Chapter 3

KY

“Holy shit!”

Dammit, I shouldn’t curse out loud in a church. I just left Bea in the dressing room with the fucking letter that prick gave her instead of showing up to marry the best woman on the damn planet. I gave myself five minutes to get shit right. What was I thinking?

“That’s no way to speak in the house of the Lord, boy.”

“Grandma?” I spun to find my petite grandmother as she stared me down with a glare that could freeze a grown man in his place. After a heartbeat, her lips finally eased and turned back up into a smile.

“The prick isn’t showing up, is he?” She asked. I could chide her for using such language in the Lord’s house, but I was short on time, so all I did was acknowledge that she’d read the situation correctly. Grandma reached up behind her neck with shaky hands and unclasped the necklace she always wore. It was a thick, white gold chain. Once she pulled it free of her dress, I saw that a ring dangled from the end.

“You take this, see if it fits.” I grabbed the ring as she handed it to me and placed it on my left ring finger. There was no other possible finger it was supposed to go on, and damn. “Look at that, it’s perfect,” Grandma said as she clamped her hand down on top of mine. “Good, now go make today right for that girl, since you’ve been too stupid to get the job done before now.”

Grandma left me as I stood gape-mouthed in shock while she retreated down the hall. “Foolish boy came so close to losing her…” She mumbled as she walked away. I took two steps before someone else halted my progress.

“Not so fast.” I turned to see Bea’s grandmother. I hadn’t noticed her standing there in the shadows of the restroom door, but apparently she’d seen and heard everything that transpired between my grandma and me.

“Here.” She held out her boney hand to me and dropped another, daintier ring into my palm. I noticed her ring finger was now bare and sported a tan line where her ring had once been. “It will fit her, I promise.” She smiled at me even as she sniffled a little bit as moisture built in her rheumy eyes. “Looks like this was meant to be.” She turned and followed after my grandma, having just given me her own wedding ring. The same ring that I knew for a fact she hadn’t removed from her body since before her husband passed away.

I never had a doubt about what I was about to do, and now that both of our grandmothers had meddled and offered up two very important pieces that I’d need to make this happen, I knew what Bea’s granna said was true. It was meant to be. I also knew what my grandma said was true, because if the prick hadn’t gotten cold feet, I might have lost my chance at finally letting Bea know how I feel about her. How I’ve felt about her for far too long without doing anything about it.

The clock on the wall ticked another minute by and I got my butt in gear. There was somewhere I needed to be, and I only had two minutes to get there before everything would be ruined, so I ran. I ran down the aisle and right up to the minister who was waiting to marry my girl to another man. Like hell that would happen now.

“Listen, there has been a slight change in plans?”

“Oh?” He asked as he looked down his nose, past his glasses, and straight into my eyes with a knowing smile. What was it with all the retirement-age people in the church today? “Change the name of the groom for me, please.”

“Son, you realize nothing will be legal if I do that today. There is paperwork that needs filling out.”

I bobbed my head up and down quickly, knowing that we were about to run out of time. “I know. We can get it done afterward. It will still count then, right?”

“Of course, we’ll make it work.” He winked at me just as the organ off in the corner started playing the wedding march. “Better get in your new place, son.” He tipped his head toward the opposite side of where I was supposed to stand as my best friend’s bride’s man. That was the title we’d given me, since I wasn’t a fucking bridesmaid. Maybe the title was more appropriate than we thought because I was about to take a leap of fucking faith to see if my best friend would accept me to be her man in the most important way.

I whispered my name to the pastor, “Kylan Armstrong,” and slid into place just as the door opened and took a deep breath to calm my rapidly beating heart. The moment Bea came into view, I knew that was a pointless effort. My heart stopped. Completely. It was a dead muscle in my chest and nothing more for a solid… Okay, well it probably only missed one beat, but that wasn’t the point. My girl looked like an angel walking toward me in all her beautiful glory. The dress she chose fit her like a glove and made all her luscious curves stand out that much more inside the creamy satin.

Her dark, curly hair, that I loved to play with when Bea would tolerate it, was pulled away from her face but left long. I knew that the prick had requested she wear it up because his mother said only trash wore their hair down on their wedding day. I was happy to see that she had followed her heart. My Bea had never been a pushover though, so I expected no less from her than to do whatever the hell she wanted.

There was a time when I pictured myself marrying her, and in those moments of weakness, when I allowed myself to think about it, she always had her hair down. I never pictured the actual wedding. Maybe that made me weird, but I always pictured our lives further down the road, after the wedding, and in those imagined moments, a picture of us hung on the wall. She looked just as beautiful today, even more so, than in those fantasy images I had conjured.

I have always loved Bea. I’ve probably always been at least a little in love with her, too. I just couldn’t ever admit it because my girl never saw me that way. I’d always only been her friend. I even tried to have a few relationships over the years in an effort to get her out of my heart and firmly into the friend zone where she kept me. Don’t get me wrong, I knew that Bea loved me. Of course she did. She had never been in love with me in a romantic way, though.

I allowed my fantasies to run away with me as she made her way toward me on her father’s arm. At first, she glanced around, puzzled. I know she must have thought that I would somehow get Law to show up, but fuck that guy. He lost out on his chance, as far as I was concerned.

I imagined Bea knowingly walking toward me at the end of the aisle, instead of how she looked slightly confused, then resigned, before she tipped a small smile up at the corner of her lips. Her eyes were watery, and I wasn’t sure if that was grief for the loss of the relationship she thought she was entering into today or if it was because her best friend was making sure her day wasn’t completely ruined.

“What are you doing?” Bea whispered the minute her father slipped her hand into mine and gave her away to me.

“You’re a good man,” Sean said to me before he took a step back and then turned to head to his seat.

“What’s it look like?” I asked Bea in a whisper. “I’m marrying you.” Apparently, I didn’t ‘whisper’ as quietly as I thought because the entire first two rows started to laugh. I lowered my voice and leaned in close to spell things out for just her. “Your family paid for all of this, and you look so stunning, Bea. I’ve loved you forever anyway, so this makes sense to me.”

“But Law,” she whispered back emphatically.

“Was a coward who left you with only a note on the day you were supposed to marry him. I’m right here. Take a chance on me, Bea. It was always supposed to be us together anyway.” I took a chance telling her that and when I leaned back away from her again, with her hands still wrapped in my own, she glanced at the first row of seats where her family were situated. After seeing the smiles on their faces, and the tears in some eyes, she turned back to me and nodded.

The pastor went through our vows with us, and he didn’t forget the name change, thank God. Was it okay to thank the big man in his house? Shit, I didn’t know. Honestly, the vows were a blur with the exception of the moment when we exchanged rings.

“Do you have rings to exchange?” The pastor wisely asked since the whole groom swap had been a bit of shakeup. I nodded my head and handed the one that Bea was supposed to put on my finger to her.

“This was my grandfather’s ring. He and my grandma were in love all the way up until he passed on without her, and then she wore this close to her heart every day after. I can only hope for the same amount of love and loyalty from you one day, and in return you won’t have to hope for the same from me because it will be a given.”

With shaky hands and tears streaming down her face, Bea pushed the ring onto my finger and held on tightly for a minute as she stared at it and took in the words I spoke. Then, it was my turn to place a ring on her finger.

“This was your granna’s ring. I know you already know her love story with your granddad. We listened to her tell it together many times over the years. Your grandparents and mine have doubly blessed this union between us, Bea. I hope you’re ready for forever, because that’s the kind of love they put into their blessing.” I slid the ring on her finger, and her granna had been right. It was a perfect fit. A tear dripped down onto my hand as I held Bea’s steady. I glanced up into her watery eyes and her sweet smile took my breath from my lungs.

“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the pastor announced. He then turned slightly, so that he was facing me, as he gave the go ahead to do something I’d always wanted to do. “You may kiss your bride.” I didn’t miss the emphasis he put on that all important word. “Your.”

Bea was mine.

I leaned in and wrapped my arms around her waist to tug her into me and then, our lips came together slowly, and I swear to God - it’s okay because he knew - sparks flew between us. Electricity zinged through me, overwhelming my senses and the sensation forced me to deepen the kiss.

Cheers erupted through the crowd that had been gathered, but only from one side of the church. The other side, the one that held the groom’s family, was silent as the grave until one voice rose above the cacophony of noise from the other side.

“No! Bea, no!”

My stomach dropped as I let go of Bea and we both turned to see Law as he stared at us from the back of the church looking absolutely gutted. The only thing that kept me from dissolving into the same barely able to stand, grief-stricken feeling that he was apparently immersed in, was that Bea never once let go of me. She stood with one hand clasped around my neck, the other around my waist, with her fingers splayed along my lower back. Instead of moving away, she pushed closer, begging me silently to hold her together through whatever was coming.

Oh, sweet Bea, you don’t even have to ask. I’m never letting you go.