Forever Careless

by Brittany Butler

  “What the hell was that about?” Kellen catches my door as I close it.

  “Can we do this when we get home?” He stands and watches me. “Please.”

  “Sure, go straight home.” He raises his eyebrows at me.

  “I just told you I’m going home,” I remind him.

  “Yeah, but you’re famous for doing the exact opposite of what you say.” I roll my eyes and drive off from the parking lot.

  My car pulls into our driveway I slam my gearshift into park and walk inside to toss my bag down. When I walk in the living room I come to a stop, there’s a new picture framed and taking a spot next to his picture of Chloe. My feet take me in the direction of the shelf.

  How did he find this? My fingers trace along the edge of the last picture I took with my father. His smiling face brings tears to my eyes. He’s standing in his Yankee’s jersey with his arm draped over my shoulder. He insisted that I attend the game with him that day even though I had plans with Olivia. Looking at his glowing face in this picture, I’m so glad I went with my dad that day.

  “I found that in one of your boxes,” I turn to see Kellen walking through the living room. “So I framed it.”

  I swipe the tear from my eye before it falls. I’m freaking out over wedding details and my plans for the future, while he’s getting my name tattooed on him and framing pictures of my dad to set around his house. “I’m such an asshole,” I murmur to no one.

  “My dad would’ve loved you,” I smile at him. “He was obsessed with baseball. If I could call him and tell him that I’m marrying a baseball player…” I let my voice trail off because I know I can’t talk about him anymore without becoming a blubbering mess, and Kellen and I have too much to talk about.

  “What’s bothering you, Audrey?” He takes my hand in his and leads us to the couch.

  “I feel like I’m losing myself,” I tell him honestly. “I’m following you around without a thought of what I want to do with my life. The only time anyone calls me is to ask if I’ve made a decision on the wedding.”

  “Babe,” he chuckles lightly at me. “That’s normal. Planning weddings are crazy. We don’t have to do it right now. We’ll know when the time is right.” I glance down at my hands and feel his soft lips touch my cheek. “You’re not losing yourself.”

  “I feel like I am,” I sigh and glance back at him to find his worried eyes staring back at me.

  “Why?” He asks me.

  “If you asked me last year if I would throw away my degree to follow my husband around instead of working, I would’ve laughed in your face.”

  “What do you want to do? Don’t think about it just tell me the first thing comes to mind.”

  “Be with you,” I say. The corner of his mouth turns up.

  “So,” he cocks an eyebrow at me. “What’s the problem?”

  “I just…” I shake my head to clear it. “The wedding is stressing me, the traveling…”

  “Let’s take away the problems,” I glance up at him to see if he’s serious. “I still want to marry you,” he smiles at me as if he just read my mind. “When you want to plan the wedding start planning it, not before, when you want to come to my away games, come. If you decide you want to start working, do it.”

  The words flow from his mouth as if it’s the most simple and easy solution. I let the idea play through my mind. “Okay,” I finally say.

  “There’s no pressure for you to do anything,” his lips connect with my cheek again and he pulls on my hand as he stands up. “Come to bed with me.”

  “I feel pressured,” I tease him.

  “I’m not above pressuring you come to bed with me,” he grins wickedly, and I fall into step behind him.

  “How did you know I was at Chloe’s dorm?” I ask.

  “I didn’t, I called Jared and he asked Kayla and she didn’t know so I went to Chloe…” he shrugs.

  “Why do you bother?” I smile at him, “I’m being a brat.”

  He laughs at me. “Yeah, you are, but you’re my brat.” I smile at how the roles have reversed. Months ago, Kellen would have been in a bar in another fight, leaving me to pick up the pieces. Now he’s maturing, and I’m regressing.

  Chapter thirty-six

  My eyes rake over the schedule that Kellen gave me at the beginning of the season. Off and on I’ve attended his games with no pressure like he promised. He also told me that I would know the day I was ready to plan our wedding. I can’t contain my smile as I reach for my wallet. I confirm the days and type in my credit card information to book our flight.

  When Kellen arrives from his home game this afternoon he will have a rare day off tomorrow. We agreed to spend that day at home enjoying our time with nowhere to go, but something tells me he will be more than okay with the sudden change of plans.

  I walk in our bathroom and pull out luggage and began tossing in all our necessities. I walk into our closet and glance around. What do I pack? I pull out shorts and tanks for me along with a simple white sundress. I grab shorts and t-shirts for Kellen and pull out a pair of jeans and a button down shirt and toss it all in the suitcase.

  When I walk downstairs I look at the clock and realize Kellen will be home within minutes. I print out the confirmation tickets and set my purse and the suitcase beside the door and take a seat on the couch. I tap my phone again to check for any texts, and occupy my time with picking at the Frey of my cut off style shorts. When I hear his door close my head snaps up and I watch the door.

  “What’s this?” His face flashes with concern. I realize how this looks for him to walk in the door and see bags packed and waiting beside the door.

  “Do you remember when you told me I would know when it’s time for us to get married?” I bite my lip and toss the tickets to him. I watch his face as his eyebrows furrow and relax after he reads through the paper.

  “Vegas,” he laughs. “You’re mom is going to be pissed.” I smile at him and walk over to wrap my arms around him. “Are you sure this is what you want?” He eyes me suspiciously.

  “Yeah, is this what you want?” I bite my lip and wait for his response.

  “Absolutely,” he tells me. I giggle, because I’m nervous and giddy at the same time. We are getting married, today, in a few hours. “What time is our flight?”

  “Two hours,” he grins wickedly. “We need to leave now. Bags are packed,” I gesture to the suitcase waiting patiently beside the door.

  “Lead the way, Mrs. Reeves.” He says.

  “I’m Miss. Henson until tonight,” I remind him.

  He tosses his ball bag on the floor, picks up the suitcase and walks out of the door. The next time we walk through the door he will be my husband. He tosses the luggage in the back and opens to front door for me.

  “Shit, we don’t have rings.” He says as we pull on the street.

  “We can buy rings in Vegas.” I assure him.

  The bright lights glow through the window of the plane when the plane lands in Vegas. We walk out of the airport abuzz from being in the city. Couples with same look as we have, families, and partiers pass by us and I smile at all of them. Sin city is promising us an unforgettable night.

  I watch Kellen hail a cab and tell the driver which hotel to drop us off. I climb in the backseat beside him and smile, “We’re really doing this.” He brings his lips to mine.

  “Are you having second thoughts?” He eyes me. I shake my head at him and the smile returns to his face.

  “We need to pick out rings after we drop our things off at the hotel, and then pick a chapel.” I tell him and he agrees. I turn my head to glance out of the window at the city as it streaks by. I bite my bottom lip to contain my goofy smile. He was absolutely right, I would know when the day came that I wanted to get married.

  ∞

  “You are stunning,” the chapel owner claps her hands together and smiles at me. I look in the mirror, my hair is down and wavy, my makeup is light, and my white halter top dress is simple.

&nbs
p; When I hear the music starts my head snaps up, “It’s time.” She tells me and walks me to the door.

  I glance inside the small chapel and see Kellen standing beside the minister. He’s dressed in light, ripped jeans and a simple white button down shirt. Simple and just how we wanted it. His face breaks into a wide grin when he sees me. The beat of the song is too slow, I find myself almost sprinting to get down the short aisle to my soon husband.

  He offers out his hand, “You look beautiful Mrs. Reeves.”

  “Still too soon,” I remind him.

  The minister starts the ceremony but my mind is moving too fast to process what he said. Kellen taps my hand and I say, “I do,” and hope that I’m at the right part. We exchange rings and the minister introduces us as husband and wife.

  Kellen plants his hands on each side of my face and brings his mouth to mine. I part my lips to allow his begging tongue access to my mouth, I have to work hard to resist the urge to fist his hair or wrap my legs around his waist. He’s the one to break the kiss, “we’ll continue later,” he promises me. I catch my breath and nod at him.

  What feels like an eternity later, Kellen slides the key to our room and pulls the door open for me to walk through. The white bed is now lined with rose petals. When I walk to the bed I see that they are shaped in a heart.

  “This day cannot get any tackier,” I laugh at him and sweep the petals from the bed. I turn to look at him and find that he’s not smiling or laughing at my joke, he’s unbuttoning his shirt. His eyes are burning with desire.

  I catch my bottom lip between my teeth when he tosses his shirt aside, revealing my name underneath his peck. He stands in front of me and my fingers trace his core muscles until I reach the button of his pants I unbutton them and he kicks them to the side in record time.

  He steps behind me and unzips my dress making it fall to the floor. “You didn’t wear anything under your wedding dress?” He asks clearly surprise. “I’m glad I didn’t know that,” he whispers in my ear. His warm breath on my neck is enough to make me come undone.

  “Lie on your back with your feet on the floor,” He tells me

  I sit on the edge of the bed and do what I’m told. His commands are thrilling to me. I didn’t think I was able to be more attracted to him but I was wrong. My head snaps up when I feel his breath traveling up my thighs. A moan slips from my mouth when he finally presses his mouth against me.

  ∞

  “Come here,” I laugh at my idea floating around my head. Kellen walks over to my side while we wait for a taxi to take us to the airport. “Hold up your left hand and stand here so we can see the city behind us.”

  I stand beside him and turn my camera forward facing. We both hold up our left hands and smile at the camera, with Vegas buzzing behind us.

  “I’m sending that to our families.” I tell him.

  “They’re going to flip shit,” he laughs and I hit send. Moments later Kellen’s phone rings, Lori is calling him. And my phone buzzes seconds after that with a call from my mom.

  “Hello,” I say with a grin plastered across my face.

  “What are you thinking?” She starts in on me immediately.

  “We got married!” I say to her and laugh. She’s so pissed.

  “I saw that, Audrey, you’re my only daughter.” She starts the guilt trip.

  “Mom, we’re happy. Be happy for us,” I hear her sigh.

  “Congratulations,” she finally tells me.

  I end the conversation and hear that Kellen seems to be going through the same thing. We knew that they would be mad, but their temporary attitude is worth it to have the day that we wanted.

  “No it was not my idea,” he rolls his eyes. “I didn’t talk her into this.” A cab finally comes for us and he tosses our bag in the back and holds the door open for me to crawl through first. “Because that’s what she wanted.” I smile at him.

  Olivia finally calls, “Audrey! You’re married!”

  “I know,” I laugh at her.

  “Congratulations! I have news,” I smile widely at her. Until this moment I forgot that she had an appointment today.

  “We’re having a girl,” I squeal into the phone and Kellen glances over at me. “And William proposed!”

  “Oh my god, Liv, send me a picture of the ring!”

  When we hang up my phone lights with a text from Olivia, her ring is gorgeous and similar to mine. I can’t mask the smile on my face as I look from my phone to my husband next to me.

  “What are you smiling at Mrs. Reeves?” He shoves his phone into his pocket and takes my hand.

  “My husband,” his lips stretch into a brilliant grin. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Mrs. Reeves.”

  I lean over and push my lips against his. I can’t stop the giddiness that makes me laugh against his mouth. I almost ask when he’ll stop calling me Mrs. Reeves, but I secretly hope that it never ends.

  About the Author

  Brittany Butler is currently studying criminal justice and paralegal. She is from Lufkin, Texas. She started writing at age 22, and one year later Forever Careless, her debut novel, was self published. She was is working on 4 other novels, ranging from apocalyptic, mystery, and romance.

  Be on the lookout for her Facebook page as Author Brittany Butler