“So, how was New York?” Sara asked as she returned to her task of slicing tomatoes.
“Very interesting,” I stated simply. “Can I help you with something?”
“Nah, I got it.” She turned her attention to chopping an onion and then looked up at me. “Cole said you were able to renegotiate your publishing deal, with TV appearances and everything. Sounds exciting!”
“Terrifying is more like it. Every time I think about it, I scold myself for saying yes in the first place.”
“I just can’t believe everything you’ve got going on at once. Y’all are getting married, and your book coming out, and then all this TV stuff…”
“Please stop!” I laughed. “I can’t even think about that right now – one thing at a time.” She pulled some cups from a cabinet behind her, and then took a pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator. Handing the pitcher to me, she motioned toward the back of the house and I followed her.
“Two weeks – are you ready?” she wondered, giving me a sly smile. I let out a huge sigh before I answered.
“For the wedding, I’m not sure,” I admitted. “To be married to Cole? Absolutely.”
“Well, you’ve got the important part down then,” she stated with a wink as we walked out to join Cole and Tony. Much as I anticipated, Cole was standing by the grill and Tony was lounging nearby with his arms folded across his chest. When he saw us approaching, he hopped up and acted like he was busy, earning an eye roll from Sara.
“I found the lady of the hour!” Sara announced, causing Cole to look up expectantly. The way his eyes lit up when he saw me made me wish Tony and Sara weren’t there momentarily so I could throw my arms around him without feeling like an exhibitionist. He must not have felt any such hesitance, however, because in only a couple of steps he was around the grill and had pulled me into his arms.
“Please tell me we’re not going to have to deal with romantic Cole tonight,” Tony lamented. “And the PDA…it’s a bit much.”
“I wasn’t aware you had a problem with public displays of affection, Tony,” Cole laughed before he kissed me on the cheek.
“He doesn’t, when he’s involved,” Sara quipped behind me. Cole leaned back to look into my eyes, and his expression took on a more serious appearance.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you after lunch,” he said quietly. “Dad was right – you should run over here. I wish I had told you that a long time ago. When I think about what could have happened…”
“Nothing happened,” I interrupted.
“Something could have,” he insisted, those brown eyes staring so intently into mine that I chuckled softly.
“If I worried about everything that could happen to me, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning,” I told him. “For your sanity, you can’t spend your time worrying about things that could happen to me, either.”
“Yeah, I know,” he assured me with a smile. “I’m trying to limit myself to the things that seem completely plausible at the moment. Like right now, you’re five feet from the grill, so I’m contemplating ways for you not to burn yourself or set the house on fire.”
“Come on, I’m not that bad, am I?” He turned his back and walked to the grill, and I remained where I was with my hands on my hips.
“Left unsupervised…” he suggested with a smirk, and then went back to flipping the burgers. I turned to talk to Sara and Tony then, and suddenly noticed that Tony was sporting a new hairstyle. The back of his mohawk had been cut short, and now it was sort of a tall faux hawk in the front merging with a more standard haircut in the back.
“You’re going a little more traditional,” I said to Tony, who cringed.
“Yuck, don’t use that word to describe me,” he stated, lifting his chin a little higher. “It’s a high taper fade, and I thought maybe this would help bring Parker around to the idea of me preaching the wedding.”
“Tony, my reservations have nothing to do with your hair,” Cole stated dryly.
“Well, then what is your objection?” Tony wanted to know.
“You.”
“Now that’s just mean,” Tony protested while an annoyed look crossed his face.
“You’ll be fine, Tony,” I insisted. “Cole’s just messing with you.”
“I am?” I glanced over at Cole and smiled, and he just shook his head.
“While we’re on the subject, though, I do want to ask you about that very topic,” Tony told me, sitting forward and leaning an elbow on his knee. “What do you want me to do for the wedding, as far as hair is concerned? Cole said you wanted rainbow flowers, so I could do several colors…”
“No, Tony, I think one color is plenty,” I suggested with a laugh. Sara mouthed a “thank you” from where she sat behind her husband.
“And what should I wear?” he wondered aloud then.
“You can just wear what the other guys are,” I answered, “vests and ties. Cole can help you get the right thing.”
“Yes, Tony, I look forward to going clothes shopping with you,” Cole sarcastically directed toward me, and I bit my lip and tried not to laugh.
Satisfied that the most important questions had now been answered, we all fixed our burgers and relaxed on the back deck. Cole and Tony went over music suggestions for the reception, and I kept out of it for the most part, because I loved all their selections and didn’t object to anything they chose. When Tony asked about the father-daughter dance, I realized that I hadn’t given it much thought, but it seemed okay to dance with Charlie.
Maybe we’ll have to call it the brother-sister dance instead. Okay, that sounds creepy somehow.
Cole agreed to do the mother-son dance at the same time, so that made me feel a little more at ease. Of course the idea of dancing with Charlie didn’t really bother me, but the thought of doing it while everyone stared at me with pity wasn’t very pleasant.
“Camdyn, I had a cool idea for when you walk in, too,” Tony said to me as I took a bite of my burger. “Since you’ve got the arbor over you with all the colors, I was thinking you could have ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ playing on acoustic guitar. It would be really different, and I’ve been practicing it.”
“I love that, Tony,” I told him. “What do you think, Cole?”
“Whatever the lady wants,” he said with a smile. “You’ll be so beautiful, no one will hear the music anyway.”
“Blah, here we go again,” Tony lamented. “Can you be normal for just a little while longer, please? I’d like to keep this burger down.”
“Oh, shut up, Tony,” Sara stated. “I think it’s sweet, and you could take a few pointers.”
“I knew I should have left you at home,” Tony retorted, shaking his head. “So tell me, Parker, are you really serious about writing your own vows?”
“Yes, I am serious,” Cole said, leaning his elbow on the table. “Why are you looking at me like I’m crazy?”
“Your fiancée writes for a living,” Tony explained. “I wouldn’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself.”
“He has a point,” I added teasingly. Cole answered by gracing me with one of those smiles, and I unexpectedly felt the heat rising in my cheeks, so I shot my eyes back down to my burger. He must have noticed, because he couldn’t resist the opportunity to torment me a bit.
“You think you will wipe the floor with me, don’t you?” he asked. “Listen, sweetheart, I am going to blow you out of the water.”
“It’s not a competition,” I said, smirking over at him.
“Maybe it should be,” he commented, causing Sara to chuckle.
“Don’t do something crazy,” Tony warned, and as I met Sara’s smiling eyes I knew Cole wouldn’t take that very well. Tony cautioning Cole not to do something crazy was a little funny, after all.
“You’re not going to see anything crazy coming from me, you nut,” Cole told Tony in mock exasperation. “Why is it so wrong for me to want to express myself? Besides, I definitely don’t want you in
the middle of my vows.”
“Then why did you ask me to officiate your wedding?” Tony questioned him as I glanced quickly from him to Cole.
“Don’t even get me started,” Cole advised him, glancing at me and shaking his head. I chuckled quietly and shrugged my shoulders.
“So let’s get to the counseling then, shall we?” Tony suggested, trying to sound professional.
“Why do you think we need counseling anyway?” Cole asked then. “We’re your friends, don’t you know us well enough to skip that stuff?”
“Technically, yes, but because you are my friends, as you so helpfully pointed out, you are very good practice.”
“Like a couple of marriage guinea pigs?” Cole correctly interpreted.
“Well, you know, mawage is what bwings…”
“No, absolutely not,” I demanded with a laugh. “No cheesy movie quotes from you, Tony, and you better not spout any movie lines in your vows either, Cole.” The way he wrinkled up his nose when he looked at me let me know that I had caught him red-handed.
“You realize that is going to severely limit my creative ability,” he muttered, giving me a pleading look. Ordinarily I probably wouldn’t have been able to resist giving in, but the thought of hearing that fake speech impediment from Tony during the wedding was enough to fortify my backbone.
“Do you want me to write your vows for you?” I replied, earning a deserved smirk.
“I hope you cry when I recite my vows,” he said in a low voice, trying to sound intimidating.
“That’s pretty cruel,” I responded with a chuckle, “but if that’s the way you want to play it, then I hope you sob like a baby.”
“Both of you crying, now that’s fun for everyone,” Sara added drily, causing all of us to laugh. “You better get to writing, since you’ve only got two weeks until your expedited wedding.”
“Fast food wedding, that’s what we’ve decided to call it,” Tony told us. “Are you sure you two are ready for this? You barely know each other.”
“Come on, Tony, that’s not true,” Cole insisted.
“What’s Camdyn’s favorite color?” Tony asked him then. Cole gave me a somewhat panicked look and I cringed inside.
“Pink,” Cole tried. I shook my head and wrinkled my nose a little.
“Favorite food?” Tony shot at Cole.
“Chocolate?” Again I shook my head.
“Favorite movie?” By this point Cole had obviously given up, and he just looked over at me and smiled.
“I know it’s not Star Wars,” he stated, to which I nodded my agreement.
“Watch it I did,” I told him in my best Yoda impersonation. “Three times, in fact. In love with it I am not.”
“You didn’t watch it three times,” he corrected me sarcastically. “Those were three different movies.”
“So it’s safe to say that none of the Star Wars movies are her favorite, then,” Tony said to Cole. “See? You don’t know each other as well as you think you do.”
“Those things aren’t important,” I argued in Cole’s defense, and then Tony turned his attention to me.
“What’s Cole’s middle name?” he asked. I opened my mouth to answer him, but then I stopped abruptly.
I don’t know Cole’s middle name. How is this possible? I am engaged to be married to a man in two weeks and I don’t know his full name. Why hasn’t this ever come up in conversation? Why haven’t I bothered to ask him that simple question? This is downright, utterly embarrassing.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, looking guiltily at my apparent half-stranger of a fiancé. Sara shifted nervously in her seat and peered across the table at Tony, as if she was silently pleading with him to knock it off.
“Cole’s my middle name,” he said quietly, an apologetic look on his face. “I guess I should have told you that a long time ago. Everybody’s always called me Cole, and I don’t give it much thought anymore.”
So I don’t know my fiancé’s first name. No big deal.
No, really, it’s not that important.
I don’t know if I can breathe.
“What is your name?” I somehow managed to push the words out as I stared at him in shock.
“Cam, I am so sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t believe I never thought to tell you, and now… It’s Wyatt. My name is Wyatt Cole Parker.”
“Wyatt,” I repeated, not liking the way the name felt on my lips. “Wyatt. You know what? I just… I think I need a minute.” Standing abruptly, I made my way into the house and down the hall without even realizing where I was going. When I reached the guest bathroom, I closed myself in before sinking to the floor and putting my face in my hands. Trying hard to convince myself that it really wasn’t as startling as it seemed, I forced a deep breath into my lungs.
“Camdyn,” I heard the muffled voice from the other side of the door. “Please come out here so I can talk to you.” I stood up and started pacing back and forth from the sink to the door.
“How do you propose to someone and not tell them your name, Cole? Wyatt? Cole? Of course everyone knows your name except me. I feel so stupid.”
“I’m coming in there,” he warned me.
“I mean, you don’t think you could have mentioned it in passing conversation?” He swung the door open, and he looked so alarmed and earnestly remorseful that immediately my heart went out to him. “I’m not angry with you. You know that, don’t you?”
“You’re not?” he whispered. “Thank God.”
“I’m just shocked, that’s all, and a little scared. Tony’s right – we don’t know each other very well.”
“Don’t do that, Camdyn,” he pleaded, reaching out for my hand. “I know everything I need to know right now, and I will spend the rest of my life figuring out all the rest.”
“There are so many things we haven’t talked about…”
“You want to know what’s important?” he asked, lacing his fingers through mine. “I know that when I call and hear your voice on the other end of the phone, my heart starts pounding. When I wake up in the morning and I get to see your face that day, I know I won’t be able to keep myself from singing in the shower. When I smile at you a little too long, I know your cheeks are going to turn pink, and I’m going to wonder what’s going on inside that beautiful blonde head.” He smiled as I rolled my eyes. “But most importantly, I know that it doesn’t matter what my name is or what your favorite color is, or whether you like Star Wars or not. What matters is that I love you with every breath in me, and nothing is going to change my mind about being your husband.”
“Oh, Cole,” I sighed. “I think I better start writing my vows, because you really are going to blow me out of the water.” He laughed and raked his hand back through his dark hair, leaning against the sink.
“Man, that was frightening,” he muttered. “That’s not a good feeling, watching you walk away like that.”
“Is there anything else I need to know?” I asked, reaching out and grabbing a fistful of his t-shirt. “Any other secrets someone is going to blurt to me?” He kissed me on the forehead and then slid his arm around me and pulled me close.
“No, nothing like that,” he assured me. “I really am sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I replied. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose. We better get back out there – they’ll be wondering about us.”
“Do we have to?” he moaned, but I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the bathroom and toward the back door. As soon as we walked outside, Tony was on his feet with wide eyes.
“Hey, guys, I feel terrible,” he stated. “I didn’t intend to cause a fight between you.”
“You didn’t,” I told him as I sat down, “no worries.” He settled back down in his chair and glanced at Sara, leading me to believe that she must have scolded him while we were inside. When she gave me a guilty look herself, though, I began to change my mind.
“We were talking while you two were inside…,” she told me, and then looked over
at Tony for him to finish.
“…and you know we’re your friends, right? You ask us to do something for you, it’s done.”
“But…” Cole suggested, assuming there was a downside to his statement.
“We just want to make sure you have really thought this through,” Tony continued. “You’re moving really fast, and with Camdyn’s proposal history, not to mention yours, Cole… I just don’t want to see this implode later.”
“Wow, I really didn’t expect this from you,” Cole said to Tony. “First of all, Camdyn didn’t encourage any of those proposals, so you can’t hold her accountable for those. Secondly, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, Sara, but proposing to Steph was a huge mistake, and I am eternally grateful that she didn’t say yes. As far as moving too fast…well, what God brings together, let no man put asunder, right? Don’t you have to abide by that rule?”
“God brought you together,” Tony stated skeptically, and Cole looked over at me with a rip-your-heart-out smile.
“Absolutely, I believe that,” Cole told him. “I had this dream, a long time ago – a really vivid dream – and when I woke up I had the feeling that I wouldn’t have to look for my wife. One day she would just be there, and I would recognize her. Well, all I know is that Camdyn was sitting at the end of the gravel road praying for help when I got the gut feeling that I needed to head out into the storm. That in itself is strange enough to believe there was something else going on. As soon as she spoke to me, though, in my heart I just knew that I had to be with her. I’ve never felt that way before about anyone.”
“Well, I’m not going to try to talk you out of anything,” Tony said. “If you tell me you’ve thought it through, and you’re completely sure about this, I’m one-hundred percent supportive of both of you.”
“There’s no one else for me but Cole,” I added. “I’ve never been so sure of anything.”
“Neither have I,” Cole offered, reaching over to take my hand. “Camdyn’s the one for me, and I would have married her three weeks ago if I thought I could have talked her into it.”
A Reason to Be Alone (The Camdyn Series Book 2) Page 24