Immediately they both put down their utensils and turned their attention to me. I wondered how I had ever believed that they didn’t care. “What’s the matter, honey?” Mom asked.
“Nothing’s the matter,” I quickly assured her. I didn’t need them worrying more than they already were. “I just... I have a confession to make.”
Now they both looked worried, and I knew I’d gone about it all wrong. If my dad was looking worried, things were really bad.
“Are you pregnant?” Mom asked, hesitantly.
“No!” I blurted out. “No, god… Mom. I know better than that.”
“Oh, thank the Lord,” she said, a hand on her heart. “Then what is it, sweetie?”
“I... it’s sort of about Ken. It wasn’t just recently that things started going sour. Only I... I wasn’t talking to you, and I wasn’t sure how to apologize, and….” I swallowed, looking down. This was my Emmy-winning performance. “And then I met someone, and we... fell in love, and, and….” I held up my left hand to show my ring.
I heard my mom’s gasp across the kitchen, and her hand flew to her mouth. My dad just looked at me with a bemused expression.
“Say something?” I asked, when the silence had stretched on too long.
“You’re... engaged?” my mom asked, looking hopeful.
“I’m... actually married,” I said, grinning, and I found that my heart lifted a little just saying those words, thinking of Bennett. That was surprising.
My mom was grinning as well, and my dad looked gruff but pleased. “Well,” he said. “Well. That’s something.”
“Oh!” my mom exclaimed, crossing to me to pull me into a hug. “Oh, my baby’s married.”
I leaned into the hug, trying to remember the last time she’d sounded so proud.
“Well?” she said as she pulled back. “Don’t leave us hanging. What’s his name? What’s he like? What does he do? When can we meet him?”
“And why are you still living here?” My dad piped in, but he was smiling as well.
I laughed, trying to keep track of all the questions. “His name is Bennett. He’s….” I paused, trying to think of how to describe him. “He’s funny. And smart. And he makes me feel... safe.”
Even now, even after everything, it was still oddly true. Thinking about Bennett made me feel safe.
“And happy, so happy,” I said. “Um, he’s sort of an inventor. A tech-head. He’s been off at his ranch getting things ready for us to move in, and we thought it would make sense for me to come home alone first, especially after….” After I had been such a bitch to you. After my life had fallen apart. “Well, after everything, I guess. Anyway, you can meet him tonight… if there’s enough dinner for him?”
Chapter 28
Bennett
Something that I never experienced as a teenager was the ritual of going to meet a girl’s parents. All of my girlfriends either didn’t have parents who cared to meet the boy their daughter was seeing, or they were already friends of my parents, so there weren’t any introductions needed.
I’d never felt like I had missed out on the experience, and now I knew why. I was a grown man, and I hadn’t even met them yet, but I still found myself standing outside their house, flowers in hand, tugging at a collar that suddenly felt far too tight, and a nervous weight churning around in my stomach.
Much to my relief, it was Ava who answered the door. She was smiling, and my heart did a little flip-flop in my chest as my stomach finally began to settle.
“You brought flowers,” she said, reaching up to take them from me. I pulled them back.
“These,” I said, “are for your mother.”
“Suck up,” Ava teased, but she took my arm to lead me into the house, and before I really had the chance to prepare myself, I was face to face with the Cassidys. Her mom was beaming brightly. Her dad looked skeptical. I couldn’t blame him, given the winner Ken had turned out to be. Of course, his doubt may also have had something to do with not even being aware of my existence until a couple of hours ago.
“Mom, Dad,” Ava said. “This is Bennett. My... well, my husband, technically, though we’d still like to do another ceremony for family. Bennett, these are my parents.”
I wasn’t really sure what happened after that. It was all a blur of handshakes and hugs and congratulations and then a maelstrom of wedding planning that was mostly done by Ava and her mom with occasional nods from her dad and me.
At one point, I caught Ava’s eyes as she sipped her wine, and the look on her face was distinctly triumphant.
She was doing this on purpose, the adorable little minx.
After dinner, her mom went out to get some photo albums to flip through. Her dad had a bowling game, so he excused himself. Lucky bastard, although it did give me a few minutes alone in the living room with Ava.
“Nice prank,” I smiled. “Feeding me to the wolves like that. A little warning about what I was in for would have been nice.”
“I learned from the best,” she smirked, and I just couldn’t stop myself from stepping closer. It felt like a win that she didn’t step away, so I pushed my luck even further.
“I’ve missed you, Sunshine,” I admitted quietly, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear.
“I haven’t missed you at all,” Ava answered, turning her face away.
“Oh, yeah?” I said, catching her hand and raising it so her ring caught the light. She turned back to look at her hand. “Then it’s strange you still have this….”
I didn’t let go, and for a long moment, we both stood there, caught, our eyes locked. I could practically hear her breathing.
“Shitfingers.”
I don’t know who spoke, or who moved first, but suddenly we were kissing, hard and urgent. My arms wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her roughly against me just as hers moved to yank up my shirt, tearing the fabric. Fingers tangled in her hair, I tugged her head back so I could reach her throat, breathing in her scent before nipping softly, leaving a faint mark on her skin.
We stumbled toward the couch, and she fell on top of me, straddling my lap. My hands slid up her thighs, and I felt like I couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t touch enough. I arched up against her body, but the friction was just not enough, and before I had time to think about what I was doing, I rolled us over, accidentally falling off the couch and hitting the floor with a loud thud.
I would have kept going even then, if it hadn’t been for the quiet, “Oh, my!” from the doorway. I looked up to see her mom standing there, hand over her mouth.
“Um... hi, Mom,” Ava said, and then we both dissolved in a fit of laughter.
Chapter 29
Ava
"I still don't understand why you're in such a rush."
My mom stood in the hallway of one of the far cabins at Bennett’s ranch, watching as Layla adjusted my veil. “I told you, Mom. People wants pictures to go with their interview, and nobody will buy that we got married by a justice of the peace.”
“Why not?” she asked. “People do it all the time.”
“Yeah,” Layla said with a grin, tweaking my hair a little. “But not America’s Sweetheart. Fairytale star needs a fairytale wedding.”
“Oh, please,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Bennett is no prince charming.”
Layla tutted softly, touching up my makeup a bit. “Oh, he’s not so bad.”
“He’s lovely,” Mom said, stepping to help. She still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Layla, and Layla was enjoying that a little too much.
“He’s a dude,” Layla pointed out. “They’re pretty much only good for one thing anyway.”
“Well, I never!” Mom said, and I couldn’t help laughing
“Okay, okay,” I said. “The photographer’s waiting. Let’s get this show on the road.”
“You look amazing, boo,” Layla said, giving me a quick hug.
“You really do,” my mom said, giving me her own once-over, te
ars welling in her eyes. I felt another twinge of guilt about lying to her, but this had to be done, and my mom would never be able to lie to the press when they inevitably contacted her for a quote—not convincingly, anyway. She had to believe it was real.
“Great Aunt Agnes really wanted to be here,” Mom continued, and I leaned in to hug her, knowing that this was all a bit much for her to take in all at once.
“We can have another one later, for the whole family,” I said.
Maybe that one will be real. The thought came to my mind unbidden, but I couldn’t shake it, even though I knew I was being ridiculous.
A moment later, one of River’s friends was coming by to escort Mom to her seat. We’d needed guests on short notice, so River had called up his drum circle. They mostly cleaned up well, and this particular friend, Tristan, charmed the pants right off my mom as he led her to her seat.
“Smile for the cameras,” Layla said before she stepped out of the cabin too.
I could hear the cameras going off before I even got outside. We’d hired one photography crew, they were actually friends of Layla, people she said we could trust not to run to the press, especially given how we were having to fudge the date a bit on these pictures. Our actual wedding had supposedly taken place more than a week ago, after all.
I took a deep breath and exited to find my dad standing there, waiting for me. He fiddled with my veil for a moment, adjusting it unnecessarily. “You know,” he said. “It’s not too late to change your mind. I mean, I know you’re already married and this one is for show, but if you’ve changed your mind, no point in making the same mistake twice. I’d be happy to beat you an escape route through the crowd.”
“Dad,” I said, laughing a little. It made me happy, though, that after everything he was still ready to save me if I needed it. It made me even happier that I didn’t need saving.
“Just saying,” he shrugged, and then he offered his arm, and we were off down the aisle.
Chairs had been set up on either side of the courtyard, and Bennett was waiting at the top of the stairs. River had been drafted into service as the officiant. He wasn’t licensed or anything, so this wedding was just as fake as the one that hadn’t happened, but it didn’t feel fake. Not really. Not after the way Bennett and I had kissed that night at my parents’. Not after he had come back to rescue me from all of the problems in my life that had existed long before he’d come into it. If he had really just been in it for the prank, it would have been very easy for him to disappear from my life after I left the ranch. That was his perfect out. He didn’t need to get mixed up in my mess.
But he had come back anyway.
There were flashes from cameras on all sides of me, and I felt more like I was walking down a red carpet than a wedding aisle. I looked up, then, and caught Bennett’s gaze, and I forgot everything else.
He was looking at me, really looking at me, like I was everything he’d been waiting for. His smile was tentative, but genuine, and his eyes bright as if they were holding back tears. I couldn’t remember seeing a more earnest look on the Cowboy’s face.
I left my father at the bottom of the steps with a quick hug and a kiss, and then I was climbing up to Bennett. He took my hands when I reached him, and I leaned up into a kiss without thinking.
His arms went around my waist easily, naturally, and our kiss deepened even further until I heard a soft throat clearing at my side.
“That part’s later,” River said, smiling lazily. “Trust me.”
Chapter 30
Bennett
Ava’s cheeks were beautifully pink when we pulled back from the kiss, and it was hard for me to find my voice.
Hell, it was hard for me to catch my breath, and it had been since I saw her coming down the aisle. I knew this wasn’t real, that she only agreed to it to get her out of the situation she was in.
But I also knew how she’d kissed me at her parents’ house, and I couldn’t believe that was just acting. If I had any chance with her at all, this was it.
River led Ava through her vows, with her repeating after him as practiced, and then he turned to me.
Clearing my throat, I pulled a paper from my pocket.
“I... wrote my own vows,” I said, and Ava looked at me, incredulous. This hadn’t been part of the plan, but I was going with it anyway.
“Ava Cassidy,” I said, clearing my throat again, struggling to speak around the lump in my throat. “When we met, I had no idea who you were, and I think that’s why you liked me. Now, I know exactly who you are, and that’s why I love you. I know I’m far from perfect, but I also know I’m a quick study, and that means I can become perfect—because all I need to do is learn from you. You’re more than perfect, Ava.
“You are incredible. You are wise. You are beautiful. You are talented. You can take on the world, and when you do, I will be there. Not because you need me to be but because I want to be. I want to walk the world with you, Ava Cassidy, as long as you’ll let me.”
There were tears in her eyes, and I heard the snap of camera lenses. I didn’t want to think this was just for them, just for show, so I bent to kiss her again, before anything else could happen to make me remember why we were really here.
Only, she pushed into the kiss, arms winding around my neck, her whole body pressed to mine. I held her tight, lifting her off her feet. We were breathless when we pulled apart. She looked at me with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. The photographers had more than enough pictures of the two of us. We could come back for the reception later.
Right now, there were more important things.
River quickly wrapped up the ceremony, reading the urgency in my face, and then Ava and I reached for each other’s hands and ran down the aisle, grinning as we circled around to the front door, away from everyone still in the courtyard. I swept her off her feet to carry her over the threshold.
“I want to do this right,” I murmured, stopping as soon as we were inside so I could put her down and kiss her properly. We stumbled down the hallway, unable to keep our hands or lips from each other long enough to do more than shed our shoes before we got to the bedroom. Her hands tugged at my tie, and I reached around to try and unzip her dress.
“My god,” I said, stymied by the sheer number of fastenings she had holding it together. “What is this thing made of? Kevlar?”
“Close,” she said. “Tulle.” And then she worked some sort of magic and slipped out of it like Houdini, leaving it in a pile of white fabric on the floor. My breath caught in my throat as I watched her stretch out onto the bed. I think I even lost track of time for a while, only coming back to myself when she said, “Well?”
And then it was a rush of movement. I yanked my shirt open and tossed it to the side, climbing onto the bed and crawling over her.
“What are you thinking?” I asked, touching her cheek with my fingertips. “I can’t tell.”
“I’m thinking I want this,” she said, breathless. “I’m thinking I want you. I want to be with you. I missed you so much. So, so much.”
I kissed her, then, slow and sweet, building gradually until I thought that the only thing in the world that mattered was tasting as much of her mouth as possible. Her hands moved to my trousers to open them, and I groaned just from the brush of her hand across my fabric-covered erection.
I unhooked her bra, grateful there was nothing complicated about it, then dipped my head to smother her body in kisses. My lips made a trail that first ran along her collarbone and down the center of her chest before skirting to the side, taking in the soft swell of her breast until, finally, catching a taunt nipple between my lips and sucking gently.
At the same time, my hand slid up her thigh to tease between her legs, rubbing the silky fabric of her panties into the wetness beneath them, teasing along her slit before tugging her panties aside, desperate and impatient to be inside her.
Before I could do more than tease, though, she was pulling
back.
“Naked,” she demanded in a voice heavy with desire. “I want you naked.”
Who was I to argue with a command like that? I pulled back enough to shove my trousers and boxers down and off, reaching into the pocket before tossing them aside to pull out a small, foil packet.
Ava laughed, breathy and beautiful. “You brought a condom to our fake wedding?”
“I’m an eternal optimist,” I shrugged, bending to kiss her again, letting her open the packet and slide it on my aching cock.
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