“Yes, Whitley. I’m here. You really didn’t think I was going to let anyone else give you away did you? Here,” he said, handing me his white hanky. Connie ran to my rescue with a powder brush and a tissue.
“Okay, that’s the second time they have started the wedding march. Go get your husband,” she smiled.
That truly was the happiest day of my life. Nothing could have made it better. I knew my dad and I still had some issues, but they would be resolved. I was sure of it. He might not have admitted it at the time, but he was happy. I could tell by the way he kept dabbing at his eyes during the ceremony, how he held me at the reception during the father daughter dance, how he looked at me with a look of admiration when he watched Alex and me dance, kiss, and laugh together.
“We’re married,” Alex grinned, spinning me around the dance floor.
I giggled. “Yes, we are.”
“You are Mrs. Wesson.”
“I am,” I agreed, smiling like a giddy teenage girl. “Oh my God, Alex. We’re married. We really did it,” I exclaimed, suddenly.
“Yes, and I couldn’t be happier. I never in a million years thought you’d ever stop hating me.”
“I never hated you.”
“Yes. You hated me. You could have set me on fire, and I couldn’t blame you.”
“I don’t think I ever hated you. I tried to hate you, but you were always so damn good with my daughter, you made it impossible.”
“Our daughter,” he corrected with a smile and a kiss to my forehead. “What the hell are we dancing to?” he asked and I burst out laughing. The song was saying something about Tulsa Oklahoma and a shotgun wedding. Alex looked to his mother singing the words and knew who picked it.
“I don’t care what song it is. I can’t hear the words.”
“You can’t hear the words?”
“Uh-uh,” I replied, closing my eyes in the crook of his neck as he pulled me closer.
“I can’t hear the words either.”
Once we were finished slicing the traditional first piece of cake and smeared it around each other’s face, with our mouths in a little too provocative kiss, we continued with the rest of the wedding traditions. Alex removed my garter belt with his teeth and my dad’s evil eyes boring into him. I cared a little bit, but not much. I was walking in the clouds, happier than I’d ever been in my life. My dad was there, and I was married to Alex Wesson. I was very happy.
I walked out from changing, quietly walking up behind Alex sitting alone with Maddie on his lap.
“I want to go to the honeymoon too,” Maddie whined.
“Honeymoons are for married people. You can’t ever go on a honeymoon. I’m never letting you leave me. Promise me you won’t ever get married.”
“I’m going to marry Jaron,” she assured him. I laughed, causing them both to look up to me.
“What do I say to that?” Alex asked taking my hand.
“Nothing, she’s going to marry Jaron,” I winked.
“Mom, my finger hurts right here,” Maddie announced, holding up one finger as Alex and I gazed into each other’s eyes. I took her finger as she slid from her dads lap.
“You have a hangnail. Go see Grandma Dana, she has clippers.”
“I love you,” Alex smiled as Maddie ran off. “And my daughter is not marrying Jaron.”
I laughed. “Agreed, now can we go get this honeymoon started?”
“You want to get the honeymoon started?” he asked, standing and wearing his sneaky little grin that I had learned to adore.
I said goodbye to everyone and hugged Maddie. I looked to see where Alex had gone, wondering if I should go save him. My dad had him off to the side, lecturing him I was sure. I smiled as I watched my dad extend his hand. Now I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life.
It’s funny how things turn out. How you could never in a million years guess the way things would end up. I guess I had to get rid of the life that I had not planned when I was seventeen, and then the planned life after Maddie, in order to have the life that was waiting for me now. I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. I am loving life.
The End
If you have read this to the end, and if you have read Underestimated, you will be the first to know. After numerous emails, instant messages, and Facebook posts, begging for Drew’s P.O.V., Underestimated Too, Drew’s eyes, is well into the process and I am shooting for a March 7th release date.
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All for Maddie Page 32