Page 51 of Lines We Cross
“Skylar Rae, I’ve loved you since we were kids. I’ve watched you grow up, treating you like my own little sister. I could regret leaving you for twelve years while I went off and played baseball or I could see it as the ultimate gift in timing that it was. You grew up into an independent woman who didn’t need a man to complete her. I came home and fell in love with you all over again, this time as a woman. As the mother of my future children, God willing.”
He knelt down on one knee and pulled my hands into his. My breath came faster and faster, the moment every girl dreams of barreling in before I could even think. I began to shake as my body couldn’t contain all the emotions charging through my veins.
“Let’s not waste any more time, my love. Make me the happiest man alive and marry me?” His hands gripped me tighter as his shoulders hiked up near his ears. For a flash of a second I wondered how a hotshot baseball player with leagues of fans was down on one knee, nervous to ask me, the small-town girl, to marry him.
My heart grew twice its size, filling my eyes with tears and my soul with contentment. This was everything that was right in the world. This moment. This man. This future we’d build together.
“Yes to all of that,” I stated confidently, not a waver or moment of hesitation in my answer.
Max grabbed the black box, clicked the lid open, and fished out a huge ring. The center stone caught the light streaming between the pine trees and made dots of color dance off my shirt. He slid the cool metal onto my left ring finger and stood, wrapping me in his arms. I started laughing, nerves and pure joy needing an escape hatch.
That is, until he untangled our arms and cupped my face, pulling me into a kiss that stole my breath and my ability to think. His lips were hot on mine, nibbling at my lower lip and then sealing tight. The brush of his thumbs cleared the tears that escaped down my cheeks.
“Happy tears?” he asked against my mouth in between kisses.
I nodded, my lips brushing his. “Definitely.”
Epilogue
Epilogue - Max
Two Saturdays before school got out for the summer, I found myself standing in a full suit under a white archway decked out in flowers and white tulle. My tie itched my neck and a bead of sweat threatened to run down the side of my forehead. The sounds of my neighbors and friends taking their seats on the folding white chairs set up on the green lawn overlooking the ocean did little to calm my nerves.
Heath, Ryder, and Jase stood beside me in their matching suits and ties. I’d never been more grateful for my brothers. They not only stood in solidarity with me on my wedding day, but they’d moved their whole lives back to Nickel Bay to reunite our group. They also spent all day yesterday helping me move Rae’s stuff into my four-bedroom house while she relaxed at Uncertain Tea, the bed-and-breakfast in Nickel Bay that also had the only spa in town. While we sweated and toiled and almost pulled our backs, the girls got pedicures, massages, and had things done to their hair I could neither pronounce nor discern from what they did to it on a normal day. My brothers were the very best men a groom could ask for.
“Stop pulling at your shirt,” Heath whispered loudly.
I gave him a dirty look, but quit fidgeting. It wasn’t that hot out really. I was just nervous. No, scratch that. I wasn’t nervous at all. I was eager. Eager to get this ceremony going and make Rae mine. We had a life to build and I wasn’t waiting a second longer to do it.
I took a single step forward to make my way down the aisle to hurry along the bridesmaids. I came to an immediate halt when the pianist from church started playing the song we’d designated for the start of the ceremony. She’d set the keyboard up just outside the back door of the church, a long extension cord reaching all the way to the speakers set up around the gathering.
Louisa, a nine-year-old patient of Rae’s who’d come to mean a lot to her, came strutting down the aisle, dropping pink rose petals as she went. Her hair was shorter than most boys at her school, a by-product of the cancer she was diagnosed with that required chemotherapy. She’d beat her diagnosis and then worked with Rae so faithfully, she came down the runner without even a limp in the leg that had contained the bone cancer.
Nickel Bay had rallied around little Louisa and her family, doing what they could to support them during her treatment and recovery. What they couldn’t cover of the medical expenses, I did. Not even Rae knew about that donation, however, and I wanted to keep it that way. I wasn’t a celebrity here in Nickel Bay, just another small-town boy who came back to coach at the high school he graduated from.
Lacey, Ava, and Kadee came down the aisle one by one in their dusty pink bridesmaids’ dresses. Kadee waited until she got to the final row of chairs before she glared at Heath. I appreciated her restraint. The three ladies were beautiful, but I only noticed them in the way I noticed a pretty flower blooming. I noticed my brothers couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off of them, especially Heath who would only take Kadee’s obvious dislike as a personal challenge. I wouldn’t have noticed the extra attention at all, except Anna had brought it up the other day, wanting me to help her make a few more love matches. I politely declined.
The music changed to the wedding march and my attention narrowed to the end of the aisle, my eyes straining for the first glimpse of my bride. The blood pumped through my veins in time with the song. A vision in white lace appeared around the corner, stepping onto the petal-strewn runner, her arm hooked into the crooked elbow of her father, Mitch, who looked exactly like an older version of Emerson.
Heath grabbed my arm and pulled me back to the arch of flowers, the first clue I had that I’d started to move down the aisle, wanting to be with Rae faster than her legs could carry. My vision wavered. I blinked hard, wanting to take in every detail. The way Rae’s smile looked like it was lit by the sun, radiating out of her at full wattage, yet it wobbled a bit at the edges. Her brown eyes had the same leakage problem mine had, but she made no move to wipe it away. Her dress fit her fine form like a glove, the delicate white lace highlighting her tan skin. Her hair that I loved so much was curled artfully, the sun overhead kissing the strands to highlight the red.
What seemed a decade later she finally appeared in front of me, her father kissing her cheek and handing her over to me. She squeezed my hand tight and winked at me, setting my veins on fire.
Pastor Smith started the ceremony and I heard not one word. I was transfixed by Skylar Rae Mulholland, the most beautiful woman in the whole world. I should know. I’d been across the globe the last decade. She was by far the best thing in life. And she was standing there vowing to love me forever. She would hold the title for most beautiful woman and I’d be dubbed the luckiest man in the world.
She said I do, I said I do. Rings went onto fingers and before Rae could back out of this horribly inequitable arrangement, Pastor Smith said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Rae smiled, tears overflowing down her cheeks and I took another picture in my head to remember forever. And then I was moving, pulling her into me, whispering how much I loved her before I tipped her over my arm and planted a kiss on her not suitable for church. Thankfully, we were outside under the blue sky and based on the whoops and hollers, no one was too shocked.
* * *
“Where’s your girlfriend?” Ava shouted over the music at the reception. Couples danced out on the wood dance floor under the strings of white lights. The DJ kept the tunes coming and Nickel Bay youth didn’t call it a night until the first rays of sun hit the horizon signaling a new day. Most of the older generation had left, except our parents who probably only stayed to make sure no one imbibed too much and made a poor decision to get behind the wheel.
Ryder tossed his hair out of his face, surprised by Ava actually talking to him. She rarely did, preferring to chat only with the girls.
“Oh, um, I don’t have a girlfriend,” he replied calmly.
Ava snorted quite loudly. “Okaaay. So the picture of you making out with Kyly Stone last weekend was just a onetime thing?”
