Commissioned In White (Art of Love Series) (19 page)

Then she just lost it, because it was all too surreal, and Reesa had reached her emotional limit. She laughed hard and long, patting Shane’s face as she tried to bring him back to reality. He was still on his knees, still leaning against her, mumbling now in his stupor about fairy tales and other nonsense.

Reesa leaned forward and kissed his forehead because it was just below her lips and too tempting to pass up.

“He must have gotten nervous and locked his knees,” Joe said, before giving in to his own laughter. “Looks like the unflappable Dr. Larson has fainted at his own wedding. I certainly didn’t see it coming, but boy am I going to have fun with this for the rest of our lives.”

“Shane—honey,” Reesa called, seeing cameras flashing and wondering what kind of crazy wedding pictures she would get from the chaos that was happening.

“I love you, Reesa,” Shane said, trying valiantly to raise his head.

Reesa looked at the minister. “Can we let that count for his vows?” she asked. “I don’t think Shane’s going to be able to do much more.”

To her amazement, the minister burst out laughing hysterically. They had to wait a full minute for him to stop laughing long enough to pronounce them man and wife.

Using both hands to tip Shane’s face up to hers, Reesa kissed him softly.

After the kiss, Joe helped Shane stand, carefully wrapping the groom’s arm around his shoulders. He tended to forget just how big Shane was, and he certainly hadn’t considered how freaking heavy his dead weight would be. Still, all Joe could do was laugh at the circumstances. If their positions were reversed, Shane would be at his side.

“Come on big guy,” Joe grunted, stealing a look at the luscious maid of honor who was still clutching the back of the bride’s dress to keep it on her.

Joe smiled at Jillian, letting his sympathetic gaze show how he felt about the whole situation. He felt suddenly invincible when she rolled her eyes and grinned at his efforts to hold Shane up as best he could.

“Is it over?” Shane asked, his confusion obvious to everyone. “I have a terrible headache.”

“Everything’s over but the crying, brother,” Joe said loudly, hearing Jillian’s wicked laughter cut loose at last, and wishing like hell they would be sharing jokes over this later.

Maybe they could, he thought. Maybe he could put their relationship back on a friendship level if he watched himself closely. Joe genuinely liked her. The lust thing had just been a side effect of not dating often enough—probably.

“Reesa,” Shane called urgently, looking around in a panic for her when Joe tried to lead him away.

“You go on with Joe,” Reesa said firmly. “I’m right behind you, honey. I’m having a little problem with my dress.”

Her comment got a round of laughter from those watching, but Reesa couldn’t figure out what was so funny. Shane was traumatized by what had happened and obviously still recovering. She knew she should probably feel mortified, but she was too worried about Shane to deal with it yet.

“Sorry if I embarrassed you,” he said softly, leaning on Joe, but still looking at his smiling bride.

“Are you kidding?” Reesa exclaimed, reminding herself to follow Will’s lead and be the captain of cool. She was now aligned with the Larsons in a way she could never have imagined being.

“Shane, this is the best wedding I could ever have hoped for, and you are the perfect groom,” she told him firmly, listening to the snickering in the audience. “I’m going to be infamous among Larson brides. Our great grandchildren will talk about this day.”

“Grandchildren? Does that mean we can have a baby now?” Shane asked, putting a hand to his aching head, wondering how he had missed something as important as Reesa changing her mind about having children.

“I believe it’s my destiny,” Reesa said bravely with a resigned smile on her face. “Now go on with Joe before my dress falls off and I make family history for other reasons.”

At their first step away from the altar, some kind soul somewhere started up the recessional music. They walked raggedly back down the aisle with Sara skipping in front.

“Welcome to the family, Reesa,” Michael called as his sister-in-law walked carefully with Jillian still attached at her back.

No queen had ever had more dignity, Reesa thought, as she turned a beaming smile on her brother-in-law, laughed, and waved.

Michael started clapping, and soon the whole church was clapping and laughing as the wedding party exited.

When the rest of the family stepped out into the aisle to leave, Brian weaved around people in his rush to get to Michael.

“Look. Look at this. It’s perfect,” he said, crowding in next to his newly acquired uncle who had taken an interest in his art.

“Whose digital camera did you steal?” Michael demanded on a laugh.

“Some lady sitting in the same row with us. She was laughing at a picture she took and I asked to see. Dude—it’s perfect for the drawing,” Brian said.

Everyone gathered around Brian, peering over his shoulder to see what he was so excited about. There was picture of a laughing Reesa, with a fallen, dizzy looking Shane in her arms, and both Jillian and Joe trying their best to support them.

“Heroes and sidekicks,” Brian said firmly. “I’m telling you, it’s perfect.”

“They will freaking kill us if we use that picture,” Michael said, grinning.

“I thought artists had some sort of ethic thing about being true to their vision,” Brian said, putting all the snarky challenge into his tone that he possessed.

“Where are you getting this stuff?” Michael demanded, laughing again at the boy’s drama.

“Jessica,” Brian said succinctly. “She’s giving me art lessons at the gallery once a week.”

Michael looked at his stepmother with fond affection as he answered. “Well, she’s right. And so are you. Just know there are consequences for your choices. That’s true about everything. If they decide to kill us, you’re going first.”

“Okay. Got to get this back. The lady said she had her computer in the car and would email them to me once she downloaded them,” Brian said, disappearing back through the crowd.

“You’re going to make a great father,” Carrie said, hooking an arm through her husband’s.

“Yes, but I’m an evil brother,” Michael replied.

“Nobody’s perfect,” Carrie said on a laugh. “I think we saw proof of that today.”

“Why? Did you think Shane was perfect? He was never perfect. I can’t believe you’d think my brother was better than me,” Michael complained.

Carrie laughed and walked ahead of him. “Jealous of your brother on his wedding day? You’re incorrigible.”

Michael grinned and followed his wife out of the church.

Jessica walked to Ellen and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. “Don’t let this discourage you. You are great at this wedding stuff and you know it. Reesa looked like an enchanted fairy. Everyone knows that was your doing. I’m just glad we took some of the pictures before the ceremony.”

“Yes, the whole mess is on video tape. All of it,” Ellen said. “I just paid three hundred dollars to watch endless reruns of my son fainting and ripping his bride’s dress off her body.”

Standing to the other side of her, Will laughed because he couldn’t hold the amusement in any longer. “Since when has Shane ever done what was expected of him? He has always been unpredictable. Just like his mother.”

Ellen sighed in resignation because Will was right. Their sons were a mixture of them both, which was not always a good thing.

Jessica made a dismissive sound with her mouth and started propelling Ellen down the aisle, waving to a concerned Luke who was waiting at the door.

“All you need to salvage this situation is a great video editor,” she said firmly. “Haven’t you heard? Art is pain. Creating it is hard. You’re living the life now. I see an upswing in your future.”

“Getting married and trying to live happily ever after is hard,” Ellen said. “I’m supposed to be making it better, not worse.”

“Happiness is relative,” Jessica said wisely. “If you don’t believe me, ask my daughter the philosopher.”

Ellen snorted and let her sexy husband tug her into his arms for a much needed hug.

Epilogue

Three tables in the conference room were wrapped cheerfully in Christmas paper. The fourth was so full of food that dessert had ended up on the counter in the main gallery.

“This was such a great idea,” Jessica said, surveying the madness that was their family and friends.

She watched, smiling, as Drake’s son Brandon made sure he was sitting close to Chelsea wherever the girl went. Youth and hopefulness were always inspiring.

Spread around the room, people were mingling and talking. Most were family. Some were good friends. And some were becoming better friends, Jessica thought, watching Brooke and Drake, pretending not to see how frequently she touched him or how pleased he looked about it.

“Oh no, they’re looking at it,” Carrie said, nervously biting her lip as she clutched Jessica’s arm in a death grip.

“Ouch—you knew it was only a matter of time,” Jessica said resolutely, patting Carrie and smiling.

Carrie sighed and walked to where Shane and Reesa were staring at the center of the collage.

Shane looked at Carrie and put both hands on his hips. “Really? You really said this was okay? I thought you said I would have final say in what you used.”

“Now don’t look at me that way, Shane. I’m carrying your future niece or nephew. You know you wouldn’t hurt me,” Carrie told him. “Besides, your wife knew about the picture two weeks ago. She could have stopped me.”

Shane snorted and swung a disbelieving gaze back to Reesa. “I thought you said I knew all your secrets?” he demanded.

Reesa laughed at his irritation. “That is not secret. That is a snapshot of our reality,” she said firmly, pointing to the picture in the middle of the collage. “Your mother has the whole thing on video tape. Our copy will be ready by Christmas.”

Shane shook his head. “Michael will pay dearly for this.”

“You will say nothing to your brother,” Reesa ordered, defending the man who was dancing with Sara even as they spoke. “Brian is so proud of this drawing, he’s about to pop. Of course, if he fails his geography class I might have to kill him and your brother, but still—his artistic talent is growing. We’re going with that positive thought.”

“So is this one of those instances where I’m just supposed to say
Yes Dear
and let it go?” Shane asked, grinning at Reesa’s unrepentant expression.

“Yes, Dear—it is,” she replied dryly, not looking at him even though she felt his smile. It was a new joke between them as they looked for ways to communicate their true feelings.

“Well, I say it was a great moment in a unique and very interesting story,” Jessica said, slipping an arm around a still-disgruntled Shane.

“My stories tend to have much better endings,” he said, hating that he’d ruined the wedding ceremony he’d begged his wife to go through with. Worse, he hated that he sounded like a whiny child every time he realized there was no getting the moment back. In that regard, he had a lot more empathy for Carrie now and the bad memories she had of her wedding.

“Well, from my perspective, life just doesn’t get any better than this,” Reesa said, waving an arm at the gallery and everyone mulling around. “I’d rather have the chaos than to lose any of these people out of my life. The chaos is the story. I’m loving every minute of being a crazy Larson bride.”

Studying her earnest face, Shane thought about all Reesa had lost, and all they had found together, and promptly decided she was right. The chaos of their life was their marriage story. From his perspective, all the happily ever after he wanted happened every time he woke up next to Reesa.

“I guess all I can do is accept that picture is our story and thank you for marrying me twice,” Shane said, laughing. “That’s not a lot to ask since you’re tying your life to a crazy Larson’s.”

“You’re welcome, and I’d marry you a third time or as many as it takes for you to be happy, but you have to let me recover from the last time first,” Reesa said, laughing at her silly words. The man she married frequently twisted her tongue into knots.

“God—I love you lady,” he said.

“Good. So, Shane—nobody is going to die over the picture are they? Carrie meant well and Brian is so proud. Michael was not trying to be a dweeb on purpose. I think it just worked out that way,” Reesa said, biting her lip as she peered up at him.

Sometime during their conversation, Jessica and Carrie both must have discreetly fled because she and Shane were now standing completely alone in that part of the gallery. In fact, everyone else was pretty much keeping their distance, probably because her husband had a vengeful gleam in his eyes, Reesa thought. He was big and scary. It was one of the things she liked most about him.

Shane held out his hand to his tiny, amazing wife, who smiled brightly as she linked her fingers tightly with his. They sure looked like an intimidating couple with their piercings and tattoos, he thought. The heroine in his next novel would definitely be sporting a set of eyebrow rings, maybe even a tiny diamond nose stud. That would certainly be sexy as hell.