by Alexis Anne
He bounced his eyebrows. “Something I never thought I’d hear.”
“Young Roman was too self absorbed to think of things like romance and love.”
“Do you remember the first time you saw me naked?”
I busted out laughing, throwing my head back. “Oh how I remember,” I grinned. “You were so confused but still hot as hell.”
He ran his finger along the back of my hand. “You thought I was hot?”
I nodded. “I didn’t like you but I wasn’t blind. You were completely naked in front of me. Rippling muscles and,” I glanced at his crotch, “I liked what I saw.”
He grabbed my chin and pulled me in for a kiss. “You can see it as many times as you like for the rest of your life.”
I sighed happily against his lips. “Sounds like a plan.”
Roman’s proposal was a shock. Our trip was frantic. But the surprises were just beginning and I was starting to wonder if Roman had an addiction to springing gifts on me without warning.
After getting the most important part of the trip out of the way first—the marriage license—we headed to The Paris hotel and ate a quick lunch before heading up to the room.
Then he kissed me goodbye.
“I’ll meet you at the chapel. The car will be waiting for you downstairs at six sharp.” He handed me a sheet with details and times.
“You’re not coming in?” In my head I’d pictured us spending the afternoon together. It wasn’t as if we were doing anything the traditional way so why spend the day apart?
“Nope. You’re going to have some time to yourself to get ready in peace. But tonight?” He leaned in and kissed me. Then whispered, “You’re all mine.”
And I was all alone in a nice hotel room with nothing to do except worry. So I unpacked my dress—a sapphire blue cocktail dress that was one of my favorites—and turned on some music.
I was in the middle of unpacking my makeup when there was a knock on my door. “Surprise!” Zoe and Carrie said at the same time. “Your maids of honor are here!”
“Are you kidding?” I squealed.
“Nope. We hopped the flight right after yours. Wes is here, too.”
I hugged them both. “You came. Thank you.” We were doing this weird elopement, but not completely alone. Somehow, this felt right.
“This is why he abandoned you, by the way. He said you were upset,” Carrie said as she threw herself on the bed. “He’s taking care of the logistics and we’re here to make sure you stay relaxed while you get ready. Do you want to see my dress?” She was right back up off the bed and over to her luggage.
Zoe touched my arm. “She’s so excited. She’s been bouncing off the walls ever since Roman called.”
“Gotcha. Yes, I’d love to see your dress.”
“And wine! We should order wine.” She pulled the dress out and gave it a shake. It was a shockingly conservative dress for Carrie. Black, floor length, and flowing. It was a classic. “Roman said you chose blue and that we shouldn’t clash with you. I hope you aren’t offended by black.”
“Not in the least. It’s a lovely dress. And I’ll call down for a bottle of white?” I got two nods.
Zoe pulled out her dress next. Hers was a pale purple that would compliment her coloring nicely. Seeing my two friends standing in front of me with dresses they were going to wear to my wedding, I was suddenly choked up.
“I’m getting married.”
They both smiled.
“I can’t imagine this being any different. Isn’t that funny? How else would Roman and I get married but in a last minute ceremony in Vegas?”
I was a little nervous about how my family would feel being left out of this, but I was mostly happy that it would be small and intimate. It was much more me. I never wanted a big fancy wedding like Eve and Cassandra.
“It’s perfect,” Zoe assured me.
“Has the news hit yet?”
They both cringed. It had. It was just a matter of time before my phone started going nuts.
“Roman said you should turn off your phone if you don’t want to see the messages. He’ll text us if he needs to talk to you,” Carrie offered quietly.
And as if I’d conjured it up out of thin air, my phone lit up and vibrated against the coffee table.
MOM CALLING
I was definitely not answering that. The moment the screen went dark it lit up again.
EVE CALLING
I picked up the phone. “Hey.”
“I told you not to surprise them!”
I cringed. “We tried to stop the story. It was out of our hands.”
“You knew it was running?” she shouted.
“We found out this morning.”
Silence. Then, “You should have called them at the very least to give them a heads up.”
I knew that. I did. “How mad are they?”
More silence. That wasn’t good. “Umm . . . I don’t want to answer that.”
It was bad. Very, very bad. “I think I’m going to need all the information I can get before I see them.”
“Which is why you should have told them first,” she grumbled. “You want to know the real problem? It’s George.” My heart stopped. “He was the one who told Dad. He saw the story first and called. Told him to get his slutty daughter away from his son.”
“Oh God.” I sank onto the little love seat. It was worse than I thought.
“Yeah. That didn’t go well.”
I closed my eyes. Dad had a tendency to go nuclear when he was angry. He always reined it in and was generally a levelheaded guy, but when he lost it . . . he lost it. “What did he do?”
“He threw his office chair through the window. There’s also a bent nine iron somewhere in the water near our dock.”
Surprisingly, I expected worse. “But he didn’t say anything?”
“Oh no, there were words. And attorneys have been called. Where are you, by the way? I saw you leave before me this morning and you aren’t at work. I mean, I don’t blame you for hiding out, but it would be nice to know where you were. Also Mom and Dad will be at your house right about now.”
“I left town.”
More silence. “With Roman?”
“Yes.”
“Well at least you’re still together.”
What was that supposed to mean? “You can tell Mom and Dad to cool their jets. I won’t be home for a couple of days. They can stay in my guest room if they want. Zoe isn’t home, either.”
I bit my lip and hoped she didn’t ask any more questions.
“I’ll try to reason with them but you better get your ass back here soon. I don’t want the girls overhearing the things I know Dad is going to say.”
I was definitely not winning Daughter of the Year. Or Aunt of the Year.
Or the next.
Or ever, probably.
“Thanks, Eve. I owe you.”
“You’ll be babysitting until they go to college in payment.”
“Love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I sat back and stared up at the ceiling. “Things are bad.”
“How bad?” Zoe asked.
“Attorneys have been called.”
“Ugh,” Carried groaned. “It’s a good thing you two decided to elope. Can you imagine trying to deal with all of this right now? Vegas and a marriage license are a much better idea.”
I had to agree.
But I still felt terrible for the way I was treating my family. I picked up my phone and texted my mother.
I’m sorry. xo
Then turned it off and stuck it in my bag.
“Let’s get ready. I have a man to marry.”
I always thought Eve’s wedding was odd because she smiled so much. She was happy the whole day. But in movies, people cried during the ceremony. Cassandra cried, and since that matched what I’d come to expect on screen I’d decided that Eve had been the odd one. If you were happy about getting married, you cried.
Not that it
held true for either of their marriages. They were both happily married and had strong marriages I knew would never fail. Of course, my sisters were night and day so it made sense they reacted so differently to the ceremony. Eve was stoic to the point of being unemotional at times while Cassandra was a giant ball of feelings. She cried over everything and constantly worried.
I was nothing like Cassandra. I wasn’t quite like Eve, either, but if I had to pick one, she would be the sister I tended to follow after more often than not.
So it really shouldn’t have shocked me as much as it had when I stepped out of the white limousine at the chapel with a massive smile on my face. I was giddy, confident, and more than ready to be Roman’s wife.
Absolutely no doubts bounced around inside me and there was no threat of tears on the horizon, either. This was right and I was happy. That’s all there was to it.
Zoe hurried in ahead to make sure everything was ready, leaving me alone in the vestibule with Carrie.
“You look gorgeous,” Wes said as he stepped out of the chapel, enveloping me in a hug.
“Thank you for coming.”
“I wouldn’t miss this for anything. I’ll tell your kids about the day Uncle Wes hopped a plane to see the wedding of the century.”
“This is not the wedding of the century.”
“Are you kidding? Once these reporters find out you two got hitched it will be front page news.” Then he waved one hand through the air. “I can see the headlines now, ‘Baseball’s Bitterest Feud Ends in The Love Story of The Year’.”
“You just said century, now we’re only the wedding of the year?”
He shrugged. “To normal people this will only be the wedding of the year, but to baseball? You’re royalty. You and Roman will be our Will and Kate. No one will ever top you.”
He suddenly straightened and cleared his throat when he saw Carrie over my shoulder. His change was so extreme I couldn’t help but study the way they awkwardly avoided each other.
What was up with that?
“Has Roman said anything?”
Wes turned his attention back to me. “King George is in rare form but Roman is dealing with it like a champ.”
My heart skipped a beat. I hated that he was dealing. I hated that I was dealing. I hated that we had to deal with any of it.
“My folks are pretty pissed.”
“I’ve heard.” He frowned. “George called them. We’ve heard his side of the story which I can only imagine is an exaggeration of what really happened.”
“If only.”
He hugged me again. “That’s from the groom. He said if you asked, I was to hug you and tell you everything is ‘going to be just fine, Beautiful.’”
“Is it?”
Wes shrugged. “All I know is Roman asked me to give him away. As if I could ever do that! I was like, dude. Bro. You’re breaking up the team and you want me to give you away to her?” He broke out into fake tears. “You’re taking the love of my life, June. Be kind to him.”
I saw Carrie freeze behind him.
Seriously. What was up with these two?
But I didn’t have time to dwell on that because Zoe returned in the middle of Wes’s antics.
“Your groom is waiting.” She smiled brightly, completely ignoring Wes.
“We better hurry . . . before a photographer sneaks in and steals this moment from us, too.” I was trying to make light of the entire reason we were in Vegas, but it hurt a little.
“I’ll punch them and take their camera,” Wes vowed at the same time Carrie said, “I’ll pop them in the nose before I let that happen.”
They both fell silent and looked away.
“Well,” I tried to defuse the tension, “we’re lucky to have amazing friends willing to commit assault on our behalf.”
Wes smiled tightly and excused himself.
Sixty seconds later Zoe pulled open the door and I got my first glance at my future husband.
Roman stood at the front of the room with the minister. He made his simple blue suit look like the most amazing clothing ever to grace a man’s body. It fit his shoulders and tapered with his trim waist, but it was the way it complimented his eyes that really did me in.
I forgot to move until Zoe gave me a nudge. “Are we walking down the aisle or making a run for the car?”
I didn’t answer because I didn’t need to. Instead I took the first steps toward the future I’d chosen for myself, consequences be damned. Every step seemed to make the aisle longer when all I wanted was to get to him and take his hand.
He immediately found my eyes, watching me the entire way down the aisle.
“Thanks for coming.” He took my hands inside his.
“Thanks for asking.”
His eyes lit up and my heart skipped a beat. I liked making Roman happy. It made me happy, and I was pretty sure Eve had said something about love being about two people fighting for each other’s happiness. Maybe we were doing the right thing. Fast and stupid, but for the right reasons.
We’d selected the simplest wedding they had to offer and taken the first slot they had open. It was just a little white chapel, a minister, and our friends. I didn’t even take the bouquet that came with the package. I didn’t need any of it.
I just needed Roman.
The minister cleared his throat. “Are you two ready?”
“Yes,” we both said at once, neither looking away.
“I was told you have your own vows?”
No. No I did not.
“Roman?” Yet another one of his surprises? I wasn’t going to make it through our first day of marriage at the rate he was going.
“I thought it would be good for us to do our own thing since that’s . . . well, kind of our thing,” he shrugged.
And I couldn’t help but fall a little harder for him. It was a surprise, yes, but it was perfect. “Who’s up first?”
He pressed his lips together as he tried to fight back a laugh. “Baseball humor on our wedding day, June? Really?”
I replayed what I’d just said in my head and frowned. “I didn’t say who’s on first. I asked who’s up first. It’s totally different.”
But he just kept shaking his head and laughing. “The forbidden couple of baseball making the oldest joke in baseball just before they get married? C’mon. You know it was fate.”
Fate? No. A slip of the tongue that he took an extra step because of our history? Absolutely. “Do you want to marry me or argue semantics?”
He grew very serious—so serious he smoldered in his blue suit. I damn near whimpered.
“I’ll go first.” He threw back his shoulders and cleared his throat. “On the plane today I spent a lot of time thinking about our first few weeks. How when you found me naked in that locker room I wasn’t just physically naked.”
The minister’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline but he didn’t say a word to interrupt.
“You were the first person who saw me completely naked: mind, body, and soul, and even though I was supposed to hate you, I couldn’t. I knew instinctively from the moment we met that I was safe with you. That in my most embarrassing confession, I could be honest.” He squeezed my hands inside his and gave me a tight smile. “June, I promise to always be honest and vulnerable with you. To stand naked in that metaphorical locker room over and over again for the rest of our lives. I also promise to bake you fresh chocolate chip cookies every year for your birthday because they’re your favorite. I also promise to never let anyone else’s plans interfere with ours. This is our life to live together, and no one else’s.” Then he gave me another tight smile. “I really want to kiss you right now and tell you everything will be okay.”
I let out the breath I was holding during his long, sweet speech. “Can you promise that one too?”
His smile grew into a real, knee-weakening Roman St. James smile. “Always, June. I will always kiss you and tell you everything will be okay.”
This was the problem with weddings—you
had to stand the whole time. And that was quite hard between my spinning head and pounding heart, not to mention the weak knees. But that was also what was right with weddings. Roman was holding my hands, which was how I was still standing. It was support like this that would get us through the rest of our lives, so it was kind of fitting we had to demonstrate we could do it to get through our vows.
What I really needed was a laugh, so I gave Roman one of my wicked grins and made another scandalous vow that was sure to make our minister wonder what he’d gotten himself into. “I promise to never, ever laugh at you when you wind up naked in the locker room—real or metaphorical. I will be honest with you. Always.”
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too. You’ve taught me to ignore the noise and listen quietly for the truth. I promise to always listen to you and be there for you. I promise to lay under the stars anytime you need,” he sucked in a shaky breath and blinked several times at my mention of one of our most intimate nights, “and to never, ever touch your toothpaste.”
That got the laugh I hoped for. “Good. That could have been a deal breaker.”
“Well we can’t have that.”
The minister cleared his throat. “Are we ready for the traditional part of the ceremony?” He waited for our nods then jumped right into the “will yous” and “I dos.”
I was struck by the calm that settled over me during the familiar, life-altering part of our vows. Here we were promising to love and care for each other for the rest of our lives. It was the largest and most permanent promise I’d ever made. Considering the haste with which we’d jumped from hate to like to love I felt like there should be some hesitation . . . some niggling doubt. But there wasn’t. All I felt was peace and a calm so overwhelming the only word I could think to describe it was right.
This was right.
I loved Roman with all my heart and soul and I knew that he was the one person I wanted by my side when times were tough, just as he was the only one I wanted to enjoy life’s victories beside. I was filled with joy from my head to my toes. I swear I was about to burst apart with happiness like a shaken bottle of champagne.
I was so at peace with the life Roman and I had chosen, and it was multiplied by seeing that same peace mirrored back to me in his eyes, but in a very different way.