Take a Gamble (19 page)

MAC

Holy shit!

He diverts his eyes and grabs the hand of the man standing next to him. That’s not a man. That’s Alexa. Oh. My. God. What the hell is going on?

Alexa doesn’t make eye contact as they walk past me.
Neither does Roe. They can’t really be getting married. That’s not possible. They have to be here for me. Roe said he would never let me go again. He wouldn’t hook up with my best friend and marry her less than forty-eight hours after I left. Unless he thinks I left voluntarily. Shit!

This cannot be happening.
No, this has to be a mistake. They have to be in costume to try and help me. That’s it. Why else would Roe be dressed as the bride and Alexa as the groom?

“Kaffin.
We’re ready for you now,” a lady says as she steps out of a hallway. “You can follow me, miss. I can show you where you can change.”

I breathe a sigh of relief when Wes hands over my dress and doesn’t attempt to follow me.
I want to look over at Alexa and Roe who are now seated on the other side of the room, waiting. I don’t, in case Wes follows my line of sight.

I lock the door behind me and drop my dress on a nearby chair.
I need to find a way to get out of here. I’m down the same hallway as the bathroom so I know there is not a door to escape from. This room has a window but it’s up too high for me to reach without help and I don’t think I would be able to squeeze out of it anyway.

I hear someone talking in the hall.
I press my ear to the door just as someone knocks.

“Mac,” I hear him whisper.
“Are you in there?”

He tries the handle as I unlock it.
I’m in his arms before I can take my next breath. He holds me for a moment before he realizes that he left the door wide open.

I quickly shut and lock it.
He pulls me back to him the second he hears the lock slide into place.

“I was so worried about you.”
He’s grazing kisses down the side of my neck and it feels so amazing. I want to rip his dress off of him. The thought makes me giggle like a schoolgirl.

"Care to explain the beautiful dress you’re wearing, Roe?”

“It was Alexa’s idea.” Of course it was.

“Why?”

“We didn’t want Wes to recognize us. I have no idea what he’s capable of and I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“I thought I knew him but I was wrong, apparently.
He’s gone fucking nuts. He thinks that I want to marry him.”

“He has
to be nuts if he believes that,” he laughs softly as he says it.

“
I may have led him to believe that I wanted to marry him. I was planning my escape for right now.”

There’s a knock on the door and I tense up.

“It should be Alexa. She should be looking for her bride with cold feet.”

Roe
unlocks the door and in walks my best friend, looking like the male version of herself. It’s weird, looking at them side by side. Roe in a white wedding dress, wearing lipstick, and he even has on a blonde wig. He is the ugliest woman I have ever seen but the most attractive man at the same time. To know they would do this for me warms my heart.

I wrap my arms around Alexa and she hugs me tighter than necessary.
She hasn’t said anything yet and I know it’s because she’s holding back her tears.

“We have to move if we are going to get you
out of here. Wes is going to wonder where you are.”

“How are we going to get out of here if he’s sitting in the lobby?
It’s not like we can walk right past him.”

Roe thinks about it for a second and when his face lights up I know he’s worked it all out in his head.
“Alexa, switch with me.”

She does as she’s told and removes the suit she’s wearing.
Roe takes off the dress and he’s left in only his boxers. I try not to stare but I can’t help myself. He’s so damn sexy.

“See something you like, Mac
?” He’s grinning at me and I can’t help but close my eyes. He’s doing it on purpose.

“What’s the plan?”
Alexa’s voice brings me back to the present, reminding me of the situation we are in.

“The chapel room is across the hall, I think.
We’ll go through there. You are going to have to put your dress on, though, Mac. You’ll stand out if you’re not wearing it.”

After everyone is dressed accordingly, Roe peeks out into the hall to make sure Wes isn’t around.
We sneak across the hall and into the chapel room. The officiant is standing at the front of the room and when he sees us enter, he motions us to the front. He must think we are the next couple who’s getting married.

“You must be the Kaffin’s.
Are we ready?”

“Actually,” I say, “t
hey must have left. We are the Gamble party. We came in right after them.”

That’s when he notices Alexa in her dress and me in mine.
He does a double take but doesn’t look surprised. “I didn’t realize we had two brides today.”

Roe starts t
o laugh. “We don’t. One is enough for me.”

Wait?
Are we really going to get married? I thought we were pretending. We were supposed to sneak through the chapel in order to get out of the building. What is Roe doing?

“Excuse us for a second,” I say as I
pull Roe a few aisles back so we are out of earshot. “What are you doing? We are supposed to be getting the hell out of here not getting married.”

Damn that grin.
It’s back and he’s turned it up a notch.

“Do you love me, Mac?”
I nod. “Do you want to marry me someday?” I nod again. I know that I do. Someday. “Will you marry me today? Here? Right now?”

“Roe…
I.” I can’t form a coherent sentence. Did he just propose to me? Does he really want to get married? This wasn’t part of the plan.

“Mac.
I love you. That hasn’t changed in the last four years and it’s not going to change any time soon. I know this is sudden for you but I’ve been wanting to put a ring on your finger since the moment you walked back into my life. I don’t plan on every letting you go again. You are my forever and beyond. Nothing will ever change that. If you love me, let’s get married right now. We can have a real wedding with all of our friends and family later on. I don’t want to spend another minute of my life without you in it as my wife.”

What do I
even say to that? Other than yes, of course.

“Yes, Roe Gamble.
I will marry you,” I say as I wrap my arms around his neck and pull his mouth to mine. Everything is perfect in that moment.

We walk back up to the front of the chapel and the officiant smiles at us
. He hands us a few pieces of paper to fill out and sign. I glance over at Alexa before he begins the ceremony and see tears in her eyes. I know there are tears in mine as well.

“Do you, Roe Gamble, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, through sickness and in health, for better or for worse, from this day forward, for as long as you both shall live?”

I hold my breath until I hear his voice. “I do.”

He asks me the same question and I can’t say the words fast enough.
“I do.”

“By the power vested in me, by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you husband and wife.
You may kiss your bride, Mr. Gamble.”

That’s all the encouragement he needs.
Roe picks me up and crushes his mouth to mine. I smile as he deepens the kiss for a few seconds before placing me back on the ground.

That’s when I hear it.
Then I feel it. I turn and Wes is staring at us from the end of the aisle. I place my hand over my stomach and when I raise it I see blood covering it. My knees give out and I fall to the ground. I watch as Wes approaches the front of the chapel, gun raised, before everything goes black around me.

ROE

I wake with a start
. I can’t remember my dream but I know it was about Mac getting shot. It’s the same dream which wakes me about once a week. My shirt is stuck to me from sweat but my body is shivering and I feel cold. It’s the same every time I wake. I can’t get the image of her crumbling to the ground out of my head, even after all these years. I don’t think I ever will be able to.

I remember that day like it was yesterday.
I remember the happy feeling I was riding until I heard Wes fire the shot and watched as Mac went down right next to me, her hand slipping out of mine. I remember hearing Alexa scream as Wes fired a second shot. I remember feeling pain as the bullet pierced my shoulder.

My shoulder is aching from the memory
. I rub the scar through my shirt before peeling it off and tossing it on the floor next to the bed. I need a cold shower to rinse away the memory. That’s the only thing which seems to work these days. The memory never fades, and I’m sure it never will. The shower is a temporary fix.

It’s almost sunrise so I decide to get up and make coffee.
I’m going to need something to get me started this morning. Work is going to drag. It always does when I wake up like this.

I pop a pod in the
coffee machine and hit brew. I’ll be sipping coffee on the patio in no time. The first rays of morning peek over the horizon as I sit down. I watch silently as the morning become brighter with each passing second. I can’t help but smile at how beautiful the sight of the sun rising over the ocean is. It gets me every time.

“Roe?”

I turn to see my beautiful girl walk out in nothing but one of my t-shirts. Her legs are so amazing and as my eyes travel up to meet hers, I find her looking at me with concern. I hate that look.

“There’s coffee if you want to join me.”
That’s all I say before turning back to the sunrise. If I avoid eye contact then we can avoid having the same conversation we’ve been having for the past two years every time she finds me out here this early.

I hear her disappear back into the house and she joins me a few minutes later.
We sit in silence and both stare out at the ocean. I know she’s going to ask me, again. I’m waiting for it. Then, I hear her tell-tale sigh and brace myself for what I know is coming.

“You know, if you ever want to talk about it I’m here to listen.
I’ll always be here to listen.” Her voice is barely above a whisper but I hear her loud and clear.

“I know that and I love you for it but I can’t.
Not yet, anyway.”

“It’s been two years, Roe.
It’s time to face your demons, don’t you think?” I can hear how frustrated this conversation makes her. It frustrates me, too, but I can’t talk about it yet. Not with her.

“I know.
Maybe next week.” I say the same thing every time, knowing that she’ll find me out here again sooner rather than later.

“Well, I think we need to talk about it today.
The wedding is this weekend and I want to start fresh. I want to be able to put everything behind us so we can focus on our future together. We can’t do that if you won’t talk to me.”

She has a point.
Maybe if I talk to her about it then we can start fresh, no demons chasing us into our forever.

“Mac,” I whisper.
“I don’t want you to have to relive what I saw the way I relive it. As hard as your recovery was, this will be ten times harder for you to get over.” I need for her to understand this. Not talking about it is for her, not for me.

She has enough to worry about this weekend.
I don’t want to add to it. The wedding, even though it’s only for our friends and family since we are already married, is going to be the first time Mac will see Alexa since they were both shot. At first, I thought it would bring them together, create an even stronger bond than the one they already had. I was wrong. They still talk but it’s not like it was before. Something changed between them and they grew emotionally distant from each other.

I know Mac is looking forward to s
eeing Alexa this weekend. Alexa is still her maid of honor. She’s still playing an important role in the wedding. It’s just going to be weird after not seeing her for so long. Even after we moved here, closer to Alexa, they haven’t made any attempts to see each other. I think the intensity of that day is still stuck with both of them but they won’t talk about it.

“Look at me,” she says, taking her no-nonsense tone with me.
I don’t hear it often, but when I do I know she means business. I turn to face her and all pity is gone from her expression. Shit! “Tonight we will have this conversation. I know you are trying to protect me from everything but it’s over now. He can’t hurt me anymore. We
need
to have this discussion. You need to tell me what happened. This is for you, not for me. The nightmares won’t stop until you face the fact that he can’t hurt me.”

“It’s not about that, Mac.
I don’t know if I want you to know. If I say it out loud, if I tell you what happened, I’m afraid you’ll relive it over and over again like I do. I don’t want that for you.”

“You risked your life to save mine.
No matter what you tell me, I’m not going to love you less. Sure, I’ll probably have a nightmare or two but I have them anyway.”

“You do?”

“Of course. Every now and then I dream about that day. It starts out wonderful, with us getting married. It ends with me waking up in the hospital. The entire middle of the dream is like a black hole. I’m looking for answers and you are the only one who can give them to me. You’re the only person who knows what happened after I was shot.”

Her words cause me to visibly flinch.
It doesn’t take much sometimes. A car will backfire and I’ll duck. A loud bang and I jump on occasion. I can’t imagine shooting a gun or being around one again.

Not much scares me, aside from the thought of losing Mac again.
She’s all that’s mattered to me since the moment I met her. I’m not sure how I was able to breathe after she left me. I remember feeling like my heart had been ripped out and run over. After watching her crumble to the ground, I lost my mind. I truly believe I had an out of body experience.

I remember it all happening but it was almost as if I was watching it happen.
It was as if I was watching myself take action. Then, after Wes shot me, I remember the pain but not much else.

I let the conversation die as the sun r
ises higher in the sky. Moving back here, living here with Mac, is the best decision we’ve made as a married couple. So far. I can’t imagine living anywhere else with her. It all started here.

I dra
g my ass through
the front door and am immediately assaulted with the most amazing smell, next to my wife that is. I hear her singing in the kitchen. I know if I can sneak up on her, I will catch her dancing as well. My body is starting to get turned on by the image that’s floating around in my head.

I lean against the door frame to the kitchen for a few minutes and wat
ch as Mac shakes her hips and ass back and forth to the beat of the music. I want to say something but I don’t want to scare her. Honestly, I’m enjoying the show and don’t want it to end. Who wouldn’t love to come home to my beautiful wife, singing and dancing in the kitchen while making something which smells this incredible?

The music changes and a slow song comes on.
It’s one of Mac’s favorites and I watch silently as her rhythm changes. I start walking towards Mac as quietly as possible. I feel like a lion on the prowl. If she keeps shaking her hips the way she is right now, dinner won’t be eaten for a few more hours.

I slide my arms around her waist and she sinks into my chest.
“Enjoying the show?”

“You knew I was watching you?”

“I knew you were here the moment you walked in the front door.”

“I take it that sexy hip shake was just for me then.”
I sweep her hair out of the way, exposing her neck as I begin trailing kisses along her collar bone. I hear her moan and I move higher to the place behind her ear which drives both of us wild.

“You keep doing that and our dinner guests are going to be dining alone.”

I freeze up momentarily. Who’s coming for dinner?

“Our parents will be here in about an hour so don’t go getting any ideas.”

I can’t help but smile at my beautiful wife. She looks up and makes eye contact when I don’t say anything. I let my eyes do the talking for me before leading her to our bedroom for an hour of quality husband and wife time.