Be Here Now: A Cedar Creek Novel

by Julia Goda

  I giggled and did as I was told. I let go of Frank’s hands and carefully walked down the path so as not to get my dress stuck on any of the branches. Maggie had told me to wear flip flops. I had given her a questioning look then, but now I knew why.

  I pushed the last low-hanging branch out of my way and saw him. He was standing with his back to me, his hands in his pockets, his feet spread wide, looking out over the ocean where the sun was about to disappear into the water. He was so beautiful he took my breath away.

  As if he felt my eyes on him—though he had probably heard me come down the path, it was impossible to walk quietly when you were wearing flip flops—he turned and smiled at me. Then one hand came out of his pocket and he crooked his finger at me. I’d usually have something to say about that, but not now. Now, all I could do was not run to him and throw myself into his waiting arms.

  I stepped out of my flip flops and walked towards him on my bare feet. He was wearing a pair of loose linen pants and a white flowy linen shirt with its sleeves rolled up that matched my dress perfectly in style and tone. I was sure Maggie had something to do with that and smiled to myself at how perfect this all had turned out in only a few hours. As I got closer, I could see the tattoo on his left forearm. It was brand new, only a few hours old. Jesse’s name was written on the inside of his arm in beautiful script. It had been the surprise he had talked about earlier today. He had joined me in the shower after he had called Bob and had just stood there and looked at me. Then he had lifted his arm to brush the hair out of my face and I had seen it. Neither of us had said anything. We didn’t need to. We just looked into each other’s eyes lovingly and in complete understanding.

  This was it.

  This was us.

  The way we would be forever.

  As soon as I was within reach, his hands went to my face and he cupped my cheeks.

  “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” His whisper was hoarse and full of emotion. “And you’re all mine.”

  “You’re not too shabby yourself.” He grinned down at me then kissed me so softly and reverently that my heart skipped a beat. I grabbed his wrists and held on as I kissed him back. He ended the kiss and leaned back without letting go of my face. “You ready?” He asked in a soft voice.

  “Always,” I answered just as softly. Then, with one last soft brush of his lips, he turned me so we were facing a man I hadn’t seen standing only a few feet from us.

  “We’re ready,” Jason announced. He took my hand in his and laced our fingers together. I leaned into his side and rested my head against his shoulder.

  And that’s how we got married on a secluded beach in California at sunset: just the two of us, holding hands, and leaning against each other as we listened and exchanged our vows and rings, completely in love with each other.

  And we wouldn’t know it then, but that night when we made love over and over again until we were both happy and sated and completely exhausted, we created the most beautiful thing a couple in love can create: an addition to our family.

  JASON

  Jason had been awake for an hour, but he couldn’t make himself leave the comfort and contentedness of holding his wife to his side.

  His wife.

  He let his fingers trail random patterns on the skin of Loreley’s back as he remembered the past week. Just a week ago, he could have never dreamed to be here with her like this: happy, content, and secure. And married. He grinned to himself.

  A week ago, he had felt betrayed and hurt in the knowledge that Loreley had kept his son from him. He was grieving for the loss of the son he had never known and wallowing in self-pity and guilt. He had almost given up on the hope that he could ever be this happy. Now, his life was completely changed. He got his Loreley back only four days ago, but these four days had by far been the happiest of his life.

  Now she was his wife.

  Loreley stirred in his arms, snuggling deeper into him in her sleep. He brushed his lips against the top of her head and resumed drawing random patterns on her skin. He wanted to stay like this forever. Unfortunately, they had an agenda for the day, something that he hadn’t told Loreley about. It would be another surprise. He hadn’t been sure if he’d be able to pull it off, but Maggie as well as Robert had worked their magic and had come through for him. He couldn’t wait to show her. He just hoped that she wouldn’t be upset.

  “Good morning, husband,” Loreley’s whisper brought him out of his thoughts, her words making his heart beat faster. He would never get tired of hearing her call him that.

  “Good morning, wife,” he whispered back. Then he did what he’d been itching to do for the past hour. He rolled into her so that she was on her back and he covered her body with his, his weight pressing her into the mattress.

  “Took you long enough,” he teased her while nibbling her bottom lip.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  His fingers brushed through the hair at her temple as his eyes roamed her face. “You looked too beautiful snuggled into my side, so peaceful. I couldn’t bring myself to disturb you.”

  Jason couldn’t help himself. He needed his mouth on her, needed to feel her soft skin on his lips. So he gave into the urge and covered her face with soft kisses. When he was done with her face, he moved on to her neck, then to her collarbone and to her shoulder, from her shoulder down to her chest where he brushed his nose against her nipple, then flicked it before he took it in his mouth and sucked.

  “You could have gotten up and made breakfast,” Loreley said through a quiet moan that made his cock go from half-mast to hard as a rock in less than a second. He let go of her nipple with a plop and soothed it with soft strokes of his tongue.

  “You hungry?” He asked while he moved his mouth across her chest to her other breast. Loreley helped him and arched into his mouth.

  “Starving.” She grabbed his hair with both fists and tugged, making him groan. He loved it when she got rough with him. He loved making love to her any way she would let him, but teasing her to the point where she would get rough and take what she wanted, what she needed, making her lose control, turned him on big time. He ground his cock into her softness, satisfied with her response when she lifted her pelvis against him, urging for more. He didn’t hesitate and ground in again.

  “Sorry to disappoint.”

  “Huh?” She asked. She had lost track of their conversation. Jason smiled to himself. He let go of her nipple and leaned back.

  Grinning, he said, “I apologize for not fulfilling my husbandly duties and bringing my wife breakfast in bed. But there was no way I was going to leave her in our bed on our first morning as husband and wife without making love to said wife first.”

  “You’re forgiven,” she replied instantly then lifted her head and pressed her mouth against his firmly. Her lips opened for him and he dove in hungrily as they once more got lost in each other.

  LORELEY

  “You know we can only get married once, right?” Frank was pulling up at exactly the same spot he had last night. It looked different in the morning light, less magical, and of course, there were no twinkle lights now, but it was still unbelievably beautiful.

  Jason grinned at me and said, “Technically, we can have as many ceremonies as we want.” He was sitting beside me in the back of the SUV. I was leaning against his side with one of his arms around my shoulders. He used one hand to play with my fingers, or mostly with the rings there, and the other to play with my hair. I felt content and happy. I was in total and complete bliss.

  At his words, I turned my head from looking out the window to looking up at him. “We’re having another ceremony?” I asked, surprised and confused. Why were we having another ceremony? We did get married last night, didn’t we? We said the vows and signed the papers and everything.

  Jason’s eyes roamed my face and he burst out laughing at the thoughts he could probably read there. “Don’t worry, baby. Everything was legit last night. You’re my wife and I’m
your husband. And no, we’re not having another ceremony.”

  “Then what are we doing here?”

  “That, my love, is a surprise.” I scrunched up my face, making Jason chuckle and kiss my nose. “Don’t worry. It’s a good one. At least I hope it is.” That sounded a little ominous. I didn’t have a chance to reply since my phone started ringing again. I checked the screen. My dad. It was the third time he had called this morning. Add four calls from Chris and two from Cal to that, and my phone had practically been ringing off the hook all morning.

  “You gonna get that?”

  “I’ll call him back later,” I said as I hit the button that would send the call to voicemail.

  “Are you avoiding talking to your dad?” I could hear amusement in his voice as well as a hint of disapproval and maybe disappointment.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know how to tell him. I don’t want him to be disappointed or mad at me that he wasn’t there when his only daughter got married.”

  “That why you haven’t answered any of Chris’ and Cal’s calls either? Because you think they’ll be mad?” I nodded. My eyes were still on my phone, avoiding making contact with his. This was a tricky situation. I was a grown woman and didn’t need anyone’s permission to marry the man I loved, but on the other hand, I had been through so much this past year and all my friends and family at home had done everything they could to get me to a place where I could do more than just exist, to get me back to life. I didn’t regret getting married to Jason last night. Not one single bit. But I felt a little guilty that we hadn’t let anyone share that moment with us.

  It was completely silent in the car. Frank must have gotten out at some point since he wasn’t sitting behind the wheel. I hadn’t even noticed. I moved my eyes back to Jason and saw that his jaw was clenched. He had stopped playing with my fingers and my hair and was tense beside me as he looked out the side window.

  “What is it?” I asked, worried by the sudden change.

  He didn’t turn his head when he said, “Do you regret we didn’t wait?” His voice sounded sad and hurt, making my heart drop. I hadn’t considered that my hesitancy to tell my family we had gotten married would hurt him. I realized now that I should have thought about that. I scrambled out of my seat and onto his lap. I cupped his face with my hands so he had no choice but to look at me.

  “Don’t you think for one second that I regret getting married to you last night; I don’t. I love you and I love the fact that you are my husband. I wouldn’t change it for the world. That’s not it. And I don’t think any of my family will be mad that we got married. I’m just a little worried that they’ll be disappointed we didn’t share our moment with them. They’re my family and they’ve been there for me whenever I needed them. No questions asked. I’m worried that they think I didn’t want them at my wedding.”

  Relief flooded Jason’s eyes at hearing my words and he snaked his arms around my waist, pulling me flush with his body. Our noses were touching when he spoke. “Baby, they know.”

  Now it was me who got tense. “They know?”

  Jason nodded. “I called your dad as soon as you agreed yesterday and asked him for permission.”

  My eyebrows flew up in disbelief. “You asked my dad for permission?”

  He nodded again. “I did.”

  Wow. I couldn’t believe it. Jason had asked my father for his permission to marry me without him there. I was completely blown away by the thought that the man who never defended his actions to anyone, who didn’t care if people liked him or not or agreed with his actions, who was a man’s man who didn’t appreciate unwanted advice, had put all that aside for me. Because that’s the reason he had done it.

  For me.

  He knew my family meant a lot to me and he wanted to make sure I had their support in this even if I didn’t know it. I thought I couldn’t have loved him any more than I already did, but as that realization hit me, I fell that much more.

  “Thank you,” I breathed against his mouth before I took it in a no-holds-barred kiss. He not only joined me too happily, but took over and turned the kiss into a full on make out session. We were like teenagers, making out hot and heavy in the back seat of the car. But all too soon, Jason broke the kiss and we were both breathing heavily. “Jesus, woman.”

  I smiled, knowing that it took everything right now for him not to take me right here. I had snapped his control. I loved that I could do that.

  “You’d be advised to wipe that sexy little smile off your face, baby, unless you want to get fucked on the backseat,” he said in that sexy growl of his. My smile grew bigger.

  “Fuck, woman,” he groaned and hid his face in my neck where he took a few deep breaths. I giggled happily. “Your family and friends are planning a party for us as we speak. That Macy is not someone I want to mess with, so I had to promise to bring you back as soon as possible. We only have today and tomorrow and then we’re heading back.”

  “You talked to Macy?” I asked, surprised. When had he done all this without me knowing? Apart from our separate shopping expeditions we had been together practically every second.

  “No. She talked to me. I just listened. That woman is a ball buster.” I giggled again. He wasn’t wrong. Macy was a handful, but she was the most caring and loyal friend one could wish for.

  Jason’s face came out of my neck. “I’m not joking. That woman is scary as hell. I feel bad for Larry.”

  I started laughing. Larry was only too happy with where he was. He didn’t need Jason’s sympathy. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

  “I had to make a deal with her to get her off my back and stop her from calling me.”

  “What deal?” My body was still shaking with silent laughter.

  “Backstage tickets to any of our concerts for life.” My laughter turned from silent to loud out laughing. That sounded like Macy. God, I loved my friend.

  “So you gonna answer your phone now and stop worrying?” Jason asked when I calmed down.

  “Yeah, I’m gonna answer my phone now.”

  “And stop worrying.”

  “And stop worrying,” I agreed. “Thank you, honey. I love you.”

  “I love you, too. More than you’ll ever know.” He gave me a soft and gentle kiss. “Though I’m a little miffed that you didn’t say anything yesterday. I could have eased that worry and guilt.”

  “I didn’t even think about it that much yesterday. I wanted to be married to you and was too excited to think about much else.”

  “All right, you’re forgiven. Now, climb off me. Your surprise is waiting.” I had forgotten all about the surprise and where we were. Jason opened the door on his side, and I climbed off his lap, meeting a grinning-from-ear-to-ear-and-shaking-his-head-at-us Frank. As soon as Jason got out behind me, he took my hand and led me down the same path I had taken last night. This time when I made it out the other end, there was a folding table set up with papers all over it and a man leaning on his outstretched arm, studying them.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Jason squeezed my hand and gave me a hesitant look. “Can you keep an open mind?” His voice was just as hesitant as his look.

  What the hell was going on?

  The guy behind the table must have heard our approach. He lifted his eyes and straightened up. “Mr. and Mrs. Sanders! Nice to meet you on this beautiful morning!” My heart gave a little happy jump at hearing someone address me as Mrs. Sanders. Jason gave me a big smirk, apparently sharing my feelings.

  The man rounded the table and shook first Jason’s hand then mine and introduced himself as Dan Hopkins. He was a little taller than Jason with wide shoulders, and muscular arms. You could definitely tell that he worked out. His blue eyes were smiling at us and his blond curly hair was blowing in the breeze. He was very good looking, and if he weren’t wearing nice suit pants with a button down short sleeved shirt, I would have pegged him for the typical laid back and happy surfer dude.

  �
�I apologize in advance for not having the drawings anywhere near done. My team and I started on it as soon as we received the signed contract yesterday, but unfortunately, it will take a couple of weeks until we have everything narrowed down enough to start.”

  Drawings? Contract? What was this guy talking about?

  “No worries, Dan. I knew we wouldn’t have anything solid today. I just wanted to give my wife an idea.”

  Dan nodded and gave me a wide smile. “Well, I hope you’ll like what we’ve come up with so far. Take a look.” He waved towards the papers on the table and I looked at them for the first time. It took me a minute to make sense of what I was seeing, but once my brain made sense of it, I gasped.

  They were house plans; footprints of a beautiful beach house. It had two stories, both what seemed to look like big and open with huge windows. I could see an enormous living room, an office, and a kitchen on the main floor, and four big bedrooms, a what seemed to be a flex room, and a loft on the second floor. Then there was the basement with a music studio and another office. And last but not least, the plan of the backyard with a swimming pool, a hot tub, and a guesthouse. In the top corner of the plans someone had pinned photographs of different houses, all with a beach house style theme, and in the opposite corner more photographs, this one of the beach we were standing on from all kinds of different positions and angles.

  “What do you think?” Jason asked me, his voice soft and apprehensive.

  What did I think? I couldn’t think long enough to think anything. All I could do was feel, and what I felt was an overwhelming love for the man standing beside me.

  Jason was building us a house here on this beach.

  The beach we had said our vows on.

  And he wasn’t building just any old house.

  No.

  He was building the house we had always dreamed about.

  My heart overflowed and tears welled up in the eyes I couldn’t tear away from the drawings.

  “Baby?” Jason prompted when I didn’t say anything. I sniffled and felt Jason’s hand on my cheek turning my head to face him. “Those better be happy tears.”