Beautiful Broken Mess(105)
Cole and Quinn had a massive wedding right after she gave birth to Chloe this summer, with all of his father’s political friends in attendance. It was more of a show-off affair for his dad’s campaign and less about them, but we all had fun anyway. Jace and I are the next ones in our little group to get married, and I can’t wait to finally ditch my father’s name and lovingly add Riley in its place.
I walk out to the porch railing and gaze at the light from the moon bouncing off of Jax and Em’s pond. Lane wraps his arm around my shoulders and squeezes me tightly into his side. Lane has been my rock for so many years that I can’t believe our little era is coming to an end. I swipe away the tears that escape from my eyes.
“He’ll take good care of you, doll,” his raspy voice says from above me.
I look up to see the moisture in his eyes. “I’ll be a sobbing mess in seconds if you start the waterworks too!”
He laughs softly and says, “I’m happy for you. I’ll miss you like fucking crazy, but you deserve this more than you know.”
“I can’t wait to be in your wedding someday,” I state but he rolls his eyes. He doesn’t like talking about falling in love or marriage when it pertains to himself. I give him a break and ask, “You’re not upset about not being a groomsman, are you?”
“He doesn’t even have groomsmen,” he laughs. When Jace and I decided we wanted a very small and intimate wedding, we cut the idea of having a wedding party standing alongside us. Besides, if we had our close friends standing up next to us, we would lose half of our audience. “I would much rather walk you down the aisle any day, doll,” he whispers.
“Thank you for saving a broken mess of a girl, Lane. I can’t thank you enough. You’ll never understand how much you helped me grow,” I say, while hugging him around the waist.
“Damn, all this time I thought you were the one saving me,” he chuckles and I pinch his back, just like old times.
“You haven’t finally realized what you’re missing and trying to run away with my girl, are you?” Jace affectionately says from behind us.#p#分页标题#e#
I leave Lane’s warm grasp to enter Jace’s. I’ve never felt more at home than I do in this moment. It’s almost as if there’s been a light turned on for me, and I can finally see how blessed I am. And just like Jace said to me a year ago, I would walk through the sadness all over again if I knew I would be reaching this point.
Lane leaves Jace and I alone out on the porch to look out over the pond. When Jace wraps his arms around me from behind, I whisper, “You know, it’s unheard of for a bride to not know where she’s getting married.”
He tucks his face into the nook between my chin and my shoulder and says, “I promise this is my last surprise. From then on out, we’ll make joint decisions. This is a good one though. I know you’ll be happy with it.”
I turn in his arms and grab the lapels of his suit coat. “I love your surprises, Jace. Quinn may have had a point about your work hours, but she failed to mention that you’re great at surprises,” I rise up on my toes and whisper in his ear, “and at taking control.”
A low rumble emerges from his chest and he growls, “Well, that’s a damn good thing, babe, because there’s no way in hell that’ll ever change.”
I never pictured myself standing outside on my wedding day, with my hair tightly pinned to my head and my long, white dress blowing in the cold breeze…blindfolded. When Em approached me as I was climbing into the limo with a light blue sash in her hands, I stared at her with apprehension.
“Your something blue,” she chuckled wickedly.
“I already have something blue,” I reply, gesturing to the thin, sterling silver bracelet with diamonds and turquoise gemstones that Jace had sent over while I was getting ready.
“He wanted you to have something else too,” she says, shrugging her shoulders. That was the last thing I saw before she wrapped the sash around my eyes and helped me the rest of the way into the car.
Standing out in the breeze, completely blind to the world around me, I hear a familiar deep voice say, “Well, this is different. A blindfolded bride. I’ve heard that usually happens on the honeymoon, but not before the ceremony,” Lane chuckles.
“Don’t make fun of me. I have no idea where I am,” I nervously confess.
His arm is instantly around me in a protective hold. “You look beautiful and you’re going to love this.” Shortly after, I hear a door open and close. “Well, doll, that’s our cue. Should we bail and run away forever, or go inside?” he asks teasingly, although I know if I asked him to, he would whisk me away in a heartbeat.