Chapter 47
RYAN
As I stood there, I wished briefly, but very sincerely, that I would have thought about rehearsing this. I hadn’t, though. Mostly because I hadn’t actually known I was going to do it until Daniel had looked at me a minute ago.
I didn’t know the guy well enough to presume to know what had run through his mind when his gaze had met mine, but it was almost like I’d felt him begging me to speak up while simultaneously granting me permission to do so. Or maybe just letting me know he’d be okay with it if I did.
Naturally, however, my tongue now felt like it’d been glued to the roof of my mouth. I suddenly couldn’t remember how to formulate a single meaningful word in the entirety of the English language, but then I saw Maggie staring at me too and I turned to look only at her.
I saw Cliff in my periphery too, scowling like I’d committed several felonies and he’d been the detective tasked with finding me for the last decade, but I ignored him. I also ignored Maggie’s mother, who was sitting in the front row, looking like she was about to faint.
Maybe if they’d actually listened to their daughter before, it wouldn’t have come to this. Either way, we were here now and I was already standing. I guess I might as well shoot my shot.
“Mags, I know that on paper, you and Daniel have every reason in the world to get married,” I finally started.
She looked so fucking gorgeous in that dress that she’d knocked the breath clean out of my lungs when she’d appeared, and with her eyes on mine now, words finally just appeared in my brain.
“In your hearts, however, there’s absolutely no reason to go through with it. We all know that.”
My heart pounded wildly in my chest, but I pushed past it.
“You and me, though? We have every reason to promise each other forever. How we feel about each other? That’s not something a person finds every day.
Maybe we don’t look as good together on paper, and sure, it’ll be a rocky ride for a while. I know that, but…”
I raked a hand through my hair and took a breath. “Damn the expectations. Damn the big show and what people are going to say tomorrow. Damn it all. None of it means anything if you’re not by my side anyway.”
Maggie’s face crumpled for half a second before she pressed a hand to her chest and I smiled.
“These last few months have been the best ride of my life. I spent a truly unreasonable amount of time organizing a carnival for you and I still had more fun than I could have doing anything else, and if I don’t get to ride one of those terrifying roller coasters with my girl tonight, it’ll be a great injustice. ”
Her father finally snapped. “Get out.”
I barely moved my eyes away from hers. “No. I’m good exactly where I am, actually.”
“Ryan!” he seethed. “You need to leave. Now.”
“You can throw me out as soon as I’m done. You can have me escorted off the property by security, and hell, you can make sure I never set foot in any boardroom in Manhattan ever again, but I’m finishing this before I go.”
His face turned an unnatural shade of scarlet while Adelaide whispered frantically to someone beside her, probably trying to contain the social catastrophe I’d just launched the Pembrokes into, but honestly, I was pretty sure it had already achieved nuclear status.
The guests seemed to be loving it, though. I could practically hear their collective appetite for gossip screaming, Feed Me!
The drama was just delicious, but as I looked at Maggie, still focusing only on her, and she looked back at me, all the nerves and the fear inside me settled. “I’m in love with you, Mags. I’m madly, wildly, painfully in love with you.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, but I wasn’t done yet. “I love you exactly the way you are. You’re my weird, quirky, haunted-carnival-loving freak, and I’m completely obsessed. I don’t care if anyone thinks that makes me insane. They can think whatever the hell they want, but I love you.”
Her hand came up to cover her mouth, quiet tears streaming down her face as silence fell in the wake of my extremely over-the-top confession. Since everyone was too busy staring between the two of us, they missed the tiny, relieved smile that flickered across Daniel’s face, but I didn’t.
When he moved, however, taking the final two steps between them, they seemed to remember he was here and every head turned toward him. Slowly reaching for Maggie, he took both of her hands in his.
Cliff looked genuinely shell-shocked beside her as he watched them, but not even the mighty Cliff Pembroke could stop this train anymore.
Daniel cleared his throat before he finally started speaking.
“It’s not that I don’t want to marry you, Maggie.
In fact, I think we could have had a lot of fun together as friends, but that’s all we could ever be.
” His eyes drifted shut. “I don’t want to do that to either of us and I should’ve said so a long time ago. ”
When he reopened his eyes, he glanced at me, then breathed out a heavy sigh, groaned, and turned back to her. “I can’t do this. I can’t marry you.”
A strangled sound came out of Cliff, but Daniel didn’t pay him any mind as he took a breath that looked like the first he’d managed to drag in all day. “I’m sorry, but I’m calling it off. I’m saying no. This isn’t right and it never has been.”
For a long minute, the clearing went so quiet, I’d have been able to hear half a pin drop, but then the inevitable sounds of movement started, clothes rustling and chairs squeaking. Daniel suddenly let go of Maggie’s hands and turned to face their guests.
“Wait!” he said, his voice suddenly brimming with the confidence of his command. “Everyone, sit down. You’re not going anywhere yet.”
Maggie frowned, but he glanced at her and winked. “We’re not wasting Maggie’s dream wedding. Do you guys have any idea what it took to pull this thing together? A lot. It’s not happening again, but luckily, it doesn’t have to.”
“I thought you were calling it off,” she murmured, staring at him with shock and confusion written all over her face. “Are we back on again? What’s happening right now?”
A murmur of laughter moved through the crowd, but Daniel shook his head and reached for her hand again. “I’m calling it off, Maggie. That doesn’t mean you have to.” Her mouth dropped open when he suddenly turned back to me. “Ryan, get up here.”
I didn’t move at first, completely caught off guard, but when he widened his eyes at me, my feet finally remembered what to do. They shuffled me toward the aisle, then down it, but every step felt surreal.
Shit, am I actually about to get married right now? Jane isn’t here. She’s going to kill me.
Holden stood near the back where he’d parked himself earlier in case I wanted to make a quick getaway, his lips parted as he stared at me, but when I glanced back at him, he smirked and mouthed, “Go.”
Both of Mom’s hands were pressed over her mouth, her eyes wide, but I wasn’t sure if it was pride or horror shining in them.
She didn’t try to stop me, though. At least that was something.
Instead, she just looked completely speechless, which was slightly alarming considering the fact that it had been a while since she’d been that way.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, it occurred to me that I probably should’ve told Maggie about the possibility of my father’s release before I did this.
We were going to be under such a microscope again as a family if that happened and I didn’t know if she would be okay with that, but on the other hand, there were carnies outside.
At her wedding. Because she’d desperately wanted them here.
Yeah, I think she’s going to be just fine.
I took her hands when I reached her, steadying them in mine when I realized how badly she was shaking.
Tugging her a little closer, I took the final step toward her and lowered my mouth to her ear.
“I meant every word I said, Mags, but if you don’t want to do this right here, right now, we don’t have to. ”
She leaned into me, her entire body trembling, but when she didn’t say anything, I pressed a kiss to her hair.
“I’m serious. We can leave. Holden parked all the way at the bottom of the driveway.
I can get out.” My eyes slid shut. “There are some things we should probably talk about before we do this anyway. The lawyers called and my dad might be—”
“No,” she whispered, lifting her head to look up into my eyes. “I don’t want to run. Nothing you can say is going to change the way I feel about you, so talking can wait too.”
Her gaze flicked toward her father, and for a second, my heart stammered and I genuinely thought seeing him so obviously pissed off was going to deter her. Instead, she wrapped her fingers around mine, holding me tight as she turned to face him.
“Daddy,” she said softly. “I love you.”
His face was hard, his jaw clenched so tight that his teeth had probably already cracked, but something in his eyes softened when she said it. She gave him a sad smile, fresh tears welling in her eyes. “I really do love you, Daddy, and I forgive you.”
His eyebrows shot up, but she drew in a steady breath and kept going. “I forgive you for pushing me into this. I know you thought you were protecting me and I realize that you truly believe you were doing what was best for my future, but that wasn’t what I wanted. This is.”
Maggie’s fingers slipped out of mine as she took a step forward, pushing up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “I do love you, and I hope that with time, you and Mom can forgive me too.”
When she turned again, she came straight back to me. Her eyes were wet and her cheeks were flushed, but she looked more alive than I’d ever seen her. “I’m not missing my carnival. Let’s do this thing.”
I laughed. “Thank God.”
Maggie wound her arms around my neck and smiled. “You’re sure this is what you want?”
I snaked an arm around her waist, drawing her flush against me before sliding one hand up into her hair and lowering my mouth to hers. Kissing her in such a state of disbelief that I couldn’t actually believe this was real, I half-expected to wake up when I broke away from her.
Instead of that, however, she smiled up at me and stroked her fingers into my hair. “I love you too, you know.”
My heart nearly gave out, but then a throat cleared beside us. The officiant was standing there looking extremely confused as he glanced at Daniel, then at Maggie, and then at me. Then he inhaled a deep breath and adjusted his glasses.
“Would you two like to just skip to the vows?” he asked.
Maggie looked at me and I grinned, tightening my grip on her without any intention of ever letting go. “Yeah. Yeah, I think we’d like that. What do you say, Mags? Would you like to get married real quick?”