Page 73 of Promise To Marry You
My breath escapes me in a loud whoosh, so loud, in fact, it catches Claire’s attention. “Oh honey. I’m sorry for my emotions, I didn’t mean to make you think I was upset.” Hurrying over to me, Claire pulls my hands free from Beckett’s and squeezes them with her own. “My son has loved you for years. Watching you two find your way together has been a joy, and I had hoped you would someday decide to get married and promise each other forever. It’s just a shock to know that already happened.”
“We didn’t, really, it was just meant to be a business decision,” I whisper, then immediately wince, wishing I could take the words back. “I mean, it was at first. But then it was so much more and now it’s…he’s…he’s everything.”
Her warm smile reassures me I haven’t completely fucked it up. “Sounds like quite a story, but at the end of the day, you’re happy together and that’s all a mother could ever hope for.” Dropping my hands, she lifts hers to cup my face. “Welcome to the family, Cam.”
“Can we eat now?” Sawyer’s plaintive request interrupts the moment, but it’s Max’s smack to the back of his head that truly cuts through the last of the tension.
“Yes. Let’s eat and celebrate. We’ve got a new daughter-in-law!”
Cheers ring out, and before I know it, I’m being passed around to all the siblings, getting hugged and welcomed. When I get to Kat, I pause. “I’m sorry if we stole any wedding thunder,” I say hesitantly, but my fears are unfounded when she just laughs.
“Are you kidding, this is awesome. You’ve popped the Donnelly wedding cherry, now the pressure’s off! But now that you’re married, you can’t be a bridesmaid, can you?” She tilts her head and grins. “You’re a bridesmatron? Is that a thing?”
I let out a slight shudder. “God, I hope not. That makes me sound old.” Then her statement sinks in. “Wait, you want me to be a bridesmaid?”
“Well, duh, you’re my sister now. Of course, I do.”
“Well, shit.” I whisper, tears filling my eyes. We hug again, and for some reason her request hits me even harder than Claire welcoming me to the family.
I have a family again.
“So, is that a yes?” Kat whispers in my ear, and I just nod against her shoulder. Then I feel Beckett’s arm around my waist, tugging me to him.
“Come on, you two, dinnertime.” His voice is full of love, and I turn to him. He leans down, kissing away the tears that have fallen. “See? Told you it would be fine.”
I feebly slap at his chest. “Shut up.” He just chuckles as he leads me to the dinner table.
Once all the food has been eaten, the wine has been drunk, the full story of Beckett and my secret marriage has been told, and we’ve been ushered out of the kitchen by Claire and Kat, we find ourselves outside, sitting around the stone firepit with the rest of Beckett’s siblings. Just as I’m starting to think the night went a lot easier than I expected, with no teasing or harassing about the bomb we dropped, his brothers prove me wrong.
“You know, Beck, when we said you needed to loosen up a little, getting married in secret isn’t exactly what we had in mind.”
Beckett’s head whips around to glare at Jude. I have to say, I’m a little surprised he’s the first one to crack a joke. I expected it from Sawyer, not Jude.
But just as that thought crosses my mind, Sawyer chimes in. “Yeah, you did it all wrong. It’s meant to go —” he adopts a singsong voice “— first comes love,thencomes marriage.”
Before anyone can get to the next verse of that damn nursery rhyme, I pipe up. “Listen, just because we did things backward doesn’t make it any less perfect. And if you think Beck needs to loosen up…” I trail off because what I was about to say is really not fit for present company.
But it’s too late because the Donnellys and their significant others are more than capable of reading between the lines, judging by the wide smirks on their faces.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I grumble, dropping my head to Beckett’s arm.
I feel the vibration of his chuckle. “It’s okay, babe. Thank you for standing up for me, but let’s keep our sex life between us, hmm?”
“We definitely don’t need to know exactly howlooseBeck really is,” says Sawyer, still sporting a massive grin.
I turn my head to fire back a retort but Beckett’s hand on my chin stops me. Tilting me up to look into his eyes, the corners of his lips turn up. “I think this is our cue to go.” Standing up, he turns and reaches his hand down to me. “C’mon wife, let’s go home and put my looseness to good use.”
Grinning back, I let him lead me away from his laughing siblings.
I’d let him lead me anywhere.
Epilogue
Beckett
“I hate giving speeches,” Cam grumbles under her breath, the only outward sign of her discomfort being the death grip she has on my hand. “Why the fuck do I have to give a speech? Can’t we just open? It’s an art studio, not a hospital, for fuck’s sake.”
I fight back a laugh. For a confident, secure woman, she absolutely hates public speaking. “Babe, you don’t have to. Ethan specifically said if youwantto say a few words. Meaning if you don’t, then don’t.”
