A Partner for the Paramedic: A Fuller Family Novel (Brush Creek Brides Book 11)

by Liz Isaacson

  He wasn’t even sure what the question was anymore. “Don’t apologize,” he said instead, slipping his lips along her temple, encouraged when she leaned into his touch. He moved his mouth down the side of her face and tasted the soft spot on her neck that made her arch further into him.

  “I’m the one who’s sorry.” He put a couple of inches between them so he could look into her eyes. The desire to kiss her was so strong, so strong, it pulled at him with the force of gravity. “Want to come see what I’ve done?”

  He backed up farther, needing the space so he could make things right between them before he kissed her. He led her into the house, glad when she came with him. She secured her fingers in his as she glanced around.

  “No bird,” she said. “You’ve painted. The rug’s gone.” She scanned the rest of the space before settling her gaze on his. “What happened?”

  “All of that stuff was Irina’s,” he said. “Her rug. Her choice on the colors. The realtor’s suggestion for the plants. I…guess I realized that I’ve been living in someone else’s house for five years.” He looked at Jazzy. “I got rid of anything I didn’t pick myself.”

  “There’s hardly anything left.”

  “Yep.” He didn’t like admitting that, but he needed to. “I…my wife took care of a lot in our marriage. She paid the bills. She kept the house clean. She made dinner most nights.”

  “Mm hm. Did she work?”

  “Yes, part time as a teller in the bank.” Max liked the silence in the house now that the bird was gone. “She had a good eye for décor, so though we didn’t always agree, I just let her do what she wanted. After she couldn’t…after we lost the last baby, she decided she needed a change of scenery. I let her do whatever she wanted, no questions asked. She left six months later.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jazzy said again, and Max really wished she’d stop saying those two words.

  “I haven’t changed a thing,” he said. “It was time. I’m ready—” He drew in a deep breath. “I’m ready to start over again.”

  Jazzy stepped in front of him, dropping his hand to lift hers to his face. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “I was thinking it would be real nice to start it with you.” He put one tentative hand on her hip, not drawing her closer quite yet.

  “Hm.”

  He opened his eyes and looked into hers. “What do you think about that?”

  “I think that sounds great.”

  Happiness burst through Max’s chest, chasing away the lingering melancholy over the memories he’d held onto for too long. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m sorry about Wednesday,” he said. “I have a good explanation if you need it.”

  “I don’t really need it.” She glanced over her shoulder to where the bird cage used to stand. “You got rid of the bird?”

  “I hated that bird, and so did you. He was part of the purge.”

  She dropped her eyes, a vulnerability in her that Max wanted to seize and erase at the same time. “You chose a bird over me.”

  “Matilda next door wasn’t feeling well. Birdy was freaking out. I didn’t want to disturb her, and so I thought it best to stay home. I’m sorry, Jazzy.” He cradled her face in both hands, hoping she could feel his level of remorse. “I’m so sorry. I would never choose a bird over you. You know that, right?”

  Jazzy’s beautiful eyes looked into his for several long seconds. She finally gave a small nod. “Yeah, I know that.”

  Max smiled, relieved that she was so good, so forgiving. “So can I kiss you now?”

  “Only if you’ll get dressed and come to church with me. I’m tired of sitting there by myself.”

  He’d go to the moon to be with her, so he nodded and said, “If you can find a tie in my closet, I’ll go.”

  A glint entered her eyes and she stepped away from him and down the hall, her heels clicking against the laminate wood flooring he’d actually chosen and which Irina hadn’t had the funds to replace before her flight from his life.

  Jazzy returned a few minutes later, the ugliest tie he’d ever seen in her hand. “It’s the only one you have, but I found one.” She looped it around his neck and drew him closer, closer, closer.

  “I’m in love with you,” he whispered when their lips were merely breaths apart.

  She froze, and Max wondered if he should’ve saved those words for another time.

  A smile made her whole face light up. “I love you, too.” She kissed him then, a slow, sultry kiss that spoke of her love for him. Max matched it the best way he knew how, hoping she felt cherished and treasured—the way he felt about her.

  The Following Christmas

  Fabi stood in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the bedroom door, a familiar place for her. She didn’t even acknowledge Jazzy’s eye roll as she passed her to go into the bathroom.

  “Still just as skinny,” her twin mumbled before closing the door and turning on the shower. So mornings weren’t Jazzy’s strong suit. But organizing a wedding certainly was. And not just a wedding, but a double wedding, as she and Fabi were getting married on the same day.

  Four days from now.

  “The dress fitting is in forty-five minutes,” she called.

  “I know,” Jazzy’s muffled voice came through the door. Of course she did. Jazzy had a binder for each of them, with checklists, pricing pages, and sketches of everything from the dresses, to their faux fur shawls, to the lighting at the reception.

  None of her siblings had gotten married in the winter, and there were certain challenges for guests, the venue, and the brides-to-be with four feet of snow on the ground. All the other married Fuller family members had gotten married outside, except for the emergency move into the firehouse that Brennan and Cora had been forced to do.

  But Jazzy and Fabi had opted to get married in the chapel where they’d grown up listening to sermons. Pastor Peters would have the honor of making them wives, and Jazzy had taken care of everything. The date. The booking of the venue. The decorations. She was organized almost to a fault and Fabi had let her do her.

  Fabi, on the other hand, had played to her strengths too, and that included consulting on what they should have. She came up with the ideas, or approved them, and Jazzy executed them.

  For a moment, a blip of a sadness crossed her features. In four days, this apartment where she and Jazzy had lived for seven years would be empty. Dawn said she’d clean it while the twins were on their respective honeymoons—Fabi had excelled at vacation planning since she was a teen, and she’d booked a trip for her and Ed to the beautiful big island of Hawaii.

  Jazzy had wanted to go somewhere a little more quaint, and she and Max were going to Banff for a few days of skiing, sight-seeing, and snuggling near the slopes.

  An hour later, she rushed Jazzy through the doors of the dress shop in Maple Mountain. “We’re late.”

  “It’s fine,” Jazzy said, the frustration in her voice. “This place isn’t even open yet.”

  “Exactly,” Fabi said. “Georgie came in early just to meet us.”

  “You were the one who couldn’t stop gazing at yourself in the mirror.”

  “I was not.”

  A tall, dark-haired beauty came out of the back room, a long, white gown in each hand. “Hello, ladies.”

  “Georgie!” Fabi squealed and hurried forward as fast as she could in the heels she’d worn. She needed them in the insanely long dress she’d chosen to get married in. “Oh, Jazzy, look at them.”

  Georgie hung the dresses on a tall rod, letting the trains fall down. Fabi ran her fingers along the buttons that ran along the shoulders of her dress, admiring the lace on the bodice, and the masterful way the dress had been altered to ensure the neckline wouldn’t reveal too much cleavage.

  “Tina is waiting in the back for you, Jazzy,” Georgie said with a wide smile. “Fabi, you’re with me.”

  More squeals came from Fabi’s throat. She could
n’t help it. Jazzy took her dress and went down the hall, and Georgie picked up Fabi’s and told her to follow. She went in the dressing room with Fabi and helped her with the dress, pulling it over her hips and adjusting it across her shoulders.

  “It’s perfect, Fabi.” She zipped it up and stood back, looking at Fabi in the mirror.

  Fabi ran her hands down her body, the feel of the wedding dress against her skin almost too much for her to process. “I can’t believe I’m getting married,” she whispered. And to the love of her life. Fabi had never felt so lucky and grateful at the same time, and tears filled her eyes.

  “Get the tears out now,” Georgie said. “You don’t want to be weepy on your wedding day when you’ve got all that makeup on.” She beamed at Fabi and gave her a hug from behind. “Just a few more days, right?”

  Fabi nodded, too emotional to speak.

  If she thought she was emotional when she tried on her dress, it was nothing to the storm of happiness, joy, sadness, anxiety, and the general attitude of freaking out that happened on the morning of her wedding.

  Fabi made it through the curling of her hair, which she’d grown out. The makeup, which Patrick’s wife did. The dressing, which her mom and Nana Ebony had helped with.

  Now she stood in the bride’s room with Jazzy and everyone else had gone to take their places in the front row of the chapel.

  “I can’t believe this,” Jazzy said. “I always knew you’d get married before me. I just didn’t think it would only be by a few minutes.” Jazzy gave her a hug, and Fabi closed her eyes, wanting to commit this moment to memory.

  “I can’t believe we’re not going to live together after this.”

  “Kyler said he and McDermott would move everything while we’re gone.”

  Fabi straightened and smoothed down her dress. “I know. It will be good, I know. I’m just sad.”

  “We’ll still work together every day,” Jazzy said. She ran her hands down her dress too, which was simpler than Fabi’s, without as much lace, but with stunning pearlescent beading on the bodice.

  Jen, the wedding planner Jazzy had been working with, poked her head into the room. “We’re ready for you, Fabi.” She gestured for Fabi to come forward. “Jazzy, I’m going to send you with Alonzo. He’ll take you up to the balcony so you can watch but no one will see you yet.” She grinned and Fabi gave Jazzy one more hug before following Jen to the foyer.

  Her father waited there, and Fabi beamed at him. “Hey, Daddy.”

  “You ready, peanut?”

  “So ready.”

  “Ed’s at the end of the aisle,” Jen said. “Remember to walk slowly. Your photographer can only get the pictures you give him. Flowers here.” She handed Fabi a bouquet of exquisite flowers in shades of blue, pink, and cream. “Hold them right at your hips, like we practiced.”

  Jazzy had insisted on a rehearsal for everything, right down to the dinner that followed the wedding and how to walk down the aisle.

  Jen touched her ear and said, “Cue the organist.” A moment later, the wedding march began, and she nodded toward Fabi and her father. “You’re a go.”

  For a moment, Fabi felt like her wedding was a covert operation. Then the doors opened and she saw the chapel filled to capacity, all the guests standing, wearing their best clothes, as they watched her walk down the aisle, her forearms pressing right against her hipbones, as instructed.

  Her eyes landed on Ed, and all the nerves that had been accumulating since he’d asked her to marry him in September died away. Pure love filled her heart, and she saw it on her future husband’s face.

  Her father passed Fabi to Ed with a kiss to the temple and a murmured, “She’s all yours, son,” before he sat beside her mother on the end of the first row.

  Fabi couldn’t look away from Ed, from his meticulously groomed beard to his dazzling, dark eyes. “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself.” He swept a kiss along her cheek and they faced the pastor as a pair.

  Jazzy listened to Pastor Peters talk about love and family and solving arguments before letting them fester into problems. He told Fabi and Ed to communicate with each other, and make goals as a couple, and involve God in their lives.

  His speech was beautiful, and then he started the vows. Within a few minutes, Fabi’s bright, beautiful, beaming face turned toward Ed and they were pronounced man and wife. He bent her backward while she whooped in surprise and kissed her with a chuckle coming out of his mouth.

  He obviously hadn’t gotten the memo that their great-grandfather was in the room and he didn’t approve of over-the-top displays of affection. The rest of the crowd didn’t seem to mind, Jazzy included, and they laughed and clapped.

  “Look up here,” she whispered as Fabi and Ed started down the aisle, hand-in-hand. They’d trade places for her wedding, which was set to start in five minutes, but she and Fabi had agreed to look up on the way out of the chapel.

  Fabi did, and her eyes met Jazzy’s. She gave her a double thumbs-up and Fabi laughed just before she disappeared under the edge of the balcony.

  Jazzy barely had time to turn before Alonzo said, “We need to go, Miss Fuller.” He gestured wildly from the back of the chapel. “Mister Robinson will be coming in any moment, and we don’t want him to see you.”

  Jazzy wanted to see him, though. See him before the doors opened and every eye was on her and she had to look at him with all those people watching.

  So she took a couple of steps toward Alonzo, but she kept her eyes on the front of the chapel, where the altar was.

  “Miss Fuller,” Alonzo said, his voice pleading now. Jen would probably kill him if he allowed Max to see Jazzy before the ceremony. Jazzy didn’t want all that bad luck either, but she really wanted a peek of Max in his tuxedo.

  He appeared, his back straight and his shoulders broad as he walked down the aisle, his parents in flanking positions behind him. She’d met them only a week after they’d made up, and she liked his family a lot. He’d come to the Fuller family dinner almost every week since their engagement—something that had happened an hour before Fabi’s.

  He looked powerful and perfect, and he stopped in his place and pulled on the sleeves of his jacket as if they were too short. His mother adjusted one of his lapels and threaded a pale pink rose through the flower hole.

  Jazzy hurried up the last few steps and through the door before Max could feel the weight of her gaze on him and looked up to the balcony. She really didn’t need all that bad luck.

  She went carefully down the steps to the lobby, the memory of the first time she’d descended steps to go out with Max. She’d pretended to be Fabi then, but she didn’t have to pretend anymore.

  “Hey, pumpkin.” Her father gazed down at her with such love, Jazzy couldn’t help leaning into his embrace.

  “I can’t believe this,” she said. “I never thought I’d get married.”

  “You didn’t?”

  Jazzy had never said that aloud to anyone, not even Fabi. She shrugged. “Hard to get married when you never date.”

  “I always knew,” her dad said.

  “Yeah?” Jazzy searched his face. “How?”

  “You have a big heart, Jazmin. You always have. Max is very lucky to have you.”

  Tears welled in Jazzy’s eyes. “Thanks, Daddy.”

  “Now, let’s get you down that aisle.”

  The doors were opened from the inside, and Jazzy only had two seconds to wonder who had opened it before her father was moving her down the aisle. She forgot the practice session she’d forced Fabi to endure, and took a few steps with her hands in the wrong place and her steps too fast.

  Then she heard the clicking of the camera and reminded herself that the wedding photographer she’d hired had not come cheap. She wanted excellent pictures of this day, so she slowed her step and settled her arms into the right spot.

  Max’s gaze bored into hers, and while he’d assured her over and over that he wanted to do the big wedding again, she still hadn�
�t believed him. Until that moment.

  He watched her with the keen interest in his gaze, and his bright blue eyes devoured her from head to toe in her wedding gown. His smile widened and his eyes closed in bliss as he received her into his arms.

  “I love you,” he breathed into her hair, which she had kept dark and grown back out to the middle of her back.

  “You’re supposed to wait for that until after the I do’s.” She giggled, hearing her sister’s voice in her head to stop the giggling. But she couldn’t. She was a giggler.

  “Am I?” He shrugged. “I’m going to say it every day, Jazzy.”

  Jazzy wasn’t sure if she’d ever experienced true joy before, but in that moment. That one, single moment with Max’s loving eyes looking into hers, and the sexy smell of his cologne hanging in the air between them, Jazzy was sure the perfection running through her was indeed joy.

  “I love you too,” she whispered just as Pastor Peters started his speech. It didn’t matter what he said—other than the declaration that she and Max were now legally and lawfully wedded—because the most important words had already been spoken.

  I love you.

  With the ceremony over, she hurried down the aisle, almost forgetting to glance up to the balcony, where Fabi and Ed stood at the railing, smiling and clapping. She lifted her and Max’s joined hands, and Fabi whooped while Ed cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled his congratulations.

  She and Max spilled out of the church and into the waiting limousine. They were laughing and Jazzy tried to catch her breath as Jen piled her train into the car and then tapped on the roof of the car.

  As the limo moved out of the way so the next one could get into position, Jazzy took a deep breath and looked at Max. “Well, we did it.”

  “Yes, we did.” He leaned down and captured her mouth with his, kissing her so completely, Jazzy wondered how she’d ever go a day without this man by her side. Thankfully, she didn’t have to.

  “I love you,” he said again, and Jazzy snuggled into his chest, ready to continue building this new life with Max at her side.