by K. A. Linde
Once dinner ended, Clay retrieved his fiancée—fuck! his fiancée!—and wished everyone good night. “Let’s go this way.”
“What’s this?” she asked.
“I had a moonlit stroll planned. Thought we could still walk the short path around the place?”
“That sounds wonderful.” She wrapped her hand around his arm and started walking through the darkened trail. “The girls are so excited. They wanted to know everything. Liz had just done this, so she went straight into wedding-planner mode, but, damn, I mean, I never thought this would happen. I don’t even know what I want.”
“Yes, you do,” he said easily.
“Maybe I do,” she agreed with a grin. “I just…well, we should probably think about a date.”
“Indeed.”
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I think when it’s warm.”
“So, probably next spring then?”
He stopped them in their tracks underneath a streetlamp and kissed her. “I was thinking a little sooner.”
“But…”
“What about in two weeks?”
“What?” she gasped.
“Why wait?”
Her mouth was agape. “Because…there’s so much to plan. And we just got back together a couple months ago. And…”
“And all things that change nothing. I’m completely dedicated to you. You are completely dedicated to me. We already live together. Plus, we’re already going to be in Hilton Head.”
They’d planned to go on vacation after her gallery opening so that they could have a breather after his grueling work schedule. He might…or might not have had an idea that this would happen, but he obviously hadn’t mentioned that to her.
“Yeah, I mean, we are, but, Clay, I can’t plan a wedding in two weeks!”
“Yes, you can,” he told her simply. “Just think. No stress. No worrying about every little detail. Because we both know you’d obsess about it otherwise. Just you and me, our family, and the exchanging of rings on the beach. Run away with me.”
Her mouth opened and closed. “You really mean it?”
“I’ve had a decade with you already. I know I want this. I’m entirely sure. Why wait?”
A slow smile grew on her face, and then she threw her arms around him and kissed him. “I’m going to be a Maxwell in two weeks!”
“Baby, you’ve been a Maxwell all your life.”
Chapter 30
OFF THE MARKET
Clay had thought that having only two weeks to plan a wedding would make his spur-of-the-moment elopement a small, intimate affair. Just he and Andrea on the beach with I dos and a kiss.
Nothing fancy. Nothing extravagant.
Apparently, he had been very wrong.
“Ugh, it looks like it’s going to rain,” Andrea grumbled from his side.
She was supervising the stringing up of lights and flowers all over the pool area of the Maxwell beach house in Hilton Head. A team had been brought in to fully fit the deck into a proper reception space to Andrea’s likings.
“Then, baby,” he said, scooping her up for a kiss, “we’ll just get married in the rain.”
She wrinkled her cute little button nose. “It would ruin everything. Don’t bring rain down on our day, Clay.”
He laughed. “Nothing could ruin today.”
“All right, Andrea,” Liz called from the other side of the pool deck. “We have to get you ready. Get your ass in here.”
She scurried over toward Liz, and Clay followed.
“Not you,” Liz said, smacking him in the chest.
Andrea walked through the house to the awaiting hair and makeup team that had taken over his father’s study downstairs. It was hilarious to glimpse a group of men and women with crazy piercings and exaggerated hair dye standing around in his father’s hard, cold study.
Clay wrapped his fingers around Liz’s hand on his chest and smirked at her. “We need to talk.”
“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow.
“I just want you to know that, even though I know you are really, really going to want to…you shouldn’t object today.”
Liz burst out laughing and snatched her hand back. “I’m already married, you idiot.”
“Look, I’m going to be officially off the market. I know it’s going to be your last chance, but for Andrea’s sake.”
“Oh, of course…for Andrea’s sake.” She pulled him into a fierce hug. “It’s really good to have you as a brother.”
“You, too…sis.”
She groaned and pulled back. “That sounds so weird.”
“It really does.”
“Good luck out there,” she said with a wink before disappearing back into the house.
Brady and Chris showed up a few minutes later after procuring last-minute necessities that Andrea had insisted on. She’d given them a list as soon as they’d arrived, and they’d been gone all morning. Brady handed off the stuff they’d gotten and then pulled out a bottle of scotch.
“It’s tradition,” Brady said, nodding his head toward a table that would be later filled with whatever treats Andrea had gotten. “It’s only fair that we finish this bottle tonight since we didn’t get to give you a proper bachelor’s party.”
“We’re pretty upset about that actually,” Chris said.
Clay took a shot from Chris. “Sorry to disappoint, guys. A little last minute for those kinds of plans.”
“You couldn’t have given us three weeks?” Brady joked.
“Now or never,” Clay said.
“Hey, hey, hey!” a trill voice called from the doorway.
Clay turned to see Savannah walking out onto the deck all alone.
“Where’s mine?”
“You’re not old enough,” Brady and Clay said at the same time. Then, they both started laughing.
“I’m twenty-one!” she cried.
“Here you go, Savi,” Chris said.
He passed her a shot, and she beamed up at him.
“Thanks, Chris.”
Brady held his drink up high. “To my brother, who has finally found what he has always been looking for.”
“And it was right in front of his face,” Savi added with a giggle.
“For the last decade,” Chris said.
“Assholes,” Clay muttered. Then, he tilted his drink back and let it burn down his throat.
Savannah roughly smacked her brothers on their shoulders. “Both of my brothers are off the market in the same year. Whatever will the women of this poor country do with themselves?”
“They’ll live,” Brady said.
Clay shrugged. “Don’t give a fuck.”
“What about you, Savi?” Chris asked.
“Yeah,” Clay said, as if realizing for the first time that she really was riding solo. “Where are Tweedledee and Tweedledum?”
“Excuse me?” she asked. She arched her eyebrow and crossed her arms.
“Is my brother Dee or Dum?” Chris asked with humor in his eyes.
“Dum,” Brady and Clay said in unison.
Savannah just glared at them. “That’s not funny.”
“Aw, come on, Sav,” Clay said. “At least we made your boyfriend Dee.”
“Oh, yes, that makes me feel much better.”
“Where are your two suitors anyway?”
Savannah ignored them. “I don’t have suitors. This isn’t the eighteenth century. I have a boyfriend, who was already going to be out of town this weekend, visiting his family. I couldn’t go because I’m the editor at the newspaper, which I’m totally neglecting.”
“Don’t let Liz hear you say that,” Brady said under his breath.
“And Lucas?” Clay asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know why you think I’d know where he is. Ask Chris!”
They all turned to Chris.
“School. He said he wanted to come bang you…”
Savannah’s eyes widened. Brady and Clay looked ready to kill someone.
<
br /> Chris just laughed at their reactions. “I mean…bug you, but he couldn’t leave.”
“I don’t know why I put up with any of you!” Savannah muttered.
“Because we’re family,” Clay said, throwing an arm around Savannah. “You have to love us.”
Savannah grumbled, but he knew that she loved him. His family wasn’t perfect. But they were his family. They’d gotten through a lot together. And he’d do it all over again if it got him to this spot. Because this was what it was all about.
Love was enough.
Family was enough.
Friends were enough.
And he never wanted to forget that again.
Shortly afterward, all their guests—the few that there were—were ushered down to the beach.
Clay stood alone with Brady, his best man, on the pool deck, waiting to head down to the beach.
“You ready?” Brady asked.
“Yeah,” Clay said. He swallowed hard, tucked his hands into his pockets, and rocked back and forth. “You ever get cold feet with Liz?”
“I was nervous as hell,” Brady admitted.
“No, you weren’t!” Clay said. “I was there.”
Brady smiled. “I’m very good at controlling my emotions. Part of the job description. But I can assure you, I’ve not been that frazzled in a while. I was ready to marry her. More than ready, mind you. It’s a big step though, and you can’t help the nerves. Even if they’re excited nerves.”
Clay nodded. That was exactly how he was feeling right now. Excited but nervous, but excited…but nervous. His stomach was rolling. He’d truly never anticipated this moment. Now that he was here, he realized how dumb he’d been to think that.
He took a deep breath and released it slowly. He was ready.
The frantic wedding planner Andrea had managed to corral into helping them with the necessities for the day ducked back up the stairs and beckoned them forward. “We’re ready for you two.”
Clay gulped and then followed her. The beach was stunning. It was a beautiful day with just a few ominous clouds off in the distance over the water. Nothing to worry about. A spectacular archway made of oak driftwood had been set up with blush-colored flowers spiraling through it. Chairs, the color of sand with blush-pink cushions, were before it, already filled with guests—his parents, Savannah, Chris; the rest of the Atwoods, sans Lucas; Gigi, Jamie, Ethan, and Cash.
Clay and Brady stood at the front by the archway where Amelia—a woman Andrea had located on the Internet, who was ordained and lived on Hilton Head Island—stood to marry them.
Amelia shook hands with each of them. “Good to meet you both. I have everything here that your bride sent over,” she placed her hand on a soft leather folder. “Just follow along.”
“All right. Thanks so much for doing this on short notice,” Clay told her. He straightened out the soft-pink bow tie he wore with his navy-blue suit.
“It’s really my pleasure.”
And then the chatter stopped because Liz, the matron of honor, had just walked down the stairs to an instrumental song played by a violinist. She had a dusty-blue dress, holding pink and white flowers. Clay realized, as she drew closer, she was barefoot. He almost laughed. Of course. He wished he were barefoot instead of in boat shoes.
Liz stopped to the side of Amelia and winked at him.
Then, the music shifted…along with his world.
Andrea appeared like a vision. She had never been more stunning.
He choked on words to describe her magnificence. A blush dress so light pink that it was almost white covered her frame, as if it had been handmade for her frame. It was high fashion meets beach wedding—the duality of which was exactly Andrea. The gown was strapless and flowy with sequins woven intricately into the bust to make her glow lightly in the afternoon sun as the train dragged lightly behind her in the sand. Her hair was down in supermodel soft waves that framed her face and fell down her back. But the best of all was her smile. The all-encompassing magnetic smile.
He’d put that smile on her face.
It was worth a lifetime to see that smile.
Andrea finally reached him. She handed off her enormous bouquet of pink and white peonies with soft green leaves as a finishing touch. Then, she took his hands into hers.
“Oh my God,” Andrea breathed.
“You may take your seats,” Amelia said. “I am honored to be here today, on such short notice, to bring together these two people who obviously love each other very much. When Andrea reached out to me just two weeks ago to ask me to marry the pair who you see before you today, I was excited to find their love had manifested so fully. Despite their struggles, they stand before you today, prepared to make life’s most sacred vow.”
Amelia nodded at Andrea. “Repeat after me.”
“I, Andrea Billings, take you, Clay Maxwell”—tears started streaming down Andrea’s face, and she hiccuped—“to be my husband. My partner in life. And the love of my life.”
She swiped at her eyes and beamed up at him. He’d never been happier to see her cry.
He repeated the statement.
All he wanted to do was kiss her. Kiss the breath out of her. But he’d have his moment. Damn, it had never been harder to wait to kiss her.
Amelia coached them through the to have and to holds, and then they were moving on to the rings. Brady had them in his pocket, and as he pulled them out, a deep rumble cut through the ceremony. All eyes flickered to the skyline where clouds were rolling in much faster than they had before.
Andrea’s lip quivered.
“Through sickness and in health, baby,” he whispered to her.
The smile reappeared.
“All right, with that in the background, let’s try to keep you dry,” Amelia said with a chuckle. “These rings signify an unbreakable bond and union, a circle of love forged together eternally today. Let’s start with the groom.”
“This ring is my sacred gift,” Clay said, repeating after Amelia. He held Andrea’s hand in his, and the ring was resting between them. “With my promise that I will always love you, cherish you, and honor you for all the days of my life. And, with this ring, we are wed.”
He slipped the ring onto her finger, and her face split into a smile.
Andrea took Clay’s ring from Brady, and just as she recited the same words…raindrops fell.
Just a trickle at first and then a downpour. A typical afternoon storm was cutting through their ceremony.
Andrea looked ready to cry as all her hard work was being torn apart by the storm. Then, she looked back up at Clay, who had a huge smile on his face.
“I love you,” Andrea cried over the rain.
“I love you, too.”
“And, with this ring, we are wed,” she said, pushing the ring onto his finger.
“I now pronounce you man and wife. Please, kiss your bride,” Amelia said with a laugh.
Without a second thought for what was happening all around him, whether or not people were trying to find shelter or enjoying the rain or even paying attention to them at all, Clay grabbed his wife by the back of her head and kissed her like he’d never kissed her before. Their lips met with passion as rain fell all around them, soaking their clothes and coating their faces. But still, he didn’t let go. He just continued on until they were both panting and breathless.
“I cannot believe it rained,” she said over the yell of the storm.
“I can. It’s just like us.”
“What?”
“Life-changing and completely unpredictable.”
Chapter 31
ANDREA
By the time the afternoon showers had abated, the decorations were destroyed. But, as they walked back up onto the deck and found all their friends and family waiting for them, just as drenched as she and Clay were, she didn’t have a care in the world. She was a Maxwell.
“Mr. and Mrs. Clay Maxwell, everybody!” Brady’s voice boomed over the crowd.
Everyone cheered
at their union, laughing and whistling.
Andrea could barely catch her breath. This had all happened so fast. One minute, she had been lost in a world of anger and depression and guilt, and the next, she was happier than she had ever been in her entire life.
Andrea turned into Clay, and he pulled her in for another wet kiss. She giggled, completely ignoring the way her wedding dress clung to her body. When he released her at last, he hoisted her into his arms with ease.
“Clay,” she gasped.
“My wife needs to get out of these clothes, so she doesn’t catch a cold,” Clay said to the crowd.
Andrea buried her face in his shoulder in horror as catcalls rang out all around them. Clay deftly carried her across the pool deck and into the house. Her dress left water droplets all down the hardwood floor as Clay took her up the stairs and to their room. She had reserved a suite at a nearby hotel for later, but she wasn’t complaining about getting out of these clothes right now.
Clay dropped her on her feet once they were inside, and she shivered. She hadn’t realized that she was even cold because his words had been ringing through her over and over again. Those beautiful words.
“Your wife,” she whispered.
“Well, you are now.” His voice was deep and seductive.
God, I love this man.
“I know. I just…I never in a million years, not even in my wildest dreams, thought we would be here today.”
One thought had been going through her mind since he had asked her. She just hadn’t been able to bring herself to ask him. But she knew she could now.
“I thought you didn’t even want to get married,” she said softly.
He smiled and slipped his hands down the wet lacy fabric of her gown. “I didn’t.”
“Oh.”
“I wanted to marry you.”
Andrea grabbed his face in her hands and dragged his lips down to hers. She was feverish, wanting nothing more than to strip him of all his clothes and really become his wife. Consummate their marriage in all the best ways.
She pulled his bow tie loose and threw it to the ground. His eyes widened with surprise and lust. Yes, she was going to do this right now. No, she didn’t care that there were people waiting for them.