“Why you the fucking with me, lady?”
“That was a joke, and you know it,” Blackwell said. “As I’ve told you before, I’m fully behind your marrying Rudman. Because he is the one for you. Anyone with a pair of eyes can see how much that man is head over heels for you.”
“When did he propose?” I asked. “How did he propose? I want to know everything!”
“But I shouldn’t talk about this now,” Epifania said. “This your weekend, not mine.”
“Spill it!” I said.
“Well…OK. I mean, if you want. It was super romantic,” she said.
“Go on…”
“A couple of days ago, he asked me over for dinner at his apartment, just as he has a hundred times before. He gave away nothing. Zeep. Instead, it was just like any other dinner at his apartment. We had the drinks. We had the kisses. We ate the meal. And then he was suddenly on one knee, which surprised me! Because after the dinner, it usually me on my knees!”
“And there’s that,” Jennifer said.
“With him down there and looking up at me with those big blue eyes of his, I started to freak out inside, because Epifania no fool—she knew what that meant. After he tell me that he love me, he removed a leetle black velvet box from his jacket pocket and opened it. I saw the bling and the bam, and then he asked me to marry him.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Oh, Heyzeus Cristo, this is where it get the embarrassing,” she said.
“It’s not embarrassing,” Jennifer said. “Your reaction was honest, real, and sweet.”
“I started to cry,” Epifania said. “I said that of course I be his wife. Because Rudsy just get me. He understand me, which I know can’t be the easy, but he does. I know in my heart that he in love with me—and not my money. And now? Now this girl finally off the market!”
“Have you set a date?”
“Not yet. Because my Rudsy and I are going to have the fun first! We’re going to travel the world, we’re going to buy a beeg new apartment that work for both of us, and then we set a date and get the married. Lisa, I want you to be one of my bridesmaids. And I also want the Black Death here to be one.”
“How very kind of you,” Blackwell said. “Allow me to wear my mourning dress.”
“But what if we get married in the afternoon?”
“I don’t mean that kind of morning,” Blackwell said, polishing off her glass of champagne with a roll of her eyes. “Just consider me in, Epifania. That’s all you need to know.”
“Same here,” I said.
“That the perfect,” she said. “Epifania really the happy right now!”
And then she turned to Jennifer.
“Yennifer, I know I haven’t asked you yet, but I hope that you’ll be my matron of the honor.”
“It would be my honor, Epifania. And here’s the good news—after tomorrow, your matron of honor will actually know what the hell to do!”
***
After a dinner that provided our guests with a choice between filet mignon, scallops provençal, or a spinach-and-gruyère soufflé as well as a host of desserts, it was time for the toasts. Alex clinked the side of his water glass, cleared his throat, and stood.
“This is where things can get kind of interesting,” he said to the group with a wry smile. “This is where the best man can have a bit of fun.”
“Go easy on me,” Tank said with a laugh.
“That’s the thing,” Alex said with unexpected seriousness. “That’s easy for me to do.” He looked at me and then at the rest of those sitting around the table before reaching for his glass of champagne and holding it at his side as he addressed Tank directly. “We’ve known each other for so long and have experienced so much together, there’s almost too much to share, isn’t there?”
Tank put his arm around my shoulders and nodded.
“So, when I got to thinking about how I should toast you tonight, I knew I could have gone for a few easy jokes about the times you and I used to hang out at dive bars before I met Jennifer, but then I nixed that idea. You deserve better than that, Tank. You deserve something meaningful. To give you that, I knew I had one hell of a challenge ahead of me, because I somehow needed to distill the essence of what makes you you. That turned out to be more difficult than I’d imagined, because you’re more complicated than I think most people realize. Many view you as the strong-and-silent type, which you are. But for those of us lucky enough to know the real you, you’re much more than that.”
Alex paused to sweep his gaze around the table.
“When Tank came to me six years ago to work at Wenn as the head chief of security, I knew him then only as Mitch McCollister. And to this day, I can remember the first time I saw him. I was interviewing for the job and sitting at my desk, waiting for the next person to arrive, when this massive man walked into my office armed with one of the most impressive résumés I’d ever read. West Point grad. Marine. Former SEAL. It doesn’t get any better than that, and I knew it. And so we talked for a bit. I asked him what was important to him in his life, and he told me that even though he was now a civilian, he still lived by the SEAL ethos. He said he viewed himself as someone who was willing to serve, whether it be his country or his future employer. He told me that his character and his integrity defined who he was as a man. And then he assured me that his word was his bond. Throughout the entire interview, he was direct and sincere. And frankly, when the interview was over, I just gave him the damned job right then and there—because I would have been an idiot if I hadn’t.”
The group laughed.
“Little did I know then that over the years he would become my best friend, a man I would look up to and know I could share anything with. It didn’t take me long to understand that with Tank, my personal life would never be betrayed by him, which is something he’s proved to me time and again—and something that hasn’t always been true for me in my life. Being in the public eye—a life I never wanted but which I had no choice but to assume—I can’t underscore enough how much that has meant to me. So, thank you, Tank. Thank you for being true to your word.”
Tank smiled and nodded at him.
“Everybody in this room knows I’d be remiss if I didn’t say there’s just this kind of cool, effortless, quiet sense of calm about Tank,” Alex said. “It isn’t forced—instead, it’s natural. I think those qualities must be the reason his war buddies nicknamed him Tank. Because he really is solid as steel, he is physically intimidating, and he always can be depended upon—especially in the most dire of situations, as too many of us at this table know. And now, here he sits on the eve of getting married to the little sister I never had, Lisa Ward, who stands as a long-suffering and exhausted testament that Tank doesn’t move quickly when it comes to matters of the heart.”
I laughed when Alex said that and leaned over to kiss Tank on the cheek.
“He’s more careful than that,” Alex said. “More respectful. He’s waited to get married and to have a family, because in a world where values have often gone missing, values mean plenty to Tank. I think everyone in this room knows that because Lisa and Tank have taken their time to get to the altar, they’ll be married forever.”
At that moment, Alex lifted his glass.
“Cheers to you, buddy. I love you like a brother. And you’ve nailed it by choosing Lisa to be your wife. You’ve taken your time, you’ve made sure that she’s the one, and what you’ve created is gold, man. So, enjoy it. Know that I’m thrilled to stand beside you as your best man and that I’ll always be there for you as your best friend.”
As everyone took a drink and started to applaud, I looked over at Tank with tears in my eyes and said, “That was amazing.”
“That’s Alex,” Tank said, and when he said it, his voice was unusually thick. I rubbed his back, knowing that what Alex had said in that speech had not only moved Tank but also meant the world to him.
“Well,” Jennifer said, standing and placing her hand on Alex’s
shoulder, “that’s a hard act to follow, but I know that I can when it comes to properly honoring my girl.”
She looked over at me.
“Friendships,” she said. “The real ones are hard to come by, aren’t they? They are, especially the ones you know will last a lifetime. I once heard somebody say that people come in and out of our lives for a reason, but what’s also true is that some of them remain in your life for a reason. I’m lucky to have a few friends in this room who I know will be with me until the day I die, and like Alex’s friendship with Tank, I take none of them for granted—least of all my friendship with you, Lisa. We’ve known each other since we were children. If you stop and think about it, we’ve literally been there to witness almost all of our life experiences together, which astonishes me, because how many friends get to experience that kind of history together? Not many. But we have, and because we have, I’ve had the pleasure of watching you grow into the powerful, successful, fearless, fiercely funny, lovely, and wonderful woman you are today.”
I put my hand over my heart when she said that, and I forced myself to keep it together as she took her own glass of champagne and held it at her side.
“Since we’ve been friends for nearly thirty years—which makes us twenty-five for those of you who are counting, Daniella—it’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to our friendship and which stories to share with everyone. There are just too many. So tonight, I thought I’d take a few moments to share what it was like when Lisa and I left Maine and first arrived in Manhattan. Because if we hadn’t taken that scary leap together, Lisa wouldn’t be here with Tank now—on the eve of their wedding, no less—and I wouldn’t be here with my beloved Alex. Our decision to leave Maine turned out to be so significant in how it changed our lives that it still stuns me. Lisa, think about how the ripple effect of that move alone swept us off our feet. I met Alex. You met Tank. But before they came into our lives, things always weren’t so bright for us, were they?”
“No,” I said to her. “They weren’t. You and I struggled.”
“We did, but we always had each other’s back, didn’t we? When I couldn’t get a job for the life of me, you especially had mine. That’s something I’ve never forgotten. It’s just one of the reasons I’m proud to be your friend and your matron of honor.”
I watched her look out as she addressed our friends and family.
“When Lisa and I first arrived in the city in her beloved car, Gretta the Jetta, her career as a writer was just taking off. During our second week there, she self-published her first horror novel on Amazon, and it sold so well that she immediately started to write another. I can’t tell you how proud of her I was during that time, because more than anything, Lisa has always wanted to write for a living. Skip forward three months and a hell of a lot of hard work later, and Lisa was on the cusp of putting out her second novel while I was still trying to find work. At that point in my life, there literally was a bomb attached to my bank account that was set to explode if I didn’t find a job soon. With money running out, I told Lisa I’d probably have to move back to Maine. But she wouldn’t hear of it. At one of the lowest points of my life, she stepped in financially and kept us afloat until I finally found that job at Wenn. It’s because of her belief in me that I was able to stay in Manhattan, which led me to Alex, the love of my own life.”
When she said that, she appeared overwhelmed for a moment, and I watched her take a breath before she continued.
“Lisa, I want you to know that words aren’t enough to express my gratitude for what you did for me back then. Your belief in me and your complete selflessness when it came to our financial situation are directly responsible for the life I now enjoy with my husband and our son. Because if I had gone home, I never would have met Alex, which is unthinkable to me. It’s because you insisted that I stay—and that you’d take care of us until I found a job—that I was able to meet him, fall in love with him, marry him, and give birth to our son. What you did for me was so profound and generous, I’ll never forget it. Never. I love you, Lisa. And I wish you and Tank a lifetime of mad love, happiness, health, and many, many children.”
We both had tears in our eyes as she lifted her glass of champagne to me, and our friends and family members followed suit.
“Cheers to you,” she said as she blew me a kiss. “Love to you. My heart to you. Know that I wouldn’t be here today without you. I don’t think you’ll ever know just how much you mean to me, but I hope that after today, you will at least have a good idea.”
I was so overwhelmed by what she’d just said to me that I got up from my seat. Tank encouraged me to go over and get her, and I hurried over and hugged Jennifer with a fierceness I felt my soul. Together, we’d done it. Together, we’d triumphed. Only because of our friendship were we where we were today—happy, lucky, and in love.
“Thank you,” I said in her ear. “What you said was beautiful. I love you, Jennifer. Where would we be now without each other in our lives?”
“I don’t even want to think of it,” she said as I felt her tears touch the base of my neck. “In fact, I don’t ever want to know. But we did it,” she said, pulling back to look at me with a big smile on her face. “We really did it, Lisa. We made it. Tomorrow is full circle for us. Once, we were just a couple of Maine girls with a dream, but despite all the odds stacked against us, we did it. Whoever could have known back then that we’d be where we are now?”
“No one,” I said.
For a long, happy moment, we looked into each other’s eyes and absorbed the significance of how we’d gotten here. Then Jennifer planted a firm kiss on my forehead and held me close to her again. “Later, let’s celebrate as we always celebrate,” she said in my ear. “Because when it comes to us, I can think of no better way to do that than to enjoy a martini with you.”
“One that’s as smooth as silk and as cold as January?” I asked.
“When it comes to us, is there another kind?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
On the day of my wedding, I awoke with a start.
“What’s the matter?” Tank asked sleepily.
I quickly checked the time on the clock on the bedside table, saw that it was only five in the morning, and I rested my head back onto my pillow with a sense of relief. “Sorry,” I said. “I keep thinking I’m going to oversleep.”
He flipped onto his side and faced me.
“Excited?” he asked.
“You don’t even know how excited I am.”
“Ready to be my wife?”
“As Daniella would say, ‘I’m totes to the ready for that shit to happen.’”
“And I’m totes to the happy to hear that.”
I giggled as he swept me into his arms and kissed the base of my neck.
“This is really it,” I said.
“It is,” he said.
“We are so doing this today.”
He started to kiss me on my shoulder. “We are.”
“Sometimes I ask myself how I got so lucky. How someone like you would even want me for a wife.”
He stopped kissing me when I said that and turned my chin so I could look at him.
“Don’t you think I feel the same? Because I do, Lisa. Alex got it right last night. I’ve waited to get married, because I plan to marry only once. It took me years to find you. You are and always will be the love of my life.”
“And now I’m going to cry again,” I said. “I mean, Jesus, you’d think I was on my frigging period or something, because when am I ever this emotional? But I have been all week, and it’s not just because of that reason.”
“It’s because of the wedding,” he said. “And also because of my mother’s treatment of you. In fact, it’s probably mostly because of her. You’ve been under a lot of stress, and I’m sorry about that. I wish I could have been here to block you from it. At least from her.”
“You couldn’t have been,” I said. “You had to go to Brian’s funeral. You couldn’t not go. I wanted
you to be there for him and his family, and I’m glad that even though you lost your friend, at least you got the chance to say a proper goodbye to him.”
I turned onto my side and faced Tank.
“Last night, before I came upstairs, you said you were going to speak to your mother. But you were gone so long, and—likely because Jennifer and I had two martinis too many—I wasn’t awake when you came into the bedroom. What did she say? What happened between the two of you?”
“I didn’t talk with my mother,” he said.
“You didn’t? But I thought that’s what you were going to do.”
“I decided against it. I decided she didn’t deserve my time. Instead, I talked with my father. We went into the parlor, and I told him everything. And at the end of it, I asked him what he would do if he were in my shoes. I asked him for his advice, which he gave to me.”
“Are you saying that he knows about the tape?”
“He does.”
“Oh, God. Tell me he knows nothing about the flowers.”
“I didn’t go there.”
“Your father is no fool, Tank. He knows.”
“And if he does, I don’t think he gives a damn, because he was angry as hell last night after I told him what you’d been through with her since you arrived here.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that he was sorry for the way Mom has treated you. He said that he tried his best to be there for you while you were here but that because of his responsibilities with the farm, he couldn’t always be. My father isn’t blind when it comes to his wife, Lisa. He knows what she’s capable of. In the end, he said there was a good chance Mom wouldn’t go to the wedding, that her pride was so great that she wouldn’t walk me down the aisle, despite what that would do to our relationship. He said that all of this would be her loss and that he’d be there for me, even if she wouldn’t. He’s furious with her. He’s pissed that she tried to hijack us, especially when we’d decided to get married here after she pretended to be excited for us. He didn’t say these exact words, but he’s pretty much calling bullshit on his wife right now, and he wanted me to let you know that he supports us and loves us regardless of what Ethel thinks.”
Unleash Me: Wedding (The Unleash Me Series) Page 17