The Truth About Air & Water (Truth in Lies #2) (55 page)

Full stop.

“Oh
.
H
i
, Brad. I didn’t see you.”

“Hey, Tally. I was checking on the groom here. He’s good to go, but he wanted to talk to you first.” Brad gets this easy reassuring smile.

I haven’t spent a great deal of time around Kimberley’s husband, but he helped me out during the whole
LA
thing, so I am partial to his brand of charm. I smile back at this smooth-talking blond giant whom Kimberley has married and try to make up for bursting into the room like Bridezilla by flashing him my biggest star smile—the one I reserve for Cinderella or Giselle performances to really wow the crowd.

Brad laughs a little and then the good doctor turns to Linc, clasps the groom by the shoulders and leans in to say something I’m apparently not to supposed to hear.

“All right,” Brad says. “We’ll see you two downstairs in a few minutes.”

Linc nods at him and then turns to me as Brad slips out and the door clicks behind him.

“What’s up, Elvis?” I say softly.

“Tally.”

His utterance of my name causes my heart to beat faster. Then, he turns more fully toward me looking a little pale. My breath rushes out of my lungs in one big swoosh. “Don’t. Do. This. To. Me.”

“Tally, I should have remembered you.” He looks unsteady as he takes my hand and gently pulls me to him. I grab his arms for balance and then step back to take a good look at his face which looks beyond tormented. “I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want to do,” he says gently.

“I want this.” My throat constricts, and I can’t say more. I take another step back from him and bend over, so the tears rushing my face won’t ruin Marla’s stellar make-up job. “Please just tell me this extraordinary reason you have for giving me a panic attack, today of all days.”

I breathe through my nose in an attempt to stave it off. It’s been a while.

Since that time with Sam?

Sam. Shit.

And now, Linc. Oh God.

He’s going to break my heart.

Again.

I probably deserve it after the nuclear behavior in Fresno.

“Don’t do this to me, Elvis. Not today.” I straighten, slipping past him and go to the window furthest away from him and stare out at the church lawn so green and perfect and the Pacific beyond that is so blue and vast and epic.
Like us.

Linc comes up behind me. “Tally. You’re so beautiful. I don’t deserve you.”

I back from turn the window and step into his arms. “Thank you? Why are you freaking out like this? Today of all days?” I reach up and trace his face. “It’s okay that you don’t remember before. It is. I’ve told you this at least a dozen times since Tuesday. At the
zoo
.” I actually smile up at him, remembering our time at the zoo, after the ultrasound when we learned everything was okay with this baby, and my official due date is February 16th, and I was kissing him in front of the lion exhibit well really just about everywhere in that zoo.

The past forty-eight hours have been amazing. And now we’re at Half Moon Bay with this whirlwind of a wedding that appears to be all kinds of grand because of its poignant simplicity and the arduous path we have taken just to get here.

A brilliant plan has come together, and we leave for Florida next week. I’ve promised him that we would attend all his games all summer. We’ll be in the stands cheering him on, watching him play. Cara and I are going to be there because that’s what ballplayers’ families do. We are a ballplayer’s family as of two days ago when he slipped a ring on my finger—a different one that is brilliant and new. Like us. A symbol of us starting over, starting again. All of that.

Linc touches my face and traces my lips. “It’s not okay. That’s the thing. I love you, but I should remember you. Tally, you’re my water,” he says slowly. “I should remember that much.”

“I think you do. Like Brad told you, more of it seems to be coming back, more every day. Maybe it’s mixed up with new memories as much as the past, but it’s fine. It’s fine with me, Linc.”

“So why did you really leave me in Fresno? Why didn’t you stay?”

I step out of his arms again. My heart races. We’re at the pinnacle and suddenly I realize it really could go either way.
Why did I leave? I know why. He doesn’t.

“Our love was
epic
. I couldn’t really breathe properly without you.” I look out the window again and begin counting the whitecaps of the ocean to steady myself. “And then you got hurt. Then you didn’t remember. I wasn’t strong enough to remember for both of us. I had to think of Cara. You were different. You didn’t love me anymore, and I didn’t want to force you into a life you no longer knew to want.”

“That explains it all before Fresno. But what happened there?”

I turn back to him visibly pleading with him to understand. “I went a little crazy. I felt like I was a consolation prize more than ever for you. I couldn’t get past Trinna Danner and what she could give you that I couldn’t. I was angry at you, but mostly angry at myself for being so cruel and there was Sam. He was my go-to guy; I thought I could move on so I came home to start things over with Sam.”

I shake my head side-to-side. “But you were there—in my mind—all the time. I couldn’t shake your image, and after a while I realized I didn’t want to. I began to solely focus on work making Mikhail happy, and simply ensuring Cara was happy, and I think I grew stronger. Strong enough to face my fears.
You. Love. Loss.
Somewhere along the way, I changed.”

I smile up at him and trace his face. “I finally realized that I couldn’t control love anymore than I could control the weather. Of course, for a while, I thought I could outrun it, outrun
you
. Thus, the plans for Moscow and toying with the idea of the Bolshoi Ballet and working with Sasha again.”

I tilt my head and really look at him. “But I already knew it was all so temporary. I couldn’t leave the country forever. I couldn’t leave
you
. Forever.”

I nod, but the rest of the words won’t come for a few minutes. Finally, I say, “I thought I wanted a simple life, but what I
now
realize is that life, simple or not, is with you. I need a life…with you. It has always been you. I need you, Linc. I need you in my life for always. We are two parts of a bigger whole when we’re together. Maybe that doesn’t make any sense to you right now. Maybe you only partially love me as much as you used to. But after Fresno, after finally telling Sam
no
, I got clarity. I know,
me
,
clarified
.”

I shake my head and smile and grab his hand and put it to my lips.

“What we have is so rare, and it’s so much bigger than the two of us, and yet; it takes both of us to make it work. And it’s not about this baby. Or Cara. It’s like Pastor Dan said, “it’s about the two of us." The thing is, Elvis, you are my air, and I’m your water and that’s the way it’s been since the beginning, since we first met. And it’s not about anyone else. It’s about us. It’s always been about us, and I don’t want to lose that. And,
you
?” I pause and slowly smile. “You wouldn’t want to lose that either, Linc. Trust me.”

“That’s what I thought.” He nods slowly. “And I
do
trust you.”

There has been too much truth telling in the last ten minutes, and I can’t take much more. “So what’s going on? Why did you need to talk to me before the ceremony?”

“I just wanted to make sure this is what you wanted.” I nod, and he sighs big. “I was in love with a girl who didn’t appear to love me back. You, Tally. That day you left me in Fresno. I knew it then, but I was too angry with you for leaving me, and I buried my feelings for you deep because I thought you had Sam, and I didn’t want to interfere if you’d
truly
found someone else. But we had Cara, and I thought I
w
ould start there. I also knew the only way to have the life I wanted was to fully concentrate on baseball, so I could return to the Giants, so I could come home and work things out with you. To be with you. It’s always been you. All summer long all I’ve been thinking about is you. You kept me going. You brought me here. You brought me back. I just wanted you to know my heart realized it has always been you, even if my head hadn’t caught up to that fact, until—”

“Are we going to do this thing or what?” Charlie asks clearing his throat as he
bursts
through the door with Marla following closely behind him. Their hands are linked.

“You’re timing is like amazingly bad, bro,” Linc says in exasperation.

Charlie doesn’t miss a beat. “Well, Pastor Dan is wondering what’s up and the kids are going a little crazy. I’m not sure how much longer Tally’s mom is going to be able to hold them off from eating every last one of those cupcakes. And frankly, I think we’ve all waited for this moment long enough.”

“True that,” say Marla with a giggle. She links her arm with her husband’s.

“So are we doing this thing or what?” Charlie asks.

“It’s up to Tally,” Linc says looking at me with this secret smile.

I’m confused, trying to remember all of what Linc said to me in the last five minutes before the best man and matron of honor
so artfully
interrupted. I nod anyway as if we’d just agreed on the grocery list. Then, I slowly smile. “Let’s do this. I wrote some killer vows, and I so want to say them to you in front of everyone, Elvis.”

“Yeah,” he says with a sexy smile. “Me too,
Miss Cloves and Vanilla
. Me too.”

Cara is restless. She’s waving around her bouquet of flowers like it’s one of her Barbie dolls, while Elliott joins in the fun doing the same with the small silk pillow that the rings are tied to with a little white ribbon. Borrowed. The ring pillow is borrowed from Marla’s wedding. I’ve got these things covered. Marla is busy trying to keep both Cara and Elliott in line
but t
he flower girl and ring bearer have
obviously
had enough.

Then the clouds part and the sun’s rays stream through the stained glass windows behind Pastor Dan’s head just when he’s getting to the good part—the exchange of vows. I decide it’s a sign that even God thinks the two of us getting married is a good idea.

Linc winks at me, squeezes my hands, and tells me everything is going to be okay like he always does. Pastor Dan directs him to go first with his vows like tradition dictates through all of time.

Linc smile wides as he slowly unfolds a piece of paper that looks a little worn to have just been written up yesterday. He holds up the weathered page and allows the breeze coming through the window to take it as if he’s performing some sort of magic trick for us all. “I know these by heart,” he says, smiling at the scattering of family
directly
behind us, and then he looks at me so intently that I forget to breathe.

And the word
epic
comes to mind. Surely we’ve used the word a bit too often in the last half hour.

Not believing that he can possibly have his lines for me memorized I smile somewhat encouraging. “Go ahead. Tell me you love me,” I say after a few seconds when I see him hesitate.

Everyone laughs.

“Tally, we met under the most extraordinary of circumstances. Your sister’s life tragically ends, and our love for each other is fated with a single look on that Valentine’s Day. It’s been more than five years since that day. Five years, three months, sixteen days, two hours, and ten minutes since that first look in your eyes quenched the thirst in my heart. I love you. I’ll love you forever in sickness and in health until death us do part, I’ll be there for you. You’re my water, Tally, you always have been. And I’ll remember the day we first met forever and treasure you always for saving me, and I just thought I should be honest with you as we stand up in front of our families and friends and promise to love each other for all eternity that I remember all of it. The truth is I’ve fallen in love with you twice now, and each time is even more epic than the last. So just say yes,
Miss Cloves and Vanilla
,” he says with this little secret smile.