From Ashes (31 page)

“Honestly, I’m surprised y’all have anything left.”

“We really don’t. Just the dresses, shirts, ties . . . that’s about it. I decided it’s going to be semiformal. I don’t want you in a tux.”

Thank God.
“Sounds good to me.”

“Can you tell me something? Why do you want to marry me so soon?”

My body went rigid. “Cass, I thought we already went ov—”

“No, I remember what you said, but is it because we can’t do anything with your mom not letting us live together? Because if that’s it, Gage, I’ll find a way to be with you. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to marry me so we can be together in that way.”

“God no. The only person who can keep me from you
is
you. If you aren’t ready for this, Cassidy, all you have to do is say the word; but if you are . . . darlin’, I’m so ready to marry you. The way I see it, I’ve already found everything I want in you, and I know that’s never going to change. So why wait? I’m ready for it all: marrying you, living in our house, having a family. As long as it’s with you, I’m ready.”

“ ’Kay, good.” She smiled and pulled my head down to hers to kiss me. “Might have to hold off on the family though. I just got used to the idea of having kids; that’s gonna take me a while. Oh, but just so you know, everyone except Isabella and Jesse thinks this is a shotgun wedding.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “I don’t care what everyone thinks as long as I’m married to you at the end of the day.” I turned her body to face mine and cringed when Sky made an adorable little puppy grunt and stretched. When she just rolled onto her back and fell back asleep I relaxed and took Cassidy’s mouth in mine, letting my tongue lightly trail along hers. “Did y’all figure out when we can have the wedding?” I asked when her hands began unbuttoning my shirt, her lips pressing openmouthed kisses onto my chest each time one was undone.

“Two months.”

Fuck.
I groaned. “Two months?”

“Mmm-hmm.” She finished the last button and ran her hands over my stomach and chest. My hard-on was pressing against my jeans and for the hundredth time today I wished we were in our house. “Or nine days. It was one of those.”

“Nine?” I brought her face up to mine. “Nine days?”

Her cheeks flamed as she bit the corner of her lip and nodded. “Adam, Dana, Ethan, and Jackie will all be here in five days to help with last-minute stuff and just hang out, since I made the last two weeks of school kinda crappy for everyone.” I squeezed her hip and she continued. “Per your mom, the guys are all staying in our house, and the girls are all staying here. Then come next Saturday, I’ll be yours.”

Mine. Nine days and this amazing girl would be mine.

Lord, I couldn’t wait.

I ran my hands up her body, under her shirt, and loved the breathy sigh that left her when my hands ran over her breasts. Her hands went back to my stomach before trailing down to undo my belt, then the button on my jeans, and her mouth went back to her torturous kisses on my chest. “Did you lock the door?” She grabbed my length in her hands and I groaned some sort of affirmative. “Where is everyone?”

“Downstairs,” I roughly whispered, and pulled her shorts and underwear down.

Cass placed Sky on the floor and straddled me, grinding her hips into mine.

“Darlin’, trust me when I say that this is something I love about you, but you are
loud,
and it’s not exactly something that anyone would appreciate if they heard us. Just let me touch you.”

She sank down on me hard and a loud moan left her. I sat up and crushed our mouths together, swallowing the rest of her moan. “I’m sure you can find ways to keep me quiet,” she said against my lips, challenging me.

Challenge accepted.

C
ASSIDY

I
F YOU WOULD
have told me ten days ago that I was getting married today, I would have laughed, because there’s no way to plan this elaborate of a wedding in nine days, right? Wrong. Gage’s mom and sisters were a force to be reckoned with—well, except for little Emily. But she helped by playing with Sky when we were too busy to pay attention to the pup.

Tessa had connections like you wouldn’t believe with other families from the neighboring ranches and in town, and through their help, we’d transformed the barn into a reception site I was jealous of. And it was
my
wedding. We’d kept the ceremony pretty bare; it was already so beautiful in that field that we’d set up white wooden chairs facing the natural arch of the trees, and nothing else. It was simple, but to add anything else would have taken away from the beauty of the ranch. A few dozen feet from the last row of chairs, we’d set up a tent that had fans in it so the girls could be in there when the guests started arriving and the guys went to stand up front, and I was so grateful for that, because it was that or come from the barn, which was a good five-minute walk.

The barn looked like it always did on the outside: absurdly massive, with faded red paint and clear globe lights decorating the doors and edge of the roof. The inside, which I hadn’t seen until it was already decorated, had white, green, and gold tulle with little twinkle lights sweeping in arcs up into the center of the barn, making it look like a large tent. There was a dance floor on one side, tables on the other. The tablecloths alternated green and gold with bowls of floating flowers and candles on top. We had the cake and groom’s cake—Tessa had given me a look like I’d lost my mind when I said I didn’t know what a groom’s cake was . . . whoops—on a table in a corner a little ways away from where the food would be. And thanks to all the dances and parties they’d held here in the past, they had massive fans that would keep it extremely comfortable in the barn, which had been my biggest worry. After all, it was June, and we were in Texas and going to be dancing in a barn. When the girls had laughed at my concern, I’d decided they knew better than me since they’d done this before and kept my mouth shut.

I turned to look at Jackie, Dana, and Amanda all zipping each other up; they looked incredible. They had on summer dresses that were strapless and tight around the chest and waist, and lightly flared out to above their knees. They were gold with eyelet cutouts showing black underneath, and they paired them with black cowboy boots to make them more casual. I loved the look and I was glad they did too.

“You ready, Cassidy? It’s supposed to start in twenty minutes!” Amanda squealed, and clapped.

I about tripped over myself trying to get to where my dress was, and Jackie and Dana started laughing.

“I
think
you might be a little excited.” Jackie snickered and let go of my arm when I was steady.

“Just a little,” I breathed on a smile, and took a normal step in the direction of my dress.

With the help of the girls, we had the dress on and zipped and my brown cowboy boots on, and Amanda was restyling my hair, making sure it was perfect. The guys were semiformal, like the girls, and I was going to go with a white summer dress, but that’s where Tessa had put her foot down. Said I had to have a real wedding dress, no exception. I was so glad I’d listened to her.

My dress was a strapless gossamer gown with a drop waist and chapel train. It was soft white and fit my figure perfectly. It was perfect for the ranch, it was perfect for me, and I was hoping it would be perfect for Gage. I skipped the veil and curled my hair into large, loose curls, which the girls spent time playing with so it wouldn’t look “styled.” Since we were out in the country, Amanda thought it should have the natural look without being natural, and since I had no idea what that meant, I let them do as they pleased. The side where my hair parted was French braided loosely, close to my ear, and pinned underneath the rest of my hair to keep that side from my face. It didn’t look like my wild waves, but Amanda was right, it did look natural, almost windblown, but not messy.

I stared at my reflection and couldn’t help but mutter, “Oh wow.”

“You look beautiful, Cass!” Jackie cried, and stepped up beside me to brush hair over my shoulder, then stepped back.

My makeup was flawless, thanks to Dana, and I made a mental note to steal the eye shadow she’d used on me. It was a soft gold and made my eyes even brighter. Amanda handed me a barely tinted lip gloss, and after putting it on, I turned and faced my friends and almost-sister.

“I’m ready,” I breathed, and couldn’t stop the huge smile that was plastered to my face.

Amanda grabbed my watch off the table we’d brought in there and said excitedly, “Eight minutes!”

Just then, Tessa, John, Stephanie, and Jim all walked into the tent. There were gasps from the women and broad smiles from the men. We gave each other loose hugs, and kisses on the cheeks, and after a few words they were gone. Before I could grab my watch to see how much longer
now,
Adam and Ethan walked in, whistling low.

“Look at you ladies,” Adam said with a smirk as he kissed Dana thoroughly, then gave me and Jackie kisses on the forehead. Ethan had kissed my cheek on the way in and was holding Jackie close to his body.

I looked around for Amanda and saw her at the other end of the tent with Jesse. She kissed him excitedly, then pushed him back, telling him he needed to go sit down, just to bring him back to her and kiss him again.

“Wow, sweetheart,” a low voice said from behind me, and I spun to face Tyler. “You look beautiful.”

“Ty, look at you!” I hugged him tight, not caring that the girls were telling me to be careful with my dress and hair.

The guys really did look handsome: all three were in black slacks, dark green button-ups with the sleeves rolled up to their forearms, and green-striped ties.

“You ready to do this?”

“I am! How’s Gage?”

I hadn’t been allowed to see Gage for two whole days, and it’d been torture. I didn’t understand why we were having the rehearsal two days before the wedding, but then the girls and guys announced that we weren’t seeing each other again ’til the wedding and a look of horror passed over both our faces. I’d had a lot of fun just being with the girls, but I was ready to see him again. Not like we hadn’t gone longer, even recently with the two weeks of my leaving, but he’d been a five-minute drive from the main house, and we’d been forced to stay away from each other. Like I said, torture.

“Ready to see you, that’s for damn sure. Do you know how many times he tried to sneak out at night?” Adam asked, and Ethan and Tyler chuckled. “When we finally went to bed, we had to take shifts staying awake the last two nights so we could stop him from trying to go see you.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have stopped him,” I teased.

“This will make it better, Cassidy,” Dana said, and handed over my bouquet of stargazer lilies, the white ones filled with pink.

I grumbled at Dana and Tyler checked his wrist. “We’re up.”

My heart stopped.

G
AGE

I
SMILED AT
Dad, Mama, Nikki, and Emily, then looked anxiously back toward the tent. What was taking so long? Ty had gone in there like ten minutes ago.

“You ready, son?” Pastor Rick asked, and nudged my side.

“So ready,” I breathed, and kept my eyes trained on the tent.
Now, if my girl will just come out here, I could marry her and everything will finally be right.

Music started playing, and though I wondered how Mama had figured out how to get the music out here without my noticing anything, I didn’t think about it too long. Adam and Dana, then Ethan and Jackie made their way from the tent toward the front where I stood. Amanda came next, and when she was standing next to Jackie, the music changed and I held my breath. I’d been waiting for this for two years, and it was finally here. I saw Ty first, and then they turned and began walking toward me, and everything else faded away as I took her in.

I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as Cassidy, and I’d never seen Cassidy as beautiful as she was right then. Everything about her was perfect, and she was mine. Her lips stretched into a wide grin, and I felt mine mirror them. They finally reached the front, and Tyler put her hand in mine, then went to stand behind me. My eyes locked with her whiskey-gold ones and all I could think about was how this was finally happening, and how our lives were going to be from here on out. I somehow managed to get through repeating after the pastor in all the correct places and saying, “I do.” I placed Cassidy’s diamond-covered band on her finger, and she slid the black tungsten ring onto mine. When the time came, I cupped her cheeks and kissed her like it was the last kiss we’d ever share. She threw her arms around my neck and I just thought,
Screw it.
I put one arm behind her back and swept her legs out from under her and held her close to me as I continued to kiss her.

We reluctantly broke away but continued to stare at each other when my family and our friends surrounded us and were calling out their congratulations. When I saw the opportunity, I tightened my hold on her and walked us toward the tent at the back of the chairs. As soon as we were in there, her hands were in my hair and she was bringing my mouth to hers.

“I missed you and I love you,” she said in rush before she was kissing me again.

I smiled against her lips. “I love you too, Cassidy Carson.”

Her lips froze and she looked up at me with those wide eyes and a bright smile. “I like that.”

“Love that,” I said, correcting her, and claimed her lips. “And, darlin’, that dress? Good God, I’m gonna have fun taking that off you.”

C
ASSIDY

“
W
ELCOME HOME, DARLIN’.”
Gage’s gravelly voice sent tingles straight to my lower stomach as he carried me through the door of our home. I hadn’t been in there since we moved in all the furniture, and I’d missed it. I knew Tessa had rounded up the guys and had them move all my things in there that afternoon, as well as move all their stuff out to the main house. She also said she’d stocked it so we wouldn’t have any reason to leave over the next week unless we wanted to.

I wouldn’t want to.