The Vine (40 page)

Cole then stands up for his best man speech; he thanks everyone on behalf of himself and Smyth for attending this wonderful day. Luke and I smile at each other. Cole eyes Katy up and down explicitly when he thanks her for giving me away, and rouses a few chuckles when he says he doesn’t think much of the maid of honour, but thanks Stefano anyway. I move awkwardly in my seat, as I’m not sure if I like where this speech is going when Cole turns his eyes to me, saying how absolutely hot I look, and that it is a
good thing his brother had branded me with a wedding ring or he might have had to step in.

I feel Luke go rigid beside me as his mum gives Cole daggers and his dad rubs his head in exasperation. I want to crawl into a hole and put my fingers in my ears as Cole goes on to graphically describe Luke’s sordid past of female conquests. I brighten slightly when he mentions meeting me has changed Luke for the better, but any hopes I had of a recovery are dashed when he goes on to say that Luke isn’t quite the Rottweiler he used to be.

Cole finishes off his car crash of a speech by saying it must be true love between Luke and me, because if a girl he had loved had left him when he needed her most, it would have been the end, but Lucas was obviously a bigger man than him, because he went on to find me and rekindle our romance, even though he could’ve had the choice of any woman waiting there for him.

“Cole, enough,” I hear Smyth say, but Cole just shrugs like he doesn’t know what his problem is, and then quickly raises his glass, saying, “May car crashes and psychos be behind you, and you both live a happy and healthy life from here on in. To Lucas and Lizzy.” The wedding party all raise their glasses and Luke smiles at me but it comes across as a grimace since he is so mad at Cole.

I whisper to him, “Don’t let Cole get you down; we all know he has no filter. It’s just his way. Let’s not let him ruin our day, eh?” Luke nods at me and kisses my cheek. “Anyway,” I continue, “by the look on your mum and dad’s faces, he’s going to get a right earful.” We watch amused as Luke’s mum and dad go marching over to Cole.

We all mingle with drinks in the gardens before we are escorted back into the Grand Hall, where Luke and I cut our cake before an evening of fun and dancing. We are waiting to start off the dancing with our first dance as man and wife to the song we both chose—Always and Forever by Heatwave. I bet everyone will think it’s a bit of a cliché first dance number, but we both love it, and it was also my mum and dad’s favourite. They used to dance to it around the house, and I feel the lyrics are very apt for us.

All of a sudden, I see Jett on the stage and watch as he grabs a microphone and starts to speak into it. “Good evening, everybody. Could you all put your hands together as the stunningly gorgeous Lizzy and her new husband Lucas take to the centre of the dance floor for their first dance?”

Everybody claps as Luke and I move to our spot, I am looking extremely confused. “Don’t look so worried, Lizzy,” Jett continues. “Your husband asked me to do him a little favour, and I told him I’d be honoured.” Jett pulls a guitar over his head, smiles at me and then proceeds to play some opening bars, but I instantly recognise it is not Always and Forever as I expect.

I eye Luke suspiciously, silently asking him what he is up to now when he clasps my waist intimately to him with one strong hand, and delicately holds my hand with the other as I hear Jett’s husky voice sing the opening line to the song, “You are so beautiful…” In that moment, Luke starts to move me around the dance floor.

I silently move with him, not daring to speak for fear of losing it and bawling my eyes out. This man I am holding is undoubtedly the most amazing, incredible man in the world, and I am the luckiest woman on the planet because he loves
me
.

This Joe Cocker song is not only one of my favourites, but my dad also chose it to be sung for my mum at their wedding. Also, as Luke looks into my watery eyes and sings it softly to me, I know he means every word. As Jett finishes, he then starts Always and Forever; while everyone else joins us on the dance floor, and I can see there is not a dry eye in the house.

Once Jett has finished, he leaves the stage to a rapturous round of applause and makes way for the band we’d booked to play during the reception. Luke and I dance for quite a few songs, mainly because he won’t let me dance with anyone else. Men from our close friends and family keep asking if they can cut in and have a dance with me, and I just keep giggling at Luke, who’s acting like a complete child and giving each person who asks an abrupt, “Not yet,” “No,” and in the end, “Go away.”

I love this petulant side to him; it only rears its head now and again, and usually involves him having to give up time with me for some reason or another. Eventually I am manhandled and physically removed from Luke’s arms by Stefano for a dance, and I think Luke only concedes because for one, Luke doesn’t see him as any kind of threat, and two, because Katy and Stef accosted us at the same time, Katy whisked Luke off before he had time to argue.

Much to Luke’s disdain, I then dance with his dad, George, Jett, Cole, Smyth and Luca, because I have a distinct feeling that once I’m back in Luke’s arms, he is never going to let me go, and I also know I won’t want to leave him either.

Luke and I are finally alone, standing on the balcony just outside of our wedding reception looking up at the darkened sky and the monumental amount of stars that are out on such a clear evening. Luke’s arm is around me, and I press myself further into him, when he asks, “Angel?”

“Mmm?” I respond contentedly.

“Do you want to give me my first huggle as husband and wife?”

I laugh. “I love that you’re so soft under that hard exterior you portray, Lucas Castle, and yes, I do need a huggle,” I say as I turn to face him. I put my arms around his waist and press my head into his chest. He wraps his arms around me, and I think there is no place I’d rather be than wrapped in this man’s arms forever.

“Have I told you, Lizzy, that you have made me the happiest man in the world today?”

“A few times,” I say as I smirk to myself, “but I do love hearing it.” I can feel Luke smiling, as his chin rests on my head, and I think that all I have ever wanted in life is to be happy and to make Luke happy, and today I have finally achieved both, and for once I can say it feels amazing to be alive.

It was the worst day of my life the day I lost Mum and Dad, and I now know I lived on for a reason—to experience the happiest day of my life. My eyes search the sky for the two brightest stars next to each other, and I wink at them and smile because I know my
two angels will look out for me always. They saw me get married today and will one day see their grandchildren, and I know they are ecstatic I am finally happy and living the life they gave to me.

I look up to Luke, who is looking down at me with pure adoration in his eyes, and I smile as I think,
I will always be his angel, and he will always be my beautiful man.
Our lips meet and I once again melt into him.

I smile as I hold tightly onto my Angel, and it doesn’t feel like life can get any better than this, but I know with this girl in my arms it will. Lizzy is amazing, more woman than I could have ever dreamed of; she’s beautiful, kind, caring and has more courage than anyone I have ever known. I used to be a good-looking, arrogant, self-obsessed arsehole, but after meeting Lizzy, I am still obviously good-looking, but also an all-round good bloke. I smirk to myself,
Well, most of the time I am.
Lizzy absurdly used to doubt herself, but I love her new confidence; it’s the icing on the cake for me.

Her only slight worry at the moment is that she hasn’t been on the pill since my accident, and obviously since our reunion we haven’t been able to keep our hands off of each other.

Lizzy is quite relaxed about if she falls pregnant or not—what will be, will be—but I know she worries that the stress she’s been through could slow the process down, or that it might never happen for us. When we spoke about it, I told Lizzy exactly what I thought—of course I would love to have children someday, but at the moment, she is all I need, and she laughed when I went on to say I’m quite happy I don’t have to share her just yet.

I also comforted her by saying if things never happen for us then we could always adopt children who’ve had shitty upbringings like Katy’s—being told they’re unloved—and we would show
them the meaning of the words ‘Loving Home’. She was calmed by my words, but I know her worry is there buried deep within; I’m sure that’s natural for a woman.

It’s funny because of all that we’ve been through, each time we make love, we make sure it is so amazing and special—not that we need to try very hard, but it’s like we’re frightened that each time it will be our last. Mind you, if that’s the only part of our past haunting us, then I can live with that.

I look down at her, she meets my eyes and we’re like magnets. I have to kiss her, and as I do, I think of how much I love her and what a lucky bastard I am. Then my mind goes to mush as I’m lost in her lips.

When we finally come up for air, Lizzy turns her head to the side and I follow as we look around our wedding reception still clinging to each other. It melts our hearts to see our loved ones in one place all looking so happy.

We see Katy and she’s talking to Cole. I hear Lizzy ask, “Is that a spark I see between Katy and your little brother?” I can only shrug.

I can’t believe what I’m hearing from Cole; sometimes he’s so obnoxious. “I know you’re attracted to me, Katy, so why don’t you just admit there’s more to us than just the sex we used to have. I mean, look at you; you’re so turned on by me right now you’re practically squirming.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Cole. I just need a wee,” I say cattily, and with that, I strut off sexily toward the ladies room, leaving him to watch me go, and if I know Cole the way I think I do, he’s probably thinking,
Yeah, she wants me.

I do need the ladies, but I just don’t need it as urgently as I made it seem to Cole. He is right though; we do have a connection and there is chemistry between us—our flings of the past have taught us that. We are very alike, but maybe
too
alike.

As I continue to walk through my best friend’s amazing wedding reception, I think of how proud I am of her and how happy for Mr. and Mrs Castle I am. What an incredible day. I spot Jett and his bandmates drinking and laughing. He really surprised Lizzy today, because when he got his invite, he said with Jetson’s gruelling schedule he would never make it, but they flew in last minute. He told Lizzy he wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

As I look at him now, I admire again how hot he is. His band is huge, and unlike his cocky band mates, he’s still so down to
earth. Even reaching super stardom status, he still doesn’t realise how sexy and gorgeous he is, and to me that is such a turn on. Maybe I need to stop the friendly banter we have and tell him. Lizzy is always telling me I should meet a nice guy, and they don’t get any nicer than Jett—that’s for sure. He is an absolute diamond.

My eyes flick to the other side of the room and I see GISM, otherwise known as Luca, standing there looking amazing in his designer suit. What an amazing friend he’s turned out to be; we’ve all got a lot to thank him for.
Mmm, maybe I should be the one to start
, I think, raising my eyebrows. As I reach the ladies, I turn back to the ballroom full of people, and as I look around and take in the different areas of the room, I instantly lock eyes with Cole, who winks cheekily at me. I smirk, but my eyes keep roaming until my eyes meet with Jett’s. He smiles at me and gives me a discreet, boyish wave. My smile broadens, but my eyes keep scanning until they fix with Luca’s handsome stare and he raises his glass to me.

Interesting
, I think as I turn and walk into the ladies.

1 YEAR LATER

I smile as I take one last peek before I quietly leave my babies in their nursery after settling them down for their afternoon nap. I avoid all areas of the floor I know will creak and squeak under my feet that could possibly disturb them. My twin babies are a heck of a lot of hard work, but equally as rewarding. I think back to our wedding and how much food I was putting away at the time, and I smile as I now know I was eating for three. I didn’t even realise I was pregnant until I was three months gone; my monthly cycle had been all over the place since Luke’s accident, and I feel myself physically shudder as that time of our lives briefly enters my mind and I shoo it away again. I had put on quite a bit of weight, but physically I looked glowing, healthy and a far cry from the pale, gaunt girl who was just skin and bone, that I’d been a few months before. Luke and I both adored my new-found curves so we never thought anything of it. It was when Luke and I would get intimate and he’d always like to spend a lot of time caressing my breast and gently biting my nipples, and normally it would drive me wild with desire, but suddenly I found myself grimacing slightly because they’d feel so tender.

Luke, of course, cottoned on to this fairly quickly, and was distraught that his act of intimacy was causing me pain, so he
immediately booked me an appointment to see his private doctor. Come the day of the appointment, we were both sick with worry wondering what on earth could be wrong with me, as I had started to have some bad headaches and bouts of lethargy. I think we both thought we’d had enough bad luck to last us a lifetime, and surely we weren’t going to get any more bad news, but if we did we would handle it and get through it, because together we are a strong unit who could take any crap life threw at us. After all, we had already proven we could survive even the roughest of seas. We did walk out of the doctor’s office both stunned into silence that day, thankfully not with the bad news we had suspected, but with the gloriously wonderful news that I was in fact three months pregnant, and with twins! I had a wonderful pregnancy after that; so grateful was I to our good fortune, and I had my angels delivered to me in May after a momentous—although extremely painful—birth.