The Sweet By and By (20 page)

Scurrying down the steps, Jade laughed. “Are you scared, cowboy?”

The JP poked his head out the door. “Don't forget the fifty-dollar fee.”

At the truck, Dustin opened the driver's side door, then swooped her into his arms. “No, I'm not scared. We're getting married, baby.”

“Pinch me, I'm dreaming.” She buried her face against him, inhaling all of his goodness.

Could this boy really want her? Straight-laced, smart, clever Dustin Colter, last year's prom king runner-up and, as he said, “wrestling stud”?

Stu, his best friend, and Rachel, Jade's best friend, jumped out of Stu's Camaro.

“Stu, I need the license.” Dustin dug around his glove box. “Didn't you see me put it in here?”

“Look at you, Jade-o. Last fall, he'd just asked you to homecoming.” Rachel slipped her arm through Jade's, smiling her trademark hooked smile.

“Shannon Bell cornered me in the restroom. Remember?”

“She was so jealous.” Rachel laughed. “Thought she had Dustin in her hip pocket.”

“This is insane.” Jade's legs shook, and the hem of her flared skirt brushed her knees. Wild. Exciting. But insane.

“I need the parents' notes. The JP wants to see them.” Dustin's head popped out from the other side of the truck. “Rach, weren't they with the license?”

“Men, good grief. Step aside.” Rachel crawled into the cab, her feet sticking out over the seat, her flip-flops slipping from her toes.

Looking back now, Jade knew she'd fallen in love with Dustin during homecoming. He never left her side that night, refusing to let other boys cut in. Turning down girls who asked him to dance.

When the DJ played Elvis singing “I Can't Help Falling in Love,” Jade nestled her head on Dustin's chest and whispered the lyrics to his heart.

As he drove her home that night, she convinced herself the midnight hour had come and her Cinderella evening was only a fairy godmother dream. Monday morning, she'd be girl-in-math-class again.

Eight months later, he proposed by a moon-washed lake after prom. Watching him by the truck, laughing over something with Stu, Jade's muscles twitched under her skin and the ground seemed to shake beneath her feet. As much as she wanted nothing—no fears or doubt, no Granny-tainted wisdom— to rob her of this perfect night, she had to remind Dustin one more time.

“Let's go.” He grabbed her hand. “Got the license, the signatures, the money. Times a-wasting. Bulls are about to tip off.”

“Dustin, wait.” Jade tugged on his belt loop, dragging him toward the thick-rooted tree in the front yard. “Let me talk to you for a second.”

“Gorgeous, can it wait?” He walked with her, stealing kisses and sneaking peeks down her top.

“Stop, listen.” She wrestled with his hands. He'd better pay attention, because after tonight, she'd never mention this again. He'd have no excuse. “Dustin.”

He backed up with a heavy breath, fixing the tuck of his shirt. “What's up? Make it quick. I'm ready to get married.”

“I just, um, wondered, you know . . .” Jade's urgent, desperate statement caught in her throat. “You could have anyone, Dustin. Any girl in Prairie City. Are you sure you want to marry me?”

“Is that what this is about?” He sobered, sliding his fingers around her neck. Heat bumps ran over her skin. “I love you, Jade. I want to marry you.” His kiss was soft at first, then hungry, wooing her to him.

When he released her, she felt mushy and ready to surrender. “But marriage?” She stammered out the last of her argument. “You're only seventeen. I'm sixteen. This is your senior year.” The power of Jade's challenge startled her, and she understood her words could convince him to change his mind.

“So what? I've always known what I wanted. Be the baseball team's pitcher? Earned the spot in one season. Want a new truck? I tossed hay bales for three summers to pay for it. When I switched from football to wrestling, everyone said I came too late to the game. Went to regionals my first year. I knew, Jade, here.” He slapped his hand to his heart. “I could do it.”

“But this is marriage, Dust. Not sports. Not a truck.”

“The first day I met Stu, I knew we'd be best friends for life. And that was way back in fourth grade. I signed up for AP classes, and everyone said it'd be too much with sports. My parents, my counselors, my coach. So far, I've never gotten anything below a B.”

Jade tugged at his shirt sleeve, loving his reasoning and that it was overpowering hers. “Marriage, Dustin.
Marriage
. Fifty percent of them fail in this country. My mom's on her third.”

“My parents were high school sweethearts. They're still going strong. Jade, I'm telling you, I know you're the one I'm meant to spend my life with. I have no doubt.” He kissed her with a confident touch. “Outside of Stu, you're my best friend. I wake up thinking about you. Go to sleep wondering if I'll get to see you before the first bell. Last week I had Mom take the phone out of my room so I could study without being tempted to call you every five minutes.”

Her heart bounced at his confessions. “I kiss your picture at night and pretend you're holding me, telling me everything is going to be all right, that I'm safe with you. I love you, Dustin. But I'm not so rosy-eyed to believe young love always lasts.”
Jade, don't blow this. He loves you
. What would her days be like without him? Brooding and dark, a Transylvanian dungeon.

“Remember during homecoming? You asked me why I invited you,” Dustin said gently, running his finger under her chin and along the edge of her jaw.

“Yeah, and I still can't believe you chose me.” His touch created chills on her warm skin and caused her eyes to mist.

“I asked you because I was tired of watching you from afar.” He grinned. “The girl I pushed out of a corn field when she wrecked her granddad's truck. The girl I tried to casually bump into between classes for the next year, or sit next to during lunch. I changed math teachers so I could be in your class. Should've seen the counselor's face when I gave her my reason. Something stupid like, ‘Ten o'clock is my best hour for math. Peak time for my brain.' By homecoming, I'd just gotten tired of pretending. Jade, you don't know it, but you're one of the coolest girls in school.” He grinned, entangling his fingers with hers. “It's one of the reasons you
are
so cool. Beautiful, wide-eyed, innocent. Listen, I'm sworn to secrecy as a guy, but the locker room talk . . .”

“I'm talked about in the locker room?”
Ew.

Dustin held up his free hand. “You're the girl all the guys want to end up with one day. I just discovered you first.”

“Hey, you two, save it for the honeymoon. What's going on over there?” Stu banged his fist against the side of Dustin's truck. “Let's go. I'm hungry.”

“Stu—” Rachel's smack and his “ouch” punctured the night. “Does everything have to be about you?”

“Be right there . . .” Dustin tugged Jade toward the JP's porch. “Stu's right, we can talk on the honeymoon. All one night of it.”

“Dustin—” Jade planted her heels, ready to march out her final thought. “You can have me without marrying me.” Did he get what she was too shy to say? In their eight months of dating, they'd come close to making love many times, but Dustin was always the one to stop, shove away.
Not like this, Jade.
“We don't have to be married, you know. We can . . . do it.”

Mama's over-the-shoulder advice was a distant echo in her mind.
Jade-o,
explore your sexuality. Sixteen isn't too young. I was seventeen in the Summer of Love, you know.

“I know.” Dustin bumped her body with his. “But I don't want it to be that way, Jade. You deserve better. You're worth more.” He squeezed her fingers. “I want you, bad. Lots of nights I wondered why we didn't . . .” In the light from the porch, she could see the shine of his eyes. “But it never felt right. Guess it was the way I was raised, going to church and all. This feels right. Marrying you. The way it's supposed to be. I don't want to just ‘do it.' Any lug head can ‘do it.' I want it to mean what it's supposed to mean.”

His confession smashed her last clump of doubt. Except . . . “Dustin, I want everything you just said, but what about waiting until you're eighteen?” She couldn't help it; she had to make sure, hear his confidence one last time. “Your parents won't be able to stop you, and I'll be seventeen a few months later. I'm sure by then Mama would give me permission or tell Granny to sign for me.”

“No, Jade, no.” Dustin gestured toward the house. “We're here now. We've thought about it, planned it. Come on”—he tugged her toward the porch— “trust me. The JP's waiting.”

The porch light flicked off, on, off, on. “Tick tock, kids, let's go. Game time.”

“Jade?”

In the small span of space between them, she could feel Dustin's heart beating. “Yes, let's go.” She threw her arms around him. “We're getting married.”

For the first time since Todd Barlow fired shots into the night, calling out her daddy, Jade Fitzgerald was completely safe.

After the JP made it official, Stu and Rachel treated the newlyweds to dinner at Maid Rite in Newton. It was out of the way, but everyone agreed it was the perfect reception location.

Rachel raised her pop in a toast. “To Dustin and Jade. Many years of love and happiness. May we be so lucky, Stu.”

“If only you were as sweet as Jade.”

“What? I am sweet—”

“Like a sweet tart.” Stu grinned and bumped her with his shoulder.

“You're so mean. To Dustin and Jade.” The four thunked their glasses together.

“Forever.” From the moment Dustin pledged to love her until death— forever—his love removed all shadows from Jade's consciousness.

Peeking at her hand in her lap, she twisted the Irish claddagh ring he'd slipped on her finger. He wore an identical one on his hand. One day, when he had more money, he promised her a diamond.

Eating baskets of loose seasoned-beef sandwiches and fries, loving the feel of Dustin's hand on her leg, Jade laughed at Rachel and Stu. They argued about everything—when and if they would
ever
get married, who would drive Stu's car home tonight, who had the best grades, who knew more funny lines from
Seinfeld.

When Dustin moved closer, running his hand up and down Jade's thigh until she thought she'd go crazy, Rachel and Stu didn't seem so entertaining.

Finally, Stu went to pay the check and Rachel ducked into the ladies' room, leaving Dustin and Jade alone. He nuzzled her ear. “You're my wife. Mrs. Dustin Colter.”

Chills swirled over her skin. “You're my husband.”

“I appreciate Stu and Rachel, but I wish we'd turned them down.” He ran his hand around the back of her neck. “We'd be on our honeymoon now if we'd gone on.”

“Ah, come on, this is our reception.” Laughing, she kissed his cheeks. “You only get married once.”

“Once. Just once.”

In the parking lot, the friends gathered in twos. Dustin and Stu by the tailgate, Jade and Rachel by the passenger door. Chitchatting.

Rachel grabbed Jade in a hug. “Are you nervous?”

“A little,” she whispered. “It's not like we—”

“Right, right.” Rachel gripped her shoulders. “Relax, he loves you.”

“I'm counting on it.”

“Ready?” Dustin unlocked the passenger side door and held it open for Jade.

She hopped inside. “Remember, Rach, if Granny calls—”

“You didn't feel good and went to bed early. Oh, wait—” Rachel ran to Stu's car. “I want pictures.”

Stu groused while Rachel posed everyone, setting the timer so she could duck into the shot. Then she posed Dustin and Jade, Dustin with Stu, and finally handed the camera to Stu. “Take one of me and Jade, and it best be in focus.”

He clicked the shutter without checking the view finder.

“All right, one last shot of the happy couple.” Rachel aimed the camera just as Dustin scooped up Jade in his arms. Laughing, she tossed her head back and flung her arms wide.

The camera clicked.

“That'll be one to hang on the wall, show your grandkids.”

Stu was shoving Rachel toward the Camaro.

“Bye, you guys. Have fun.”

By the time Dustin fired up the truck, Stu had powered out of the parking lot, his red taillights slicing the darkness. Shifting into gear and slowly backing out, Dustin peered at Jade, grinning, a lock of his brown hair dipping over his forehead. “How are you?”

“I'm good, really good.” She slid under his arm as he steered down the road. “It was a lovely wedding, wasn't it?”

“Perfect in my book. Stu paid for dinner, and in the eight years I've known him, I've never seen him pay anything for anyone.”

“Love has strange powers.” Jade set her head on his shoulder, a small cloud of regret threatening her sunshine. “Dust, I feel sort of bad that we lied, though.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed her arm, braking as the car in front of him turned right.

“It's the downside, but nothing can change my mind. Tonight was right, Jade.”

She kissed his jawline. “I love you.”

Driving west, Dustin announced he'd committed one more little indiscretion. “I used Dad's credit card to book a room at the Des Moines Hilton. But I'll pay cash when we leave, so no sneaking anything from the mini bar, just in case.”

“The Hilton, hey, big spender.” Jade was glad Rachel had talked her into buying something special to wear for the evening.

“Getting married by the JP was fine by me, but I thought we'd want to remember a nice, fancy wedding night.”

“Do you think the room will have one of those Jacuzzi bathtubs?”