Shepard

8 - Marrying the woman I love

Shepard

I’m nervous as fuc.k. Nothing in my life has ever made me nervous like this before. I asked Lynette to marry me a month ago. We’d been together a few weeks by that point. I’d wanted to make the proposal perfect for her.

I was going to take her to Lovers Lake and ask her to marry me by moonlight. Things don’t always work out the way we plan them, though, and I ended up asking her to marry me after making love one evening. Lynette smiled at me, then she kissed me and mumbled yes against my lips.

The clubhouse looks fantastic. Everyone looks amazing. Tate is in his young man’s suit and tie of gray, Willow in her little bridesmaid dress of blue, her favorite color, so she told my mother, who took her out to buy the dress.

I watched her earlier twirling around and around, giggling happily. Willow is always happy. I swear she used to smile in the womb. I watched her holding Hammer’s hand, swinging their joined hands back and forth. She adores Hammer, Titus’ eldest kid. She’s the same with Haiden, but with Haiden and Tate, she sees them as her brothers. Hammer, I’m not sure what she sees him as. I’m wondering if she has a little crush on him.

I’m not going to worry about it; she’s twelve, Hammer’s nineteen, almost twenty, and he loves her like a sister. That’s all it will ever be.

My dad is officiating my wedding today. He was ordained a while ago; he likes to be the one to marry anyone belonging to the club. Some weird obsession he has because he’s the man in charge.

My mom looks beautiful in her cream dress and matching wedding hat. Willow is now sitting in her lap, my mom’s arms around Willow’s waist, and baby girl is smiling. She’s so excited to see her mother and I get married.

My boy is standing up with me today. I could have asked either of my best friends to stand with me, but last week, Tate sat with me and asked if I thought of him as more than just his son. I looked at him curiously; he seemed a little nervous. Then it hit me just what he meant.

My boy wanted to know if I saw him as a friend as well as my son.

We were sitting on our porch watching the sun go down. Willow was asleep in her newly decorated room. Her room at my house because I wanted Willow and Lynette living with me. Willow has a nice-sized room now, and she loves it. Lynette was asleep in our room because she was exhausted from the move.

‘We’re buds, right?’ I told my boy.

‘Yeah,’ He wrung his hands together nervously. I couldn’t help but smile. ‘Have you decided who’s going to be your best man?’

‘I have,’ I nodded.

‘BlackJack or Titus?’

‘Tate Jackson,’ I said with a shrug, acting like it was nothing.

I watched Tate from the corner of my eye with a smirk on my face; his mouth was hanging open.

I turned to look at him. ‘That all right with you?’ He nodded. ‘Think you can handle it?’

‘Why me?’

I clasped his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘Because you’re my son, and I like to think we’re friends.’

‘The best.’ He told me with a massive smile before throwing his arms around my neck. It seems he wasn’t too old just yet to hug his old man. I hugged him tight and kissed his head. ‘I love you, Dad.’

“Love you, too, my boy.” Always fuckin.g will.

Tate did a damn good job showing everyone to their seats today, making sure everybody was ready for when Lynette walked down the makeshift aisle.

God, she looked more beautiful than I have ever seen her. Lace white dress that covers her arms but sits on her knees, white heels on her feet, and hair in a thick braid with daisies looped through. I’ve never seen anything so perfect in my life than Lynette.

I’m not going to lie; I had a tear in my eye as she walked toward me. My heart was pounding so hard that I thought I was about to have a heart attack.

I still feel like that, holding her hands in mine, smiling at the beautiful woman who is about to become my wife. She’s smiling at me with such love in her eyes.

I never knew I could love and be loved like this.

“Right!” Apollo yells loudly enough to get everyone’s attention, even though everyone is already silent and watching Lynette and me.

I can’t take my eyes off of her.

I can’t believe she’s mine.

“It’s my pleasure and honor to be standing here in front of my son, your VP, and his beautiful bride today.” Lynette looks at Apollo and giggles, and he winks at her.

I squeeze her hands, and she turns her head to look at me again.

The mumbles finally die down when Apollo yells for everyone to shut their holes. He’s as charming as ever.

“Looks like my boy has a few words he’d like to say to Lynette.”

Lynette and I decided to write our own vows. Writing mine didn’t take me too long; I knew what I wanted to say to her.

Apollo nods at me, and I tip my head, take a deep breath, and smile at Lynette. She’s looking at me with her big green eyes sparkling as she smiles.

“Lynette, it’s never really been a secret that I had a thing for you long before I finally grew a set and claimed you.”

That gets me a laugh.

“It’s true that you were just a little girl when I met you. A little girl, pregnant with her own little girl.” I look over at Willow, still sitting on my mother’s lap, and she giggles at me.

I wink at her, and she blows me a kiss. I fuckin’ love that kid.

I turn back to Lynette.

I notice she is watching the exchange between Willow and me, and she’s smiling so widely because of it.

“I watched you through the years grow into the beautiful woman I see before me. The woman who took my kids into her heart and loved them like her own.”

This time, Lynette is smiling at Tate, standing to my right a little behind me.

“When Nova disappeared, you were the one who held me up, took care of my son, made sure he knew that he was loved. That you love him.”

“More than anything.” She smiles.

I will never doubt a day in my life how much she loves Tate.

“I told myself plenty that I wasn’t good enough for you, hell, no man could ever be good enough for you, but I couldn’t fight this any longer. I fell in love with you, and I was done fighting it. You’re my best friend, my soulmate,” I stroke the tear from her cheek with my thumb. “I love you like I ain’t never and will never love another woman. You’ll be my wife in a few minutes, and I’m never letting you go.”

I want to kiss her right now, but my dad would smack me upside the head if I kissed Lynette before it was official.

“You are the love of my life, and so, I make you these promises. I promise to be by your side for the rest of our lives, no matter where we are. I promise to cherish you and to support your hopes and dreams. I promise to be the best father to our kids and the best husband to you that I can be. Nothing in this world will ever come before you, Lynette, and I promise I will love you for all eternity.”

She smiles wide. I see the sweet emotion in her eyes.

“Now, Lynette has a few words to say to Shepard. Go ahead, beautiful girl.” Apollo winks at my girl.

He has a soft spot for Lynette and always has. He knows she hasn’t had an easy life, and I don’t know if he knows why; I know I don’t; no one does. But I do know he tried to find her family. If he ever found them, he never said anything. He just told me one day that it was better for Lynette to be here with us, with the Snakes, so we could care for her and her child.

“I’m a little lost for words after what you just said. However, Vince,” Lynette swallows hard.

She has nothing to worry about; she can call me whatever the fuc.k she wants, even in front of all these people. This is our wedding day; she wants these vows to be as authentic as possible. I don’t blame her for that.

“You are my world. You always have been. From the moment I came to town, you have been my best friend. You took me into your family, treated my little girl like your own, and never asked me for anything in return.

“You’ve protected Willow and me since before she was born. No amount of thanks could ever cover it. I was there for you and Tate when you both needed me the most because there was nowhere else I’d rather have been. The two of you and Willow make my life complete.”

She has tears in her eyes, and I have a smile on my face. This beautiful woman with the purest soul will be my wife any minute now. I’m fuckin.g anxious for it to get to the I-do’s.

“I make you these promises, Vince. I promise to be by your side every day for the rest of our lives, through the good and bad times. I promise to be true to you, listen, and understand when you need a friend the most. I promise to be the best mother and wife I can be, and I promise to love you for all eternity.”

Fuc.k, I love her!

“Without further ado, because I can see my boy is itching to kiss the hell out of his woman,”

Bastard!

But I can’t help laughing along with everyone else.

“By the power vested in me by God and the state of Tennessee, I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss your bride, son.”

Kiss her, I do.

I grab Lynette’s waist and pull her against me, our lips crashing together, her hands sliding around my neck. I don’t give a shi.t about the catcalling behind us; this woman is my wife!

Shi.t, she’s my wife!

Lynette moans against my lips before pulling out of the kiss and resting her forehead against mine. She laughs at how loud the cheers are coming from behind us.

“I love you, Vince.”

“I love you, too, beautiful. Think we can sneak away soon?”

“No, this is our wedding day.” She laughs. “We can be alone tonight, just you and me and a massive bed.”

I growl while rocking her from side to side. “I’m gonna fuc.k you like you’ve never been fucke.d before.”

“You always do.” True. “Let’s go enjoy the rest of our day, and then we can go home and spend the night making love as husband and wife.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

And we do just that. We dance our first dance as husband and wife. I dance with Willow while Lynette dances with Tate. I dance with my mother and Lynette dances with my father. We eat until we can eat no more, drink, laugh, and the day couldn’t have gone any better.

Once we’ve said goodbye to the kids for the night, knowing they’ll be safe with my parents, I ride my wife home on the back of my Harley. I take her home and make love to her for the first time as Mrs. Vincent Jackson, and it’s the most perfect moment of my whole life.

I know life can’t always be this perfect, but this right here is perfect. Ain’t nothing can take this away from us, and there won’t be a day that goes by for as long as I live will I forget this feeling.

As I pull my wife onto my chest after hours of making love as husband and wife, I kiss her head and let the smile stay on my face.

“I love you, husband.”

“I love you, wife.” As her breathing evens out, letting me know she’s fallen asleep, I tell myself everything will always be this perfect.

I can dream, right?