Page 115 of Cruel Proposal
Noah ----
One Year Later
Eloping is the way to get married.
You don't have to deal with other people's expectations; it's just you and your partner promising to love each other for the rest of your lives. I don't have to worry about the way her brothers are looking at me or that someone is going to show up and ruin her happy day.
Not that her family would ever do that to her, but I live with the constant fear that someone is going to find out I'm not who I say I am. That everything about my life right now is a lie that I'm desperately trying to sell.
Living this life gets easier every single day, but the fear grows too.
Especially since we're going to start trying for a baby within the next six months.
But right now, all I have to do is focus on the wedding. Get through the ceremony without stuttering over my vows and disappointing Summer.
Though, with the way she looks at me like I hung the stars in the sky, I don't think that's possible.
Summer gives me a warm smile, the skirt of her lacy white dress fluttering in the wind as she walks down the pier toward me.
It's only once she steps onto the pier, her back to the parking lot, that the rest of the family starts to filter in.
She stops in her tracks when she hears the laughter behind her, whipping around. A broken sob echoes across the short distance between us before she takes off sprinting to the family.
Her brothers and sisters pull her close, all of them talking over each other like they always do whenever they get together.
I stand to the side with my hands in my pockets, but Zoe and Ezra make their way over, Gia trailing behind them.
I swallow hard, things still a little tense between all of them and me. "Thank you for coming."
Gia is the first to move, pulling me into a tight hug. "You're an asshole for waiting until the last minute to fly us all in, but I'm so glad we're here for this."
Hugging her tight, I try to force away all the tension in my body. "Summer never said she wanted all of you here. Actually, the opposite—a lot. I didn't think she'd be able to go through with it, though. Not with her siblings and all the nieces and nephews missing."
"And..." Zoe draws out the word as she replaces Gia for a hug.
"And I don't think I could do it without all of you here, either. I know I haven't been the best brother or cousin, but I'm trying to do better. She makes me want to be better, even though that feels impossible at times, and I don't think I really know what I'm doing ever."
Ezra snorts and claps a hand on my shoulder. "You're an idiot, but I'm glad this shit is over, and we can all move on with our lives. Jade and I are going to be heading to Asia for the summer. She wants to spend time traveling to a million different countries and learning more recipes."
Gia laughs, shaking her head. "Royce and I are going to be staying here for a bit. With Ellie and Sean building a new house, they need Royce's help a lot of the time. Skyla and Joshua are talking about staying around New York for the summer too, but I think they're moving closer to you and Summer after that."
Summer's loud laughter echoes around the private beach.
I grin, tucking my hands into my pockets. "She's going to love having her family closer. Sometimes, I think she misses living in New York and being so close to everyone."
Skyla saunters over, eyeing me like she's still thinking about killing me, but I think that's just in her nature. "I heard my name."
"You're going to be moving closer to us?" I take a step back, making sure there's more than an arm's length between us. Out of all the Lyndes, I think she's always going to be the one I trust the least.
She smiles, but it's more like baring her teeth. "Yeah. Things are getting a little hot back home, and the police are starting tolook for a person who might be running around and killing other people."
Joshua scoffs as he comes over to join us. "You got sloppy. We're going to have to try harder to keep things under wraps."
Summer bounces over, her hair hanging in wild waves around her face, her eyes shining with happiness. "Are we getting married or what?"
Hector hums and opens the binder he has. "Didn't want to get too pushy, but it's getting late, and I want to start drinking."
Summer laughs as Ellie starts rounding up the family and getting them in position.
