by Anthology
He knew he should be paying attention to the ceremony, but he was mesmerized by watching her every movement.
He was so taken by her, in fact, that he didn't even realize the pastor had asked for the rings until Alex elbowed him. Hard.
He scrambled to get the ring out of his pocket quickly and handed it to Bobby.
Alex leaned forward and whispered in Jason's ear, “Just one more piece of evidence that Bobby was hitting the bottle when he asked you to be his best man. It all makes sense now. Stings a little less every day.”
Jason shook his head. He could hear the mocking tone even through the whisper and knew his brother wasn't going to let him live this down for a very long time.
Still, Alex had a point. He was here to do a job, and that job wasn't to ogle Katie Lawson (although if he could figure out how to turn that into a job, it would be a pretty damn sweet one).
He tried his best to focus on what the pastor was saying. Every time he felt his eyes straying to Katie's beautiful face—or other parts—he pulled his attention back. But, damn, it was hard. She was breathtaking. It seemed that whenever she was in the room, the rest of the world faded away for him—even if the “rest of the world” consisted of his baby brother's wedding.
Before he knew it, the pastor was saying, “You may now kiss the bride,” and the whole place was cheering.
Sophie and Bobby headed down the aisle, beaming proud and joyful smiles from ear to ear. Then Jason stepped to the center of the aisle, took Katie's arm and they followed behind the bride and groom.
Man. It was becoming clearer and clearer to him that, with Katie by his side, all was right with the world. Without her, nothing was. He felt his chest get tight when he thought about letting her go. Again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Katie took a moment and looked around the reception, which was in a refinished barn at the edge of the lake a few blocks from the chapel. It retained enough of its rustic original architecture to lend itself well to 'country chic' events like Sophie and Bobby's wedding reception, but it had been completely outfitted with a commercial kitchen, a dance floor, sound system, and every amenity event-goers might need.
The best part was that both ends of the barn had huge, open double doors that led outside. One set led to a grove of trees, which was filled with twinkle lights tonight. The other set of doors looked right out onto the lake.
Katie sat at the head table with Chelle, giggling and gossiping yet again. It really was their default, and Katie liked that just fine.
Chelle leaned in close, and Katie could already see that she had a wicked look on her face.
“I know you did the dirty last night, girl. Don’t even try to deny it,” she said, waggling her eyebrows up and down for naughty emphasis.
“You don't know anything,” Katie countered with a smirk.
“As good as,” Chelle shot back. “Seriously, it was embarrassing how hard Jason was staring at you before, and today it's magnified tenfold. It's like he's the starving desert guy from cartoons and you've turned into a steak.”
Katie shook her head. “I don't think I come out particularly well in that analogy. I'm basically just a piece of meat?”
Chelle laughed. “Don't go getting all feminist on me. At least in my analogy, Jason wants to eat you. That can't be bad, right?”
They both burst out laughing just as Jason returned to the table with their drinks. He chuckled as he set the glasses down. “Seems like I'm missing all the good stuff,” he teased.
“The way I hear it, you're not missing much,” Chelle said with a grin, and Katie elbowed her.
Just then, they heard the DJ announce that it was time for the toasts.
Oh, Lord, Katie thought. Please don't let me bawl in front of all these people.
Jason stood and tapped his fork against his glass, and the room quieted. He turned towards Sophie and Bobby, who were looking up at him with expectant faces.
A smile spread on his face as he picked up the microphone, and began. “I'm sure most of you know that Nick, Sophie's older brother, was my best friend. I spent more days and nights at the Hunter house than, well, than I spent at my own a lot of times. In truth, I've always thought of Sophie as my little sister in a lot of ways.
“Especially after we lost Nick. I stepped in and tried to fill that void. I tried to give her advice about school, about friends. Even about guys. I tried to tell her what I thought Nick would have wanted her to know—to hold out for someone who didn't just love her, but couldn't live without her. Someone who she didn't feel like she could live without either. Someone kind and honest and who treated her like the princess she is. I hadn’t realized when I gave her those words of advice that I was describing my own baby brother. But man, I'm sure glad I was.”
Jason, then, looked at Sophie and delivered the rest of the speech directly to her. “I can tell you from experience that Bobby is the best man I know. He has courage, he has integrity, and he has more loyalty in his little finger than most people have in their whole bodies. I know him, Sophie, and he will fight for you. He's loved you forever, and he'll love you forever to come. He's everything I think Nick would have wanted for you. He’s everything I told you to hold out for. Like I said, Soph, I've always considered you my little sister, and now you actually are. Nothing could make me happier.”
He turned back to the crowd and raised his glass. “To the happy couple.”
“To the happy couple.” The crowd echoed, raising their own glasses.
Jason handed Katie the microphone and sat down, she could feel his encouraging stare on her.
She turned to the crowd. “I'm not sure how I'm going to top that,” she joked lightly, and the guests chuckled.
Katie opened her mouth to speak, but her throat closed from the tears that were threatening. She waited a few beats, getting herself under control.
She smiled and addressed the crowd again. “Wow, that's been happening a lot this weekend,” she said lightly, and they chuckled again.
“I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one here who has been overcome by tears more than once as they’ve watched these two beautiful young people make a commitment to each other, one that signifies just how much they love each other. And you can see, just by looking at them, exactly how much that is.
“I've known Sophie since she was just a little thing. Sophie—or Sophiebell as she will always be to me—was only four years old when the Hunters moved next door. She was my shadow from the very first day, and that couldn't have made me happier. Sophie was the sister I never had. Since the first day I met her, she seemed to be bursting at the seams with love, joy, and happiness. But, I can honestly say that I have never seen her as happy as she is today. I love you, Sophiebell.
Turning to Bobby, Katie sniffed as she smiled, “Bobby, I can honestly say that until I came back two days ago, I probably had only heard you speak a total of ten words all the years I’d known you.”
The crowd chuckled and Katie paused before continuing, “But, from what I’ve seen the past few days, you are everything that Jason so eloquently said and more. It is obvious to anyone who spends time with the two of you that you are each other’s perfect match. Your quiet strength balances Sophie’s bubbly enthusiasm perfectly. You are truly the yen to her yang. I know that you two have the kind of love that will only grow stronger with each day, each month, each year that passes. I love you both.”
Katie raised her glass. “To Bobby and Sophie.”
The attendees echoed, their own glasses raised. “To Bobby and Sophie.”
Katie sat down, and Jason put an arm around her shoulder. Chelle grasped her hand from the other side, and Katie felt (to quote Anne of Green Gables) pretty nearly perfectly happy.
They sat and chatted like that for a while with others coming up, intermittently, to tell either Jason or Katie how much they had enjoyed the toasts, and before Katie knew it, it was time for the first dance.
She got up from her seat and moved to the edge of the
dance floor so she would have a better view. Sophie and Bobby looked into each other's eyes lovingly as they swayed to the music.
After the first dance, the father-daughter dance began. Mike joined Sophie on the dance floor, and the two of them laughed and talked as they moved around the floor. Most of all, they looked to be very happy.
Katie realized, maybe for the first time, that when she got married, there would be no father-daughter dance. She was missing a pretty critical portion of that equation.
She started to feel a little sad, and that quickly bled into feeling overwhelmed. That led to feeling claustrophobic in a room packed with people. The walls were closing in.
Oh, no, she thought. A panic attack is coming on.
She began to repeat the mantra to herself:
You can breathe. Just breathe. Breathe in and out slowly. You can breathe.
Where was a good old-fashioned brown paper lunch sack when you needed one?
The mantra wasn't working, she didn’t have her bag or picture with her, but she knew she could not just duck out of the reception in the middle of the dance. She was the maid of freaking honor. People would probably notice.
That knowledge only made her feel more out of control and panicked, which fed into her ever-increasing symptoms, which made her feel out of control—vicious cycle, yadda yadda yadda. She needed to figure out how to stop it.
Her heartbeat was erratic, her palms were sweaty, her tongue and limbs were tingling, and her chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it.
She didn't know what to do.
Then, just when it was getting really bad, she felt a hand on the small of her back. Jason was standing beside her, and he leaned in to whisper in her ear. At first she was so far gone that she couldn't even understand what he was whispering to her, but then she deciphered his words.
“Are you okay? Or do I need to get you out of here?”
The tone in his voice, the heat of his breath on her neck, the weight of his hand on her lower back—all of it served to anchor her to the room.
She shook her head, signifying the fact that she didn’t need to leave.
Screw the mantra, Katie thought. She obviously didn’t need a picture when she had the real thing standing beside her, his mere presence seemed to be keeping the looming panic attack at bay.
After Jason had stood with her long enough to calm her down considerably, it was time for the wedding party to join the bride and groom. Jason led Katie to the floor and pulled her against him. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and she melted into him. When she was in his arms, she felt so safe, so solid, so secure, so…perfect.
She closed her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder. They swayed back and forth in an almost hypnotic fashion, following the slow and lovely melody of the music.
Jason leaned down and whispered that he had chosen this song specifically for the wedding party dance because he knew that he would be dancing with her.
Katie focused in and made a point of listening to the lyrics.
I melt in your mouth when you talk to me.
I wanna kiss you so slow and sweet.
You are the book that I want to read
In Braille cover to cover.
Girl, you're so deep inside, you're my DNA.
You're how tall I am, you're how much I weigh.
You're the reason that someone had to pen the phrase,
“To know her is to love her”
Silly girl, pretty girl, if you don't see
What a spell your sweet love has cast on me
Girl, and I pray that never will this trance be broken.
She pulled back to look up at him, amazement filling her countenance. “Is that how you really feel about me?” she asked, her voice tinged with awe.
Jason leaned in and kissed her slowly and sweetly, just like the song had said. Forgetting completely that they were in a room full of people, she kissed him back, all her inhibitions dropping away for the duration of that one perfect kiss.
He looked into her eyes and answered her. “All that and more, Kit Kat.”
As the song drew to a close, Katie felt utterly overwhelmed with emotion. She told Jason that she needed to have a minute for herself and headed for the restroom.
She sat down on the closed lid of the toilet in the stall, trying to slow her breathing and calm her frazzled nerves. So much had happened this weekend—some of it good, some of it bad, some of it great—but all of it had been intense. She just needed a moment to gather herself.
When she heard other people entering the bathroom, she pulled her feet up, not wanting to be engaged in conversation. She heard the distinctive voices of Lisa and Tiffany, two of the mean girls from high school, and they proceeded to prove that they had not yet reformed, even ten years later.
“God, could you believe it?”
“Ohmygod, I know exactly what you're talking about. You don't even need to say it.”
“On three, we'll go together.”
“One, two, three.”
“Katie Lawson being a total slut.” they said in unison.
“I know, right?”
“Totally, girl. You read my mind.”
“Seriously. Can you believe she's such a whore? Just making out with Jason at Nick's sister’s wedding, right in front of God and everyone.”
“Including Nick's parents!”
“You're right. I didn't even think about Nick's parents being there.”
“I guess she didn't either. She's such trash. I bet they hate Little Miss Perfect now.”
“They should. Oh my God, I feel so totally sorry for Nick.”
“I know, right? He was such a good guy, and his girlfriend's such a slutbag.”
Ironic, Katie thought to herself as the girls filed out, coming from the mouths of two girls who had screwed Nick while he'd been her boyfriend.
But she also couldn't deny that they had a point. She had behaved like that at Nick’s sister’s wedding. In front of his parents.
She just couldn't take any more of this. She shook her head. She was going to avoid Jason for the rest of the reception (even if it killed her) and then she was going to head back to the hotel (alone) and indulge in a (probably particularly raucous) shower concert. Maybe that would help her get her head on straight.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Katie stepped out of the shower, feeling slightly better. Her shower concert had been bittersweet, mainly focusing on titles such as “I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan and “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette. Still. Despite her melancholy repertoire, she felt that she had regained some of her composure and some of her perspective.
Which was, of course, immediately shattered upon opening the bathroom door and hearing a persistent pounding along with Jason's voice saying, “Katie. Open up. I know you're in there. I can hear you.”
She shook her head, sighed, and quickly grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself. She couldn't believe he had chased her up here.
No. That wasn't true. That actually seemed completely in character. She realized that what she couldn't believe was that he was going to see her looking like this.
She resigned herself to the fact that she was going to answer the door to Jason with her hair sopping wet, her face scrubbed of all makeup, and wearing nothing more fashionable (or flattering, thank you very much) than a fluffy terrycloth towel.
Great.
She pulled open the door, which he was still knocking on in a steady rhythm, and said indignantly, “Jason, I have neighbors, you know. They probably don't appreciate that.”
“Well, then you should have…” he started to tease with a mischievous glint in his eye. But then she saw him stop short, taking in her appearance. He looked her up and down, slowly, his smile fading, the color draining from his face.
Damn, she thought ruefully. I must look worse than I thought.
He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him, never taking his eyes from her body.
“Did
you need something, Jas?” she asked, growing more annoyed by the second.
“Yeah, I…” he trailed off and then started again. “God, you look so…you just look so…”
Holy crap, was he really going to insult her right now?
“Sexy,” he finished almost reverently. “So unbelievably goddamn sexy.”
Okay. That was a surprise. But she would take it. She smiled.
Enjoying the feeling of having the upper hand and tired of him being the one to always take the initiative, she decided to make a bold move. Completely out of character for her, but it felt good.
Wordlessly and immediately, she reached up, unfastened her towel from where she had hooked it under her arm, and dropped it to the floor, never breaking eye contact with him. She stood there, naked and unflinching under his hungry gaze, and felt herself becoming hotter and wetter. Jason brought out a bold eroticism in her that she had never experienced in her life, but she thought she could definitely get used to it.
Groaning, Jason reached out to grab the back of the desk chair he was standing next to in order to steady himself on his feet.
“Damn, Katie…” he breathed, looking her up and down. His gaze caused her to feel bolder, more empowered.
She took the two determined strides necessary to bring her to stand in front of him and immediately dropped to her knees. Still without speaking, she unzipped his fly and reached inside, pulling out his hard manhood.
He groaned even louder, tilting his head back and putting his other hand flat against the wall to effectively anchor himself in place.
She caressed up and down his shaft, delighting in how his member became even harder in her hands. She used both hands, alternately stroking up and down so that there was never a part of him she was not touching. She loved how his skin felt sliding against her hands—soft and velvety but hard as steel.
When she felt he had taken all he could of that particular delectable torture, she slipped him inside her mouth and began to move her head back and forth, applying slight pressure with her tongue all the way.