Forever - Chapter 43
Friday
Brooklyn
Matt had loosened his tie and abandoned his jacket somewhere.
The combination of his shirt sleeves rolled up and his vest did something to me.
And that smile. God I loved when he smiled at me like that.
He had this way of making time stand still.
And for someone who was always worried about running out of it, his smile calmed me.
He pulled me back in close. “Today has been perfect,” he said.
“So perfect.” I reached up and wiped a little icing off the side of his jawline. I wasn’t even sure how I’d gotten it there. I’d done my best to smash the cake right against his mouth.
We started dancing slowly even though the song was fast.
I looked around at everyone else dancing. Pretty much all our friends were very drunk. It actually reminded me a lot of homecoming. I smiled, the old memories swirling with the new ones as my hips swayed to the song.
Matt had wanted to right some wrongs from our past today by reading me his original vows.
And there was something I’d always wanted to make right too.
I should have run to him when I’d gotten in trouble after homecoming 16 years ago instead of running to James.
I’d spend the rest of my life running into Matt’s arms. Or maybe just not leaving them at all.
Starting tonight. “Truly magical,” I said.
“Mhm,” Matt said with a smile. “Enchanting.”
“Fantastical.”
He laughed. “I’ll come up with synonyms for how perfect tonight is all you want. But I feel like maybe something else is on your mind?”
I bit my lip and looked up at him. “I just wanted you to know how much I loved today. But do you maybe want to get out of here?”
His smile grew even bigger. “I thought you’d never ask.”
I tried to pull him off the dance floor, but he didn’t budge. I looked up at him.
“There’s just one small problem,” he said.
I looked down at the front of his pants.
“What?” He laughed. “No. As fun as grinding all night with you has been…”
I hit his arm.
“…I wouldn’t refer to that as a small problem.”
“Fair,” I said with a laugh.
“The problem is that I don’t think we can go to the beach tonight.”
James and Penny had been kind enough to offer us their beach house for the weekend.
I hadn’t been to Rehoboth since I was a kid.
We were going to take a limo down and spend tonight and all day there together tomorrow.
And then all our friends were going to join us on Sunday.
Jacob had been so excited about getting to have a sleepover with Scarlett before joining us there.
“Why?” I asked. I’d kind of been thinking about limo sex for the last few hours.
“I don’t know if you’ve looked outside recently, but the snow never stopped. It’s a mess out there.”
I smiled. “Snow is never a mess. It’s one of my favorite things.”
“I know. Nevertheless, it’s not safe to drive all the way to Delaware tonight. I-95 is definitely a mess, even if the snow isn’t.”
I looked out the window. It was really coming down. “So should we just go home?”
He slowly shook his head. “I have a better plan. Do you trust me?”
“With my whole heart.”
He smiled. “Give me one second. I need to go talk to Nigel.”
Before I could protest, Matt dropped my hands and disappeared off the dance floor. I wasn’t sure what our evening had to do with Nigel…
“May I have this dance?” Tanner asked, stepping into where Matt had been standing.
“Yes you may.” I laughed as he pulled me in a little closer. He put one of my hands on his shoulder and grabbed the other before guiding me around the room.
Dancing with him felt like I was in a Disney princess movie. I loved dancing, but I didn’t know any fancy dances. But it was like I did when I was dancing with him.
“He’s going to love you for a thousand years,” Tanner said.
“A thousand?” I laughed. “More like…sixty.” I pressed my lips together. I didn’t ever want to think about losing him.
Tanner cleared his throat. “Right. Hopefully longer than that though.”
“Hopefully.”
He spun us around the dance floor. “I just want you to know that I’m always here if you need a shoulder to cry on.”
“I know, Tanner.”
“When you first came to the city, I know you flirted with me quite a bit but…”
I laughed. “I never flirted with you.”
“You asked me out on several dates, Brooklyn.”
“I did not…”
“You asked me to go to a high school homecoming game with you. If that’s not a date…”
“ You asked me .” It had been a ploy to get Matt and I back together. He was remembering it all wrong. “You’re ridiculous.”
He smiled. “I try. But seriously, I’ll always be here as your friend. Forever. A thousand years,” he added with a laugh.
“Thanks, Tanner. Honestly if Matt hadn’t asked you to be a groomsman, I certainly would have asked you to be a bridesman.”
He smiled. “Even though I brought the two of you together and it’s not technically my match, I feel like a billion bucks tonight.”
“I think the saying is a million bucks.”
“For commoners, maybe.”
I laughed. “You are definitely not a commoner.”
“No. I’m ridiculous.” He winked at me and spun me around again. “I know the two of you are heading to the beach, but my offer still stands. I can have a private jet ready for you to go to my private island in just a few minutes if you want.”
It was very sweet of him to offer. But I’d been looking forward to a simple trip to Rehoboth. Although I doubted that James’ beach house was simple. It didn’t matter now anyway though. “It’s snowing too much for us to leave the city.”
Tanner looked out the window. “Oh no.”
“Matt said he had an idea…” I felt a tug on my dress and looked down at Jacob.
“May I have this dance, Mommy?” Jacob bowed.
And I realized where he’d learned that from. It was 100% a Tanner move. “Yes you can, sweet boy.”
“I’ll leave you in my grandson’s care,” Tanner said. “I should go help Matt with the arrangements. Congratulations, Brooklyn. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for making my friend smile again.” He kissed my cheek and then placed my hands in Jacob’s.
I blinked away the tears in my eyes and smiled down at Jacob. “You’ve been dancing quite a bit tonight.”
He shrugged. “Scarlett likes to dance.”
“And so do you.”
“But even if I didn’t, I’d dance with her.”
God, he was the sweetest boy. I lifted his hands into the air and we both shook our hips.
“Jacob, Jacob!” Scarlett said and ran over to us. “Can you dance with me again? Sophie stole Axel. And I like this song too.”
I looked over at Sophie and Axel hopping around the dance floor. It actually looked like Axel did not want to be dancing. But Sophie kept pulling him back onto the dance floor. They were so cute.
“Duty calls, Mommy.” Jacob dropped my hands and practically sprinted off.
I laughed. He was so smitten with her.
“So I took into account that you love snow,” Matt said.
I spun around and looked up at him.
“Close your eyes, baby.”
I shook my head, but closed my eyes anyway. He guided me off the dance floor and helped me into a chair.
His hand fell from mine and then I felt his fingers slide down my ankle.
“Matt.” I opened my eyes to see him kneeling in front of me right off the dance floor.
“You said you trusted me.”
“I do.”
“Then keep your eyes closed.”
I smiled and closed my eyes again. My breath caught as he undid one of my high heels and then the other. And then I felt the most comfortable slippers replace my heels. I sighed. So much better.
“Okay, open your eyes.”
I opened them. Matt was still kneeling in front of me. But he hadn’t put slippers on my feet. I was wearing snow boots. My eyes met his.
“We are going to go for a snowy walk to a very nice hotel that overlooks Central Park. If that’s okay with you.”
“How on earth did you get snow boots here that fit me so well?” I stared at the pile of jackets on the table next to me. “And where did all those jackets come from?”
He shrugged. “Nigel sorted out the logistics.”
“We helped too,” Mason said as he joined us. He and Bee were already in winter coats and snow boots too. “You’re staying with us tonight.”
“Oh.” Umm. I loved Mason and Bee, but I didn’t exactly want to spend my wedding night with them. I was thrilled that all of our friends were going to join us at the beach on Sunday . But I wanted some alone time with Matt right now.
Bee laughed. “Not with us. He meant at the hotel we live in. A separate hotel room. The honeymoon suite, actually. The owner owed us a favor after he took a week to fix…never mind. Not important. Are you guys ready?”
“Absolutely,” Matt said and kicked off his dress shoes. He pulled on a pair of snow boots too.
“This is going to be fun,” Rob said and walked over in a big puffy jacket.
“You’re coming too?” I asked.
“Not yet.” He winked at me. “But I’m sure Daphne will have me cumming soon enough.” He slapped her butt.
She looked truly horrified for a second and then laughed. “I have had too much to drink. And I get very handsy when I’m drunk. Wait, where did Sophie go? She was right here a second ago…”
“Don’t worry,” Penny said as she grabbed one of the jackets off the table. “We’re still on kid watching duty. But we figured it was safer to stay at the hotel than drive…crap, you’re right. Where did Sophie go?”
“Got her,” James said and pulled out her chair. Sophie had been sitting there pushing icing off her cake. She grabbed the cake in her hand as James picked her up.
It was like a big sleepover. But in separate rooms. And I could definitely get down with that.
“Is this okay?” Matt asked as he pulled me into his arms.
“It’s perfect.”
“Magical,” he said.
“Enchanting.”
He laughed. “Fantastical. Let’s find you and Jacob jackets that fit.”
It didn’t take long for us to all get bundled up. Nigel had even gotten us handmade mittens somehow. They were so warm and cozy.
“Wait,” Matt said. “We almost forgot something very important.”
He dropped to his knees again in front of me and started to lift up my skirt.