is that a … is that a yes?” he asked while Dee jumped on his back.

“Yes!” I said, leaning back. “Yes.”

Josh slipped the band on my finger while I wiped my cheek with the other hand.

“Don’t cry, baby,” he said, using his thumb to wipe my eyes.

“I love you so much,” I said, sniffing. “I’m just so happy that you love me. And … I’m going to be Avery Avery.”

I meant for it to be funny, but he scanned my face in pure adoration. He took my cheeks in his hands, shook his head, and sighed. “The words just don’t seem enough anymore.” He pressed his lips to mine, kissing me under a thousand twinkling lights.
At last.

Long after the last flake of snow had melted and the final patch of ice had evaporated into nothingness, Avery was still struggling to plan the perfect wedding. Our schedules never seemed to let up, making nailing down the details difficult. Avery insisted on a summer wedding, wanting to wear her dress without shivering. I just wanted to be able to call her my wife
—mine
.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I tossed the estimate for the cake onto the kitchen table. “This is ridiculous, babe. No cake is that good.”

Avery stood in front of the stove, the morning sun pouring in the through the window and casting a glow over her hair. “I’ve tasted her cakes. They’re good, but it’s not so much about the cake as the appearance.”

“We can just have our reception down at Corner Hole.”

She turned to face me from the stove, a spatula her weapon of choice. “You want to have our wedding reception at a dive bar?”

“A dive
what
? That’s blasphemy! You
love
Corner Hole.”

“Yeah, baby. I love it for an after work drink and to unwind. Not the place to celebrate the rest of our lives together. They don’t even serve food.”

“We can order from JayWok.”

“JayWok?” Her eyes threatened to pop out of her skull. “You want Japanese takeout for our wedding? Really, Josh?”

“Another thing you love. Now it’s not good enough? Who are you trying to impress? This day is supposed to be about us. No one else.” I pushed up from my seat at the table and wrapped my arms around her waist from behind.

She shoved the scrambled eggs around the pan. “I’m sorry.” She sighed as her shoulders sagged. “I don’t know what this wedding has done to me. I’ve
never
cared about any of this kind of stuff. I just … It’s an important day.
Our
day, about us and the beginning of our marriage. I want it to be perfect.”

Pushing her hair over her right shoulder, I pressed my lips to the back of her neck. “It will be perfect. Going into debt over a cake is not a good way to start our forever.”

She sniffed once. “I would just hate to let anyone down, and—”

“What
asshole
is going to be let down by
our
wedding? You’re too stressed out, baby. What can I do to fix it? Let me help.” I turned her around to face me, wrapping my arms around her waist. She tucked her face into the crook of my neck and inhaled deeply.

She shook her head, her whining muffled against my skin. “You can’t fix this.”

“I can fix anything.”

“I don’t have anyone to walk me down the aisle, Josh,” she confessed. “How are you going to fix that?”

I squeezed her tighter, hating that the best day of our lives had opened old wounds.

“Let me handle it.”

“What?” she asked as she pulled back, eyeing me.

“You said you would
hate
to disappoint everyone. Put it on the list. I’ll take care of it. Just like our dates.”

“No.” She began to shake her head slowly, uncertain. “You can’t ask some random person to give me away at our wedding.”

“I want to. Let me do this. You’ve been working so hard at everything else.”

Her bottom lip pulled between her teeth as she slowly bit down, unsure.

I placed my hands on either side of her face, looking her in the eye. “Please. I
want
to do this.”

She nodded as I pressed my lips to her forehead.

The sizzling in the frying pan snapped us from our tender moment as Avery whipped around to take the pan from the burner.

“Damn it,” she yelled as the pan clattered on the counter. She rushed to the sink and pushed on the cold water, soothing her burnt hand under the stream.

“Jesus Christ, Avery!” I grabbed her hand, stretching out her palm so I could inspect it. The pink outline of the handle on her skin was already beginning to fade.

“Doesn’t look too bad,” I said, offering an encouraging smile.

Groaning, she looked up at me with her bottom lip jutting out. “I give up. I am going back to bed and will try again tomorrow.”

“Hey.” Rubbing the pad of my thumb over her lip, I pulled her back against me. “It’s going to be all right. I promise.”

Her head moved against me as she nodded.

“Go ahead. I’ll finish up the eggs and bring them in to you, and we can both spend the day in bed.”

“You’re too good to me.”

“I didn’t say
what
it is we’ll be doing while we’re in bed.” I patted her ass as she walked away.

She stopped in the doorway, a sexy grin on her lips. “Like I said, you’re too good to me.”

I’d spent the last two weeks doing my part, booking plane tickets and finalizing time off work. Even a simple wedding took some time to figure out. I still wanted our day to be special, regardless of how simple it was.

Avery didn’t seem as stressed, but she’d stopped discussing the wedding. Every day, I worried more that she was having second thoughts.

“I said no, tit bag. Quit worrying,” Deb said.

I pressed the phone closer to my ear. “Don’t fuck with me. This is important.”

“You know, I used to like you. Back when you were cool. Now you’re like a weepy vagina all the time and trust me, those aren’t fun. I miss when you were fun, Josh.”

“Double D!” Quinn called in the background. “Get your hot ass in here!”

I rolled my eyes. “Can’t you be serious, Deb? Just this one time? It’s important.”

She was quiet for a moment. “No. Can I go now? Your bestie wants a post-dinner hand job.”

“Christ. Bye,” I said, poking
END
and dropping my phone in my lap. I covered my face and groaned.

A noise across the room prompted me to look up. Avery was in her scrubs, leaning against the kitchen doorframe with her arms folded over her chest.

“Hi.”

I did my best to pretend I didn’t want to choke out her friend. “Hi, baby.”

She hesitated. “Who was that?”

“Just last-minute plans for the wedding.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Is something wrong?”

She shrugged, pushing from the door and walking to the fridge. “I just thought we were going to elope … quick and dirty. Now you’re on the phone all the time, but I don’t feel like there’s been a lot of progress.”

“Baby, it’s only been a few weeks. I had to get some things together, but it is almost there.”

“A few weeks? Do you know what today is?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Cinco de Mayo?”

“It’s May, Josh. You chose June. You wanted to take over the planning because you felt it was too stressful for me. Now you’re dragging your feet.”

“Avery,” I chided. I cleared my throat. My exasperation with Deb was bleeding into our conversation. “What is going on? First it was all happening too quickly and now it’s not fast enough. I’m trying.”

“Are you stalling?” She turned around slowly, a tear slipping down over the apple of her cheek. “Because you don’t have to do that. You can talk to me.”

She touched the penny at her neck, and I panicked and pointed at her. “Don’t walk out on me.”

She blinked. “I wasn’t … I … was going to offer it to you. For your thoughts. Just asking doesn’t work as well anymore.”

I sighed. “We definitely need to talk. I can’t keep wondering, but I don’t want to upset you.”

“About what?” she asked, shifting her weight.

“I’m nervous.”

Her face fell. “About marrying me.” It wasn’t a question. She said the words as if she’d expected everything I was saying.

“No. Absolutely not,” I said, walking over to her. I held her arms in my hands. “You’ve been quiet. You clam up when I ask you about the wedding. I’m okay. I don’t want to wait, but if you do, I will.”