Page 109 of Call You Mine

“Yes, Damon. I’ll marry you. I’ll be your wife, and together, we’ll make this baby the happiest it can ever be. Because I fucking love you, Damon Drake. I do now, I did back then. Always and forever, baby.”

Epilogue

WYNTER

Six months later

Why we waited this long, I have no goddamn clue. I’m two seconds away from having a complete meltdown and saying screw everything and walking out of here butt fucking naked. I’m huge, ridiculously swollen and nothing fits me, which is making me completely miserable. Yet today is supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

My wedding.

Today I get to marry the man of my dreams and my best friend, Damon Drake, and become Wynter Drake. However, all I can think about is how I’m about ready to drive myself down to the hospital and demand the doctors pry this baby out of me.

“Wynter, please, sit still and I can tug this zipper shut,” Scarlett says, as she tries and fails to get the damn zipper to close.

Beside her Ruby, chuckles as she applies yet another coat of red lipstick. “Your boobs are fucking huge, babe,” she says, smacking her lips together.

“As is the rest of me, Drake. Now shut up and help Scarlett get this dang dress closed before I run down the aisle toward your brother without it or anything else on.”

Ruby doesn’t budge, instead sits her ass down on the bed and watches us amused by the whole debacle. “That would be a sight to see,” Ruby jokes, but Stella beats me to it and smacks her across the head.

“Focus, Ruby. We have a bridal emergency. If we don’t get this…” Stella pauses, and I know she’s carefully thinking about what she’s going to say next. “Beautiful woman dressed and down the aisle in the next three minutes, a furious and very scary dragon is going to come for us.”

Looking in the mirror in front of me, I glare at my four bridesmaids, dressed in the light blue gowns they each chose for the occasion. I opted out of matching dresses and gave them the freedom to choose their own unique style, and I have to say it matches them completely. Scarlett, who to everyone’s surprise, I chose as my maid of honor, is wearing a gorgeous off the shoulder gown perfectly fitted around her waist and falling straight down to her feet. Jade’s gown is a mermaid cut with a strapless corset bodice while Stella’s is a simpler heart-shaped neckline with small cap sleeves and a flowy skirt. The three of them were ecstatic for the opportunity to get all dolled up for the occasion, since they claim motherhood and the care of children 2 and under, has impeded their social lives and old partying ways.

Then there’s Ruby, a perfect example of someone who has not allowed motherhood or any relationship in general, get in the way of her social life. Dressed in a provocative low cut strapless dress that falls straight to the floor with a thigh-high slit, my future sister-in-law looks incredible and is making meextremely envious. Not only because I’m currently at least thirty pounds heavier, her dress is exactly like something I’d have chosen for myself.

Instead, I’m here hating her for wearing it while I look like a fucking cupcake in the bohemian style ball gown I was forced to wear when the dress I’d originally purchased no longer fit.

I wasn’t supposed to get married today. We were supposed to wait until after the baby was born and I couldn’t once again see my feet, yet Damon came to me two weeks ago and said he couldn’t wait any longer.

So here we are, wrestling with this gown in Scarlett's guest room, while Damon waits along the beach with our closest family and friends.

I couldn’t deny that it was nearly impossible for me to continue waiting, but the way things have been going this morning, this can’t be a good sign.

“I got it,” Scarlett exclaims, at the same time all the oxygen leaves my lungs. The beautiful off the shoulder top is ruched just above my bump, making the hugs look graceful underneath the layers of glimmering icy blue fabric. I opted out of wearing white and instead went for a cooler a shade or two lighter than the one I chose for the girls.

“It’s time,” my niece Caeli shouts out, as she and Sapphire rush out of the room in their matching tulle dresses, running after Onyx like the toddlers they are. Scarlett calls it the Terrifying Two’s, as you never know which version of the kid you’re going to get.

“One second she’s the sweetest angel you’ll ever meet, the next the woman is a vicious piranha who might just snap a finger off if you get too close,” Scarlett says, picking up a sleeping Loki and wrapping him in the baby carrier she’ll be weaning during the ceremony.

Stella picks up nine-month-old Ember in her arms and adjusts the small white flower headband she wears on her bright auburn hair. “I just hope my darling ember skips that stage and stays the sweet little baby she currently is.”

Ruby chuckles as she throws her arm over my shoulder. “I can’t wait to see my brother’s mini me spewing fire from his mouth as he races down the halls of your house, wreaking havoc like my brother once did.”

My face pales at the vision my future sister-in-law has just thrown at me. “Not helping, Ruby,” Jade says, tugging the woman out of the room with her before I get the chance to strangle her, making me even more anxious than I already am.

Scarlett reaches for my hands and cups them both in hers. Her eyes find mine, bright blue and almost the same shade of the sapphire jewel dangling from her neck. Her black hair is sleek straight down her back, the same unruly locks atop her sweet baby boy’s head. My brother lost the genetic game with those two. They both have their mother's stark black hair, though I know he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It will all be fine, Wynter. You’re marrying the man you love, who, regardless of what you currently think, loves you no matter what you look like. I’m sure he’d marry you instantly if you ran down the aisle naked, if only to get you back upstairs and all alone quicker.”

“I know Scarlett, it’s just…” I pause, my emotions threatening to break the hormonal dam that hasn’t remained shut for over twenty minutes in the last month. “When I was a little girl, I imagined this day a lot differently. Actually, if I’m honest, I don’t quite remember what it looked like. But just earlier this year, I never once thought something like this could happen to me. That I’d have someone, more than one someone, who cared enough to stand by my side. I never thought I’d have my brotherback, let alone a sister and a whole family who stood by my side as I married the man I’ve loved since the day I met him.”

“We’re all here because we love you, Wynter. We love Damon, we love your baby boy. You three are our family, forever and always. It’s taken so much for us to all get to this point. Violence, trauma, solitude all to find where we truly belong. No one will ever keep us apart any more. When we love, we love hard and we love forever.”

“Thank you Scarlett. For loving my brother, for accepting and loving me.”

“No need to thank family, Wyn.” She reaches a finger out to dry a stray tear that falls down my cheek. “Now let's go get you married.”

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