Page 16 of Raven's Hacker
F O U R T E E N: Hit after hit.
Hacker’s POV
One year later…
I was standing at the end of the aisle, waiting for my girl to officially become my Old Lady. Prez was presiding over the whole affair. As the music started, and the bridesmaids started making their way down, I thought back on this last year. My whole heart felt like it was swollen when she said she could see us living in the house I bought from Bullet. It was beautiful. Becca had designed it, and I told her I thought it was her wheelhouse. Bullet had started over, buying another plot of land, and seeing what the lot could handle, house-wise. We moved into our house as soon as we took Ryder to see it. He wanted to pick out his new room. After he picked his room out, we started ordering stuff for our new home. Most of the furniture was ordered, but all the extras that make it a home?
I waited to pick out those. Those were for family votes. Raven called a moving company that would also pack up everything and have it delivered here. She didn’t even want to go back to collect it herself. Some of the furniture we’d ordered, we put a rush on it since her parents were due to be here any day now. We were going to have a busy next couple of days getting everything ready.
That was their first visit. Soon after, they were planning on retiring and moving here. When that happened, they livedjust a ten-minute drive from the compound. They were over every day, or we were visiting them. We’d been living together for six months, together for almost a year, and had known each other for about eighteen months, when I asked her the most important question of my life.
We were on a date night, and I’d taken her to an arcade bar that had all the old school games from our childhoods. I thought it would be a ton of fun. On each floor of this bar, they had something else to do. The first floor was the arcade, the second floor was bowling, the third floor was laser tag, and the roof was just a rooftop bar with lots of seating and lighting. It looked over the rest of the city, and you could see all the lights and people down below, and in my mind, it was romantic.
We were standing by the railing at the rooftop bar when I went down on one knee, grabbing her hand, begging her to marry me. I promised her every piece of me, forever. I promised to love and cherish both her and Ryder like the priceless treasures they were. I asked, then backtracked, and begged.
“Please marry. I’m not above begging. Because there’s really no one better on this planet for me who could ever be anything more or better than you. Marry me. Be my wife.” Holding the little ring out to her, hoping it was to her taste.
I would never forget how she smiled at me. It was lighting up everything around us. She had tears in her eyes, nodding her head, unable to speak, holding her hand out to me. I slipped the ring on and stood. Picking her up, kissing her, and spinning her. She was mine. All mine forever. Cheers broke out around us as onlookers congratulated us. I blushed, but proudly held her hand.
“She said yes!” I shouted, causing more cheers to ring out, and people offered to buy us drinks to celebrate.
As the music changed, it brought me back to the presentmoment. The moment my wife would walk down to me on the arm of her stepdad. I took a deep breath, and when Prez nodded, I turned around, my breath catching in my throat as tears spilled over my eyes.
There she was.
My beautiful bride was walking toward me, looking like an angel straight from heaven, as “Still Falling for You” by Ellie Goulding played. She had tears in her eyes, like she did every time this song came on her playlist, as she sang to me. Every time. Without fail. She was letting me know she’d never get enough of me. She sang it to me and showed me how she felt damn near every day since that first FaceTime call eighteen months ago. She had fallen in love the same time I did. Maybe I fell before then.
But I knew it at that moment. I knew she was it.
As Jefferson handed her off to me, I could feel more tears lining my eyes. I was madly in love with this woman. The only woman I had ever loved. She made mefeel. And it was all good things, even when times were hard. She leaned her head toward me, whispering.
“You look so handsome.” Giving me a wink, making me blush. We went through all the legally required shit, and finally got to our vows which we had chosen to write ourselves. I was up first. Taking a deep breath, I pulled my vows out of my pocket. Holding her hand in one hand, my vows in the other, I looked her in the eyes.
“Raven. Your name matches your looks perfectly. You came into my life with all your chaos, and it seemed to calm mine. You stole my heart the minute I heard your voice.I'm pretty sure my mind melted the first time I saw you on FaceTime, making me as red as a tomato. The first time I met you, I swear my heart skipped a couple of beats." I chuckled at her, "You're the light in my life. The good, the shelter from the bad, is in your arms. You are my home. You are my safe haven. I love you, now and forever." I am blinking back tears as hers flow freely down her face, making her look even more angelic.
“Beckam,” she started, her voice watery, “You are a kind, caring, beautiful soul. I know I was prickly when we first started talking. I was standoffish when we first started talking on the phone, but you were patient. You waited for me to come to you. You were the perfect friend. Then you started to be more. I realized I was in love with you the minute you went into fix-it mode with Ryder. The minute I saw the compassion and care in your every thought with both of us in mind, I knew I loved you more than words could ever describe. I knew in that moment, you’d be an amazing father to Ryder and our future child.” She grabbed my hand, putting it on her stomach. I felt my eyes get wide, my mouth hanging open.
“Really?” That’s all I could get out. She nodded, and I dropped to my knees. I clutched her waist, crying into her stomach. She was making me a dad again.
Fuck. This woman was more than amazing.
She leaned down and kissed me, Prez announcing us as husband and wife, and mother and father! There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Ryder came up to us at dinner with a gift and the microphone. He handed me a package, asking me to open it. He started talking, his eleven-year-old voice wavering only slightly.
“So, as you all know, Raven is my mom. What you may not know is that Beckam, or Hacker as some of you know him,helped us to get away from my dad. He hurt my mom, and then he hurt me. He’d promise to be there, and then he’d never show up. He wouldn’t answer my phone calls,” He sniffled. I was ready to go hug him. I paused opening my present to make sure he was okay. He looked at me, motioning for me to open it before he started talking again.
“The first time I met him, I was really upset, but he showed me the gaming space he set up for us to play in together. And then he and all the guys showed me their bikes. Which are super cool,” that got some chuckles from the guys. “He was there for me more in one weekend than my bio dad had been for over a year.” He looked at me. I looked from him to the gift.
I could see the tears brimming in my eyes. I looked at him, questions all over my face, tears streaming down my cheeks, as he asked the one thing I was not prepared for.
“Will you be my dad?” I stood up and quickly wrapped him in a hug.
“I already am, buddy. I am. But I’m happy to give you my last name, too. I love you, bud.” He cried into me when we felt Raven wrapping us in a hug. Kai came over, holding up the paperwork.
“I’ll take care of this first thing Monday morning. By Tuesday, Ryder should be officially your son,” he did that tiny smile thing he does, and walked back to his family.
“Heaven” by Niall Horan played on the speakers, and everyone came out on the dance floor to congratulate us. The kids are all playing with Ryder, too. My son. I have a son. A wife. And one on the way.
How…how is this my life?
