Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
JULIET
“They’re taking forever to open.” I’m sitting in the front seat of Brooks’s truck, my knee bouncing with nerves and my eyes pinned to the door of the courthouse, which is still locked. We’re parked right out front, waiting. I’m not patient.
We were the first ones here.
“They still have ten minutes before they open.” Brooks is as calm as can be next to me, and I turn to look at him.
He’s in a crisp white button-down, the sleeves rolled up on his forearms, showing off muscles and veins and damn. Don’t even get me started on the gray slacks that show off that hard ass to perfection.
“Keep looking at me like that, Wildfire, and I’ll fuck you right here for all the goddamn world to see.”
I press my lips together and feel my cheeks heat at his gravelly voice. We never went back to sleep because he was too busy fucking me senseless for the rest of the night.
No regrets.
“I’m still sore from earlier,” I inform him, and watch as he smirks, his eyes full of mirth and joy and … lust. “I’ll be walking funny on our wedding day. Are you proud of yourself?”
“Fuck yes, I’m proud of myself. Tell me, Juliet. Am I still dripping out of you?”
I can’t even look him in the eyes now, and he chuckles as he reaches over and brushes the back of his knuckles over my white dress, right where he knows my nipple is, making it pucker.
“I’d better still be running down your thighs. I’ll be making you my wife with my cum all over that pretty soft skin.”
“Brooks.” His mouth is filthy, and I freaking love it.
He grins and leans over to me.
“The next time I’m inside you, you’ll be my wife.”
Okay, that sends a shot of electricity right up my spine, and I reach for his hand, gripping it hard and lacing our fingers.
“You like the idea of that.”
“Yeah.” My voice isn’t altogether steady. “I do like that.”
“Me too, baby.” As he kisses the back of my hand, someone unlocks the door of the courthouse, and we turn to face each other. “Are you sure about this?”
“Never been more positive about anything in my life.” A grin spreads over my face. I put on a full face of makeup today, and I’m wearing a pretty white dress that I’ve had for a while but never worn before today.
I’m so ready to marry this man.
“Then let’s go. Wait for me.”
He pushes out of the truck and circles around to open my door, and then, before I know it, we have a marriage license and are standing before a judge.
“Congratulations,” he says, smiling at Brooks. They must know each other. “When we get to the vows, do you want to go with the traditional ones, or do you want to speak your own?”
“We’ll speak our own,” I answer, and Brooks winks at me, making me melt.
“Sounds good. Dearly beloved …”
There are only two people here, the janitor and a cop who was walking by. Those are our witnesses, and frankly, that’s fine by me.
I can’t take my eyes off the man who’s holding my hands, staring down into my eyes with so much promise and tenderness, it makes my breath catch.
“I do,” he says.
“I do,” I echo.
“Go ahead with your vows,” the judge says, nodding at me first.
“Thank you for waiting for me,” I begin, and Brooks brings his hand up, brushing a tear off my cheek.
“I know it took us a long time to get here, but I like to think that it was always destined to happen this way. I vow to stand by your side, no matter what kind of insanity comes our way. I will love you, honor you, always make sure that you are my priority, and take care of you when we’re old and gray and sitting in the porch swing I’m going to ask you to install at our house. ”
His lips twitch, and his eyes fill, making my chest swell.
“I will respect you and listen to you. I will be your constant, your home base, and your safe place for as long as we both shall live.”
Brooks takes a deep breath, then answers with vows of his own.
“They say that you should never refer to the person you love as what completes you because you should come to them as a whole person already. But that’s bullsh—” He glances at the judge.
“Crap. Because you complete me, Juliet, and for fifteen years, I walked around with a huge chunk of myself missing. You are the only thing I need. I look in your eyes, and I see our future so perfectly; our babies in your arms, our kids running around that backyard. School pictures and anniversaries and weekends away together. Graduations, weddings. And, one day, us swinging on our porch. It sounds so simple, but nothing could be more valuable or more exciting to me.”
I sniff and brush away a tear, and he continues.
“I vow to be the man who deserves you. Who wakes up every day with a mission to make sure you’re so well loved, respected, and taken care of that you never regret this day. Not for one minute. I promise to give you a life that keeps you guessing, that keeps you walking funny—”
I snort in surprise.
“And makes you the happiest woman on earth, for as long as we both shall live.”
“By the power vested in me by the state of Montana, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Brooks growls—freaking growls—then bends me backward and crushes his lips to mine, kissing me more passionately than he ever has before.
And that’s saying a lot.
When we leave the courthouse, we stand on the sidewalk, staring at each other.
“Hi, Mr. Blackwell.”
“Hello, Mrs. Blackwell.”
I press my lips together and then do a little happy dance, making him chuckle.
“We need to get you a ring,” I inform him, brushing over his ring finger.
“We’ll go there next,” he says and brings me to him for a hug. My ear is pressed to his chest, and I can hear the wild thumping of his heart. “Fuck, we did it, Wildfire.”
“We totally did it. Oh, and we got married.”
He laughs and kisses my head. “Let’s walk down to the jeweler.”
“And I need coffee,” I inform him. “I was too nervous to drink it earlier.”
“There was no reason to be nervous, baby.”
He takes my hand and leads me around the corner to where Millie’s coffee shop is, and when we walk inside, Millie glances over and smiles.
“Hey, you two. What are you up to?”
“WE GOT MARRIED!” I’m jumping up and down as I scream it, showing her my hand, and then she’s screaming too, and runs around the counter to hug us both. “You’re the first person we’ve told.”
“I won’t say anything.” She mimes zipping her lips. “Did you go to the courthouse?”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to wait.”
“Nothing wrong with a courthouse wedding,” she says with a wink. “That’s what Holden and I did, too. Aw, I’m so fucking happy for you two.”
“Thank you. I’m happy for us too.” I do another happy dance and then sigh happily. “I need coffee.”
“You came to the right place.”
We both order our drinks, and I’m chatting with Millie when I notice that Brooks is typing away on his phone. He’s probably telling his guys that he’s not coming in today.
Am I sorry?
Fuck no.
Armed with our drinks and more hugs from Mill, we make our way down the block to the jeweler, where Brooks claims he has to try on every damn ring they have because he’s going to wear it forever, and it has to be just right.
He tries them all on three times, and more than an hour later, Brooks has a cool-looking black ring on his finger, and I have a shiny new gold band to go with my engagement ring.
I might get a little extra emotional when I look at our hands together.
We got married.
He’s mine. I get to keep him forever.
“I’m starving,” I inform him as we walk down the block. I frown because I could swear I just saw Harper dash out of Paula’s Poseys, but then I shrug it off. I’m not kidding when I say that I’m so hungry. “Let’s go home and eat some leftovers.”
“I actually have a plan,” he replies and opens the door of his truck for me.
“What plan?” I ask when he climbs behind the wheel. “And does it involve food, or is it just more sex?”
“First of all, never refer to what we do as just more sex.” He narrows his eyes at me and leans over to brush his lips over the shell of my ear, sending a shiver through me. “Because what we do, baby, is way more than that.”
“Okay.”
He checks his phone, then pushes it into his pocket.
“If you need to go to work—”
“Absolutely fucking not. Second of all, you need to trust me.”
“Of course I trust you, but I’m going to starve to death if you don’t feed me.”
“Were you always this dramatic? Or is that a new thing you’ve developed since becoming a wife?”
I huff out a laugh. “Seriously, though.”
“Trust me, Wildfire.”
He pulls out of the parking spot and heads out of town, and I frown over at him because he’s not even going the speed limit.
“I’m not telling you where we’re going.”
“Are we going to our spot by the river so we can consummate this marriage?”
“Tempting, but no. Unfortunately, I can’t mess you up like I want to. Well, not until later. Later, all bets are off and I’m going to fucking wreck you.”
I press my legs together, trying to ease the ache between them. “Can’t wait.”
As we head farther out of town, a bad feeling starts to set up residence in my gut.
“Brooks.”
“Yes, baby.”
“Do not tell me that you’re taking me to the ranch.”
He’s quiet, so I turn to him and poke his shoulder.
“Ouch. Domestic violence already?”
“Tell me we’re not going to the ranch for a party.”
“I can’t tell you that because although I didn’t specifically say in my vows that I wouldn’t lie, it was implied.”
“Is it just the siblings and the kids? Because if that’s the case, it’s okay.”
He frowns over at me. “What are you worried about, Wildfire?”
“I’ve barely seen your parents since I’ve been back. Just briefly at Blake’s engagement party.”
“Okay. My parents always loved you.”
“Sure, before I was the bitch who broke their baby boy’s heart.”
Suddenly, Brooks pulls the truck over to the side of the road, jumps out, and strides around to me. He opens the door, unfastens my seat belt, and turns me to face him. His hands cup the sides of my neck.
“You will never refer to my wife as a bitch ever again. Do you understand me?”
Holy fucking shit.
“It’s an expression, Brooks—”
“One that I won’t tolerate. You’re mine. I love you so much that I would burn this fucking world to the ground for you. So you won’t speak about yourself that way again.”
“Br—”
“Say you understand.”
I rub my hand up and down his chest. “I understand.”
“Good.” He leans in to nibble my lips. “It’s going to be great, baby. I promise, I wouldn’t take you into a situation that could hurt you. Never.”
With a nod, I offer him a smile. “Okay. Maybe the hunger was making me act unreasonably.”
With a snort, he bites my lower lip, then gets me back into the seat belt. Within a few seconds, we’re back on the road.
“So it’s a party.”
“I’m not telling you anything more.” He shoots me a grin. “Love you. Mean it.”
“You’re a weirdo.”
Shaking my head, I can’t help but reach for his hand as he pulls onto the ranch road, and a couple of minutes later, we pull up to the old farmhouse that Brooks grew up in. I spent so much time at this house back in the day.
“Beckett and Skyla live here now,” he says as we just sit for a minute and let the memories come. “Mom and Dad have a place in town. Not too far from us, actually.”
“There are about twenty million cars here.”
“Or, you know, twenty.” He smirks and climbs out and then comes to fetch me again. “Let’s go, Bride.”
“You’re getting such a kick out of this.”
“Fuck yes, I am.”
With his arm wrapped around me, Brooks leads me around the house to where there’s a tent set up with tables, food, flowers, balloons, and music. There’s even a table full of desserts.
And every person that we love is here, including Jackie, all of the Lexingtons, the Wild family, most of whom I haven’t seen in a long time, all of Brooks’s family, and even Ava and Tucker are here.
It’s a party.
“How did you do this?” I ask Brooks. No one has noticed we’re here yet.
“I called my mom while you were in the shower.” His lips twitch into a smug smile. “And she put everyone to work. Charlie and Connor made calls. Everyone scurried. Happy wedding day, Wildfire.”
“Oh my God! They’re here!” Billie is the first to notice us, and then we’re engulfed by hugs and chatter. Everyone wants to see my ring, and I can’t even count the number of times someone says, “It’s about time.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“Oh, my sweet girl,” Brooks’s mom, Becca, says with a kind smile as she wraps me in a hug. “I just couldn’t be happier for the two of you.”
“Are you sure?” The question is a whisper, and has her backing up to frown at me. “Are you sure this is okay? I hurt him so bad before, and then I made him marry me without any of his family there, and he’s your oldest son. I’m sure you would have wanted to be there, but I was selfish, and—”
“It’s your day,” she says, cutting me off. “And it should be exactly how you want it. That’s the only thing that matters. Yes, you hurt him, but honey, you were both so painfully young. I’m so happy that you found each other again. This is where you belong, you know. With all of us to love you.”
“Welp, looks like I’ll just be crying all day today.”
Becca laughs with me and then hugs me again. “You’re such a gorgeous bride. Let me see your ring.”
I proudly hold it up to her, and she sighs. “He kept it for you.”
“You saw this ring? Before?”
“That was my ring, once upon a time.”
My jaw drops. “No.”
Her brow furrows. “I hope that’s okay.”
“No. Yes. Oh shit, of course it’s okay. I love it so much. I just can’t believe … you know what? Never mind. I love that I have your ring. I’m surprised you gave it to Brooks since you’re still married and everything.”
She snorts out a laugh. “Well, for our tenth anniversary, Brandon upgraded my ring for me, and Brooks asked if he could have the original when he decided to propose to you.”
“That’s sweet.”
“What’s sweet?” Brooks wraps his arm around me and kisses the top of my head. “Mom, you’re monopolizing my wife.”
“Well, we can’t have that.” Becca winks at me. “Let’s get together soon, Jules.”
“I’d love that.”
She walks away, and I turn to look up at my husband.
“Not as bad as you thought, is it?”
“Not bad at all.”
“Every single one of those desserts is safe for you, by the way.” He kisses my nose. “And all of the food is brunch food, since a certain someone couldn’t wait until the afternoon to get married.”
“Good. I like brunch food. And I’m starving to death, remember?”
“Then let’s feed you, Wildfire.”