Chapter 3 #2
“Nope. He’s been bugging me about getting married but I couldn’t begin to think about planning. It stresses me out. This way you can plan the whole thing and I’ll just show up and smile!”
The two women grinned at each other. “I’d be honored,” Casey said. “And then we’ll be sisters for real.”
“Oh, shit,” Wendy said with a sniff. “You’re gonna make me cry, bitch.”
Mary watched with a huge grin on her face. She knew she probably looked a little silly, but she didn’t care.
Wendy turned to stare at Rayne. “What about you, Rayne? You want in on this?”
Rayne looked startled for a second. “On what?”
“Wanna get married with us?”
Mary’s eyes widened in surprise, almost as big as Rayne’s were.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. If we’re gonna party, might as well make it one big-ass celebration!” Casey said, beaming.
Rayne put her glass down on the little side table and said, “Okay. But…” Her voice trailed off.
“What?” Casey asked.
Rayne turned to Mary. “Mary has to get married with us too.”
Mary stared at her best friend.
“You said that you’d renew your vows with Truck, and we’d have a double wedding ceremony. Are you opposed to a quadruple ceremony?”
Mary swallowed hard and looked from Rayne to Wendy to Casey, then to the others. Everyone was smiling encouragingly and nodding.
“You really want me with you after what I did?”
Rayne got up and went over to Mary. She sat on the floor and took her in her arms. “Hell yeah. We’re best friends, Mare.
You pissed me off, and I know I’ll piss you off in the future too.
It’s what friends do. But I absolutely want you to stand up with me when I marry Ghost. You were there from the very beginning.
Remember, I texted you all the details when I decided to have that one-night stand with him in London. Please say yes.”
Mary turned to Wendy and Casey. “Are you guys sure? Blade and Beatle might not be thrilled at having to share your day.”
“I probably shouldn’t admit this,” Harley interjected, “but Coach let it spill that the guys all decided they wanted to have a huge quadruple wedding the day that asshole shot up the Organizational Day on post.”
“They did?” Rayne asked, surprised.
“Yup.”
“Seriously?” Mary questioned.
“Yeah. Don’t ask me how I know, because I might’ve used sexual torture to get it out of Coach.”
The women all chuckled. “So? Mary, what do you think?”
Mary slowly nodded. “If Truck is game, so am I.”
“Holy shit,” Rayne said softly. “We’re getting married together, Mare.”
Mary knew things weren’t quite that simple, but she nodded anyway.
She probably wouldn’t have agreed so easily if she hadn’t had four glasses of wine, but she knew deep down there was nothing more that she wanted than to marry Truck for the right reasons.
She might not be ready to admit to his face that she loved him, might not ever be ready, but she was more than ready to spend the rest of her life with him.
She couldn’t imagine not having him by her side.
Any thoughts she might have had of divorcing him had long since disappeared.
If she was honest with herself, from the second he’d stood across from her at the courthouse and said “I do,” she’d been lost. She’d felt like crap and knew she might not live to see the marriage become a real one, but even though she’d bitched and moaned, she’d been thrilled that Truck had insisted on marrying her.
“The second they get back, I’ll let Beatle know what’s going on,” Casey said with glee. “He’s gonna be ecstatic. He’s been bugging me for weeks to set a date.”
“I think Blade’s been talking to Beatle, because he’s been a pain in the butt about setting a date too,” Wendy agreed.
“Can I ask a favor?” Emily piped up.
“What?” everyone asked.
“Can we please wait until I have this baby? I don’t want to be the only beached whale at this giant wedding ceremony.”
“Of course!” Casey told her.
“We can’t plan a quadruple wedding in two months anyway,” Wendy added.
“Don’t bet on it,” Rayne said. “I think the second Ghost hears I’m finally going to marry him, he’ll have everything planned and ready to go within twenty-four hours.”
Everyone laughed. Mary agreed with Rayne, but she kept quiet.
She wasn’t sure what Truck was going to think about the entire situation, but she hoped he’d be happy.
She wanted to start their married lives over.
To get rid of the old excuses for marrying each other and do it because they both wanted to spend their lives together.
The rest of the evening went by quietly. Sadie and Annie came back in, more wine was consumed, Annie learned about the upcoming quadruple wedding ceremony, and that she was going to be a bridesmaid, and they all ate way too much sugar and junk food.
Late that night, Mary snuggled under the covers in one of Emily’s guest rooms with Rayne on the twin bed across from her.
“Are you really okay with this?” Rayne asked quietly.
“Surprisingly, yeah,” Mary said.
“I’d understand if you weren’t.”
Mary turned on her side and faced her best friend. “I’m more worried about what Truck will think. He hasn’t exactly been happy lately.”
“Really?”
“Really. After the thing at the bank, I thought things were fine between us, but they’re not.”
“He loves you, Mare.”
“I know. But I’m afraid he’s getting tired of waiting for me to reciprocate. What if he comes back and decides he’s done?”
“He won’t,” Rayne said, her voice full of conviction.
“I don’t think I’d survive if he left me,” Mary whispered.
Rayne propped herself up on an elbow. “I thought you guys talked. I saw you two at the bank. It didn’t look like he had any plans to leave.”
“We did. But…he doesn’t hold me at night anymore.” Mary was embarrassed to admit it. But this was Rayne. Her best friend in the world. If she couldn’t talk to her about what was going on with Truck, who could she talk to?
“What do you mean?”
Mary sighed. “He’s seen my naked chest. When I was sick, he’d pull me into his arms and hold me all night.
Even when I felt like shit and told him to go away, he wouldn’t.
When the radiation hurt so bad I couldn’t even stand having a tank top or sheet touching me, he’d wrap his arm around my belly, sleeping with his feet sticking off the end of the bed, just so he could be next to me.
He never seemed to care that my chest was as flat as a kid’s.
He always kissed me in the morning, on the forehead, and he’d constantly touch me.
My arm. My hand. The small of my back. It used to drive me crazy…
but now it’s like I have the plague. He’s right next to me, but he might as well be miles away. ”
“Have you asked him about it?”
“No. How do I ask for something I always pretended I hated? I miss him, Raynie. I mean, of course I miss him now that he’s on this mission, but I missed him before that, and he was right next to me.
I know he was happy I wasn’t hurt at the bank, but then I think he started having second thoughts when I didn’t immediately open up to him afterward.
I’m afraid he’s trying to figure out how to tell me he’s setting me free. That he’s going to give up on me.”
Rayne sat up and threw the covers back. She padded across the small space between the beds and pushed Mary over.
Without a word, she climbed under the covers and hugged Mary close.
They lay like that, their arms around each other in the small twin-size bed, and Mary did her best to keep the tears from falling from her eyes.
After several minutes, Rayne said softly, “That man loves you, Mary. I’m one hundred percent sure of that.
You have to open yourself up to him. Talk to him.
Tell him everything you haven’t told me about your childhood, no matter how hard it is.
Tell him what a bitch your mom was. Tell him about the uncles. ”
“Then what?”
“Seduce him.”
Mary choked, and it took a couple of moments to compose herself. “Seriously? That’s your advice?”
“It worked for me and Ghost.”
“That’s different.”
“Not really.”
“I don’t exactly have the equipment to seduce him anymore, Rayne,” Mary said dryly, more than aware of her completely flat chest.
“He doesn’t give a shit that you don’t have boobs,” Rayne retorted.
“I do.”
“What does your surgeon say about reconstruction?”
Mary realized that because of the rift between her and Rayne, they hadn’t talked about this.
“It’s possible. But it’ll take about a year and a half for the entire process.
They have to do liposuction and insert fat cells from my thighs and belly into my chest to stretch the skin first. That’ll take several sessions and months.
Then he’ll put in expanders, and I have to go in every week to have them filled.
I’ll do that until I either get to the size I want, or the skin starts to deteriorate and the doctor says we need to stop.
After several months, the expanders will have created a pocket the implants will fit into, and I can have that surgery. ”
“And?”
Rayne knew her too well. “I hate the way I look right now. I can’t even look in the mirror.
I can’t imagine exposing myself to Truck.
I mean, he’s seen me, but I felt so awful at the time, I didn’t really care.
I told you that first time I couldn’t stand to have anything against my skin when the radiation burns were so bad, but this is different.
And the thought of getting fake boobs makes me feel like such a hypocrite.
You know me. You know how I always made fun of women with implants. ”
“This is different.”
Mary closed her eyes. “It’s karma, Rayne.”
“What do you mean?”