by Kaylee, Katy
But a part of me still couldn’t quite believe that Ted, that anyone, would drop everything in their life for me. That they would throw all the rest of it away, so long as they got to be with me. I could feel my eyes welling up with tears and I had to blink rapidly to keep my vision from blurring. I didn’t want to miss a second of this. I wanted Ted’s face in this moment etched in my mind forever.
I had no idea what I did to deserve this wonderful man. The love in his eyes was shining out like beacons and my knees felt weak. I could only hope that he saw that same love shining out of me, towards him, because I might not have been sure if I deserved his love, but I knew that I wanted it. I wanted it, and I loved him, and it was overwhelming me to the point that I could barely even speak.
“Yes,” I managed, when the time came. “Yes.”
Being the wife to someone, anyone else, it might have felt like I was belonging to someone again. But being with Ted… that was just being myself. With someone standing next to me. It was having someone to cheer me on and support me while I did whatever it was that I needed to do. And I wanted to be with him, and have that support, and support Ted in return.
He grinned, and I thought perhaps I saw tears in his eyes as well, and then he was sliding the ring onto my finger - and it fit, of course it did, and I laughed a little hysterically. It was a beautiful ring, perfect, exactly the kind that I would have picked out for myself.
“And as for… ” He started, but I put my hand over his mouth.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It’s all taken care of.”
Ted slowly stood up, still holding onto my hand. I dropped my other hand away from his mouth. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that I… that I went to Preston, and I handled it. I reminded him of how our society works, and the connections that I have.” A triumphant grin spread over my face. “And what will happen to him if he crosses me.”
Ted wrapped his arm around my waist, kissing me. “You brave genius,” he murmured against my lips. Then he paused. “I know you wanted to take things slow, so if you’re just saying yes because you’re overwhelmed or something - ”
I kissed him back. “You ridiculous man,” I teased. “Take me to bed.”
Ted swooped his arm underneath my legs, picking me up bridal-style and carrying me right up to my bedroom. He had never been in here, and I could sense him taking it all in as he walked over and deposited me onto the bed.
“It’s beautiful in here,” he murmured. “Like you.”
I took his face in my hands and kissed him. “The things you say,” I replied in a whisper. I still couldn’t quite believe that he loved me this much. That he had truly been willing to give up everything for me. It was beyond anything that I could have hoped for or even comprehended. Even in high school when we were last together, I didn’t think that he would go this far, love me this much.
And yet, he did. He really did.
I lost track of where our bodies were as we rolled, over and over, me on top and then Ted, until Ted flipped me over and took me from behind but this time… this time I was spread out on the bed, and his entire body was pressed against mine, every inch. Soon I would be too large and couldn’t lie on my stomach like this, and I reveled in it, reveled in the feeling of him pressed against me, covering me, just like his love did.
“In me,” I gasped. “In me, please, Ted…”
And he did, oh God, he did, he fucked into me, so slowly that I wanted to scream in need for him, and I gave myself over to him in every way.
33
Ted
I held Veronica in my arms as I slid my cock into her, feeling her clench around me, drawing me in deeper. “Yes,” she gasped. “Like that, Ted, please…”
As if I could have ever denied her anything.
She felt good, so, so good, as she always did but even more so now - now that I knew she was truly mine. I could never let her go, I could never let her out of my life. Even if she had said no to my proposal, I would have still been with her. Any way that she wanted me. I was hers.
We were completely pressed together like this, my legs keeping hers spread, my hands wrapped around her to massage and pinch at her breasts, those perfect breasts that made my mouth water. I nipped at her shoulder as she cried out, my cock fucking her wide, and I couldn’t get in hard thrusts this way but it didn’t matter… these slow, shallow ones were perfect.
Veronica kept crying out my name, and I grunted hers in return. It felt like nothing else in the world existed except for her. It was so intense, like I was encasing myself in electricity, and I could barely get my breath in. I managed to slide my hand down between her body and the bed, rubbing at her clit, over and over until she came, and then came again, until she was whimpering and begging me, saying it was too much, please, Ted - only then did I let myself give over and come. Only then did I let myself fall.
We lay there, breathing heavily, and I rolled over so that I wouldn’t crush her. But I pulled her with me, kept her back pressed to my chest. I really did never want to let her go. I never wanted to leave this bed. I just wanted her forever in my arms.
I held her close, my hand sliding over her stomach… her stomach where our child was growing. “I never stopped loving you,” I repeated.
“And you must have tried so hard,” Veronica said, and she didn’t sound teasing or condescending. She sounded like she ached for me. “After what I did to you. I’m sorry, Ted, I really am. I should have fought for us, instead of letting my parents dictate my life, but I fought this time. I knew I had to do that.”
“You were brave,” I promised her. “You were braver than I expected, braver than you had to be, and I’m proud of you.”
Veronica gave me an embarrassed smile, her cheeks flushing. “I realized… that the only thing I couldn’t bear to lose was you. And I feel like that’s something you’ve known all along and I’m only just realizing it and I’m playing catchup.”
“No. No, you had to go through your own things and I had to go through mine and, after your last husband I can’t blame you for being unsure, even with someone that you cared about before.” I reached across and took her hand, where the ring gleamed on her finger. “I actually didn’t think you’d say yes. I thought… I wanted to propose to you so that you knew how serious I was. But I didn’t think you’d want to get married right now. Not after last time and everything you had to go through.”
“Last time wasn’t my choice,” Veronica replied. She squeezed my hand and brought it up to her lips, kissing my knuckles. “I was doing what I thought I had to do. What my parents basically… bullied me into doing. I want to take a chance on you because this is my own choice. Not anyone else’s. This is for me, this is what makes me happy.” Her smile grew. “You make me happy. You always have.”
I kissed her, feeling helpless, caught in the spell of her, but I never wanted to break free. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Veronica repeated, as easy as breathing, and I felt something in my chest loosen. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“And I with you.” I knew, this time, that this was forever. Nothing and no one would ever separate us again.
Epilogue: Veronica
I never expected to be walking down the aisle again.
When I had married Chad, I had been convinced that we’d stay together forever. That he was my one and done. I hadn’t been in love with him the way I’d been in love with Ted, and part of me had known it - had known that I deserved to be more in love with my husband than I was, but I had also been denying it, and lying to myself.
When I’d first gotten married, it had been all about pomp and circumstance. I’d had a designer dress, it had been at this prestigious venue, the whole thing had been catered by a famous chef - the works. It had been all about the event, about ending up on page six. The actual meaning of it all was lost.
I hadn’t minded all that much at the time. I’d thought that was what was important: showing o
ff for everyone. Affirming my status. Being the society princess. The bells and whistles had also helped to distract me from how I was being railroaded by my family. My mother chose practically everything for the wedding, not me. I’d been worried about the expense of it all, even as my parents had scoffed and said that nothing was too much.
Now, though, now this was all about the marriage. The wedding. Ted and I were keeping it simple and we wanted it that way. This wasn’t about the food, or who the DJ was, or if we’d picked just the right venue for everyone to take pictures at. It was about having close friends and family together while we made a promise to one another - a promise to be by each other’s side.
Actually, we had almost no one with us.
It was a year after Ted and I had gotten engaged. In that time, I’d done a lot of work to revamp my life, and that included getting rid of the people in it who didn’t truly support me. My parents and I had already been estranged after I’d divorced Chad, but they had also made some overtures indicating they were ready to forgive me if I was going to marry someone else just as old money, just as prominent.
We never meant for you to be unhappy, they’d kept saying, but to them, appearances meant more than whatever things were like at home. I’d seen it growing up of course. How many times had Father ignored the insane amounts of wine that Mother would drink? Or how many times had Mother put up with Father ignoring her? I was certain that they hadn’t had sex since I was in my early teens. But God forbid they get divorced, because of the scandal.
If I had married Preston, I think they might have forgiven me. But Ted, despite being well-off and successful, had no interest in society the way that Preston did. And for me to marry the man they had once forced me to reject, no matter how high up in society that man might have gotten - it was a clear slap to the face.
Other people had fallen away from my life. People who realized that I was no longer interested in being one of their society belles. I didn’t spend all of my life going from this party to that, the way I had when I’d been Chad’s wife. It wasn’t even anything personal, not really. I just didn’t want to spend my life getting dolled up and going to a party to make idle chitchat. I wanted to actually do things.
But to some people, that was just another sign that I didn’t fit in anymore. Another sign that I was no longer ‘one of them’.
Luckily for me, I didn’t care if they left. The important people stayed.
Ted had kept reminding me that we didn’t have to rush the wedding. “We can do it today, or a year from now, or never,” he kept telling me. “All I care about is that you’re in my life.”
I wanted this, though. Now that I knew what I wanted I wasn’t going to wait for it. I was going to seize my happiness.
Our very small wedding party consisted of Layla, David, our officiant, and one adorable little flower girl.
Well, perhaps calling her a ‘flower girl’ was a bit of a stretch since she was only five months old, but she looked adorable in her little dress and wrist corsage. Annie. Our baby daughter.
There was a big tradition in a lot of families to name a child after someone else in the family, but neither Ted nor I felt like naming our child after one of our parents. And I’d always loved the name Annie, ever since I had seen the musical as a kid. Layla was holding her for us, looking pretty radiant herself.
Part of why our wedding had taken a year was that we wanted to focus on moving in together and preparing for Annie. Part of it was that we didn’t want to rush. And part of it had been that I was helping Layla through her own divorce. It hadn’t been easy. It had been messy and painful at times. But now she was out, and she looked so much happier for it.
I couldn’t help but notice that David seemed to take a great liking to her, the few times we had them meet. We had asked them to Annie’s christening, and had invited them both over to our house several times for a barbeque. David was, as Ted had often told me, convinced that he could never fall in love again, but I had hope that Layla, with her sweet nature, could perhaps persuade him to take a chance. And God knew she needed and deserved someone as steady and protective as David.
A girl could dream, right?
As I walked down the aisle, my smile grew until I couldn’t have stopped it for anything. We might be doing this in the backyard of Ted’s summer house - our summer house now, both of ours - and I knew my mother would be fainting at the idea of my getting married in what’s technically someone’s backyard no matter that the backyard is the beach - but I didn’t care. All I cared about was the man standing at the end of the aisle, next to the officiant.
Annie didn’t seem to be quite sure what was going on, and I couldn’t blame her, but she was smiling at me as I walked down. She was a happy and joyful baby, full of energy, and always making me laugh. Motherhood was definitely easier with someone else to help, instead of doing it all on my own, and I appreciated that Layla and David were so eager to fill in the role of godparents and help out as well. But even if I’d been alone, I knew I would’ve enjoyed every moment with Annie. She was perfectly imperfect, my darling girl, the baby that I had looked forward to for so long. Motherhood, after all of my fear, ended up living up to my expectations and then some.
Annie had her father’s hair and his strong nose, but Ted insisted that she had my smile. A mixture of both of us, just like I had hoped. It was better than I could have dreamed up when I decided to have a child. Now Annie would know her father and be loved by him, and would grow up with him, instead of him being a stranger that I had picked. Now when I looked into her face and saw traces of a person that wasn’t me, it wasn’t somebody I had chosen out of a catalog. It was the man I loved.
The man himself was smiling at me as I took my place next to him. Ted had this way of staring at me like I was something spectacular, and it never failed to make me blush. He was forever telling me that I was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and sometimes I still feared that I wasn’t worthy of that. That someone so loving couldn’t possibly want me, especially after I had rejected him once.
But every day, it got easier to believe. Every day as he stayed. Every day as I did whatever I could to strengthen our bond and show him that I adored him just as much as he adored me.
Ted took my hands, squeezing them gently. “You look radiant,” he whispered, his voice full of awe, his eyes shining.
Chad and many others had often complimented me. Preston had been full of flattery. But I had never really believed any of them with their flowery praises. I hadn’t believed that they really thought what they were saying. It had all sounded like just another way to placate me, to get me to like them and do what they wanted.
When Ted said things like that, though… he said them with this tone of reverence that shook me to my core. How could I help but believe him when he said it like that? With wonder in his eyes like he couldn’t quite believe I was actually in front of him, choosing him?
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I replied. He did look unbearably handsome in his pale blue tux. I liked how Ted was a little unconventional with his colors, a little out there. It wasn’t the same color scheme or style as his punk days but it was still that part of him, that bit of rebel, peeking out.
The ocean waves crashed on the beach as the officiant began the ceremony. Ted kept staring into my eyes like there was nothing else in the world, like nothing existed but me. I’d been a bit… well, self-conscious, after giving birth. I had never really experienced body issues growing up. Sure, my mother would sometimes make comments that told me I had to stay skinny or no man would want me. The usual toxic fare. But she had also praised me constantly and told me I was lucky I had gotten her looks, and that a pretty girl like me would go far. I had never felt inadequate in the looks department.
But then - then my body went through so many changes while pregnant. I couldn’t see my feet. I couldn’t sleep properly. My hair got curlier, of all things. My appetite changed. Literally everything about my physical form was
undergoing some sort of metamorphosis. And then, after it was all done, I still bore scars. Stretch marks, things that would never be the same. I couldn’t just deflate like a balloon and it would all go back to normal.
I had surprised myself with how scared I had been to look in the mirror.
But Ted - he always thought I was beautiful. He didn’t even have to say it, although he did, and frequently. It was in his eyes, how I caught him staring at me when he thought I couldn’t see. It was in the way that he kissed me and touched me, still eager and yearning. He embraced me as he always had, and my body’s changes were nothing to him. It helped me to accept myself.
The officiant finished up, and announced that we were now man and wife, and I found myself blinking back tears. I hadn’t expected to cry, honestly. I had done so much crying as I’d rebuilt my life and gotten away from Chad. But now tears of joy were welling up in my eyes and I couldn’t have stopped them if I’d tried.
I had never thought I’d get married again. I’d never thought that I would want to risk my heart. But this wasn’t risking my heart. It was never a risk with Ted. Jumping off a cliff wasn’t scary when you knew there was someone at the bottom to catch you, and Ted would always catch me.
He’d been catching me long before I could appreciate it.
And now I had this - the beautiful, intimate beach wedding, and it couldn’t be more perfect if I’d tried. I was just so unbelievably happy. This was the first day of the rest of our lives together. The first day with my official husband. Now we had a lifetime to keep building our little family, to keep building our happiness.
“You may kiss the bride,” the officiant added, as if realizing that we might want, perhaps, to do that. Ted grinned and pulled me in, his hands at my waist, kissing me until I was breathless. I could still kiss him for hours, just like when we were giddy teenagers, and I had no intention of wanting to stop that tradition any time soon.