by Rena Olsen
“You sure you don’t want to come see the yacht?” I asked Savannah. “I’m sure it would be fine with Bryce, even if you just wanted to stop by quick.”
“Are you kidding? Moonlight on a yacht? I don’t think Bryce wants me anywhere near that romantic date.” She paused. “Will there be seafood?”
I turned and threw a pillow at her, laughing. Bryce had helped a client out of a jam a few years back, a member of the church, and in return he’d given Bryce full access to his yacht. All Bryce had to do was let him know when he wanted to use it, and the guy would staff it and have someone take it out. I didn’t ask what the jam was, but I figured it had to have been pretty significant for that kind of reward.
Bryce didn’t talk about his cases. He wasn’t allowed to, of course, but I knew he made a difference from the sheer number of people who approached him every week to tell him just that. They also approached me and told me things Bryce had done for them. Getting them out of a bad contract, referring them to a colleague for a custody battle, setting up a new business. He did as much as he could, and worked long hours, but I was proud of him.
There was a knock on the door, and I quickly threw my shawl around my shoulders and took one last look in the mirror before pirouetting in front of Van. “How do I look?” I asked.
“Stunning,” she answered sincerely. “You’ll knock his socks off. And maybe his pants, too.” She snickered and my face heated.
“You know our relationship isn’t like that,” I murmured, and she cackled an apology, though it was significantly less sincere than her appraisal of my outfit had been.
Bryce and I hadn’t come close to crossing the physical boundary again, as much as I had wanted to. He held himself very carefully, and knew when to take a break and get some space so that he wouldn’t be tempted, though he told me I tempted him constantly. One time was after we’d gone for a long hike. My face was sweaty, my hair plastered to my cheeks and neck, my shirt clinging to my back, and he’d hauled me close and kissed me until I saw stars. “You are so beautiful, all the time,” he’d said. “You could tempt a man to do many things if he wasn’t careful.”
It was a compliment, I knew, but it did make me feel a little uncomfortable to be reminded that just being me, in any situation, had the potential to cause negative thoughts. Not that sex was negative, but one thing I’d learned in my Bible study was about the importance of our bodies being temples, and keeping those boundaries in place outside of the institution of marriage. I understood now what Bryce had meant about how it was his responsibility to protect my honor. I was grateful that he was so much stronger than I was, and that he was teaching me patience and restraint. It was even more important to me to avoid crossing those lines, given that I hadn’t been so careful with Jake, and Bryce had forgiven me that past. Savannah thought it was all crazy, of course. She’d learned to stay pure until marriage in her church, but as she said, she hadn’t exactly followed that rule, and she hadn’t been struck by lightning, and neither had I when it was Jake. But I hadn’t had the same beliefs back then. It was different. I was different.
I took a deep breath, shot Savannah a dirty look, and swung open the door. Bryce leaned against the doorframe, looking like an angelic James Bond in his tux, and I was more grateful than ever that he was determined to keep us honest, because I wasn’t sure I could keep myself from jumping him otherwise. He swallowed hard, and I realized I probably had the same effect on him. I wore a long beaded black dress that shimmered when I moved. The neckline was a high halter, and the back dipped low, but not indecently so. A chain ran between my shoulder blades to keep it from slipping off my shoulders.
Bryce cleared his throat. “You look . . . miraculous.”
I laughed. “That might be the highest compliment you’ve ever paid me.” I reached up and smoothed his lapels. “You look pretty miraculous as well. Are you sure you’re real?”
“You wanna pinch me and find out?”
“Maybe later.” I winked, and his eyes widened.
“Oh, just go on and get it over with,” Savannah called from behind me. “I’ll close my eyes so I don’t see you make out.”
Bryce grinned. “Have a good night, Savannah,” he called, then pulled me out in the hallway and shut the door, barely giving me time to grab my matching beaded purse. He held my shoulders for a moment, the look in his eyes intense, and I almost expected him to shove me against the door and kiss me senseless, but he only placed a very chaste kiss on my lips before hooking my arm in his elbow and leading me downstairs.
Waiting out front was a sleek black limousine, complete with a driver who jumped out of the car and rushed to open the door as we exited my building. A happy sigh escaped my lips as I remembered the limo from our second date, the first time he’d picked me up from my apartment. It seemed like so long ago, but also like no time at all.
“Savannah is going to be really mad she didn’t decide to come along,” I said, smiling up at Bryce. “A girl could get used to this.”
He laughed. “Don’t get too used to it. It’s a rental.”
I slid into the plush interior, appreciating the dimly lit luxury of the backseat. “Not a loaner from a church person this time?”
Bryce chuckled again. “Not this time.”
I didn’t let on, but this gratified me. I wasn’t opposed to Bryce using his congregational connections, but it seemed like many of the things we did were thanks to one member or another. The congregation shared everything, but with the sharing of assets came the sharing of information. Half the congregation seemed to have a stake in our relationship at this point, and while I appreciated the support, sometimes I wanted things to be between the two of us. And since the yacht we were heading to was a church member’s, not having our entire date financed by others seemed like a win.
Bryce took my hand and held it through our drive to the marina. We didn’t speak, but the silence was comfortable, as always. Bryce had pointed out to me once that I seemed to have a need to fill silences with noise, and while I was offended at first, I realized that he was right. Now I waited in the silence to decide if what I wanted to say really needed to be said. Bryce had complimented me on the quality of our conversations, and I was using the technique at work as well. It was a lesson Bryce said he’d learned from the Reverend long ago, when he had needed to learn what was important to say, and what could be left alone.
Bryce still didn’t talk much about his life before meeting the Reverend and Nancy. What I had gathered was that they had met Bryce when he was a teenager, and had helped him through school. Bryce always spoke of meeting the Reverend as if it had been a miracle, with a reverence that made it seem as if he’d run into God Himself. After several months of getting to know the Reverend, I understood. There was something about him . . . I wondered sometimes if he did have a more direct connection with God than others. He certainly seemed to have an aura of peace and wisdom about him. Nothing ruffled him. I had come to admire him almost as much as I admired Bryce, though in a completely different way.
“Here we are!” Bryce’s voice had taken on the tone of a child on Christmas morning. I knew he was excited about spending time on the yacht, and I smiled at his enthusiasm. He slid out the opposite door of the car and held a hand out to help me. Offering his arm, he escorted me down the wide dock until a beautifully lit boat came into view.
“Is that it?” I asked, my excitement level chasing Bryce’s. “We get that to ourselves?”
“Us and a crew.” He gazed down at me. “Do you like it?”
“It’s completely amazing,” I said, and meant it. I’d never spent time on anything more than a speedboat. As we climbed the gangplank to the deck, I realized I never really knew what a boat was before that moment. This was what a boat was meant to be. We walked through the luxurious cabins and living area belowdecks, and strolled the walkways. It seemed bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside.
I laughed to myself, wishing Savannah was around to appreciate my Doctor Who reference.
The captain came and introduced himself to us, and soon the engines were revving up and we were headed out to cruise the river. I leaned against the railing, marveling at the twilit night. The city stood stark against a backdrop of purples and pinks, and as I watched, lights and stars winked on from skyline to horizon. Bryce stood behind me, sheltering me on either side with his arms. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he breathed into my ear.
“It’s like a whole new world,” I replied, my voice hushed with respect for the pristine beauty of the city at sunset. Of course, I knew that it wasn’t perfect, that some of the areas I admired from afar were, in reality, dirty and smelly and noisy areas that wouldn’t be conducive to a romantic evening, but from this distance, on this beauty of a boat, everything appeared calm and peaceful.
We stood like that for several minutes, until one of the crew came to tell us dinner was ready. I took Bryce’s arm again and we walked to the back of the boat, where a small table had been set. The only lighting was from twinkle lights strung back and forth across the ceiling, and a bit of light spilling from the door the servers moved through.
“I wanted candlelight,” Bryce said. “But it’s a little windy for that.”
“It’s perfect,” I said, smiling as he pulled out my chair. “Everything looks amazing.”
And it was. The food was delicious, and conversation moved easily. I found myself staring at Bryce at one point, and I wondered how I got so lucky. God must have been looking down on me that day. I laughed to myself as I pictured God blowing on my stack of papers, putting me in Bryce’s path. If it weren’t for that gust of wind, we might never have met. And I would never have found the church or the Reverend. So many of the most important things in my life wouldn’t exist but for that one moment in time. It was amazing to consider.
Bryce looked up as I stared, and one side of his mouth turned up. “Do I have something on my face?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Just admiring the view.”
His cheeks colored, and I felt my own follow suit. Bryce was confident and intelligent, but he wasn’t very comfortable with compliments, at least from me. I was trying to help him become better at accepting them. He normally said that he didn’t need compliments, that his worth came from elsewhere, but he had improved, and tonight he just reached across the table and took my hand. “Are you finished?”
“I am,” I said, laying my fork on my plate and removing my napkin from my lap with my free hand.
“Want to go look at the lights some more?”
“Yes.”
Bryce jumped up and rounded the table to pull out my chair before I could stand, and we strolled toward the front of the ship, fingers entwined. When we reached the bow, he placed me in front of him again, but instead of bracing his hands on the railing as he had before, he wrapped both arms tightly around my waist, tangling his fingers with mine and resting his chin on my shoulder. As beautiful as the night had become, clear and cool, I closed my eyes to savor the moment, to savor the closeness of the man behind me. I concentrated on our heartbeats, so often in sync.
While my heart beat along at a calm rate, steady and safe, Bryce’s galloped along at twice the pace. Sometimes his pulse picked up when we were close, but not like this, and not in moments like this, mostly void of sexual tension. At least I’d thought so. I wondered if I’d read the situation wrong, if Bryce was struggling in this moment, and I was making things worse by snuggling into the warmth of his body.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, turning my head slightly so he could hear me.
“Never better,” he responded, but his pulse jumped again at my question. Reluctantly, I untangled our fingers and loosened his arms around me, turning in his embrace. Immediately I realized it was probably the wrong move, now that our bodies were flush against each other, but I needed to see his face.
Reaching up, I smoothed my hand down his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into the palm. “Your heart is racing,” I said. His cheek felt cool, so he wasn’t sick. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
His eyes popped open, the blue piercing me with its intensity. “I want this moment to last forever,” he said. He turned his face to kiss my palm. “Or maybe the next moment.”
My heart rate picked up. “What happens in the next moment?”
As he dropped to one knee, I understood why he had been so nervous or excited or maybe a combination of the two. He had been waiting for this moment, and I also understood why he wanted to keep it forever. Although I did disagree on one thing. The moment I wanted to last forever was the one that came after. The one that didn’t wait for whatever speech he had planned, didn’t even wait for the question.
The moment that I said, “Yes.”
* * *
—
I was still euphoric as we approached the dock again. I admired the way the diamond Bryce placed on my finger sparkled in the moonlight, by the light of the twinkle lights, and even how it caught random reflections in the dark corner where Bryce pulled me and kissed me until I was breathless. We were giddy as two teenagers. I was going to be Mrs. Bryce Covington. I couldn’t wait to announce it to the world, and yet my shoulders stooped as the crew began their tasks for docking.
Bryce, who hadn’t released me since I’d said yes, noticed, and rubbed his hand on my back under my shawl. “What’s wrong?”
Momentarily distracted by the feel of his smooth palm on the bare skin of my back, I didn’t answer right away.
“Julia?”
“Hmm? Oh,” I laughed, my neck flushing in embarrassment. “I’m just a little disappointed to be going back to dry land. You were right. I wanted these moments to last forever.”
He pulled me toward him for another kiss, this one less exuberant than those from earlier. Leaning back just far enough to look into my eyes, he said, “The party’s not over yet.” He nodded toward the dock, where I could now see a crowd of people gathered, holding up signs. Their cheering danced across the water toward us.
“Who is that?”
“Look closer.”
I leaned away to turn more fully toward the approaching dock, and Bryce adjusted his body closer to mine as I did so. We were already so in tune with each other. Pulling my focus from the location of Bryce’s body, a task in itself, I squinted into the dim moonlight to see who was waiting to greet us.
I gasped as the faces came into focus. My parents, the Reverend and Nancy, Van and the gang, Jenny and the Bible study girls . . . even Kate and her family stood, cheering and waving as we drew closer. I turned back to Bryce. “You had all this planned, too?”
“I’d do anything to make you happy, Julia,” he said. “I knew you’d want to celebrate with your friends and family as soon as possible.”
Tears pricked my eyes at the gesture. He was amazing, this man who was going to be my husband.
It seemed to take forever for the yacht to dock and the ramp to be secured so we could exit, but when we did, I skipped down to the dock and straight into the arms of the Reverend and Nancy, who were at the front of the group.
“We’re so proud,” the Reverend said. “Congratulations.” Even Nancy had tears in her eyes as she squeezed me and kissed my cheek, her dry lips warm on my skin. They turned to Bryce, handing me off to my parents, who hugged me tightly. Next, Van grabbed my hands and we squealed together.
“You knew,” I accused. “The whole time I was getting ready!”
“Girl, I’ve known for weeks. I know how to keep a secret!”
“I’d be annoyed if I wasn’t so excited,” I said, pulling her in for another hug.
“That was my plan all along.” She winked at me. “Now are you going to let me see that rock?”
And so it went, through all the well-wishers. We gradually made our way back to shore, where a party had been
set up in an outdoor area of one of the restaurants overlooking the water. We drank champagne and laughed and Bryce and I were separated for most of the evening, much to my chagrin. Everyone seemed to want to speak with us at once, and the best way to accomplish that was to divide and conquer. There were plenty of steamy looks across the patio, though, a wink here, a raised eyebrow there. Though we couldn’t be touching, we were constantly aware of each other. I wondered if this was how marriage would be, if this connection would grow stronger or fade away with time.
I finally broke away to get some air after chatting with some people from the church who knew Bryce fairly well, but whom I had only met a couple of times. It was dawning on me how many people I would need to know better now that Bryce and I would be married. I wasn’t the greatest with names, so I was trying to commit these people’s stats to memory when I saw a dark figure silhouetted against the night.
Kate.
I had only spoken to her briefly when we’d arrived at the dock. She had given me a perfunctory hug when I reached her, and then stepped back to allow her boys to jump all over me and exclaim their joy at “Uncle Bryce” officially marrying me. She’d melted into the crowd before I could say anything else to her, and we’d seemed to be on opposite ends of the room all night tonight. I was grateful she had come, and I was ready to clear the air. I cleared my throat as I approached.
Kate swung around, surprise filling her face when she saw me. “What are you doing out here?”
“Getting some air,” I said, smiling. “There are so many people in there. I needed a break.”
“Lots of well-wishers,” Kate agreed, and I was taken aback at the bitterness in her voice. I’d thought her attendance tonight had been an olive branch, but her tone suggested otherwise.
“I’m glad you came, Kate,” I said, trying again to bring peace back to our relationship. “It means a lot. I’ve missed you.”