We stood now at the front of the canopy with the minister between us. A breeze rippled through, blowing my long white cotton dress to swirl around our legs. Leo smiled down at me, squeezing my hands, and I grinned back. His eyes flickered over my shoulder, and then back to me, and one eyebrow rose.
I knew what he saw beyond me. We’d specifically chosen this spot, just down the beach from the house, right near where our under-the-boardwalk tryst had taken place. It was part of our history, and like every other episode in our past, it was the foundation upon which we were building our forever.
The minister cleared his throat and inclined his head toward Leo. It was time for our vows.
“I, Leo, take you, Mia Quinn, to be my own, now and forever. You have been my best friend since you drew your first breath, and you will be my best friend until I draw my last. I will spend every day of my life showing you how much I love you, in everything I do and say. I promise no regrets, only truth. I promise that you will come first in my life, no matter what. And I swear that you will always be the only woman to wear my jersey.”
There was a wave of tittering laughter in the congregation, but Leo didn’t look away from me.
“I love you, Mia Quinn. Loving you is the best choice I ever made, and it’s one I will make every day, for the rest of our lives.”
I’d sworn that I wouldn’t cry anymore. This was the happiest day of my life, and I didn’t have room for tears. But as Leo’s words swept over me, I felt a lump rising in my throat, just in time for the minister to turn to me.
“I, Quinn, take you, Leo, as my own, now and forever. You are my best friend, my earliest memory and the man who I want by my side, no matter what. I promise you my love and my support, from preseason to postseason and every day in between. I promise that regardless of what happens on the field, our home will be a place of unconditional love. I promise to only look to our future together and not regret the past. And I promise that no matter what team you play for, I’ll always wear your jersey.”
Leo brought our joined hands to his lips, kissing my knuckles.
“I love you, Leo, and I will spend every day of our lives together making sure you never doubt that.”
The minister spoke again, and a few minutes later, Leo slipped a delicate white gold and diamond band onto my finger. I slid a wide ring onto his hand, thrilling to the expression on his face as he looked down at his finger with a mix of wonder and pride.
“And now, having entered into the covenant of marriage through the exchange of vows, the declaration of intent, and the giving and receiving of rings, by the power vested in me by the state of New Jersey and in the name of the God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I now pronounce you husband and wife. What God has joined, let no one put asunder.” The minister smiled at both of us, a benediction in itself. “You may now seal those vows with a kiss.”
I thought I’d seen Leo smile before. I thought I’d seen him full of joy. But at that moment, when we were declared husband and wife, I realized every other smile had been dim foretaste of what came now. It was as though the brightest sunlight had just broken in a gray sky.
Taking my face between his hands, he sealed his lips over mine in a vow just as tangible as those he’d just spoken. His touch was both reverent and passionate, and my heart sped up, eager to feel his hands on me, consummating our promises in the best way I could imagine.
The minister gave a discreet cough, and Leo pulled back, murmuring against my cheek as he held me close.
“I love you, Mia Quinn Taylor.”
The party was in full swing, with music blaring and the dance floor crowded. I was sitting on Leo’s lap, with his arms circling my waist as we chatted with Zelda and Tucker.
“Hey, did you see that?” Zelda nodded toward the crush of dancing couples. On the very edge, Gia was slow dancing with Tate Durham. She stared up into his face as he murmured to her, and I glanced back at Zelda with raised brows.
“When did that happen?” I’d spent quite a bit of time lately with Zelda and Gia, who were both my bridesmaids, but Gia hadn’t mentioned anything about Tate Durham. I didn’t even realize she knew him, although thinking back, they must’ve met at Carolina, when we used to go see Leo and Matt.
“Got me. But they look mighty cozy.”
“She deserves a little happiness. And Tate’s a good guy.”
Leo, who had been talking to Tucker about how brutal mini-camp had been this year, picked up on my last words. He followed my gaze to Gia and Tate and smirked.
“Well, it’s about time.”
“Hey. Did you know something about Gia and Tate getting together?” I twisted on his lap to face him more fully.
Leo shrugged, the picture of innocence. “I might have had an inkling that someone had feelings for someone else.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” I popped my hands onto my hips.
“Bro code, babe. I promised today to always tell you the truth, but I can’t betray a bro if what he tells me doesn’t affect you.” He spread his hands.
“Uh huh. Okay, well, keep in mind that when you don’t tell me stuff that involves our friends, it just might affect you.” I shot him a saucy glance, and he laughed, pulling me down closer to his chest.
“Mia, you know I’m powerless against your logic and charm.” He growled, nuzzling my neck until I squealed.
I leaned back against him, enjoying the view of our friends and family celebrating. Kara and Allen were sitting with my mom and Shane the dry cleaner (yes, he would always be that to me), and Kara was clearly telling a story, her hands moving animatedly. Ellie, who had been instrumental in helping us to organize and plan this entire wedding, was leaning against Corey as they chatted with Lisa and Joe Taylor. Mark and Sheri had stayed through dinner, but I’d realized that they’d quietly left afterward. I knew today was bittersweet for them, although they’d both given me their love and blessing.
Various football players and coaches from the Rebels were on the dance floor and scattered around the tent. Gideon Maynard was nursing a beer over by the bar, watching everyone else have fun. I’d gotten to know him a little better over the past months, but Ellie was right; he was a private man, and he didn’t share easily. Still, I liked him and I respected him as a football player and a leader on the team.
A table set up in the corner held a basket that was overflowing with envelopes. We’d requested that our guests forego gifts in favor of donations to the Matt Lampert Foundation, which was already establishing itself in neighborhoods around New Jersey and Virginia, offering counseling and other resources to young athletes. Leo and Gia had both participated in awareness rallies at some junior highs and high schools, speaking with poignant honesty about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, especially to at-risk kids. They’d advocated for parents, teachers and coaches to get involved before the problems escalated, and they told Matt’s story, pointing out that speaking up was imperative.
“What do you think Matt would say, if he were here today?” I rubbed my cheek against Leo’s. “Would he even be here, or would he be off sulking someplace?”
Leo knit our fingers together. “He’d be here, because if Matt was still alive, he’d have gotten help. He’d be better. Healthier. And so he’d be at our wedding because he loved me like a brother, and by now, he’d have realized that you are the best part of me. He’d know that you make me happier than anyone else in the world, so he’d be happy for both of us.” He kissed my earlobe. “He might even kind of like you.”
“Gee, thanks.” I shook my head, but I thought Leo was probably right.
Leo’s brothers, along with Corey and Tate, had stood for him as groomsmen. I spied Danny dancing with Sarah Jenkins, both of them laughing at some shared joke. Danny claimed loudly to anyone who would pay attention that he was the last remaining single Taylor boy and that he liked it that way. I didn’t get the feeling Sarah was in any hurry to settle down either, even though I’d introduced her to a bunch of seriously hot football players
this year. I doubted anything was going on between Danny and Sarah, but they were having fun tonight, and there wasn’t a thing wrong with that.
Simon and Justine passed us with a quick wave and smile. Justine’s baby bump was definitely showing now, and as I watched, Simon ran a possessive hand over his wife’s belly. Behind me, Leo sighed and held me a little tighter.
“Think that’ll be us?”
Anticipation made me shiver a little. “Someday, in the not-too-distant future, I hope.” I arched my neck to kiss his cheek. “But not yet. I want a carefree honeymoon and a football season where I can indulge in a beer or two at the stadium before I let you knock me up.”
Leo chuckled. “Agreed, babe.” He kissed a path up the back of my neck and then whispered in my ear. “Want to take that walk? I don’t think anyone will miss us.”
I nodded and pushed to stand up. Leo held me by the hips, reached onto the chair next to us to pick up what we needed and took my hand as we stepped into the darkness.
The waves were crashing onto the wet sand in the moonlight. I gathered up the skirt of my dress to hold it in one hand, clinging to Leo with the other. We made our way down to the ocean until the music in the tent was nothing but a low hum in the distance.
We both toed off our shoes and left them beyond the reach of the water, and Leo rolled up his pants before we stepped into the surf. When Leo opened his other hand between us, the rose, the ring, the sand dollar and the small train that had sat in Nate’s chair earlier lay on his palm.
I picked up the rose with the ring still attached, and I pressed it to my lips. “Good-bye, Nate. Thank you for being our friend. Thank you for all the love you showed us over the years. And thank you for giving us the gift of each other.”
With a deep breath that ended in an almost-sob, I threw the rose and ring as far as I could into the sea.
Leo closed his fingers over the shell and the train. “Nate, buddy, I miss you. Wish you were here. We’re never going to forget you, ever. The Trio won’t die.” With an arm extension that would’ve impressed even Gideon Maynard, Leo flung the two items into the swirling water.
We stood there a little while longer in silence. I leaned back against Leo’s strong chest, and he held me in the safety of his arms. In the soft night air that brushed our faces, we felt the benediction of a friendship that transcended time and space, life and death.
Leo bent his head to touch his lips to my cheek. “I love you, Mia Quinn.”
I closed my eyes, smiling.
Now. Always. Forever.
The End
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Your Wildest Dreams
A Keeping Score Romance
Coming 2017
One
Tuck
I think it’s important to establish one fact right from the beginning. Much later, Zelda would claim that on the day we met again, I didn’t remember her. That’s absolutely not true. I knew who she was.
Well . . . maybe that’s not completely accurate. That day we met in my dorm at Birch College, I was aware that I had known her. In the biblical sense, that is.
Unfortunately, that didn’t narrow it down much.
Yeah, I’d been a dog back in the day. I’d gotten my share of tail, and about ten other guys’ share, too. I loved every minute of it.
But that was before November 18 of my senior year. Before Homecoming. Before the hit that took my legs and nearly claimed my life, as well.
Before everything changed.
Anyway, the day she came sashaying into my dorm room freshman year at Birch, I knew she was familiar. And even if I hadn’t known that, I could tell by the look in her eyes when she looked at me that we’d hooked up. It was the challenge there: Are you going to remember? Are you going to acknowledge me? Most of the time, it was accompanied by a hint of desperation, too. Remember me! Tell me what we did was important.
But not Zelda. In her, it was all attitude. Remember me or don’t. I couldn’t care less.
She had come in with my new roommate, Nate, and his friends, Quinn and Gia, the four of them looking tentative as only college freshmen can. I was in my first year, too, of course, but I was a year older than the rest of them, and after all the shit I’d been through since a year ago November? Starting college was the least of my worries.
Nate had come in first. As far as I could tell, he was pretty cool. I knew from messaging back and forth over the summer that he’d had some kind of disease since birth that made too much walking hard on him. It affected both his lungs and his large muscles, and it came along with the fun prize of a shortened life span.
I also knew that Quinn was Nate’s best friend. He talked about her a lot, and at first I’d thought she was his girlfriend. But apparently not, since Nate later told me she was dating their other best friend, Leo Taylor, a name I remembered from high school when I played football. They’d all been from Eatonboro, one of our county rivals. Apparently Taylor had gotten a full ride to Carolina, lucky bastard.
The way Nate had talked about her, I’d expected someone drop-dead gorgeous. And Quinn was pretty, sure, but she didn’t strike me as beautiful. She had dark hair that was tied up on the back of her head, and she was dressed in worn-looking denim shorts and a T-shirt. The chick who trailed behind was okay looking, too, in an ordinary way—she had a cap of short black hair and wide brown eyes. That was Gia, a friend of Quinn’s, and of Nate’s by way of Quinn.
They came into our room, and Nate introduced everyone. He was just finishing when the door opened a little more. The girl who strutted in was anything but ordinary, and this one? Yeah, she was fucking breathtaking.
Her pale blonde hair was loose around her shoulders, and her eyes were huge and vivid blue. But being the guy I was, it was the body I saw first. Tits for days were on subtle display—they weren’t sticking out like some centerfold model, but they weren’t hidden, either. Fitted black shorts cupped a very fine ass, one I could almost feel under my hands. And legs? They went on for miles, tanned, tone and shapely.
It was the legs that sparked the first memory blip. I had a sudden and inexplicable flash of those legs spread on a bed before me and wide, trusting eyes smiling up into my face.
Shit. I’d totally done this chick. I narrowed my eyes, trying to see if I remembered her from high school. If she’d gone to Franklin as I had, she would’ve been a year behind me, assuming she was a freshman now like the others.
Nate glanced at her and then back at me. “Uh, this is Zelda, um . . .?” He looked a little embarrassed.
“Porter. Zelda Porter.” She lifted her chin, a clear dare. Would I say something?
“Zelda’s my roommate,” Quinn put in. “She’s from Lancaster.”
Lancaster. Had I ever been there? I didn’t think so, at least not since I was a little kid, way before my wild days.
“Uh, hi.” I sketched a lame-looking wave, cringing inside even as I did it. That’s one of the drawbacks about being stuck in a wheelchair that no one talks about much. I couldn’t just get up and shake hands or doing anything natural. It always felt awkward to me.
“Hey.” She leaned a hand on my desk and crossed one foot over the other ankle. I got the impression that every move she made was practiced and planned; nothing was accidental. Everything was deliberate.
Nate, Gia and Quinn launched into a three-way conversation about their classes and professors, as Zelda and I stood by silently. I tried not to stare at her, but it was driving me crazy, wondering where I’d met her. Or maybe more accurately, when and where I’d fucked her. Because I knew without a doubt that I had.
“There’s some kind of party tonight at a fraternity called Lambda something or other,” Gia announced. “A guy gave me a flyer. Do you all want to go?”
Nate shook his head. “Not my s
cene.” I saw him look at Quinn uncertainly, but she wrinkled her nose.
“I don’t want to go. Leo’s going to call tonight, and besides . . .” She shot Nate a small smile. “Not my scene really, either.”
“Awww, come on, you guys. Don’t be so lame.” Gia tilted her head. “I don’t want to go by myself. And it’s our first college party.”
“Sorry.” Quinn sounded anything but.
“I’ll go with you.” From her spot by the door, still leaning on the desk, Zelda spoke. “I’m always down for a party. But make sure you have your own way home, because chances are I’ll find a fuck buddy, and I don’t like to feel rushed.”
There was a long moment of silence, the sort my mother would’ve termed stunned. Nate’s face was red, Quinn was trying to look anywhere but at the rest of us, and Gia was watching Zelda, a little bit of amusement in her eyes.
I, on the other hand, was trying to process this new information to see if it gave me any more insight into where I’d hooked up with Zelda. She talked about sex so casually that she reminded me of myself back in the day. But fucking someone like myself wasn’t my MO back then—I’d liked the ones who’d looked at me with wide, dreamy eyes. I’d preferred the girls who hadn’t fucked half of the rest of the football team. Yeah, it made me the biggest hypocrite out there, and yeah, I’d had a shit ton of time to see the error of my ways. And karma, that cold bitch, had the last laugh, since now, even though I was capable of performing, finding women who wanted to enjoy that performance wasn’t easy.
After all, how many chicks want to bang a dude in a fucking wheelchair?
Not Broken Anymore
A Keeping Score Romance
Coming 2017
One
Gia
Rock bottom isn’t the same place for every person. Some people find it in the depths of a bottle. Others get there via the sharp point of a needle. Then there are those who seek it in a never-ending parade of sexual encounters, each one more meaningless than the one before. Or maybe it comes after yet another beating at the hands of someone who’s supposed to love you.
Days of You and Me Page 28