Heart in Wire: A by a Thread Companion Novel (41 page)

“Fuck you dude, it’s a helicopter ride,” Patrick said. “We’re not skydiving from it.”

Jesse went over to the pilot and began talking enthusiastically about the flight. Billy pulled Patrick by the arm so that Patrick walked a few steps back toward the Jeep.

“If we die, my porn stash is in my closet in a boot box, please hide it before anyone else finds it,” Billy said with a serious expression on his face.

Patrick burst out in laughter. He’d missed Billy. He grabbed him and did a one-arm hug. “So are you glad we’re doing the bachelor party here?”

Billy’s expression changed to serious in an instant. “Yeah, man, you don’t know how much I needed this break. Work is fucked…personal shit is fucked…”

“Come on, bitches!” Jesse yelled from the helicopter, which he was hanging out of by one arm, already wearing a headset.

“To be continued…” Patrick said, walking Billy toward the helicopter with his arm over his shoulder.

All three men sat around the fire pit in the back of the house that Jesse had insisted he rent for Patrick’s bachelor party. He was marrying Marly in two months in New Orleans and was excited to start a brand new life with her. Asking her father had been emotional for them both—her father’s a big part of Marly’s life and Patrick wanted to do right by him. After he got the okay from her dad, he planned a vacation for them both to Grand Bahama Island for a long weekend. He’d been a nervous wreck about losing the ring and making everything perfect.

They’d gone to Luciano’s and both had steaks and wine. He had too much to drink and Marly was tipsy as well. As they were making their way back to their hotel, he ducked inside a restaurant and paid a server $100 for wine, glasses and a corkscrew. They sat on the dark beach and listened to the waves come in.

Marly was wearing a white sundress with her perfect ivory breasts on display, her blonde waves falling down her back. He opened the wine and poured her glass, then pulled out a necklace that he’d bought with a one-carat diamond for her. She was elated and was hastily putting it on her neck when he got down on his knee. Confused, she looked down at him, her eyebrows drawn together adorably.

He gazed up at her, locked onto her doe eyes, and told her to listen. “You are the love of my life,” he began. “When we met, I wasn’t a good person. I was all the wrong things, but you were patient and perfect. You saved me.” He looked down at his sandaled feet and swallowed the lump in his throat. “You saved me from all the things that were tearing me apart. You swooped in and made me realize that I wanted to be whole again because I wanted to be good enough for you. I wanted to be the man you thought I was. Marly, I don’t know where I would be without you.”

Marly had tears running down her porcelain face. Then he pulled out a grey velvet box and held it out to her. She stared at it, shocked.

“I don’t want to know what it’s like to be without you again. You make my morning better. My days seem endless until I’m back home with you. You are everything, my beginning and my end. Everything…” He had different things he wanted to say, but he couldn’t remember them now, waiting on her to respond.

Instead of responding with words, she full-on tackled him and kissed him. As it happened, fireworks exploded all around them—it was midnight and there were fireworks every night at that moment. He couldn’t have planned it better. Their mouths, tasting of wine, opened and they drank each other in, drank the moment in. Once they separated, Patrick raised up on his elbow.

“So…yes? No?”

“Patrick Greer, you will be stuck with me the rest of your life,” she said finally, opening the box. “Holy shit, babe.” Marly tucked a stray curl behind her ear and took the platinum ring out of the box, admiring the brilliant cut, three-carat diamond that took him six months to pay for and Jesse’s coercion to make him buy. “This…” She looked at him and then the ring. Then she looked at the ring closer, squinting at it in the moonlight. When she saw the fleur de lis on the inside of the band, she started bawling. “This is my momma’s,” she choked out through her tears.

“Your dad thought it was important.” Patrick wiped her tears away as she lay on top of him, their mouths inches apart. A few months prior, he’d lied to Marly and told her that he had work, but instead he’d flown to see her dad, to ask for his permission to marry his daughter. Patrick had been nervous to meet Mr. Bellefontaine, but he’d been gracious and made him feel at ease.

Another tear fell from her eye as she gave a look he’ll remember for the rest of his life. Marly leaned down and kissed him gently on the lips. “This…” her voice broke and she took a deep breath in, “…is too much…and it’s just perfect.”

“You know,” Patrick ran a thumb across her chin, “your dad was worried you’d say no.”

“What? Why?” Marly had been distracted as she looked at the ring she’d put on her finger. “This is the most beautiful piece of jewelry I’ve ever seen.”

“I had to make sure I bought something as beautiful as you.”

She giggled. “You’re full of smooth moves tonight.”

“I’m serious about everything I said, Marly, you brought me back to life. Thank you.”

“Hey, Fucker! Pay attention!” Billy shook him out of his memory of his proposal.

“Sorry.” Patrick took a sip of his beer.

“Jesse’s renting a house in the Garden District for the wedding, so you’ll stay with us.”

“I guess I can part with you for two weeks while you celebrate marrying Marly,” Jesse said with a laugh.

Patrick smiled. “I’m sure Samantha can run everything fine without me.”

He and Marly had planned their wedding to be the two weeks prior to the beginning of the summer camps, which was when Patrick was the busiest. He’d taken to the job that Jesse had offered him, and not only did he run all the camps, but he went around the country with Jesse to do promotion for it. He loved it. They were able to give kids that were unable to pay for top football camps the identical experience for less than half of the price. Many of Jesse’s friends signed up to come and help out for a week in the summer free of charge and the kids loved it.

Jesse, of course, had been a hit on NFL Network with his commentary on the football games. He loved what he was doing now and was traveling to all the games during the season as well.

“Well, I have to say I’m glad you’re getting married so I could come out here and see that shit’s bigger than me,” Billy commented. “I’m getting pulled into DC and needed a break. Ever since Kayce broke up with me, I’ve been traveling and haven’t had any time to myself.”

Patrick took in his friend; the dark circles under his eyes and the lack of that mischievous look in his eye were cause for concern.

“You vying for a new job, Billy? I could use a personal assistant.” Jesse laughed and then went inside to get them more drinks.

“Billy, seriously, everything all right?” Patrick said softly when Jesse was gone. “You know you can always talk to
m
e.”

He shrugged.

“You need anything, you ask, got it?”

Billy leaned forward in this seat, putting his elbows on his knees. “I want out,” he whispered.

The End

The funny thing about endings is that they’re always the beginning of something…

What’s coming next from R.L. Griffin?

Take a look at the prologue for the standalone New Adult novel,

Razorblade Kisses

by R.L. Griffin

Emery sat on the cold cement bench 100 yards away from the service, her face brittle and dry in the winter chill. She’d pulled her long blonde hair up and shoved it under a Hog’s Breath hat that Tim had left at her apartment. Her hoodie was big and bulky and helped her hide her identity from those standing at the graveside. The sky was grey to match the mood of those attending the service.

Her body and mind felt full, full of the emotions she hadn’t let herself feel since she was 13, so full that any movement would release a cacophony of cries from her mouth. Scared to feel any of those emotions, she sat perfectly still, unblinking until she felt someone sit next to her.

Emery didn’t take her eyes off the casket as they lowered it in the ground. The second it lowered past the opening, she heard the loudest, most heart-wrenching sob come from her mother. As the first mound of dirt was shoveled onto Ashley, her mother screamed “WHY?”

She felt a hand grab hers and hold it tight. Words fought to get out of her mouth, tears threatened to escape her eyes.
No
. She wouldn’t let it out, not yet.

Emery sat with her eyes closed, the only thing she allowed herself to feel the weight on her hand. She didn’t know how long she sat there with her eyes closed, not thinking or feeling, but when she opened them, everyone was gone. The crowd of people dissipated rapidly from the graveside service; all that remained were the men who shoveled dirt onto her sister.

She looked around for a few minutes before she jumped from the bench and sprinted the distance between the cold, hard bench and her sister. Sobs, cries, and screams flew out of her mouth. She was unable to hold them in and she collapsed at the side of the grave. The knees of her jeans soaked through with the rain that saturated the ground. Her actions were involuntary; she’d held everything inside for so long that this was her breaking point. She’d reached her pinnacle of pain, her highest level of misery. She was done.

The men paused in the process of burying her sister, hoisting their shovels to their shoulders and dropping their heads to their chests, leaving the graveside to give Emery perceived privacy to mourn.

“I”M SORRY!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “I’m so fucking sorry, Ashley!” Her voice broke and she couldn’t breathe. “Oh my God...” Her sobs took over and all of her words were unintelligible. “PLEASE!” she pleaded and her chest racked with her cries. “I didn’t know...I didn’t know...I didn’t know.”

Rachel was there, holding her hand again, pulling her into a tight hug, trying to hold her together. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered into her ear. “It’s not.” She held Emery tighter.

“It is!” Emery yelled into the grave. “It’s my fault, this is all my fault,” she said to Rachel, not taking her eyes off the six by six hole in the ground. “I’m so sorry. Oh my God, how could this happen?” She looked over at Rachel’s tear-soaked face.

“Emery, you weren’t here. You didn’t know.” Rachel had picked up the hat that had fallen off Emery’s head in the run to see her sister and tried to put it back on her head. “You don’t want anyone to recognize you.”

Tears were streaming down her face, the cuffs of her hoodie soaked with her attempts to wipe her face dry. Her chest felt like it was cracked open and pain was seeping out. Pain for Ashley, sorrow at the knowledge of what her sister must’ve been feeling, guilt that she should’ve done something, agony at her own circumstances and most of all utter disgust for the man who done this to both of them. Her sister was dead and she was living dead.