She crumpled against my chest. “So you’re saying that you want to get married?”
She jerked in response, eyes wide as she stared at me with tears running down her face. “How the hell did you get that out of everything I just said?”
“Because I’ve known you for almost all of my life, and I know how to read in between all the stuff you say to get to what you don’t say,” I answered, bringing my hand up to cup her face.
She leaned into my touch. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t much matter what I want because there is no possibility of that ever happening.”
“And why is that?” I asked.
She made a noise that sounded like a strangled cat, part chuckle, part sob, and said, “Because you’re dead. On paper anyway.”
“Haven’t you ever heard that marriage is just a piece of paper?” I asked.
She huffed, wiping her face with the bottom of her shirt. “If you’re trying to make me feel better, you’re not doing a good job of it.”
I sat up, pulling her with me until my back was against the headboard. “Riley, how long have we been living down here together?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve lost track of the time.”
I chuckled. “We’re pretty much committed to each other in the same way we would be if we were married.”
She heaved a sigh.
“But that’s not what you mean… It’s more than that to you.” My sigh matched hers.
“It’s just a silly girlhood dream. I think all girls have it programmed somewhere inside of us at birth. We spend a majority of our lives picking out our favorite colors, dresses, flowers… all for that one moment.”
“So, blue forget-me-nots and lace? That’s what it all comes down to?” I asked, getting my first real smile in response from her.
She dashed another tear away and said, “Something like that. But something more too. You’re not just saying you’re choosing that person… you're telling them that all those important decisions all throughout your life were for them. And, in turn, the gift you get back is the honor of their name.”
I cupped her neck with both my hands and guided her lips to mine. “You can have my last name, Riley. Whenever you want it.”
She smiled, sighing as her head settled into the crook of my neck. “That’s the best gift you could ever give me.”
“Yeah, well, that’s good because I doubt I’ll ever be paid again, being dead and all, so lavish gifts are out,” I said, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight as she laughed hard enough to shake us both.
“Crazy ass… I love you,” she said once the laughter died off and we both caught our breath.
“Love you too, Riles.”
She climbed off my lap and straightened her shirt as I reached out, beckoning her back to bed. Shaking her head, she took my hand, giving my arm a hard tug that had me on my feet beside her.
“Come on. Let’s go see Jared.”
I followed her out the door, wishing we were still tucked away, just the two of us. Her in my arms without a single distraction. Her hand brushed mine, fingers finding the gaps between my own, linking us as an idea came to mind. It wouldn’t be one hundred percent legal, but what the hell did it matter anyway? It wasn’t as if either of us were planning to go back into regular society again.
A smirk lifted the corner of my lips, and I brought our linked hands up to my mouth, kissing Riley’s ring finger. She wanted my last name, and by God, I was going to do everything in my power to make that happen. I just needed to talk to Nadia.
Chapter 10
“What's going on? Riley asked, looking around the kitchen in confusion. “Is this like a graduation ceremony? Did we graduate training?” she asked.
Her eyes snapped to where Oliver stood with his finger inside the collar of his shirt, tugging at it as if it would help loosen it.
“Graduate?” Oliver scoffed. “I think you passed that part of the training when you took him down in less than thirty seconds.”
I laughed. “It was forty-seven seconds, and how the hell was I supposed to know you taught her that damn hip throw?”
Oliver beamed the biggest smile I’d ever seen on his face at me. “I worked with her for a week on that move. It was worth every damn bruise too, watching you hit the mat.”
“So this isn’t graduation?” Riley interrupted, looking around. Confusion pulled her eyebrows into a cute little V between her eyes.
“Nope. Even better than that.” I turned her back towards the door, nudging her into the hallway where Murphy linked arms with her.
“I got it from here,” she said, winking.
A fresh wave of nerves blasted me as I watched Riley walk towards our room. I had so much to do, and not a lot of time to get it done.
“Here, put this in your pocket before I forget to give it to you,” Flint said, handing me the small, black box with the ring he’d gone out the day before and picked up for me. I took it out of the box and slipped it into my pocket. While technically dead, it seemed Cole Enterprise wouldn’t exactly leave me penniless.
Once Nadia had agreed to have Riley’s name changed, I threw everything else together.
In my back pocket was all the new identification cards Nadia had come up with from her contacts. They would be my gift to Riley after we had what Nadia called a commitment ceremony. There was no way I could legally get married since I was classified as dead. I doubted Riley would care what it was called once she found out what I’d been able to do for her.
“Okay, let’s get the last of it done before she shows back up and you’re not ready,” Oliver said. Grabbing the ivory aisle runner, he set it in Jared’s hands, while he took the other end and walked backward.
Flint pulled the lid off both boxes from the florist and set out the small arrangements of forget-me-nots that Murphy ordered. Once the runner was down, Oliver and Jared set candles in different shapes and sizes around various spots in the room, and I followed behind them with a lighter.
Less than twenty minutes later, the kitchen was ready.
Jared looked around with approval as he said, “Now we just need the bride. Be right back!”
When I’d told him about the commitment ceremony, he asked if he could be the one to bring her to me… to walk her down the aisle. The idea of my best friend giving her away—giving her to me—made perfect sense. We were all she had left and, out of all of us, Riley and Jared’s friendship was as deep as any brother and sister.
I waited, heart pounding hard in my chest, for Riley to step through the doorway and realize what we had all pulled together to do for her.
Murphy came into view, giving me a thumbs-up as she moved to stand off to the side with Oliver and Flint.
When Riley and Jared walked into the kitchen, they were holding onto each other so tight I was worried I might need a crowbar to pry them apart. He hugged her to his side as she stared straight at me, keeping her moving forward one footstep at a time until she went from his arms to mine.
“I have a surprise for you,” I said, pulling the ring from my pocket and sliding it on her finger. It was a simple, yet elegant band made up of three square-cut diamonds set inside of a Celtic-knot pattern. “I promise to love you from now until forever, Riley Aceton.”
”And I promise to love you for the rest of our tomorrows, Jake Aceton.” Her words caught on a sob that made her chuckle.
“Is this the part where we get to tell you that you’ve both been committed?” Jared asked, pausing only briefly when Murphy jabbed her elbow in his side. “I meant to each other… eesh.”
Riley laughed, tipping her head forward to rest against mine, and whispered, “I can’t believe you pulled this off.”
I gathered her close, bending her back over my arm and kissed her soundly as our small group of onlookers cheered.
Her lips were bright red, matching the glow of her cheeks when I stood her back up and took her wedding present from my back pocket.
Her eyes rounded. “How
…?”
“Nadia. I asked her and she did it,” I answered.
“So I really am Riley Aceton?” she asked.
“Yes, you really are Riley Aceton.”
“But you’re not married… you’re committed,” Jarred added, rubbing his arm when Murphy pinched him. “Ouch, woman, that hurts.”
“Congratulations, you two,” Flint said, handing me a piece of paper with both of our names on it. At the bottom was the raised state seal of Alabama.
Nadia had, it seemed, been able to work a little of her own magic.
“The dates! Look at the dates!” Riley said, pulling the document closer to her face. “This is dated right before you went to boot camp. It’s even notarized. How…? You know what…? I don’t even care how!”
She threw her arms around my neck with an un-Riley like squeal of joy and kissed me.
I held her for a minute longer before we were pulled apart and equally congratulated.
Riley’s eyes glittered in the flickering candlelight. Her happiness was not only contagious, but also nostalgic. It transported me back to when we spent our summers together with the Six acting crazy and carefree. It reminded me that no matter how much we changed, at the core of it all, we’d remain the same. We were, after all, the same people we’d started out as. It was just that somewhere along the way, we’d grown in the process, like it was meant to be. Where it took us from here on forward was anyone’s guess, and really, it didn’t matter.
What mattered were those who walked the path with me, neither guiding the way nor holding me back, but with me, as only someone on that same path would know how.
I was good with that. I could live in those moments. My relevance would never be more than who I was, or who I would eventually become, so long as I had those I loved beside me, walking with me in the shadows.
The End
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♥ Sonya Loveday
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Titles by Sonya Loveday
The Casted Series
Casted
Spelled
The Six Series
The Summer I Fell (Book 1)
End Note (Book 2)
Relevance (Book 2.5)
If Ever I Fall (Book 3)
The Vows We Make (Book 4)
Fall With Me (Book 5 - Coming Fall 2017)
Game of Hearts Novels
By Sonya Loveday & Candace Knoebel
Love Always
Runaway Heart
When Two Hearts Collide
Swoonworthy Standalones
What It Takes
Relevance (The Six Series, book 2.5) Page 12