Ever After Drake (25 page)

“
What is going on?” I say
to no one in particular. Hannah just grins and loops my arm through
hers.

She leads me down the hall, around the
corner, and I finally figure out that we are headed for the main
gym when the doors come in sight.

Someone with an artistic hand took
huge rolls of brown paper and covered the doors, drawing on them to
make them look like the doors to some grand castle. Two senior boys
stand beside them, both wearing suits. When I get closer, they
reach for the handles, and pull the doors open for me.

The music coming through the overhead
speakers is overwhelmed by the actual high school orchestra picking
up with a dramatic, dreamy song. They are standing just to either
side of the doors in the gym.

It takes my eyes a moment to adjust to
the dim light, but when they do, tears prick at my eyes.

Waiting just inside for me, is
Armando. He wears a tailor fitted tuxcedo, and a smile that could
outshine the sun. He extends his arm, and I loop mine through
his.

“
Armie,” I say. But my
eyes have shifted to the rest of my surroundings and I don’t have
any more words.

The gym has been transformed into a
ballroom. Some kind of Christmas light chandeliers have been hung
from the basketball hoops. Even more twinkle lights are strung all
along the walls, they crisscross across the ceiling. The entire
space is sparkly and romantic.

And there must be nearly every student
and teacher gathered in the gym. The space is overflowing and
packed with bodies. Everyone is dressed beautifully, wearing gowns
and suits.

Despite how crowded the room is, there
is a perfectly clear path to the middle of the gym.

A huge smile starts forming on my face
as my eyes look down the line.

There’s an archway of some sort set up
in the center. There’s greenery and flowers wound through it. The
biggest light chandelier of all hangs right over it.

And standing under all of that is
Drake.

My feet pull me automatically toward
him, Armando’s arm still around mine. My smile grows bigger and
bigger as I walk toward Drake, hundreds of eyes following me as we
walk.

Drake’s gaze fixes on me and he can’t
seem to contain his own grin as I approach. He’s dressed in some
kind of costume suit. Tight white slacks and high black boots. A
red suit jacket with gold trim and buttons, and even the shoulder
fringe things. Dark blue cuffs and a golden sash goes over his
right shoulder and loops over his left hip. He looks like he just
walked right off the page of a fairy tale.

Finally, I stop in front of him.
Armando presses a kiss my temple and walks to the edge of the
crowd.

“
What is going on?” I say
again through a laugh and an insanely huge smile.

“
The greatest love story
ever told,” he says. He takes a step toward me, placing a hand on
my cheek. I bite my lower lip to keep my face from breaking with
the world’s biggest smile.

My eyes leave Drake for just a few
moments and take the scene around us in once again.

There are so many familiar faces
watching us. I see Lake through the crowd not far away. Mr. Scott
smiles brightly. Principal Riker shakes his head with a smile when
I catch his eyes.

And then, back a ways; I see Robin,
Robert, Sage, and Kale. Robin is snapping pictures like crazy. And
standing just behind Armando is Dick and Skylar.

My eyes shift back to
Drake.

His eyes are intense and bright and so
full with the possibility of what is to come.

He lets go of my cheek and his hand
slides down to mine. And ever so slowly, he drops down to one
knee.

All those emotions I’ve felt in the
four months since I met this man well up inside of me.

“
Kaylee,” he says. His
voice fills the huge space and not a breath competes with him. “I
think we both knew this moment was coming from the first time we
met. Me and you. Always. That was always the way it was meant to
be. We took a rocky road getting here, and I’m sure there will be
more potholes along the way.”

My heart breaks out into a sprint and
everything around us fades away.

“
But I don’t want to do
this thing called being a human being with anyone else. I want you
by my side, always. I want to make a life and a home and babies
with you.”

We both laugh at that, and the crowd
does too.

“
But right now I want to
ask you a question,” he says, the smile on his face growing more
serious.

Once again the room is dead
silent.

And the smile on my face…

“
Yes!” I squeal, barely
able to keep from bouncing up and down on my toes.

Drake laughs, a smile over
taking his face. “You have to let me
ask
the question first.”

Everyone around us burst into
laughter.

“
Hurry up,” I say, hardly
able to contain myself.

Drake just shakes his head and a
lopsided smile takes over his face. “Kaylee Ray, will you marry
me?”

“
Yes!” I shout the second
the words leave his mouth. My arms wrap around him as I throw
myself at him, nearly sending us both to the ground. My lips drop
to Drakes and he kisses me long and hard as he stands, for a
moment, lifting me clean off my feet. As my toes once again touch
the ground, I feel him reach into his pocket and draw something
out.

I break away from his lips to see the
box as he opens it. He pulls out a ring and I hold my finger
out.

It isn’t huge. It’s quite simple
actually, a white gold band with a row of diamonds embedded into
it. A bigger diamond sits in the middle, and on either side, two
other slightly diamonds frame it.

It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve
ever seen.

I look up into Drake’s eyes, feeling
as if I will explode into a million stars. He smiles before his
lips find their way to mine again.

And the room erupts.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

SIX MONTHS LATER

Drake sets the box in the corner and
wipes the sweat from his brow. “That’s the last one.”

I pat the floor next to me. He gives a
little smile and sits beside me.

The house is four blocks from his
parents and six from the high school. It’s not very big. Three
bedrooms, two of which are tiny, and one bathroom. The old hardwood
floors will need to be refinished some time. The yard needs the
serious attention of a weed-whacker. The mailbox is hanging from
its post by just one nail.

But this house is ours.

“
I can’t believe we have
our own house,” Drake says as he looks around the living room.
There are boxes stacked everywhere. I can’t even see the fireplace,
there’s so much stuff everywhere.

“
Pretty amazing, right?” I
say with a satisfied smile as I look it over too. There’s a crack
in the wall by the fireplace, but the inspector insisted it wasn’t
a foundation issue. I kind of love that crack. It reminds me of the
past and everything we’ve overcome.

“
Yeah,” Drake says,
snaking an arm around my shoulders. “It kind of is.”

It’s warm inside since it’s the middle
of June. School finished four days ago and we closed on this house
two days ago. It took us two months to find just the right house.
Something that felt right and seemed like home. Somewhere where we
were sure we wanted to raise our future kids.

“
How are your feet
feeling?” he asks, giving me a little squeeze.

I look up at him, placing a hand on
his cheek and pressing a kiss to the other one. “Toasty
warm.”

“
Not feeling like running
off on me tomorrow?”

“
You knew you didn’t even
have to ask that question,” I say as I twist around, swinging one
leg over the both of his, and straddling his lap. I wrap my arms
behind his head, nudging his nose with mine.

“
I know,” he says with a
little smile, gently pressing his lips to mine.

“
Tomorrow,” I say
wistfully as I look into his eyes. “It’s felt forever away the past
six months, and now here it is.”

“
You still sleeping at
Armando’s tonight?” he asks, wrapping his arms around my waist. He
looks very comfortable and relaxed.

I nod. I have an overnight bag in the
car, along with everything I will need to get ready in the morning.
My dress is already at his condo. And tomorrow Armando will walk me
down the aisle. “You staying in your old room?”

Drake nods. “Dad cleared his stuff off
the bed so I have somewhere to sleep.”

Which is important, since we both let
our apartments go last week. And we agreed neither of us would
sleep in the house until we were married.

“
Is Lake still leaving
right after the wedding?” I ask, feeling my heart sink.

Drake bites his lower lip, his
expression falling, and he nods. “He heads for boot camp the next
morning.”

“
I wish I knew why he was
doing this,” I say, shaking my head.

Lake has been different the last two
months. Where he used to be cocky and arrogant at times and always
cracking a sarcastic joke, he’d been more serious. He seemed
darker, like something was weighing his mind down. But he never
talked about it.

And then three weeks ago he announced
to the family that he’d joined the Marines. The only reason he
hadn’t left the second he got his diploma is our
wedding.

He
is
Drake’s best man.

“
Mom’s still pretty upset
about it all,” Drake says.

“
Can’t blame her,” I say
with a sad smile. She hadn’t handled the news well. First she was
angry. And then she cried. And then she was angry again. Now’s
she’s numb over it.

“
Hopefully the wedding
serves as a good distraction,” Drake says, pressing his lips to
mine.

“
I need to make sure I
tell Sage thank you again,” I say to his lips. “A barely graduated
college student shouldn’t have the money to pay for our wedding
already.”

“
She said she wanted to
give us the best ever wedding gift—the wedding,” he chuckles.
“Trust me, she can afford it. She told me how much she made in
stocks this year.”

I shake my head and
chuckle.

The shadows stretch across the floor,
the hour edging toward nine o’clock.

“
We should be getting some
sleep,” I say. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“
No one will care if I
look like I didn’t get any sleep,” he says with a smile. “They’re
all going to be looking at you.”

“
But while everyone is
looking at me, I’ll be looking only at you,” I say with a
kiss.

Drake’s hands run over my back,
hugging me tight to him.

That’s about all it takes to make the
firecrackers go off in my blood. Our lips meet at the same time and
Drake uses his momentum to roll forward onto his knees for a
moment, and then my back is flat against the floor.

One more day feels too damn
long.

Drake’s lips trail to my neck. I let
my hands snake up under his shirt and slide over the toned muscles
of his back.

“
I know I technically
can’t say this until tomorrow,” he says, his voice breathy as he
looks down at me. “But I love you, Mrs. McCain.”

“
I like the sound of
that,” I say quietly as I brush my fingertips over his cheek. “And
I love you too.”

A half hour later, we stand in the
doorway, hand in hand.

I look over my shoulder, back into the
house. The next time we step foot inside it, it will be our house
as husband and wife. It will hold our future.

This is the beginning of our fairy
tale.

And I know we will live happily ever
after.

KEARY TAYLOR
grew up
along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where she started
creating imaginary worlds and daring characters who always fell in
love. She now splits her time between a tiny island in the Pacific
Northwest and Utah with her husband and their two children. She
continues to have an overactive imagination that frequently keeps
her up at night.

Please visit
www.KearyTaylor.com
to
learn more about her and her writing process.

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