Mine To Honor (Southern Wedding Series Book 7) (Southern Weddings)

“Shall we?” I look down at her hand holding mine as we take our walk down the aisle. Everyone is on their feet. I look over at her and I swear on everything that I have she is the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen. When the doors opened and I saw her, my heart stopped in my chest. It felt hard to even breathe. Her eyes looked at all the people there like a deer in headlights. Until she saw me and it was like she calmed down.

When we finally make it into the reception space, there is a server there holding a silver tray with two glasses of champagne on it. I grab them both and hand one to Eva. “Shall we toast to our wedding?”

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” she accuses, and it looks like she’s about to say something else when the photographer comes over and starts taking pictures.

“Smile.” I put a big smile on my face as she glares at me, but at the same time planning my murder, it’s a beautiful sight. She finishes her champagne in four gulps before placing it on the silver tray. I add my empty glass to the tray also when the rest of the guests come out of the ceremony space.

“Congratulations,” Stefano says when he walks into the reception space, shaking my hand and then slapping my shoulder. “You pulled it off.” He turns toward Eva. “Were you surprised?” he asks as he bends to kiss her cheek.

“That’s an understatement,” she replies, still holding her bouquet in her hand. “I can’t believe we forgot the rings.” She puts her hand to her head and I see the ring I bought for her yesterday.

“I can’t believe you didn’t freak out about it,” Stefano states, shaking his head laughing, and it’s at that moment she looks down and sees the ring I slid on her finger. I glare at him for bringing it up. I mean, I know eventually she would have seen it, but I was hoping she would have had a couple more drinks in her before she did.

“What the fuck is this?” She looks down at her ring, her eyes huge before she looks up at me. “What is this?” She studies her hand for a second before looking back up at me.

“I think that’s what they call an engagement-slash-wedding band.” I put my hands in my pockets to stop them from reaching out to grab her hand and study the ring on it.

“This is,” she starts and looks around seeing the photographer there, “this is too much.”

“I wasn’t going to let you get married with a cheap-ass ring,” I inform her. “I’m not an asshole.”

“Um, you could have gotten me a plain gold band,” she suggests. “This is—”

“It’s a four-carat, pear-shaped diamond ring with an eternity band,” Stefano fills her in. “Even I was impressed.”

“Four carats,” she repeats, looking at me and then down at her hand. “Can you get a refund when you return it next year?”

“I’m not returning a wedding ring; that’s like bad karma,” I tell her, nodding at people who are smiling and shouting congratulations as they come into the reception space.

“Can we have the bride and groom pose for pictures, please?” the photographer asks. “If you would come over here.” He points at the outside of the barn.

“This discussion isn’t over,” Eva states between clenched teeth as she walks in front of me and I get a view of the back, or actually the lack of her dress back. She swings her hips right and left, and I blink a couple of times before I look to the side to make sure no one has caught me trying to check her out. We walk outside and the heat hits you right away. “Over there is perfect.” He points at the side.

I start walking when Eva stops beside me and quickly slips out of her shoes before walking on the grass. We walk over to the side where there are piles of rocks right before the field starts. He points at the rocks. “Eva, can you climb up there?” I hold out my hand for her as she climbs on the low rock. “Levi.” He points for me to stand behind her. I follow his lead, stepping up and standing behind her. “Very nice,” he says, taking a test shot. “Levi, put your left hand on her hip so we can see your wedding band.” I grab her hip in my hand, pulling her to me at the same time.

“Getting frisky there.” She looks up at me and I can’t help but laugh at her. “But if you go any lower, I’m going to break that pretty little hand of yours.” This really makes me laugh. “You may have paid for the cow but there will be no milk-giving.”

“Perfect,” the photographer says, capturing the moment. “Eva, hold your bouquet down on one side.” She does as she’s told. He takes the picture and looks at it. “Nice,” he says as the wind picks up and blows her dress to the side, her hair tickling my nose. I move her hair to the side with my spare hand, her neck is now on display. “Okay, bend down and kiss her neck.”

“Um,” I start to say, “I think we should just stick to standing side by side.” I look at her, waiting for her to say something to him.

“It’s one picture,” she states, “just pretend.”

“How do I pretend to kiss your neck?” I chuckle as I lean down and I get as close as I can. “How’s this?” I ask and she giggles and lifts her shoulder.

Her hand comes up to touch my face. “That tickles,” she admits to me as I hear the clicking of the camera go off.

“Just a couple more seconds,” I say. I close my eyes, trying to focus on anything but the way her hand is on my face. How her hip fits in my hand perfectly, and especially how her ass feels on my cock.

“Perfect,” he says and we spring apart as if someone doused us with ice water. I slip my hand in hers as I help her off the rocks.

“You okay?” I ask as we walk toward the reception, our hands still intertwined with each other. The sun has gone down and you can hear the soft hums of crickets in the air.

“Yeah, Alice called before,” she says. “CPS is having a meeting with the lawyer tomorrow to go over the will and stuff. The reading of the will is in two days.”

“Okay, we can go together,” I tell her, our steps going slower than usual.

“You don’t have to do that; you’ve done more than enough.”

“I think I should, as your husband.” She looks over at me. “Don’t you think?”

“I have no idea what to think,” she admits, “this is all foreign territory for me.” I drop her hand out of mine and put my arm around her shoulders, bringing her to me. She puts her head on my shoulder. “Everything is so real right now.” Her voice gets low and I stop walking, knowing she needs a minute.

I turn her and pull her into my arms. She drops the bouquet at her feet as she wraps her arms around my waist, her forehead in the middle of my chest. “It’s going to be okay,” I reassure her, kissing the top of her head as she looks to the side. My hand rubs her bare arm as she looks out into the distance.

“You promise?” she finally whispers and I can feel wetness on my shirt.

“Yes,” I confirm. At this moment, I would promise her the world because there is no one who deserves it more. There is no one who has busted their ass more than Eva to get where she is. There is no one who has put other people before herself. There is no one, and I mean no one, who deserves to finally have smooth sailing more than Eva. “I promise.”

She finally looks up at me and I can see the tears in her eyes as she tries to blink them away. She puts a smile on her face. “Thank you,” she finally says to me.

I smile down at her. “What’s a fake wedding between friends?” She throws her head back and laughs. Filling the empty night with her laughter is like music to my ears.

“It’s going to be okay,” she finally declares. “Now let’s get in there and eat some food. Maybe drink a little and head on home.”

“Sounds like a great plan,” I tell her as she slips out of my arms. “I, for one, need a nice big drink.”

“Wow, married for an hour and I’m already pushing you to drink.” I look over at her and she winks at me. “It’s starting off very promising.”

I don’t answer her; instead I walk into the reception space where everyone is sitting down to eat. I walk over and pull out a chair for her as she sits down. For the next three hours, it feels like it’s normal. Or at least our brand of normal. Until I’m at the bar getting a bottle of water when Markos slides up to the bar. “What are you drinking?” he asks, leaning on the bar and looking toward the dance floor where the girls are dancing.

“Water.” I lean against the bar looking at him. “Do you want anything?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I’m just here to do my duty.” My eyebrows pinch together. “Her father was my uncle,” he starts, “and it’s my place to inform you that if you hurt her, I’ll hurt you.”

I look at him. “Why would you even think I’m going to hurt her?” I ask. “I would never hurt her.”

“Well, I had to make sure you know that if you do, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Message received,” I assure him as the bartender gives me my bottle of water. “Sadly, this isn’t the weirdest thing that has happened to me today.” I unscrew the top of the bottle and take a sip, looking back at the dance floor, watching Eva throw her head back and laughing. Her hair is now pinned up in a ponytail.

“Something tells me this day is going to change your life,” Mark states before pushing off and walking over to his wife. I don’t move from the bar; instead I watch Eva dancing around to “Dancing Queen,” thinking that maybe Mark isn’t wrong.

When the plane touches down the day after, I have to wake her up. “Eva,” I say softly to her and she opens her eyes. “We’re home.” She nods for a second, closing her eyes and getting up. I unbuckle my seat belt, standing up and opening the overhead bin.

The black band on my hand catches my attention. “I can’t believe I fell asleep,” she says as I hand her her bag. She reaches out and grabs it and her ring catches my attention. “We really did it,” I say to myself as she steps out of the row and walks off the plane.

We walk down toward the baggage claim, neither of us saying anything to the other as we wait for our bags to come out. They are the first two out, and when we get into the car, I look over at her, her head buried in her phone.

I pull up to her house. “I have to head home and pack,” I tell her and she nods at me, “get things settled there. I’ll swing by and get you tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.” She opens the door and I follow her out to grab the bag for her.

“I’m leaving right after the lawyer’s office,” I remind her. “I have to head out, it was scheduled before all of this.”

“You mean before you married me,” she jokes with me and I chuckle.

“Have fun, husband.” She grabs her bag from me. “Be safe.” She turns to walk away, looking over her shoulder. “The last thing I want is another kid in the house and a baby momma.” I can’t help but really laugh now.

“Never imagined my wife telling me to have safe sex with someone else.” I put my hand on my hip.

She gasps and turns to look at me. “You imagined yourself with a wife and didn’t tell me?” She pffts. “Regardless, I’m the perfect wife.” She walks backward. “I wonder if they give out trophies and stuff.” She tries not to laugh at her own joke but fails. “I could put it on the fireplace mantel.” She walks up the steps to her front door.

“You’re a nut!” I shout at her as she steps into her front door.

“I’ve been called worse!” she hollers, lifting her hand to say goodbye before closing the door. I don’t move from my spot, and for the life of me I don’t know why. It’s almost as if I don’t want to leave her, but I know it’s silly.

“She’ll call you if she needs anything.” I try to talk to myself as I finally turn around and head back to my car. Opening the driver’s door, I get in, looking once more at the front door. I don’t know if I’m disappointed that she’s not there waving or that she didn’t ask me to come back to her. I shake my head, trying to clear out all the thoughts I don’t want to have. “Snap out of it,” I say right before I pull off and head home.