Chapter 17
The next day Dane called the reverend to arrange a last minute private ceremony at their favorite Martha’s Vineyard church. Before Shana could change her mind.
It would be quiet and quick, exactly what they needed now.
Both of them. Only the governor and his wife Madeline, Acer, Sassy and Ronnie Ryan would attend.
Peter called in yet another favor to his friend at West Point to get an extension on Ronnie’s leave.
Joe went back to Boston to help Rick Racer hold down the fort.
The Reverend started the ceremony, reciting the familiar words and it felt weird and wrong to Dane, in spite of everything, that Cap wasn’t there. But he held onto Shana’s hand and took in the important words, spoke the marriage vows.
For no reason at all, except his entire history with the women he loved, when the Reverend got to the part about anyone having objections, Dane tensed.
And the church doors opened behind them with a loud creak, a glare of light and a rude burst of cold air. Dane turned around. Everyone turned around.
Cap walked in the door and down the aisle dressed in street clothes. He said nothing and they all stood in silence and waited for him to reach their small party. Dane felt no alarm, felt nothing past the initial shock, maybe some mild curiosity.
Cap said, “Go ahead. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You have no objections?” the Reverend prompted.
“No, he doesn’t.” Dane said. Contemplating Cap’s presence churned up a lot of mixed emotions better left unexamined in him. Better left to settle.
The only emotion he wanted to feel right now was grateful love for his bride, hope that she wouldn’t change her mind in the next two minutes and wonder why she bothered with him.
She slipped her arm through his now even though it wasn’t in the script.
Hell, none of this had been scripted. They’d thrown the script away months ago when Nash bombed their house.
It was all off-road adventures from now on. Always had been if he were honest.
Things had gone awry when he started trying to follow convention. He knew better.
Cap stood a couple of feet from him, behind him. Dane felt his presence, his stare. Damn. He didn’t want the intrusion on his wedding.
“Stop.” Dane put up a hand to the Rev in the middle of his speech about honoring an obeying and turned to face Cap. Shana squeezed his hand, but turned with him.
“What the hell?”
Cap stared back at him, unusually unreadable for a few beats.
Then the turmoil showed through, the tension, the fatigue, the disquiet in his eyes.
The man who’d been his best friend—up until the moment he had him arrested for murder—shrugged.
It was an uneven, uncomfortable gesture, like squirming. Dane wanted him to squirm.
But he wanted an explanation and an apology, hell, a full out reconciliation would be good about now. A short one.
After a few beats of silence that echoed in the church with unnerving weight, Shana spoke.
“Why?”
Cap sucked in a breath and aimed his stare at her.
That’s when things clicked into place. And got scary.
Dane saw the rawness in his friend’s look, the longing.
Dread dropped like an armored tank into his gut and he tightened his hold on calm, tried valiantly not to allow any damage from the artillery fire of his friend’s tortured look, of the implications.
“I thought you deserved better.” Cap shifted his gaze to Dane and took in a long breath.
Dane let him do his worse, felt the battering, concentrated on feeling Shana’s hand in his, the way she squeezed, took a step closer.
Cap spoke, his voice broken and quiet. “Dane. I love you like a brother, man. But I… “ He cleared his throat and shook his head. “I have no excuse for betraying you. I thought I was doing the right thing.” He paused. “For Shana.”
It sunk in then, that this was all about Cap’s disapproval of his selfish need to have and keep Shana for his own. It wasn’t even that his friend wanted Shana for himself—because he was no better. Not by much anyway.
“You don’t get it, do you?” Dane said. Moved a step closer, but Shana clamped down on his arm, holding him with her mother-bear fierceness.
It didn’t matter. He was well past punching Cap in the mouth, though he deserved it. Cap was probably hoping for it, but Dane wouldn’t let him off the hook with a punch to the mouth. He would dish a punch to the man’s soul. But only because it had to be done. So they could all move on.
Dane flashed a glance at Peter who stood rigid with disciplined silence, Madeline not even holding him back, fully trusting him to stand pat.
“She’s one of us,” Dane finally said, capitulating. “I’m not bad for her any more than she’s bad for me. We’re the same.”
Cap nodded. Of course he knew. If he hadn’t, he would have stormed in and stopped the wedding. But he hadn’t done that.
“What are you doing here? Out of uniform?”
“I’m leaving. Taking a leave of absence for a while.” Cap shifted his gaze to Peter who remained implacable. “I sent you a letter. I’m requesting a temporary leave. But I’m leaving either way.”
Peter nodded. Dane tried to process the implications, but the island without Cap on it didn’t compute. His head felt like an IBM supercomputer hitting a wall. It never happened.
But this wasn’t the time or place to think about Cap. This day belonged to Shana.
Dane turned away from Cap. With his arm around Shana, he faced the minister.
“Let’s finish this, Rev,” he said. He watched Shana’s smile from the corner of his eye and pulled her in tight.
The Rev surveyed the group as if double-checking for any more possible interruptions, then he resumed. “Do you, Dane…”
Within sixty seconds, they finally got to Dane’s favorite part of the ceremony.
“You may now kiss the bride.”
and the Epilogue takes a step past the wedding to wrap everything up, telling us where each character goes as they all move on.
g some of the characters like Governor Douglas, David Young, Chauncey Miller and Joe Allaro, you should check out the Scotland Yard Exchange Romantic Suspense: The Complete 5 Book Series.
To read a story featuring Cap, read Falling for Captain Hunk
To read a story featuring Acer, read Ace Under Fire
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Stephanie Q