Chapter 50
Sebastian
“SO, YOU’RE LEAVING soon?” Hillary asked. “I hope I wasn’t the one who chased you off.” Laughing, she leaned her head against Nathan’s shoulder.
“On the contrary. Knowing you’re here to take care of this fucker, I finally feel free to spread my wings.”
She and Nathan cracked up.
“He’s in love,” Nathan said with a sappy-mocking tone.
“I’m happy for you,” Hillary said. “That Ruby woman Nathan told me about?”
“Yeah. Her.” My heart lurched at the simple fact that I could finally say it out loud, to anyone, to the whole world.
“I know one person who would be disappointed,” Hillary said.
“She’ll get over it,” Nathan said, winking at me. “Alison developed a little crush on you.”
“Sorry.” I smiled.
“Not a lot to pack once you move,” Nathan commented, looking around my apartment. “Furniture, two framed posters, and your clothes, is pretty much all you’ve accumulated. And the plants.”
“I’ll leave the plants to you, if you want them. The rest stays. Except this poster, wherever I go, it goes.” I pointed at the one Ruby got me for my twenty-nineth birthday.
“When’s the move?” Hillary asked.
“I’m waiting for final confirmation. They’re still pushing papers around.”
“You’d think NASA would have some smart technology to do that by now,” she said, leaning forward to pick up her mug from my coffee table. Even then, she didn’t release Nathan’s hand.
“You’d think,” I agreed, impatient to be holding Ruby’s hand in mine.
A few days later, I landed in San Francisco again and drove a rental to Coral Bay. I was Ruby’s plus-one for the wedding in two days.
I parked in the forecourt and grabbed my bag, but I didn’t make it far.
Before I reached her cottage, Ruby called my name, and I turned to watch her moving down the path from the main building at a near run.
Her dress—light green, simple—flared at her thighs.
We stopped an inch apart, like a force field had snapped on between us.
“Hi,” she said, a little out of breath.
“Hi.” My chest eased at the sight of her.
“I was with the catering, checking everything.”
I nodded.
For half a second, we just stood there, then she caught my shirt in both hands, and I dropped my bag. The kiss was instant—rough with need, recognition, and heat, no warm-up. She tasted like the wine they were probably testing for the reception.
I backed her against the cedar siding at the cottage’s entrance. She tugged me inside, keys fumbling, door, lock, another kiss, the kind that wrecked and put everything back together. The feel of her under my hands, her breath, the sound she made when I pressed exactly right.
“Two nights,” she said, laughing into my mouth as she stumbled us toward the bed. “We have two nights and then wedding chaos.”
“Then we should get a head start.”
We did. Fast the first time, because we missed each other too much to be patient. Then slower, because we wanted to savor every second.
We shifted onto our sides, facing each other, her leg hooking over my hip as I slid deeper inside her.
Our hands cupped each other’s faces, foreheads almost touching, eyes locked, breath mingling in the narrow space between us.
It was unhurried and languid at first, but the intensity built as we drew closer.
Ruby bit her lower lip, and I could tell she was on the edge.
“I love you,” I whispered, closing the space to kiss her.
Experienced and attuned to each other as we were, we came together a second time.
Afterward, I held her, heartbeat to heartbeat, while the open window drew the tang of salt through the curtains.
The next day, Ruby stirred at dawn. The mattress shifted, and the air brushed cool where her body had been. My eyes cracked open just enough to see her slipping into a pair of slacks.
“It’s early. Go back to sleep,” she whispered, catching me watching.
Instead, I reached for her, my hand sliding across the bed. “Come here first.”
“I don’t have time,” she said with a sigh, yet still came back and straddled me.
My hands cupped her hips, and she bent and kissed me.
“You’re impossible,” she half-whispered, grinding lightly against my morning erection, only the sheet between us.
“Efficient,” I corrected, murmuring against her neck. “Thirty seconds.”
Her laughter turned breathless as I rolled my hips, teasing, reminding us both what waited for later. Then she pulled back, cheeks flushed, her lip caught between her teeth. “Tonight,” she promised, sliding free.
I let her go, though my hand trailed down her arm, not ready to release her completely.
I worked in Ruby’s cottage all day but kept sneaking for breaks to walk past and watch the preparations take shape.
The place ran like a space mission checklist. Caterers unfolded trestle tables and a canopy across the lawn.
Lani taped name cards to rows of white chairs set before the small white wooden pavilion—the one I usually glimpsed through Ruby’s office window—now dressed for the ceremony.
Bougainvilleas spilled fuchsia petals on the ground next to it and along the deck on the other side of the house.
Evangeline floated in with armfuls of greenery, threading white honeysuckle branches into the arrangements, and the air itself smelled sweet.
Ruby rewarded me with kisses whenever she caught sight of me. We spilled I love you’s like we’d been hoarding them for years.
That night, we kept the promise of the morning, twice. But after her shower, Ruby forbade me from getting closer. “My hair will be messed up, and I need it manageable for the morning.”
Her bronze satin bridesmaid dress and my suit hung side by side in her closet as we turned off the lights and, for once, actually slept.
By golden hour the next day, everything was ready. Ruby stopped by the cottage to get ready and pick me up, after a few hours spent on last preparations and keeping Rio company.
We stepped outside, hand in hand, a real couple, dressed to the nines.
As we reached the lawn, Ruby halted and tugged me to a stop. She smiled up at me, her eyes searching mine.
“It just hit me—you’re my boyfriend. Mine. Official. The real thing. I’ve never had that.”
“By choice.” I smiled.
“Yes, and so is this.” She squeezed my hand, beaming, her eyes matching the teal ocean that stretched close by. “It feels so strange and good and ...” She bit her lip, still smiling. “We should have done it sooner.”
I let out a laugh that made a few heads turn. Pulling her closer by the hand, I kissed her gently, careful not to smear her makeup.
“You’re going to meet so many people tonight, so be prepared,” Ruby said, smiling, her lips close to mine. “I want everyone to meet the man I love.”
“Is he here?” I said, and this time it was her laughter that rang out and drew glances.
We kissed again, then walked into the beautiful mayhem.
Encircled by white canopy tents, the garden and lawn became a luminous hall, where guests milled around with champagne flutes in hand, the chatter rising above the music as more arrived.
Lanterns shimmered as the sun lowered, and waiters threaded between clusters of people, carrying trays of canapés.
Rio and Owen chose to mingle before the ceremony and moved from group to group, stopping for hugs and handshakes, both glowing.
“Her dress is so pretty,” Ruby said, naming a style I’d never heard of.
After hugging the bride and groom, I was introduced to Walter, Owen’s grandfather, who inspected the bar and declared the whiskey acceptable.
Then came a blur of names—Rio’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nieces, Owen’s football teammates, Rio’s friend June and her husband Angelo, as well as a few familiar faces like Ruby’s mom, Daphne, and Evangeline.
“It’s true, then?” Alan asked. “You’re Ruby’s ...?”
“Boyfriend,” I completed for him. “Yes.”
“Um, welcome to the family, I think is the right thing to say,” he said awkwardly with a smile, shaking my hand.
“About time,” her mother said. “Between you and me, she’s lucky—”
“Thank you both. I’m the lucky one,” I hurried to say before her mother would add something that would make me dislike her even more. I was glad Ruby was on the other side of the garden, helping Rio with something in the back of her dress.
“Survived the mom?” a voice behind me said as I stepped away from the Lockes.
Turning, I found Daphne, tugging the strap of her bridesmaid dress back onto her shoulder with an annoyed look.
“Yeah.”
“Might be your mother-in-law if you play it right,” she said, bringing her gaze from the strap to me. She broke into a smile. “Ruby’s worth it, though. And she looks the happiest I’ve ever seen her, so keep it up.”
“I intend to.”
“Or I’ll have to pull rank.”
I laughed.
“She’s serious,” Evangeline joined us. She’d been standing nearby with her back to us, talking to an older couple, and had picked up the tail of our conversation.
Both of them smiled warmly at me. “We’re not scaring you off, are we?” Evangeline asked, resting a hand briefly on my forearm. “It’s not a test. You’re the perfect man for Ruby.” She leaned closer, her voice dropping. “We’ve been hoping you two would get together for a long time.”
“It was worth the wait,” I said, my eyes drifting to Ruby. She’d just turned from Rio, and across the crowd, our gazes locked. She smiled at me—bright, sure, a smile that made me feel like we were the only ones there.
By the time the music shifted and the murmur of voices softened, the crowd had settled into their seats.
Owen stood waiting with his best man—Rio’s brother—under the white wooden pavilion.
The bridesmaids, Rio’s closest friends, marched in one by one, bouquets trembling in their hands, until the radiant bride appeared at the end of the aisle.
As the bridesmaids shifted aside and I stood at the edge of the seated crowd, Ruby was beside me for part of the ceremony, her hand linked in mine.
When the “You may kiss the bride” rang out, the girl gang in matching dresses dissolved into happy tears and smudged mascara. I passed tissues. I was useful. And I was exactly where I wanted to be.
The ceremony melted into music and applause, and soon the canopied lawn turned into a dance floor strung with golden lights.
Ruby tugged me into the crowd, her laughter brushing my ear as we fell into step, her body close against mine, her hand warm in my palm.
For a few songs, nothing else existed but the sway of her body against mine, her head tucked beneath my chin in the slower songs.
Later, we headed for the buffet. Ruby pressed a plate into my hand, stacked high with something green and unidentifiable. “Here,” she said, smirking.
“I get that Rio works in a health shop, but this is not dinner. This is what dinner eats.” Extending the plate to the next server, I gladly accepted a slice of steak on top of it, Ruby’s laughter ringing warm in the cool air.
The hours blurred in flashes—Ruby swept into her friend’s circle for a raucous dance mashup, Rio’s nieces and other children darted between chairs, and the older guests slipped off one by one. But every time I looked up, Ruby’s gaze and smile were already on me.
I didn’t need a wedding to know I wanted one with Ruby, and I intended for it to be soon. Ten years behind us, a lifetime ahead. She’d said we should’ve done this sooner. And she was right.