The Choice (19 page)

After an awkward start to lunch, the rest of the day went great. I found that there wasn’t anyone in Chase’s family who I didn’t get along with easily. Even better, I was grateful and relieved when nobody brought up our embarrassing moment from earlier.

Tomorrow would be Thanksgiving and the first big holiday Chase and I have ever spent together. Looking over the table to see Ana and Drake laughing at their own quiet conversation, I feel Chase’s arm resting across the back of my seat, his thumb brushing my skin affectionately. We’re surrounded by his family, all of them happy and laughing about a story Emily is sharing with the group about Brad’s proposal. A bittersweet feeling coursed through me when I realized aside from my dad and my aunt, I’d never felt this comfortable with my own family. Sensing my silence, Chase looks down at me with a smile.

“You okay?”
he says softly into my ear. When I nod and return his smile, he kisses me sweetly on the side of my head. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I answer quietly as I lean my head on his shoulder with a yawn.

“Did I wear you out, Baby?” he whispers, chuckling when I begin to blush furiously and pinch him playfully on his side.

“
Perv,” I say under my breath and he laughs harder.

We finish lunch with his family and head back to the house. I’m unusually tired today, I suspect from the stres
s and exhaustion of traveling. After being reassured there’s nothing I’m needed for, I decide to take a nap. When I wake two hours later, Chase is lying next to me, wrapping his arm around my waist, stroking my stomach gently and singing the bridge and chorus to ‘Ho Hey’ by The Lumineers softly into my hair. Once I open my eyes, he smiles sweetly and finishes the song, wiping the tear that springs unsuspectingly from my eye.

“Hey Baby,” he whispers and gives me a soft kiss on the lips.

“Hey,” I say in a soft voice to match his.

“Sleep well?”

“Yeah,” I nod as I place my hand on his cheek affectionately, smiling when he turns to kiss my wrist. “What have you been up to?”

“Nothing, just waiting for my girl to wake up so I can kiss her,” he smiles and presses his lips to mine again. “
I’m about to run to the store for my mom. You feel like coming or do you want to stay here?”

“Do you want me with you?”

“I always want you with me,” he smiles, kissing my neck and causing me to laugh when his stubble tickles my skin. “Plus, I was going to try to get you to give it up in the truck.”

Seeing my shocked expression, his laughte
r comes booming out when I smack him playfully on the chest.

“What’s the problem? The windows are tinted and it’s dark out! Nobody will ever know!”

“Good Lord! You are such a freaking perv!” I laugh and he pulls me over onto his chest, which is still shaking with laughter.

“Yep and you love it, so you must be a
perv, too,” he says with a wink as he nuzzles my neck, running his lips down my skin. “Come on, Baby. Let’s get it on in the rental,” he laughs huskily. “It’ll be hot.”

“I
’ll go to the store with you, but I am not getting anything on in that funky ass rental, Chase!” I feign offense, stifling a giggle as I rise from the bed. “I’ll do you up at the Red Roof on Saturday like we planned. Show some freaking class, Baby!”

When I shut the bathroom door behind me, he’s laughing so hard I thought he might hurt himself.

An hour and a half later, I’m panting as I climb out of his lap and scoot back to my side of the Jeep. Staring silently at the back wall of the grocery store Chase parked behind, I shake my head in disbelief.

“That was classy as fuck, Baby,” he grins at me with a hooded expression as he playfully pushes the barbell out from between his teeth and shoots me a wink.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into that,” I groan.

“
I don’t know what you’re freaking out about, Sophie,” he chuckles. “I’ve taken you in worse places than the back lot of the Piggly Wiggly, Sweetheart.”

“What the hell are you talking about? No, you haven’t!”

“The bathroom at Lila’s isn’t exactly a five star hotel, Princess,” he says as he adjusts his jeans.  

“Oh my God!” I groan
, covering my face with my hands as he laughs. “Do you hear yourself? Our sex life sounds like a bad country song, Chase!”

“I’m just screwing with you, Sophie,”
he says as he turns my head to face him. “Don’t ever be ashamed of where or how we make love, Baby. I don’t care where we are, the fact that we’re together is what makes it beautiful, okay?”

“Okay,” I whisper
, already feeling better. Leaning over the console, Chase kisses me deeply, filling the kiss with his emotion and making my head spin.

“Tell me you love me, Baby,” he whispers against my lips.

“I love you,” I say softly.

“I love you, too,” he says, kissing me gently once more
before grinning widely. “Now zip up your pants so we can go pick out a nice cheese tray for my mom.”

The next few days were awesome. I’d already known Sophie and I were perfect for each other, but seeing her interact with my family solidified my feelings even more.

When we came in from the store, she dove right into the kitchen, helping my mom, Granny, Emily and Ana get everything ready for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. I couldn’t count the amount of times I was pulled to the side for a member of my family to tell me how much they loved her.

The week
following that was busy, our time spent getting things finished for Emily and Brad’s wedding. Emily had always been a little high maintenance, but this wedding was really bringing out her inner maniac. While I felt for Brad, I knew he was getting a great wife in my sister and I loved watching him squirm.

The day of the rehearsal dinner, Sophie came bouncing into our room, as happy as I’d ever seen her.

“My dress fits and I don’t look like a hooker!”  she’d exclaimed as she gave me a fist bump, causing me to laugh.

“Can I see it?” I asked her and was surprised when she shook her head.

“Nope,” she said. “You’ll have to wait until Sunday.”

“Tease,” I accused jokingly and kissed her before I heard Emily calling for her across the house.

“Come on, bitches! We gotta go get our nails done and shit!”

I didn’t see her again until ten minutes before it was time to leave
for the rehearsal, but when I did, she looked gorgeous.

Her blonde hair was pinned back in the front
and had soft curls flowing down her back. The dress she was wearing was white with black wavy patterns scattered all over the fabric. Her freshly painted toes were peeking out of strappy black hills that made her legs look a mile long. Although she kept her makeup natural, her green eyes held me captive as I found them again.

“Is it weird that I’m wearing a cream colored dress? Emily said she doesn’t care, but I feel weird about it,” she explained nervously. “Ana packed the wrong dress. I think she’s trying to trick us into getting married or something.”

Her nervous laughter stopped when I put my finger over her lips.

“You look perfect,” I whispered. “And Ana doesn’t need to trick me into anything. She could have dressed you in a duffle bag and I’d want to marry you, Sophie.” 

Placing her hand on my neck sweetly, she looked at me for a long while before pulling me down to meet her lips.

“I love you,” she whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes before looking me over and resting her hands on my chest. “And you look ridiculously hot in this suit. I’m really excited about getting it on up at the Red Roof later.”

“
Oh, really?”

“Really,” she said, her eyes raking over me again as she gripped my silk tie. “Don’t lose this.”

The next three hours were the longest of my life, but God do I love that tie.

***

“We just blew the Red Roof off this sucker, Baby!” Chase says breathlessly from beside me, causing me to laugh.

I’m about to respond to him when both of our phones start ringing like crazy.

“Hello?” we both say at the same time.

“Sophie! I need you to come over here right now!” Ana yells into the phone.

“Why? What’s the matter?” I say, sitting up immediately in the bed in fear.

“Baby, Emily’s freaking out,” Chase whispers, covering the phone at the same time Ana’s explaining.

“Okay,” I tell them both. “We’re on our
way. Tell her to chill out and we’ll be right over.”

Throwing clothes on as fast as I can and grabbing my bag, Chase and I climb into the car and get on the interstate.

“What the hell happened?” I ask him and watch as he rubs his eyes and focuses on the road in front of us.

“I don’t know,” he says honestly. “She was crying, saying her and Brad had
a fight and then she told me she wanted me to bring you over.”

“Emily
specifically asked for me?” I say stunned. We’d gotten to know each other over the past few months through the phone and internet and we’d bonded a lot over the course of the last week, but I was still shocked she’d asked for me.

“Yeah,” he smiles over at me. “She said ‘
Bubba, I need Sophie. Please stop doing dirty shit and bring her to me.’”

Although I laugh at the words he’s saying, my heart warms.

“See, Baby? I told you my family loves you,” he says, reaching for my hand and kissing my wrist.

As we walk into the house, Ana comes out of the room looking exhausted.

“Thank God!” she says dramatically when she sees us. Taking off our coats, I ask her what happened and she just grabs my wrist and pulls me to the door of the guest room Emily’s crying hysterically in.

“We came over for the party and they were fighting,” Ana explains. We still had an hour or two before we needed to be here for the joint bachelorette/bachelor party the couple has planned for tonight, but from the looks of things, we may not be celebrating after all.

Brad is standing with his head against the door frame, begging for entry as Emily vehemently refuses.

“Go away, you jackass!”

“Baby, I’m sorry we fought,” he tries again. “I swear I don’t even know the girl, Em!”

“
What did you do to my sister?” Chase asks, instantly furious and ready to pummel him.

“Nothing! Some girl I went to high school saw us at the restaurant after you two left and she hugged me and now
Em’s going all apeshit in there!”

“Maybe I wouldn’t go
apeshit if you could keep your dick in your pants,
Bradley
!”

“Oh my God!” Brad groans out loudly at the door, gripping his hair in frustration before shouting back at her. “I never took my dick out of my pants, you crazy woman! I don’t know her, Emily! Jesus! You’d think she’d caught me at a freaking whore house or something!”

“Emily?” I say through the door. “It’s Sophie. Can I come in?”

“Sophie!” she sobs back at me. “Yes, please, but leave the
asshat out there! I don’t want to see him!”

“Okay,” I say reassuringly as I push the door open. “I’m alone, Honey.”

Walking into the room, I shut the door before I see Emily sitting wrapped up in a blanket in the middle of the bed. Her mascara has bled all over her face and she looks up at me for a moment before she starts crying again.

“Oh Emily
,” I say sympathetically as I sit down beside her and wrap my arms around her trembling frame. “Everything will be okay. Tell me what happened.”

“Everything was fine, Sophie,” she wails into my shoulder. “We were leaving the restaurant and I was really excited about going out tonight. Then as we were walking to Brad’s car, this
whore
,” Emily yells the last word toward the door, causing me to jump. “Comes over to us, hugging up on Brad, saying how much she misses him.”

“Again! I don’t know her, Emily!” Brad shouts through the door.

“Looked like you knew her pretty well!”

Standing up, I make my way to the door and open it quickly, finding Brad perched against the fram
e. Chase and Drake look up in surprise when they hear the door creak.

“Brad?”

“Yeah?”

“You need to shut up,” I tell him bluntly.

“I didn’t…” he tries, but I cut him off.

“You may know that, but she doesn’t right now. You need to go outside, get some air and leave her alone. This screaming through the door at each other isn’t working, is it?”

“No,” he admits.

“Do you want to get married in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” I tell him before facing the others. “Then go for a walk. Can you please get him the hell out of here?”

“I shouldn’t leave,” Brad argues, but I shake my head.

“Right now, she thinks you
had sex with someone else the night before her wedding. Trust me when I tell you that if you don’t leave her alone, she
will
stab you in the face with a stiletto.” 

“Co
me on, Man,” Drake tells him, chuckling at my words. “Let’s walk outside, have a beer and let the dust settle.”

“Okay,” Brad
says nervously as he walks towards the front door with Drake.

“You need anything, Baby?” Chase asks as he presses his lips to my forehead.

“Yes,” I whisper, thinking of a still sobbing Emily in the other room. “I need you to go to the store.”

“Okay,” he says immediately. “What am I getting?”

“Aspirin, tissues, a pint of whatever her favorite ice cream is and a fifth of tequila,” I tell him seriously before facing Ana. “I need you to send Drake to our hotel room and get our clothes for tonight and then I need you to get Melissa’s number from someone. She’s Emily’s maid of honor. Tell her to call everyone on the list and tell them that the party is still on, but it’s being pushed back to nine o’clock.” Hearing Emily’s wail coming from the room behind us, I think better of my words. “Better make it ten,” I tell them.

Looking down at her watch, Ana’s eyes meet mine.

“That only gives us two and a half hours, Sophie.”

“Then
you’d better get your game face on,” I tell her with a wink before giving Chase a chaste kiss on the lips. “Have your mom ready just in case. I love you,” I tell him quickly before closing myself back into the room with Emily.

Walking back over to the edge of the bed, I resume my seat beside her and take her hand in mine.

“We’re all alone now,” I explain as she looks up at me, her cheeks still stained with tears. “Tell me everything.”

After telling me again about what happened in the parking lot with the girl, Emily admits that she’s been having cold feet for the past two weeks.

“I know he didn’t cheat on me,” she admits quietly. “The thing that really scares me is that we’ve been fighting nonstop lately.”

“What are you fighting about?”

“He’s barely helped me with the wedding planning at all, but then he hates everything I show him! It’s infuriating!” she starts. “I’m busting my ass trying to give him this gorgeous day and he’s so hung up on football that he barely even looks at any of it. Then, when he doesn’t tell me he hates something, he says something stupid like ‘Oh that’s nice,’ or whatever. That doesn’t help me!” she rants. “His mother is driving me crazy! She hates everything. He’s so worried about making her happy that he actually asked me to change the venue a month ago to some shithole she found online and I just went crazy on him. That fight lasted for like three days! I can’t do this for the rest of my life, Sophie!”

“
Em, you’re planning a wedding, Honey,” I reassure her. “It’s very stressful! Everyday life isn’t like this. Once the wedding is behind you, you’ll feel a lot better about things. Everything will go back to how it was before, it will just be better because you’ll just be married.”

“What if I picked the wrong guy, Sophie?
” she says in a panic. “Do you know that he hates The White Stripes? I love The White Stripes! How can I marry someone who hates The White Stripes? What if twenty years from now, I look up and we have five kids and they all go off to college and I realize I married someone I have nothing to talk to about because I ignored the fact that he doesn’t like The White Stripes?”

“Breathe
,” I tell her. “While I think it’s ridiculous for anyone to hate The White Stripes, if that’s the biggest problem you have in your relationship, isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she admits quietly with a reluctant smile. “He’s also allergic to
coconut. I love coconut. It’s my favorite.”

“
Coconut is my favorite, too.”

“Really?” she asks and I nod.

“Emily, while I think everyone else will agree, I can only speak for myself here,” I start. “But if you don’t want to get married, you just say the word and I’ll go out there right now and tell everyone to leave. You won’t have to do anything but sit in here and eat ice cream and cry, I promise you. This is your decision, though. Don’t worry about anyone else’s feelings right now. You just tell me what you want to do and I’ll make it happen.”

“You would do that for me?”

“Of course,” I tell her immediately.

She chews on her lip in deliberation before facing me, her eyes watery again.

“How do I know, Sophie?” she asks in a small voice. “How did you know you were really in love with my brother? How long were the two of you together when you knew you couldn’t live a minute without him?”

Thinking for a moment, although the moment wasn’t needed, I smile at Emily and give her the most honest answer I can.

“You know, in every relationship, there’s always a coconut, Emily.”

“What do you mean?”

“That thing that holds you back,” I smile, looking down at my hands. “For you, tonight, it’s coconuts. For me and Chase in the beginning, it was singing.”

I watch her try to dissect my words for a moment before I grab her hand in mine to get her attention.

“To answer your question, I knew I would fall in love with Chase the second I saw him and it scared the hell out of me,” I tell her honestly. “The thing that gave me the courage to admit it to myself was when I knew we’d told each other
everything
,” I pause, thinking about our time together. “We know the best, the worst and the scariest things about each other and it’s only made us want each other more. When I wake up in the morning and he’s not next to me, I feel a hole in my chest that never fills until he’s with me again. When we split up, being apart from him was torture to my soul,” I confess, my voice thick with emotion. “That knife hurt like hell, but it was
nothing
compared to how I felt when I thought I’d lost him. I know that if the whole world fell apart around us and we only had each other, I’d never want or need for anything because he’s all I’ll ever want and he’s always exactly what I need. I knew I’d love him immediately, Emily, but he
never
lets me forget why I fell in love with him in the first place. For that and a million other reasons, I wake up every day and I choose him over the coconuts,” I say, offering her a small smile. “This is your life, though, Em. If you can’t live without the coconuts, you have to make the choice to let Brad go.”

Seeing the understanding in her eyes, she thinks for a moment before she nods.

“I can live without coconuts,” she says, giving me a teary smile. “Thank you, Sophie.”

“You’re welcome.”

Pulling me towards her chest, Emily hugs me fiercely and begins to cry. After consoling her for a few minutes, I sit back and face her, reaching for a tissue and finding an empty box in its place. I briefly wonder what’s taking Chase so long before facing Emily again.

“I’m going to get you some tissue, okay?”

“Okay,” she sniffs. “Sophie?”

“Ye
s?” I turn from the door to take in her tear stained, smiling face.

“I’m really glad my brother has you,” she admits, getting up to hug me again. “I’ve always wanted a sister and I’m so glad I get to have you as mine. I love you.”

“Thank you,” I say softly, hearing my voice break with emotion. “I love you, too.”

After our sisterly moment, I turn to leave Emily’s room and
once I pull the door shut, run face first into Chase’s chest. His eyes are watery and hold a look of surprise in them.

“Are you al-” I start
, but I’m cut off by his kiss. There is nothing gradual about it. His lips are all consuming as he takes my mouth. His tongue strokes mine as he places one hand on the side of my neck, controlling me, claiming me. The emotion rolling off of him is poured into each and every glorious second as he pushes me back against the wall beside him, gripping my legs into his strong, muscle bound hands and hoisting me up so they’re wrapped around his waist. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I faintly acknowledge the sounds of something dropping at our feet with a gentle thud and clank as he continues to weave his spell on my lips. Gripping the hair at the back of his neck, he lets out a growl into my mouth and I can’t stop the whimper that he pulls from my chest. The studs of our barbells massage each other’s tongues in a sensual rhythm that has me clawing against his arms in complete surrender. Slowly, he pulls away from me with my lower lip between his teeth and as our eyes meet, I see the desire within his mirroring mine as we pant for our next breaths.