Page 114 of Sully

“Yeah, his poor, virgin ears,” Sully said, giving my hair a little tug, then stepping away. “Well, if it’s not here by dinner time, we’re going to the store to get a copy.”

“We don’t need two copies of the same book.”

“Sure we do. It’s important to support the arts.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“You love it.”

I did.

More than I even knew I was capable of.

He was everything I never knew I wanted. Someone who not only celebrated me for exactly who I was, but also helped me explore things that I never would have on my own.

Karaoke and paintball, midnight margaritas and poker, aerial playgrounds and paddle boards.

Sully had opened the whole world up to me.

But he still loved nothing more than to sit beside me and paint trinkets or do puzzles.

“Hey, there it is!” Sully called as I heard the beeping of the delivery truck backing into the driveway. “Get over here and give me my smut!” he called as he rushed out the door.

And, of course, he loved to share his smut with me.

Sully - 4 years

“We should go to the hospital,” I said as Bonnie did her hee-hee-hoo breaths, half bent forward with a hand on her lower back.

“We have rescheduled this no fewer than four times,” she reminded me, her brow starting to pebble with sweat.

“Maybe we can just… get the preacher to come and do this bedside at the hospital.”

“I didn’t let the girls fuss over my hair and makeup for three hours to give up this close to the finish line,” she said, nodding toward where the couple before us were sealing their vows with a kiss.

We were likely just hours away from having our second kid, but we still hadn’t gotten around to the whole ‘making it official’ thing.

It simply hadn’t been a priority for us.

At first, there had been so many things in the world I wanted to show her. Then, we’d been focusing on the house. After that, we had our first kid to completely consume our time.

When we found out our second was on the way, Bonnie had been adamant that we finally get married before they came.

Unfortunately, there’d been some club shenanigans that made the first attempt fail. Then, of course, we’d had a bug go through the house. And, finally, a damn hurricane had thwarted the third attempt.

Now, she was in labor.

It was like the damn universe didn’t want us to get married, despite having been together literally since that first day she walked into the clubhouse.

“Dude, are you inlabor?” Vi asked in a hushed voice when she turned back to hand Bonnie her bouquet of wildflowers.

“It’s fine. I can do this,” she said, grabbing my arm, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. “Come on,” shedemanded through gritted teeth, leaning heavily on me as we walked toward the justice of the peace.

“Everything okay here?” he asked, watching Bonnie lean forward and hee-hee-hoo again.

“Yeah. Just might want to just cut to theCliffsNotesfor us,” I said, transferring our toddler to Layna so my hand was free to reach for the rings.

“Yes, yes, yes. For God’s sake, yes,” Bonnie hissed to the justice of the peace as her face contorted in pain.

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