Chapter 37
As Deacon drove them to Shane and Katie’s, a million thoughts went through Julia’s head, everything from difficult memories of the past to the delightful present she’d found with Deacon and Pupwell.
Their little family had brought her more joy than anything in her life ever had, and she couldn’t wait to be married to him.
“What’re you thinking about over there?” he asked.
“Everything. My whole life and how it’s all come down to this—and you.”
“I hope you’re only thinking about the good stuff.”
“Mostly.”
“No bad stuff today. It’s not allowed.”
“Would you mind if I invited Owen, too? I can’t do this without him.”
“Of course I don’t mind.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to invite Blaine and your parents?”
“Not for this. They’ll all be at the party.”
Julia sent the text asking her older brother if he could come by Katie’s for a minute.
Sure, he replied. What’s up?
Will tell you when I see you.
Everything is okay tho?
Yes, everything is fine.
Poor Owen was preconditioned to expect disaster.
“Your family won’t be angry that we did this without them, will they?” Julia asked.
“They’re so thankful I survived my disaster at sea that they’ll forgive me. I’ll tell them it was a spontaneous thing, which it was, and they’ll understand.”
“I hope so. I don’t want my new family to hate me.”
“They could never hate you. They’ve seen how happy you make me.”
“They’ve seen how I domesticated you.”
“That, too,” he said with a laugh. “Can I ask for something?”
“Anything you want.”
“Oh wow. It’s that kind of day, huh?”
She nudged him. “What do you want?”
“Will you sing for me at our wedding?”
“Yes, Deacon, I’ll sing for you at our wedding. Any special requests?”
“I’ll leave it up to you.”
Julia thought about what she might sing to her new husband, something that would summarize how she felt about him and this moment.
Deacon pulled his truck into the driveway at Katie and Shane’s and parked behind Frank McCarthy’s silver sedan. “Frank is already here.”
“Which has them wondering what the heck is going on.”
“Let’s go tell them. Wait for me.”
Deacon got out of the truck and came around to help her out. Then he got Pupwell from the back seat.
Katie met them at the front door, her face going slack with surprise when she saw Julia wearing “the dress,” as she’d referred to it when she’d shown it to her twin. “Oh my God, you guys! You’re getting married!”
“Yes, and we’re keeping it quiet because we didn’t invite everyone,” Julia said. “We’ll do it again with a big party next summer. But for now, we just wanted to be married, and with Jeff in the hospital and after what almost happened to Deacon…”
“You don’t have to explain it to me.” Katie hugged her and then Deacon. “I get it.”
Frank hugged Julia and shook hands with Deacon. “Shall we get this done?”
Owen came in the door a second later. “What’s going on?”
“Julia and Deacon are getting married!” Katie said.
“Now?” Owen asked.
“Right now,” Deacon said.
Julia went to her brother. “We were going to just have Katie and Shane with us, but I couldn’t exclude you. The three of us…” Her throat closed on a lump.
“The three of us are a team,” Owen said softly as he hugged his sister.
“I couldn’t do it without you.”
“I’m honored to be here.”
“Will you give me away?”
“Never, but I’ll happily escort you.”
She took the arm Owen offered her and went with him to the kitchen while Deacon and Shane stayed with Katie, Frank and Betsy in the living room.
“Don’t tell anyone about this, okay?” Julia asked. “I don’t want Mom and the others to be upset that we did this without them.”
“I won’t tell anyone but Laura, and we’ll keep a lid on it. I promise.”
“Thank you. We’ll do it all again in the summer with everyone we love there.”
“I’ll look forward to that.”
“Thank you for being here for me.”
“Always. You know that.”
“I do, and it means everything to me.” She felt herself getting emotional and tried to keep it in check so she wouldn’t be a mess when she greeted her groom. “Deacon asked me to sing for him, so I’ll do that on the way in, okay?”
“You’re the boss.”
“Are you ready?”
“Just one quick thing,” Owen said. “I want you to know how much I love you and how happy I am for you and Deacon. He’s perfect for you.”
“Yes, he is, and I love you, too. Thank you for everything you did to make it possible for the rest of us to have what we do now.”
“I didn’t—”
Julia went up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Yes, you did, Owen. You did everything for us, and we’ll never forget it.”
She took a moment to get her emotions in check, and then she began to sing the song she’d chosen for Deacon.
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” perfectly summarized what he’d been to her and what he would always be to her.
She sang the opening verse before she and Owen appeared in the doorway to the kitchen to find Deacon wiping away tears as Pupwell sat at his feet, seeming to wonder what the heck Mom and Dad were up to now.
She sang the second verse from the doorway, her gaze locked on his, and finished the song as she and Owen walked into the living room.
Owen kissed her and joined her hand to Deacon’s. “Take good care of our Julia,” he said gruffly to Deacon.
“Always,” Deacon said.
“Friends, we’re here today to celebrate the love of Julia Lawry and Deacon Taylor,” Frank said.
Later, Julia would try to remember what she said, what Deacon said, what Frank said, but it was all a blur of tears and a love so deep, it couldn’t be contained.
She recalled Katie and Shane’s wedding, when he’d convinced her to take a ride on his motorcycle during the reception.
They’d started a scandal by disappearing and had been together ever since.
The hours she’d recently spent wondering if she’d ever see him again had been torturous, but as he slid the ring on her finger and promised to love her forever, she felt as if her entire life had come down to this moment and this man.
All the hell and heartache, the years of battling eating disorders, the absolute nonsense she’d endured with every other man she’d ever dated… It had all come down to him and them.
“By the power vested in me by the state of Rhode Island, I now declare you husband and wife. Deacon, you may kiss your bride.”
As he held her face in his hands, he looked at her with his whole heart in his eyes. Everything he had was hers. Everything she had was his. Just the way it should be.
He kissed her softly and gently, even as his gorgeous eyes flared with desire for much more. There’d be time for that later.
They had all the time in the world for everything.
The Irish invasion occurred as scheduled on Thursday when Slim flew Shannon and Seamus’s parents to the island.
Shannon, Victoria and Seamus were on hand at the airport to welcome them to the island, which had been restored mostly to rights after the storm.
They were still waiting for the power to come back on, however, but with the ferries operating again, they were able to fuel the generators and keep things running.
It had been a tense week of emotional highs and lows, but now that the folks were arriving, Shannon had tried to let it all go so he could enjoy a moment he’d once thought would never occur for him.
Shannon stood back to watch his aunt Nora hug the life out of Seamus, who indulged his mother as he always did since they’d lost his brothers tragically young. Seamus lifted his tiny mother and spun her around, making her scream with laughter.
“Put me down, ya damned fool,” Nora said.
He relished the lyrical sound of her voice, the sound of home, as well as that of his own mother, Breeda, who hugged him with the same enthusiasm that Seamus had received, but with a flood of tears, too.
“Aw, Mam, what’s with the waterworks?” Shannon asked.
“I’m just so bloody happy to see you.”
“Same. It’s been too long.” He stepped back and held out a hand to Vic. “This is my incredible fiancée, Victoria Stevens. Vic, meet my mam, Breeda, and my da, John.”
His mother enveloped Vic in a fierce hug, which he’d warned her would happen.
“I’m so happy to finally meet you in person,” Vic said as she returned his mother’s embrace. She’d gotten to know his family through FaceTime calls. Next, she hugged his father and then Seamus’s parents. “Thank you all for coming so far for us.”
“We wouldn’t have missed it for all the world, love,” Breeda said, with a tearful glance at Shannon.
He knew exactly what she was thinking. After he’d lost his first love, Fiona, to murder, he’d spiraled so deep that everyone around him had feared he might never resurface.
And for years, he hadn’t. The best thing he’d ever done was let everyone talk him into accompanying his aunt Nora to Gansett to visit Seamus.
He’d known they were worried about him and had manipulated him into going with Nora when it was the last thing he’d wanted to do.
They’d hit him with the trip at a time when he’d begun to tire of his own company and the dire thoughts that plagued him through all his waking hours and in nightmares that surfaced during rare hours of sleep.
He’d met Vic the day they arrived on Gansett, and just that quickly, he’d felt better.
She would never fully appreciate the new lease on life she’d given him, even when he’d tried to deny the inevitable with her.
He’d been so afraid to fall in love again that he’d nearly screwed up the best thing to happen to him since he lost Fi.
But leave it to Vic to make a stand that forced him to confront his demons and choose the happy future he now looked forward to with her.
Just thinking about her, the gift of her love and the commitment they were about to make to each other had put a lump in his throat for days as they counted down to their wedding.
Love like this came with risks. He knew that all too well, but Victoria had shown him that their love was worth the risk. She was worth it.
He’d thought about Fi more in the last few weeks than he had in a while, which made him feel guilty amid the happiness he’d found with Vic.
Sometimes he wondered what right he had to such happiness when Fi was gone forever.
Every time he thought such things, he immediately knew that she would tell him to knock it off.
Life is for the living, she would say. She would remind him that he’d loved her with all his heart during the years they’d spent together, and the only thing he could do after losing her was pick up the pieces and go forward.
Shannon knew for certain that Fi would love Vic as much as he did.
That helped him to cope with the emotions that had come to the surface as their big day drew closer.
“You’re quiet,” Vic said when they got to Seamus’s house, where their guests would be staying.
They’d tried to talk Seamus into putting them in a hotel, since Carolina was injured, but neither of them would hear of it.
Carolina’s friends Linda McCarthy, Francine Saunders and Betsy Jacobson had been cooking for days to make sure there was plenty of food for their guests.
That they’d managed to pull off such a miracle during an island-wide power outage had deeply touched him and Vic.
The island community on Gansett never failed to amaze him. Once they wrapped their collective arms around you and made you part of them, they never let go, showing up as needed for anything and everything that came along.
“I’m just thinking,” Shannon said in response to Vic’s comment.
“Happy thoughts, I hope.”
“For the most part.”
She took him by the hand, led him into Seamus and Carolina’s bedroom and shut the door. “Anything I can do?”
“You’re doing it, love, just by being here and agreeing to marry me and all my demons.”
“If you’re struggling, I hope you know you can talk to me about it.”
Shannon leaned his forehead on hers. “I do know, sweetheart, but thank you for reminding me. I’m okay. Just feeling all the stuff this week.”
“Me, too. Mostly, I feel thankful that we found each other, that we have so much to look forward to.”
“I’m thankful for all that, but I’m especially grateful for you and the way you fought for us and made it happen.”
She went up on tiptoes to kiss him. “We made it happen together, and we’re just getting started.”