Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
And then my eyes locked on the doorway. I counted. I’d counted to eight when I saw the first flash of white. I tensed, all my muscles locked tight as Mae stepped out of the door arm in arm with Stephen . . . and I felt like I’d just taken a fucking crowbar to the stomach.
Fuck, but she was perfect. Mae clutched onto both her bouquet and her father as she made her way to the top of the aisle. Then she looked up, paralyzing me with that wolf-eyed gaze. Every fucker here seemed to fade away as I saw her smile under her veil, her pink lips bright and shining through the lace. She started walking, and it took everything I had not to race down the damn aisle, rip the veil from her face and smash my lips against hers.
But I held still, just watching this bitch—the bitch who had flipped my world upside down as a kid—make her way toward me. And with every step, I saw it all in my head. I saw her crouched behind the fence, crying. I saw my defective mouth open and speak to her, her big fucking blue eyes seeming too big for her face as she looked at me, as she joined her hand with mine through the chain fence. Then her on the floor of the compound behind the dumpster, opening her eyes, lying in my arms, fucking bleeding and dying. Her watching me play Waits, me being able to speak to her again. Kissing her against the tree at McKinney State Falls, her forgiving me for freaking out over her scars, then her letting me make her mine. Getting her back from the cult, then never fucking letting her go again. Then the best of all, her telling me she was having our kid and that she would finally be my fucking wife.
All of it was there in my mind. Every fucking day I’d spent with her.
Mae stopped at the end of the aisle. Stephen kissed her on the back of her hand, fucking smiling through his tears. He then turned to me and shook my hand before moving to sit on the front row, fucking beaming at his daughters. Ky moved aside, and I held out my hand to Mae. The second her small fingers pressed against my palm, I fucking breathed.
Finally fucking breathed.
I caught a glimpse of her eyes through the veil then, before I was even asked by the pastor, I lifted it over her head, cupped her cheeks, and pressed my lips against hers. Like she did every time, she melted against me. I heard my brothers calling out and Vike’s fucking annoying voice shouting, “Ain’t at that part yet, Prez!”
But I took her mouth, not giving one shit. She was mine. I’d take her fucking pink lips if I wanted to—I owned her and she fucking owned me. When I broke away, Mae giggled against my mouth.
Pastor Ellis leaned forward, grinning. “Shall we begin?”
The pastor started talking, talking some religious bullshit I had no interest in hearing. Then it was time for the vows. We’d agreed on just the normal vows. I didn’t want a fucking fanfare. I wanted my signing to be quick and to the point. Mae had been understanding, of course. She always was.
Mae went first. Ky gave her the ring. With her hand in mine, she repeated what the pastor told her to say. “I, Salome Nash, take thee, River Nash, to be my lawfully wedded husband . . .” And I listened to her. I listened to her tell me she’d fucking stand by me in sickness and in health, ’til death do us part.
Pastor Ellis turned to me, and I felt my heart slam in my chest. I swallowed, feeling the python wrap around my throat. And it squeezed. It squeezed so fucking tight that I felt the muscles in my neck cord. Mae squeezed my hands. When I looked at her, I realized Pastor Ellis had spoken.
“Are you okay?” Mae whispered just for us to hear. I nodded once. Then I couldn’t fucking tear my eyes away. I stared at my bitch and was fucking floored. All black hair and blue eyes and those fucking pink lips. Her dress, our kid in her stomach . . . all of it. All of her. So fucking perfect. Right here. Right now.
“Mr. Nash, your vows,” Pastor Ellis said, and Mae pulled back her hands so I could sign. But as she did, something in me snapped and I held on tight. Her brows pulled down in confusion; then she tried again. But I still didn’t let go. I knew she’d be able to feel the shaking of my hands as I gripped onto her. I knew she’d be wondering what the fuck was happening. So I looked to the pastor and nodded my head, urging her to talk. She looked lost as fuck as well, but I gave no shits. I fucking had to do it.