Only Forever (9 page)

Our lazy beach vacation has been perfect. The weekend is almost over, and I don’t want tonight to end. Tomorrow we go back home, and I can’t help but remember the last time we were together at the shore, when everything was so out of control and so perfect simultaneously.

Cally’s asleep, and I’m lounging in Grayson’s arms outside on the deck overlooking the beach, feeling as though this night is supposed to make up for the one when he left me. There’s a glass of wine in my hand, and the baby monitor sits on the nearby table. The stars shine overhead, and a cool breeze rolls over us. I tug up the blanket and let the heavy weight of his arms tuck me in and hold me tight.

My shoulders are a tiny bit sunburned, and we’ve grilled for almost every meal since we arrived—basically, my beach-time ideal. “This is how you’re supposed to do a vacation.”

“Hooah to that.”

His breath tickles my neck, and I snuggle closer. Grayson has taken up wearing his board-shorts uniform that I love, and I haven’t for a single moment taken for granted how ruggedly handsome he is
and
how amazingly sweet he is to Cally. Life is perfect in a way that I never saw coming. “Love you, baby. Thank you for this.”

“Pretty mama, it’s you that deserves the thanks.” His lips press to the back of my head before he takes a pull from his beer.

The ocean crashes around us. “Did you think we’d ever be at the beach again?”

“I don’t know,” he murmurs. “I thought about what was best for you last time we were at the beach together, and I got it wrong that time. I’m not going to try and predict the future again. Maybe I’ll just pray I get it right.”

I shift to gaze up at him and touch his cheek, letting the weekend’s worth of scruff scratch my fingertips. “Everything was supposed to happen for a reason.”

“I’m a lucky bastard you think like that.”

My head tilts. “I think like that, and every day I wake up to you, I smile at all I have.”

“At every hurdle we’ve cleared.”

“Yup.” I sip my wine and burrow against him. “Want to go inside?”

“Not yet.”

“What
do
you want to do?” I ask, teasing him because there is something I definitely want to do, and it involves going inside and losing the remainder of our clothes.

“Just sit here for a few more minutes.” He sighs, holding me firmly, then breathes in deeply. “So, you like your camera?”

It hasn’t been out of reach, and I’ve been completely addicted to it, starting with the ride out to the beach and through every moment since. “Of course I do. I love it. You’re too generous, baby.”

He chuckles against me. “Got any good pics?”

“I think so. Maybe I’ll wake up early and grab a couple at sunrise before we leave.” I cast my gaze into the black, inky ocean. “I got a couple super-cute ones tonight while you guys were grilling.” Grayson and Cally made dinner with aprons over their bathing suits. Cally mixed her bowls on the ground, sitting across from him while he manned the meat and veggies.

I reach for my camera, curious about how those turned out. I flick the switch on and turn the setting to show the photos on the small screen. There are a couple of pictures I don’t recognize of Cally making faces into the lens very,
very
close up. I laugh. “Snugglebug got the camera when we weren’t looking.”

He shifts us so we can both see. Slowly, I start clicking through the pictures. More Snugglebug pics, then there are some of Cally
and
Grayson. “Busted. You were there!”

Laughing, he whispers against my neck, “Guess so.”

Then one by one, I click through. Cally and Grayson pose in their daddy-daughter selfies. Then they hold a piece of paper between them with Grayson’s outstretched arm holding the camera. Black ink clearly stands out in block letters.

Will

What the…? I click to the next picture, sure that this is not what I think it is.

You

Oh my God…

Marry me?

I spin toward him. “Gray!”

His smile shines in the light from the camera’s screen. “We had an art project while you went to the store.”

“You’re asking me to marry you!”

“We are.”

We
are.
God.
Shit, shoot, shit
. My heart can’t take too much more of a good thing.

This guy nails us with everything he says every time he tries. I can barely breathe through the rush of happiness. I’m choking on surprise tears and throwing my arms around his neck. “Of course I want to marry you.”

His body shifts as his arm reaches down, below our chair, and his hand returns with a small box. He flips the lid open with his thumb, and there shines in the moonlight the most perfect ring. It’s not classic—it doesn’t have a single diamond—but it’s so me.

“For you, baby.” He pulls me to his mouth, and I kiss him, packing as much emotion as I can convey. The camera slides to my side, and my hands clutch his face. He drops the ring box between us, and his fingers thread into my hair, tugging just enough to make it hurt, just enough to make me bite his lips.

“I’ve always wanted to be your wife.”

“Good answer,” he growls.

“Now,
I promise you
, it’s time to take me inside.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

One Year Later…

Grayson

“You ready, buddy?” Ryder lines up a row of shot glasses on the coffee table. “Move boots, boys. We’ve got places to go.”

Brock walks by and smacks me on the side of my head as I push off my couch. “Easy there, killer.” I pretend to smooth down my hair. Then I join the guys standing around my living room.

Javier. Colin. Ryder. Ryan.

Groomsman. Groomsman. Groomsman. Best Man. Plus a couple of others.
Fuck me.
What a solid bunch of men to share this day with.

Ryder pours scotch for each of them and raises his glass. “To those you love, those you’ve lost, and those you’d die to see again. Cheers to getting the girl you’ve always wanted.”

The room fills with
hooah
s and
hooyah
s, then we throw down the shots. A couple of back slaps later, I nod. “Let’s do this.”

Emma and I opted to get married at our new home. Cally calls it her castle. Ems calls it our forever home. I don’t know if the place needs more of a name besides
mine
to go along with everything inside it. My house. My girls. Shit,
my heart
pounds in my chest, and I’m ready to claim my woman as my wife.

We move from the living room, where the walls have Cally’s framed art and Emma’s photography hanging proudly. There’s artsy, handmade stuff all throughout as we head toward the back and pass a sign that says Ford Family, and then there’s another that we pass in the kitchen that says, “Happiness is Homemade.” But it’s not just her artistic touch that makes this place amazing—it’s that Emma struggled over every detail, from the carpet to the paint on the walls, and the result rocks.

Just like this wedding. She wanted it close-knit and homemade, to make memories and to celebrate. I don’t need the ceremony any more than I need this house. These walls aren’t my home; my home is living and breathing. It’s my family, my life—everything I ever wanted and was too scared to go after. Emma and Cally are it for me. Where they are, I will go. They will always know how much they are loved and protected and that each breath I suck down is dedicated to making them the center of my world.

“No, no.” Ryder’s growling voice pulls me from my thoughts. “Well, shit. Everyone out.”

“What?” I’m pulling the tail of our group. They keep going straight to the back deck, but I turn around to see—
Emma
.

Her white-lace dress is fitted down her body, leaving her arms bare, and she carries a bunch of flowers and jewels bundled together in one hand. I’m speechless. The heavy, slow thump of my heart echoes in my ears. There are no words for how I survived life to get to this point.

“Hi,” she whispers. “Couldn’t stay away.”

I snap out of my awe and take two steps to pull her into my arms. “You’re gorgeous.”

Her eyelashes bat, and her cheeks blush.

“And sexy. Christ. You’re all mine.”

She nods, her teeth tugging on a glossy pink bottom lip. “You look handsome.”

“I look like I’m yours.” Her pink smile lights my whole fuckin’ world. “You okay, Ems? What’s with this?”

“Cally told me a story before she went off with my folks.” Her eyes brim with tears. “And she gave this to me, too. She wants you have it before we start.”

Emma pulls out a picture from where she’s been holding it with the bouquet. As she unfolds it, I see our new house and, in front of it stand Cally, Emma, and me. Cally is in the middle, and we’re on either side, holding her hands, but our outside hands rise over the little figures’ heads and clasp in the air. All connected.

“Before you first came home”—her voice shakes—“she drew me a picture of our old-new house. And on it, there I was, holding her hand, but my other hand scrawled off the page.” She closes her eyes like she’s trying to keep it together. “And tonight, she told me a story about a king who was lost until two princesses came to his rescue. Eventually, they lived happily ever after.” Tears slip down her cheeks until she laughs quietly. “Oh, and the princesses had a puppy. I think that’s her way of asking for a dog.”

“Smart kid.” I swallow away the lump in my throat. “Our girl wants a puppy. Guess we’re getting a puppy.”

I take the picture from Emma’s hand and fold it neatly, sliding it in my pocket, then pull my bride to my chest and drop a quick word to the guy upstairs, who I had once thought abandoned me. Hell, I thought that more than once. I prayed for a new life, prayed for an easier struggle, but the truth is that over the years, I always focused my thoughts back on Emma.

My whole life, while I thought my pleadings were going unanswered, my saving grace was with me. She was my answer.

I take a deep breath. “I love you with my whole heart, Emma. Hope you always know that.”

She nods against my dress shirt. “You’re my everything.”

I walk us back to the kitchen table and put her in a chair then kneel in front of her. “What I have to say out there is yours to hear first.”

“What?” Her eyebrows lift, and she puts her flowers on the table.

She deserves so much more than recited lines. If I can capture a tenth of what I think… “You’ve always been by my side. From the day we met. And God knows there were years of secrets and storms and pain and tears, until I came out the other side.”

“Gray…”

“I’m a better man, and I exist for you, for us.” I hold my breath and watch her silence. “You’ve got to know there’s no more important thing I can do than to take you as my wife and Cally as our daughter.” My chest hurts; my lungs burn. My throat is tight as I choke on the decades’ worth of sentiment. “I love both of you so deeply that my survival,
my sanity
, would be gone if I couldn’t be yours.”

My voice cracks, and her lips find mine. It’s a soft kiss but packs a powerful punch. She whispers, “We’re yours forever.”

Emma

I never believed that Grayson wanted me when we were in high school until he said almost those exact words and kissed me so sweetly that years later, I still get the shivers thinking about that day in my bedroom. But tonight, I believe every word that pours from his sweet mouth.

“Come on, baby.” I stand up and press against his chest. “Let’s go get married.”

He slides his arm around me as I pick up my bouquet, and we head outside.

My dad is by the back door, and as my eyes settle on him, warmth bleeds through me. He nods to Grayson then shakes his hand. “I’d say she’s the best thing I have to give away, but she’s always been with you. Guard them with your life, son.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I have no doubt.”

Dad kisses my cheek and leaves us as I see my Mom—who I left when I detoured to see Grayson—send Cally our way.

“Look at my dress,” Cally says as she spins. The skirt fluffs out until she slows and grabs my hand. “I look like a princess!”

“Absolutely.” Gray crouches down. “You remember what to do?”

She nods enthusiastically, pointing to the side of the wraparound deck that feeds into the backyard where our guests have gathered. “Walk over there and stand near Aunt Cherry.”

“Exactly.” They exchange fist bumps, then he kisses her cheek.

This isn’t a typical wedding. No one is seated in rows. There’s not even an aisle. Instead, a semi-circled group of all kinds of people awaits us—a nod to how we want to live. The guys from the Delta team—the men Gray refers to as his brothers—wear dark suits. Then there are the other Titan families we’ve grown close to. My family is interspersed with a few close friends. I’m sure Ryan has his arm around Sarah, Cherry has caught the eye of a few of Gray’s buddies, and Mazie is drooling over the groomsman lineup.