Twenty-Three
I couldn’t believe this was going to happen, but everything was in place, and it only took two hours to set up. When Camille walked into the bar, dressed in a fucking gorgeous pale purple dress, with her luscious dark hair pinned up, I felt like I’d fucking died and gone to heaven. She looked stunning, and for some insane reason, she was really willing to do this. With me.
“You look exquisite, Camille.” She took my hands as she joined me, her cheeks flushed pink with excitement.
“Are we really doing this, Stitch?”
“Fucking right we are. Don’t back out on me now, I dragged the registrar away from a family event for this.” She gasped, and turned to face the registrar, the same guy we’d called in before.
“I’m so sorry!”
He shrugged, offering her a smile.
“Anything for Stitch. Shall we get started? I assume you have a ring, boy?”
I grinned, and reached into the pocket on the front of my cut.
“Yep. You wanna get on with it or what?”
The simple ceremony was a blur, and suddenly he was declaring us husband and wife, and I was fucking married. Married to the most beautiful fucking woman I’d ever seen. The sweetest, kindest, and fucking sexiest woman. This should have been item one on my bucket list, but I was clearly a dumbass. Thank fuck she had her wits about her, or this wouldn’t be happening .
“I think you’re supposed to kiss me now, Stitch.” I grinned, and hauled her tight against me, my lips sliding over hers, as we cemented our marriage in front of my family and her friend. We kissed until people starting calling out things like ‘get a room’, and then everyone wanted to fucking hug us both, while I wanted to punch every person that touched my new wife. Wife . My fucking wife!
We had drinks thrust in our hands, but as rapidly as drinks were passed to us, someone else took them away.
“What the-”
“Follow me, newlyweds.” We followed Reacher outside, and parked out there was a fucking posh looking mobile home.
“Your honeymoon awaits! That’s why you can’t drink.” Alicia was practically bouncing with excitement, dragging Camille through the door to see the inside, while Reacher grasped my shoulder.
“Brother, I’m so fucking proud of you, and I want you to have the best fucking time together, but you need to go now and get started, okay?”
He was right. Every fucking second counted right now, so I nodded.
“Thanks for making this happen, man. I don’t really know what to say.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “Nothing to say. We packed your shit and put it inside, along with some stuff the girls got together for your uh... wife… Check us out, brother, we’re both fucking married men now.”
Married men. I never thought I’d see the day, for sure. We’d gone from free and single, to married to amazing women, and even if I’d only have a short time with Camille, I’d make sure I relished and savoured every fucking moment of it.
“Thank you. We’ll uh… be back, I guess. Oh, I don’t even know how many days off Camille can take. I really didn’t think this through.”
Reacher laughed, waving away my concerns.
“Her boss is the old lady of a brother, man, just go and have fun. You know her job’s safe, yeah?”
Yeah. Fuck me, I’m going on my honeymoon .
Cammy
W e just got married! My last minute addition to my bucket list had been to get married, but I’d left off the part that I felt in my heart. Get married to the man of my dreams. Was it weird that I felt like I loved him already, and I’d married him when we’d known each other for just a few days?
“We couldn’t get things from your house, but Tori and I popped out and bought some clothes for you. Sorry it’s not much, but we know time is of the essence, so here’s your honeymoon! I printed off some places you might want to visit.” Alicia was incredibly excitable, and it was so contagious that I giggled along with her.
“Thank you! Oh my god, did we really just do that?” I glanced at the solid silver band on my ring finger, it had symbols etched around it, and it was a little loose, but it was what it stood for that made it perfect. Stitch put this ring on my finger when he married me. I felt a lump in my throat at the thought of it one day being all I had, and I really hoped that time was a long way off, because I wasn’t ready to even think about it.
“I’ll go! You guys have a great time, and don’t worry about a thing here.”
Alicia hopped out of the camper, and I looked around it. It was perfect. It was probably a few years old, but it was a rental, so it was well maintained. Alicia had left the paperwork there with the printouts of places to visit. I wasn’t going to bother with those though. This was more important for Stitch, so I wanted him to choose wherever we went.
“Ready to go, wife?” His words sent a shiver down my spine.
“I think so, husband. Oh my god… husband. Did that really just happen?”
Stitch pulled me tight against his chest. He’d worn his cut and a shirt with dark jeans and looked so sexy, I wanted to tear off his clothes, but this wasn’t the time or place.
Someone pounded a fist on the side of the camper .
“Don’t start the van rocking here, VP, nobody wants to see that!” I giggled as Stitch opened the door, and stuck a middle finger out at whoever was still there.
Stitch. My husband. Wow. And there wasn’t an ounce of regret inside me at this moment. I only felt excitement, joy, and a desperate need to be closer to him. I dragged him back inside, mid-conversation with whoever the hell he was heckling, and wrapped my arms around him, kissing him hard.
“Let’s go on our honeymoon, my husband. We’ve got to leave here to do that though.”
Stitch couldn’t stop smiling. I’d never seen him look so happy, and admittedly, I’d known him a day or so at most, but it felt like I was seeing the real him for the first time. The version of him that was unburdened by his fears and his impending expiry date. There was this thought in the back of my mind that without that hanging over him, this would never have happened, but I chose to ignore it, because this felt too right to be wrong.
“I’m the luckiest fucking man on the planet, girl. I can’t wait to get this thing parked up somewhere private, so I can fuck your brains out.”
I giggled and kissed him again, and then pulled back with a gasp, when I realised the flaw in that otherwise perfect plan.
“We can’t!”
He gripped my chin, and glared down at me.
“Just try and fucking stop us, Camille. We have to consummate our marriage, right?”
“Doc swore you off sex for a few days, remember?”
“Fuck!”