Page 33 of With You

Shade chuckled, holding my hands tightly in his.

I could feel all eyes on us but all I could do was focus on my husband.

“I never told you this, but I fell in love with you after that phone call you had with Sunny. The one where you gave him the push he needed to take things further with me. You were never jealous of what we had. You never once questioned our feelings for you. The only thing you wanted were the details.” He winked.

I smiled, my cheeks heating.

“I love you, Meadow, and I promise to spend the rest of my life showing you how much. I promise to take care of you, Andrew, this new baby, and all our future babies.”

Gasps sounded around the crowd.

“Uh...surprise.” I laughed.

Shade pulled me into his arms. “I’ll keep the dirtier vows for later tonight,” he murmured against my hair.

“Shade.” I cupped his face. “I know most people wait until their ten-year anniversary or later to renew their vows but thank you for doing it on this day. I can almost hear Sunny saying get on with it already so we can party.”

“And fuck,” Shade whispered.

“Yeah.” I giggled. “That too.” I paused, staring up at him. The man I gave my life to. The man who gave me a son. He became the most incredible father and I could see both him and Sunny in that little boy. “I promise to love you, to never go to bed angry, to finally talk about my feelings instead of keeping them bottled up, and to be there whenever you’re feeling down because you’re missing him.”

“I promise the same,” Shade murmured, his eyes shining.

I brought Shade’s hand up to my mouth, kissing his ring finger. “I love you.”

“And I love you.” Shade pulled me back into his arms, pushing his face into the crook of my neck. “Forever and always. No matter what, I will always love you, live for you, breathe for you. I fucking exist because of you.”

A sob left me, the rest of the words I wanted to say, no longer able to fall from my lips but I hugged Shade, hoping that he could feel them.

Shade

Our emotions were rawas we watched everyone mingle, drink, and party. We were now at the Hell’s Harlem clubhouse but neither Meadow nor I were feeling it. We appreciated our family and friends celebrating with us but we just wanted to be alone.

I found myself dreaming of Sunny often. I could only assume it was because I missed him. His brooding and dominating ways, his love for the wordfuck,and his need to protect Meadow.

“Hey you two.” Greyson Mercer came toward us with two drinks in hand. “Eve made a fruity drink with no alcohol for you both. I prefer beer but it’s actually pretty good.”

We took the drinks from him, muttering our thanks.

“How are you doing?” The former president of Hell’s Harlem, wasn’t usually a talker but I knew that he missed Sunny just the same. It was hard for everyone who knew him. He had that way and memories of him would always linger on your soul no matter how much you tried to forget it.

“I’m sad because I miss him, but I also feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.” Meadow met my gaze. “Does that make sense? I think doing the ceremony on this day specifically helped.”

I nodded. “I think so too.” I kissed her temple. “We’ll always miss him. That’ll never change.”

“I know.” She sighed.

“He was a good guy,” Greyson added, sitting across from us in the booth. “I remember when I first met him. He was only a couple of years younger than I was, but he had a scowl on his face that would put mine to shame.”

“That’s hard to believe.” Eve, Greyson’s wife, came up to the table and sat beside her husband.

“It’s true.” Greyson chuckled. “I asked him what his deal was. He came back and asked if I was going to tell him what my issue was. Of course I didn’t. But I respected the hell out of him that he called me out on my shit.”

“So that’s why you fell in love with me.” Eve laughed. “I called you out on your shit.”

Greyson looked my way and winked before leaning down to his wife’s ear. He muttered something that put a flush in her cheeks and a smile on her lips.

“I want that,” I told Meadow.

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