In a Rush

Chapter 20

chapter twenty

Emme

Today’s Learning Objective:

Students will say “I do.”

By the time I was fifteen, I’d been in six weddings. One for my father, three for my mother—Gary, then Jim, then Dell—and two for Ines’s mom, who was my mother’s best friend. I’d been a flower girl a few times, a junior bridesmaid a few others. I still had the silk flower crown I’d worn when Mom married Jim, even though he was awful and that marriage barely lasted two NHL seasons. I loved a flower crown.

Even with all these weddings behind me, I’d never thought much about my wedding. Never in any specific terms. There were the basics of beach versus ballroom, but little beyond that. No vision in white. No wedding daydream.

Which didn’t help me at all as I sifted through the two racks of dresses Wren had sent to Ryan’s place. There was everything from exquisite Cinderella gowns that wouldn’t fit through the door to beaded minidresses to simple summery shifts.

“This is incredible,” Ines breathed, holding up a short satin dress in ochre with a series of crisp, pleated ruffles running over the shoulders and crisscrossing down the bodice.

It reminded me of a velociraptor but if she liked it— “Try it on.”

She shook her head. “These are for you.”

“I can only wear one at a time and I know I won’t wear that one.” I motioned to the hall, toward her room. “The ruffles aren’t for me but they’d look cute on you. You might as well try it.”

That was enough convincing for Ines. She hurried off to her room, leaving me alone to choose my wedding dress.

Maybe it was silly—or straight-up delusional—but I couldn’t convince myself this was a wedding . It was something Ryan and I were doing just like that charity event and party-hopping at the Derby. We were playing dress-up and make-believe and—and even if I wished for some piece of it to be real, it wasn’t.

That fool-hearted wish had me pulling a buttery yellow dress from the rack. It had a full, flouncy skirt that would skim my knees and long tulle ribbons for straps that would drape over my shoulders, almost like a veil. Wonky embroidered flowers and raw hem lace made the dress fun and that was the vibe I wanted for this night.

We’d have fun getting married. That seemed like the way it should be.

When I ventured downstairs with Ines—who rocked the velociraptor dress—the condo looked nothing like it had a few hours ago when I’d returned from school.

I glanced to Ines. “Did you know about this?”

“All I knew was that I had to keep you upstairs until seven.” She ran a hand through her bobbed hair and fussed with her glasses. “No one said anything about all that.”

She flung her arms at the trees and flowers, the candles and twinkle lights covering nearly every inch of the living space. Though it wasn’t a living space tonight. It was a secret garden floating in the clouds, high atop the city.

Ryan emerged from the den, his hard, stoic expression warming into a smile as he approached. He wore a dark blue suit and an immaculately tailored white shirt with a faint pattern I couldn’t make out. His collar was open at his throat and his jacket already discarded.

“You look—” He stared at me, shaking his head. He took my hand and I did what anyone wearing a flouncy skirt would—I twirled. Brushing a finger along the ribbon ties at my shoulder, he added quietly, “I like this. It’s you.”

“I thought so too.”

I went for another twirl, laughing as the warm evening air whooshed around me. Tonight would be fun. All of it would be fun.

Ryan swept his thumb over the back of my hand and nodded toward the enchanted forest around us. “Is this okay?”

I took in the trees dripping with lanterns and lights, the rose-wreathed candelabras crowding every surface, the garlands draped from one end of the deck to the other. I couldn’t believe it was real or that all of it had been assembled in just a few hours.

“I’m going to be one hundred percent honest with you, Wildcat. When I asked about flowers, I was thinking something like a little bouquet. Never in a million years would it’ve occurred to me to get a bunch of trees.”

“We can get rid of the trees.” He pulled his phone from the back pocket of his dark trousers. “Give me five minutes and we’ll?—”

I snatched the phone away. “The trees are amazing. They’re insane—all of this is insane—but I love it. I-I can’t believe you did this. In two days.”

He cocked an arrogant brow. “Told you I would.”

I glanced around, finding new arrangements in every corner. It was magical. Even with years to plan and all the most brilliant designers in the world, I never would’ve come up with this. I didn’t understand how it was possible for this to be exactly what I wanted when I’d had no idea what I wanted until I saw it.

“Still want to do this?” He crossed his arms and that shirt pulled deliciously tight across his chest and arms.

Nodding, I ran a finger over his rippling forearm. “What’s this pattern? The stitching is so delicate, I can’t tell.”

“It’s a flower,” he said. “Jasmine, I think. I don’t know. Something like that.”

I followed the pattern up to his bicep, his shoulder. “It’s so pretty. You should get more of these shirts.”

He closed his hand around my fingers before I tracked the pattern down his chest. “I will.”

A deep, booming laugh rang out from the other side of the condo and we both shifted to stare at Jakobi and Ines in the entryway. He leaned against the door, his long legs crossed at the ankles, and beamed down at her like his entire reason for being was to shower her in light. He listened— truly listened —as she told a story. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke and I couldn’t remember ever seeing her so animated before.

“What’s happening over there?” I asked, still captivated. As far as I knew, Ines was interested only in Bruce Lee, and she split that interest evenly between the kung fu and the frequency with which he was shirtless in his films. There’d been a boyfriend one summer at space camp and then someone in her first year or two of college but the details were hazy. She responded to most of my questions about dating with “It just seems like a waste of time.”

You’re not wrong, honey.

“That’s gonna need to simmer for a little while before anyone knows what it is.” Ryan trailed his knuckles over the line of my jaw, turning my attention back to him. “You didn’t answer me before. When I asked if you still wanted to do this.”

I twisted on the balls of my feet, sending the dress swirling around me. “I want to do this,” I said, still shimmying. I knew I didn’t feel like a bride but I did feel happy, and maybe it was better that way. “Do you?”

He dragged his bottom lip between his teeth as he stared at me. A storm cloud passed over his features but it was gone within a blink. After a steady moment of watching me sway, he said, “As long as we’re still on for the big party too.”

“I mean, yeah, we kind of promised Ines the coveted spot of headlining harpist. Backing out now would be poor form.”

“You’re right.” He shrugged into his suit coat and then plucked something off a nearby table. My eyes almost popped out of my head when he pushed the bouquet into my hands. “I hope you like this.”

“Oh my god. You put an artichoke in a bouquet.” I blinked between Ryan and the weird, wonderful bouquet. There were plum peonies, purply-gray sea holly, long, trailing veronica, and one huge flowering artichoke. I never would’ve come up with this and somehow it was the only thing I’d ever wanted. I clutched it to my chest. “I love it.”

“Yeah? I have a backup if you don’t.”

“This is the most perfect bouquet ever created. This is the start of us as an artichoke family.” I grabbed his hand, tugged him toward the open doors of the deck. “Come on. Let’s do this thing. We’ve waited long enough.”

Ryan squeezed my hand as we stepped outside. Jakobi and Ines were right behind us, still talking softly about robots and Star Trek and an ice cream shop that’d opened in the Seaport.

The sunset blazed through the evening sky and warm spring air mixed with the heady florals all around us. I smiled down at my dress and how the prickly sea holly fit right in with the raw lace, and the shades in the artichoke complemented the pale yellow. All these pieces, they fit together just so.

I gripped the flowers as the officiant got right down to business welcoming us to this ceremony of marriage. “Ryan, do you take Emmeline to be your?—”

“I do.” He brought his free hand to the bouquet, lacing his fingers with mine as I laughed. A grin started at the corner of his mouth and it unfurled into a wide smile that had my heart pounding in my chest and a few overwhelmed tears fogging my eyes. After all these years, I was marrying this sweet, broody boy. “Yes to all of it. Everything. I do.”

“Not wasting any time. I like it.” The officiant chuckled. “Emmeline, do you take Ryan to be your?—”

“I do too,” I said, still laughing.

“Then I won’t make you wait another minute. By the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?—”

There was more to that sentence but it was lost to me when Ryan brought his hand to the back of my neck and sealed his lips to mine. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and sank into the kiss, holding this moment as tight as possible.

Ines and Jakobi cheered when we came up for air but we couldn’t stop staring at each other. It was as if the words no longer mattered because we had something better, something deeper.

“Cake,” Ryan whispered, his lips barely a breath from mine. “I promised you cake.”

I ran a hand down the back of his neck. His eyes fluttered shut and the growly noise in his chest made me think about the way my fingers felt as they tripped over velvet. “It’s a requirement. We’re not legally married without sharing some cake.”

“Yes, a wise woman told me all about that.” He laughed as he straightened the ribbons at my shoulders. “Let me show you what we came up with.”

Ryan led me to the other end of the deck and I gasped when I saw the small cake, sculpted and decorated to look like a tower of tangerines. “I can’t believe you did this,” I cried, leaning in close to see the dimpled skin, the woody stems, the green leaves. “This is art. I can’t eat this!”

Ryan ran a hand down my back and settled on my hip, his fingers stretching across my belly. Heat radiated out from each fingertip and spiraled through me. “I’d like to make this official so you’re going to have to.”

“And I really want a piece too,” Ines called.

I relented and Ryan and I sliced the cake together, sharing a chunk of tangerine that was actually chocolate cake with coffee buttercream frosting. It bent my brain. I loved everything about it.

Ryan ducked his head to mine, saying, “You have a little something here.”

He kissed the corner of my mouth, and not for the first time today I wondered what happened next. I knew what I wanted but I didn’t know how to get from here to there. Even with all the sexual tension we’d built up over the past week, I couldn’t figure out how we’d take the next step. Maybe we needed to fool around under a blanket again.

That was assuming Ryan even wanted to fool around under a blanket. Or anywhere else. He’d flirted like he wanted that but we were new at this and I didn’t know how to interpret it yet.

“I could spend all night here,” he whispered, kissing down my neck and across the crook of my shoulder. He squeezed my hip, jerking me closer to him. “All night.”

So, maybe I didn’t have to overthink it.

Once we’d all sampled the cake and shared some champagne, Jakobi leaned in to kiss my cheek and then held his hand out for Ryan to shake. “Congratulations to the newlyweds. Since I’ve kept him away from you all week, I believe you two deserve some alone time.” To Ines, he asked, “How do you like observatories?”

She pushed up her glasses. “I like them when they’re not busy. I can’t focus when there’s too much noise.”

A wide smile filled his face. “Then you’re in luck because I have a private tour scheduled at the observatory at Boston University tonight. You’ll have to come along.”

“That’s one of my favorite observatories.”

“Mine too.” He glanced at his watch. “I have a dinner reservation in the Back Bay before the tour. Would you join me?”

She pointed to the velociraptor dress. “Do I have to change or can I wear this?”

“Don’t you change a damn thing, beautiful,” he crooned.

If Jakobi’s words had the impact on Ines that I thought he’d intended, it didn’t show. She simply grabbed her favorite windbreaker and belt bag from near the door, stepped out of her heels and into a pair of beat-up Vans, and turned the full wattage of her excitement back on him.

I shot a warning glance at Jakobi before saying to her, “Call me if you need anything. Promise?”

“Promise.” She’d barely formed the word before diving into a speech about her favorite telescopes, and Jakobi led her from the condo with a hand low on her back.

“Is this what it feels like to watch your teenage daughter go out on her first date?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “But I don’t think we need to wait up for her.”

I laced my fingers with his and held up our joined hands though I remembered at the last second we hadn’t exchanged rings. We didn’t have anything to prove what we’d promised tonight. “Then what should we do?”

He stared at me, a slow, devastating smile pulling at his lips. “Do you trust me?”

I grinned at him. “You know I do.”