Page 131 of Forged By Sacrifice

I didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, as we removed ourselves to the hotel downtown, and Jenna and I went into party-planning mode. We held the bachelorette party that night at the bar, and I almost expected the men to show up. Almost hoped the men would show up, but Ava said she’d threatened Eli with a month without sex if he dared. She’d sent him a list of perfectly acceptable bars in Corpus Christi, but he’d insisted they’d just get drunk at the house.

On Friday, after Jenna and I drowned our hangovers with greasy food that Ava refused to eat, we set to decorating the suite at the hotel for her bridal shower. We were joined by Eli’s mom and their family friend, Leena. Jenna’s mom was there, and Lacey from the bar. Even Dani showed up, and she hugged me while purposefully dropping Mac’s name a half a dozen times to the others in the room. It was a small shower, but it was the women who Ava loved most in the world.

Ava had a cute little baby bump that was hardly noticeable if you didn’t know she was pregnant. I was sitting next to her as she unwrapped gifts, and she suddenly grabbed my hand and set it on her stomach where I felt the baby’s tiny movements against my palm. I gasped and then smiled, but then I wondered what my baby would look like if Mac were the father. What if…

I got to see one of my closest friends turn to tears as her mother-in-law gave her a ring to wear on her right hand that had once been her ring when she married Eli’s father. And I wondered what Mac’s mom would say to me if we were getting married. What if…

On Saturday, I got to help Ava into her wedding dress, knowing she was anxious to see Eli again after two days apart. That she was dying to see his expression when she walked barefoot down the sand outside their house in a white dress that was elegant and graceful but all spunky Ava in the flips and curves. And I wondered what Mac’s expression would be if I was walking down the aisle toward him in a white dress. What if…

But nothing mattered once I showed up with Ava in the limo at their house and saw Mac waiting there for us in another tux. He opened the limo door and helped Ava out, and then Jenna, and then I was touching him, and my body rejoiced. Happiness filled me as I looked up into his blue eyes and saw a curious mix of emotions in his, which had me hoping there could be more to us than a story of a man and a woman who’d met but had let the world tear them apart.

I hoped there would be no more what-ifs.

I hoped there would only be a reality that was a dream.

“Georgie,” he breathed out in that deep voice of his that still sent waves down my spine, even more so because of the absence of it over the last few weeks.

“Mac-Macauley.” I smiled, and I saw the emotions in his eyes change to hope, and my heart leaped.

The wedding planner came bustling up and shooed us down to the beach. But Mac hadn’t let go of my hand as he led the way. We halted at the dunes. We could hear the music playing and the chatter of the people who were sitting in the chairs. It was a small wedding. Eli’s tiny family and Ava’s almost nonexistent one. Andy, who was more like a dad to Ava than her real dad, showed up in time to walk Ava down the aisle. Truck held out his arm for Jenna, and Mac twisted the hand he still held so it was laying on his arm.

Mac and I were the first to walk down the aisle.

“You’re breathtaking,” he said quietly, and I smiled up at him, unable to stop. Unsure if the smile would ever disappear from my face throughout the day. So many good things to celebrate. Hoping beyond hope that this all meant that Mac and I would be one of them.

“You clean up pretty nice yourself, Mac-Macauley.”

We parted ways at the end of the red carpet, Mac going to stand behind his friend, and me going to the spot marked on the sand by the seashells the wedding planner had used instead of flowers. I looked at Eli, whose eyes were glued to the aisle. He didn’t look nervous at all. He just looked joyful, and when he saw Ava on Andy’s arm, his whole face broke into a euphoric smile. It made him more handsome than when he was serious, but when I looked behind him to Truck and then Mac, my entire body was caught up in a blue gaze that had locked onto me. The entire wedding disappeared until it was just Mac and me on the beach where we’d first started to get to know each other.

While Eli and Ava exchanged their vows and their rings with words that stole my breath at their sweetness, I was still watching Mac, and he was still watching me, his large, beautiful smile drowning me. He was gorgeous. A gazillion points of gorgeousness.

During the wedding pictures, we had moments when we almost got to touch and speak but not quite. It was tantalizing, the anticipation hanging in the air between us. We journeyed back to town to a reception at the bar with Truck, Jenna, her husband Colby, Andy, and Lacey. The bar was closed for our private party. The first time the bar had been closed on a Saturday evening ever.

Once we got to the bar, Brady cornered me for a while, catching up on his tour and the behind-the-scenes gossip from Fighting for the Stars. Dani appeared next to me, and I hugged her while she listened on as Brady talked. I watched Mac over Brady’s head, half hearing what Brady was saying. Mac watched me, his smile from earlier starting to glower the longer I spent at Brady’s side. I winked at Mac, and I swear his whole face tore at the grin that took over it.

Brady left to go sing a song he’d written for the bride and groom about love lasting longer than the tides. It was good, but it wasn’t an Ava song.

And then, finally, Mac was at my side again, twining his fingers in mine and pulling me onto the dance floor. The song was slow and moody as he turned me into him. My entire body sighed. That’s what it felt like. Relief to be in his arms again after the ache of not being there. Of being apart.

“I’m redeeming my favor,” he said.

This caught me off guard. “I think you already did.”

“But you never granted it,” he said, all seriousness, but I could see the sparkle of mischief in his eyes.

“A dance is your favor?” I smiled up at him.

He chuckled. “Not hardly. I need you to hear me out. Can you do that here, or do we need to go somewhere else?”

I didn’t respond. I put my forehead on his chest, afraid of what I would say or not say. Afraid I’d let the what-ifs burden me down again. My heart was pounding because I so desperately wanted to hear what he had to say. I wanted to believe that the look I’d seen in his eyes all day was the same look that had been in his eyes when he’d said he loved me.

He drew me from the dance floor, through the storage closet, and up the ladder to the roof. The sun had faded, turning the sky deep purple. The wind had picked up, and I shivered. Mac ran his fingers up and down my arms, but it made the goosebumps worse instead of better.

“Georgie, no job?political, military, or otherwise?is enough for me to give up you,” he said, and my heart sped up, feeling like it was going to jump out of my chest. But it was hard to see his expression in the twilight.

“You’ve already reenlisted,” I heard myself say when I really wanted to say, “Thank God.”

“I can go down right now and have Eli and Truck break my leg for me. Get out just like Eli got out.”

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