Page 68 of Her Marine
Journee refrained from allowing the disappointment to show on her face. She hadn’t expected him to be in town for only a few hours, especially since the flight was five hours. However, she understood. Journee figured he hadn’t taken the following day off.
Instead, she smirked at him. “Too bad for you,” she responded before catching up with the others. She didn’t want to miss the proposal.
“You do?” Journee heard Kaydence’s question as she made it to the others standing just out of sight but could see Kaydence where she stood.
“I do. Two of my favorite memories of you will be in white,” Axel responded, and Journee shook her head with a smile. Okay, he was smooth or whatever.
As Kaydence went to ask him which two, she turned and found him on one knee, a gasp pushing past her lips.
“The one where you agree to be my wife and the one where you become my wife,” Axel told her. “Will you marry me, baby?”
Journee watched her friend nod before she spoke the word, and she found herself smiling at the two. She’d been confident Kaydence would say yes.
“Will you marry me today?” Axel asked, and they all took that as their cue to head over.
“You want us to elope?” Kaydence questioned.
“Not exactly,” Axel responded.
“He knows I’d have to put hands on him if I missed this day,” Courtney stated, and Kaydence turned around to look at them all.
“You’re supposed to be back in Australia,” she told her parents.
“Yes, but Axel asked us if we could extend our trip for a week,” Ian responded.
“And it was a no-brainer when he told us why he wanted us to,” Courtney added.
“You four knew about this. That’s why the dress, hair, and makeup?” Kaydence questioned.
“Guilty,” Talia responded, and Journee and the twins nodded.
“So, what do you say, baby?” Axel questioned.
“Let’s do it. Let’s get married today.”
“I was hoping you’d say that because I’d hate to have to tell all of our family members out there that we had to reschedule.” Before Kaydence could say anything, Journee watched Axel kiss her. “I’ll meet you at the altar in fifteen.”
“Let’s add some extra touches. You’ve got a hot date in a few minutes,” Journee told her, grabbing her hand and leading her toward the room they’d been in.
As they added touches to Kaydence’s dress, she questioned how long they’d known about Axel’s proposal and the surprise wedding. They’d decided not to answer her, wanting Axel to be the one to tell Kaydence that story. However, Journee was sure Kaydence knew she’d known as early as possible since Kaydence questioned if Journee planned the event, and she responded that she’d helped.
Axel put just as much work into the wedding, ceremony, and honeymoon as Journee had. Which helped with the stress she felt planning things as quickly as they had. It also helped that a small budget didn’t hinder her. Though she hadn’t cost him an arm and a leg, she wanted the wedding to be as close to what Kaydence would want.
Once they’d added the champagne belt around Kaydence’s waist, pinned her veil in her hair, and handed her bouquet to her, Journee watched her look herself over in the mirror. When she started blinking quickly, Aariah jumped up.
“No tears yet. Wait until you walk down the aisle,” she told Kaydence, tipping her chin up in hopes of keeping the tears from falling.
“What order are we going down in?” Aryah asked.
“Talia, myself, Aariah, then you,” Journee told her. “It makes sense to put us in age order after Talia.”
“I think you should go first, Journee,” Talia countered.
Journee shook her head. “No, you’re her sister. You should be her maid of honor.”
“So are the three of you,” Talia rebutted. Journee began to shake her head again, but Talia cut her off, speaking. “How about this? We’ll follow whatever Axel does. If Killian is his best man, you’ll be her maid of honor; if Jax is, I’ll do it.”
Journee nodded, and a few seconds later, Ms. Rose knocked on the door, asking if she could come in. When they gave her the go-ahead, she stepped in and took Kaydence in.
