Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

Riggs

I feel like all I've done is drive for the last twenty-four hours.

I had to.

Or I would have gone crazy.

One thing was for sure; I couldn't stay in my so-called home without her. I realized very quickly that my lonely cabin isn't a home.

Home is Clara.

I know she told me not to come to the wedding, but I couldn't stop myself. I have no intention of walking over to where the ceremony is being held, but I just had to see her. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't function, and as I expected, the moment I set eyes on her, I felt as if I could breathe again.

My love stands at the end of all her sisters in a lovely light-blue dress that hugs the curves of her body before flowing down her legs. The top is tight, strapless, outlining her breasts and making it really hard not to close the distance between us and devour her. Her hair is up in a high bun, small tendrils falling along the column of her neck. A neck that is begging to be nibbled on.

Fuck, I miss her.

I lean against a tree in an overflow parking lot, watching as the wedding unfolds. Tears burn my eyes as I drink her in, and I run my fingers along my beard, wishing I were touching her. I hate that we fought yesterday. I hate that I was an eejit and I said what I did. I should have ignored Alex or even told the truth. Just said fuck it and forgotten about everyone else. I should have just focused on Clara, but I know for sure I'll never repeat that mistake.

I don't pay attention to Alex moving around the happy couple to hold Elliot's swollen belly, and I can't help but envy him. He has his world in his fingertips, and I was dumb enough to deny mine. From this day forward, I'll never do that again. I'll get her name tattooed across my forehead if she wants. I want everyone to know she's mine. As I gaze at the girl of my dreams, I vow along with the happy couple that I'll never do anything to have her question my love. I'm well aware I'm a bit of an eejit, but I know how to love that girl.

She was made for me to do just that.

Swallowing past the emotion in my throat, I take in where Dan sits and then Coleson and Dimitri Titov. The wedding is small, just how Ciaran and Louisa wanted it. He was upset when I said I couldn't make the wedding. While I let Clara down more than I care to admit, I let Ciaran down too, which is another reason I'm here. I have to make it up to both of them.

I watch as the minister says that Louisa and Ciaran can kiss, and then I furrow my brow when Alex starts to guide his heavily pregnant girl toward the aisle before he calls out, "Sorry, Elliot's in labor."

Everyone gawks, and even I'm surprised, but Elliot just says, "No worries! Everything is fine. I'm fine. Alex is fine. Just gonna go have a baby!"

I start toward the chaos, but before I can reach them, Alex and Elliot are in the car and driving away. Everyone stands around the little reception area, all trying to figure out what to do. I notice a little bandstand by the cake and the champagne flutes. With my heart in my throat, I start for it just as I hear Louisa say, "Well, this day was never meant to be about us."

Ciaran scoffs. "It's only about us."

I reach for the microphone, chuckling to myself since they're both right. I tap on the mic and everyone turns, but my eyes are only for her. She parts her lips as she steps toward me, a flush running up her neck. "Riggs?"

I lick my lips, my mouth going dry at how fucking nervous I am. Get it together, Riggs. You want her. Tell her. "Sorry to interrupt this beautiful affair, and I know I said I wouldn't come, Clara, but I couldn't bear to be away from you any longer."

I watch as Dan comes to stand beside her. "McCoy, what are you doing?"

I hold up a finger at him, and Clara sets her hand on his chest. She's about to say something, but I can't let her. "A couple days ago, I held what should have been the greatest prize of my life in my hands and gave a speech." I swallow hard. "Now, I know that the greatest prize of my life is standing right there."

Clara's mouth drops open, and tears flood her navy eyes in mere seconds. I swear I hear her gasp my name, but then I notice that Eliza is recording me. I blow out a breath, and fuck it, I'm doing this.

My eyes burn as I hold Clara's gaze with mine. "The speech I gave was unfinished and should have ended like this." I clear my throat and squeeze my free fingers together. I want so desperately to close the distance between us, but I need the people she loves to know the truth. "I want to thank the love of my life, Clara Drew McDavid." Her eyes widen, and my heart starts to slam into my ribs. "I have felt lost my whole life until I found her. She completes me in ways I never knew were possible. When I'm feeling down, she's there to lift me up. She makes me laugh when I want to cuss and break things. She drives me absolutely crazy with her smart mouth, but she also makes me feel something I never thought I'd ever feel again. Alive." I watch as tears gather in her eyes. "I wouldn't have won that series without her. Without her support, her love, and her endless belief in me. Nothing in this world has ever felt right before her, but now, I feel like I'm seeing the world in a different light. And it's all because, at the end of the day, she is there to love me." A tear slides down her cheek, and I blink back my own set of tears that are threatening to fall. "I made the mistake of trying to hide her and our love, but that won't happen again. I want everyone here, everyone who loves her, to know that in my whole life, I've gotten one thing right, and it was falling in love with her." I put the mic on the stand and jump down from the bandstand to start for her. "And nothing will keep me from loving her for the rest of my life—not even her."

I don't know who reaches for whom first, but soon, we're a tangle of limbs as our lips meet. I almost cry out in relief when her tongue meets mine, and I devour her whole. I don't care who is here. I don't care if I'm too old for her. I don't care if she's too young. I don't care if I lose my job. I have her, and she's all I need.

I sense people talking, but I don't hear anything but the beat of my heart. I only feel her lips on mine, and everything else just fades away. How it always does when it comes to her. When I pull back for a breath, our eyes meet, and I feel like I've been kicked in the chest. Her eyes are dark, hooded, and only for me. She reaches up, cupping my jaw, stroking my cheek. "I love you, Riggs."

I sigh deeply before I press my forehead to hers. "Say it again."

She curves her lips, her eyes shining just for me. "I love only you."

From behind her, Dan complains, "I don't understand why all y'all fell for hockey players! This is all my fault, isn't it?"

"Yup. You brought us into this life," Louisa giggles.

"And we wouldn't want it any other way," Austen gushes.

Eliza snorts. "Once you find a hockey man, there is no going back to normal men."

Against my lips, Clara says, "Because a hockey man loves you fully."

"And forever," I add, kissing her top lip.

I then drop to one knee.

Her eyes widen.

While I know it's tacky to propose at a wedding, it's also tacky to go into labor, so Louisa can hate both me and Elliot. I don't care. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out the faded green ring box that my da used when he proposed to my ma. Clara covers her mouth, tears spilling down her cheeks as she holds my gaze. I open the box to my ma's platinum thistle-leaf, two-carat diamond ring. It had been given to my da by his ma, and so on back through the family. I hadn't given it to Peppa because I couldn't find it when I decided to propose to her, but even when I did locate it, I didn't give it to her. I think I always knew it was meant for another hand.

Clara's.

"If you thought I wasn't going to go get this ring because of a fight?—"

"I knew you would," she says softly, cutting me off. "I knew if I went, I'd give in and say yes, when I needed you to realize your mistake."

"Love, I knew the mistake the moment the words came out of my mouth," I insist, gazing up into her eyes. "But it'll never happen again. Everyone will know how much I love you. How much you complete me and how my life is not worth living without you. I will love you fully for the rest of my existence." I grab her hand, squeezing her fingers with mine. "I'm not saying it'll be easy, but I want the good with the bad, but only with you. I want to make a life with you that we'll leave behind for the world to be in awe of. I want you to drive me insane daily and love only me. As long as you love me, everything else will fall into place. I just need you. Say you'll be my wife, Clara."

She leans down, cupping my face. She runs her thumbs along my cheeks, catching the tears I hadn't even realized were falling before she presses her nose into mine. "And you say you have to be drunk to be romantic."

I grin up at her. "Since I'm an eejit when I'm drunk and the hangover is rough at my old age, I have to be romantic sober."

She curves up her lips in a smile that if I didn't need to hold on to her, would knock me on my ass. She wraps her arms around my neck, and I do the same to her waist as our lips almost touch. "Okay, Grandpa, I'll marry you, with one promise." Her eyes dance with mischief, and I shouldn't expect anything less from my little minx.

"You name it."

"Never let me forget how important I am to you."

"Done."

As our lips meet, I realize that promise was the easiest one I've ever made. I hear everyone clapping and cheering us on, but all I can think is that, for the longest time, I thought fate was a moody little cunt. But she isn't. She had a plan.

She had to drag me through the storm so that I could truly feel the sunshine that is Clara.

My lass.

My baby girl.

My love.

My wife.