Unwrapped (11 page)

Oh.

“You can’t …” I stutter, looking frantically
around. “She chose him, Daniel, you can’t stop the wedding
now—”

“What are you talking about?” Daniel frowns at
me in confusion.

“Juliet,” I breathe, my voice weak. “You came
back for her.” I swallow, my voice wavering with a treacherous hint
of hope. “Didn’t you?”

Daniel takes a step closer, and then another,
his gaze fixed on mine. My breath stills as he reaches to cup my
face in his hand, gently tracing my jaw.

What the …?

Daniel slowly shakes his head, leaning closer.
“It’s you, Lacey,” he whispers. “I came back for you.”

I don’t understand.

I blink at him, wordless, unable to process what
he’s just said. It can’t be; this is some kind of game. A trick. He
can’t mean it.

He can’t want
me
.

Daniel’s smile slips. “Unless …” He gulps,
looking panicked. “Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t know if you wanted …”
He backs away. “I got this all wrong.”

He reaches for the door to leave as I stay
frozen. And for a terrible split-second, I can’t say a word, I just
watch him walk away.

Let him go.
A small
voice orders me.
Because a man like that could
never want you, not really. He’d get tired of you, bored, annoyed.
You would wreck this, somehow, and wouldn’t it be worse in the end,
hurting him? Letting yourself down. Trying, and failing to be the
perfect girl he deserves.

The chorus of insecurity rages in my head, but
something else calls, louder. My heart: beating for him, aching for
him all these years. The peace I felt in his arms last night, so
safe and treasured and
enough
.

I deserve this.

“No!” I cry suddenly, my voice coming out louder
than I planned. Daniel stops. I close the distance between us in a
rush, reaching up to clutch on to his coat. “Do you mean it?” I
demand, my heart racing. “What you said, just now. Was it
true?”

I gaze up at him, breathless, knowing somehow
that whatever he says next could be the most important words in my
life.

“It’s you,” Daniel tells me, with a tender smile
that makes my heart sing. I feel dizzy, light-headed, like this is
all just a dream, but no: he’s here, solid under my hands, his arms
going around my waist to hold me up, hold me closer to him. “I
don’t know how, but … I couldn’t just walk away.”

Before I can say a word, he bends his head and
captures my mouth in a passionate, heart-stopping kiss.

Oh.

I melt against him, falling into the kiss;
reveling in the taste of him and the glorious feel of his body
against mine. Daniel pivots me back against the wall, pinning me in
place with his hands as our lips ask and answer every question,
over again, until there’s no doubt at all left in my mind.

He came back for me.

Me
.

Finally, there’s a noise above us on the stairs.
We break the kiss, and I look up, dizzy, to find Juliet there,
watching us with a smile. She’s radiant in her dress and veil, a
vision in white about to walk down the aisle.

“The wedding!” I yelp, remembering where I
am.

She laughs. “Yup, sorry to interrupt. You want
to go tell them to start the music?”

“Sure, right, yes.” I blink, my breath coming
fast. I shoot an anxious look at Daniel. This has to be weird for
him.

He just chuckles, offering me his arm. “Shall
we?”

I take his arm and walk slowly down the back
steps, around to where everyone is waiting. I catch looks of
surprise and confusion from Emerson and the others, and pause,
suddenly panicking.

“Are you sure you want to be here?” I whisper.
“I mean, if this is too awkward …”

Daniel shakes his head, guiding me into a seat
in the front row. “I’m fine,” he murmurs, still holding my hand.
“Maybe I shouldn’t be here, but … it makes a strange kind of sense.
Juliet needed to find her soulmate, and me …” He pauses, smiling.
“I had to find exactly what I needed too.”

His eyes are warm on mine, full of meaning, and
I feel a glow shimmer through me from my head to my toes.

The music starts, cutting off my response, but
it doesn’t matter, my heart is already flying from his words. He
wants this to be more than just one crazy night together; more than
a casual fling. After years telling myself I’ll never have a man
like him, he’s right here beside me, proving me wrong.

I deserve this love, and it’s finally mine.

The ceremony is beautiful. Juliet cries, saying
her vows, and even Emerson looks choked up as he slides the ring on
her finger.

“I promise to love you and care for you,” Juliet
tell him, eyes shining with tears. “To be the light in your darkest
days, and the guide on your way home.”

“I promise to be there for you; to support you,
and provide for you, to protect you and love you, always.”
Emerson’s voice is hoarse with emotion. “I promise to build a home
with you, full of laughter and love, and to lay my life down
whenever you need me.”

The Reverend smiles at them. “Then by the power
vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife.”

The crowd erupts into cheers as Emerson sweeps
her into his arms. He dips her almost to the floor as he kisses
her, and Juliet clutches him, beaming.

It’s magic, and I’m so lost in happiness for the
pair of them that I don’t even register the tears streaming down my
face until feel a squeeze on my hand. Daniel. “You’re crying,” he
tells me, concerned.

I swallow back my tears. “I’m happy!” I sniffle.
“For them, and for us, and, for everyone!”

He laughs, and we watch Juliet and Emerson head
back up the aisle towards the house. People start after them, but
Daniel holds me back a minute.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Daniel adds,
turning my palm over to stroke circles in my palm. “You should come
back to the city with me for New Year’s. Celebrate together, to new
beginnings.”

My heart skips, and I realize the shape he’s
tracing is a heart. I nod, too overcome to speak. I can’t remember
the last time I was lost for words, but this man, right here,
affects me like no other. “Yes,” I manage to reply.

Yes, yes, yes.

“I think you’ll like it,” Daniel smiles back at
me. “Bright lights, big city. I’ve got this big apartment all to
myself. And,” he adds, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “I bet they
always need more event planners too.”

A yell from the house interrupts us: Brit,
waving us in. “What are you waiting for?” she yells, “It’s time for
the party!”

I laugh, taking Daniel’s hand and tugging him
inside before we freeze to death. I don’t need to answer him, not
right now. Whatever we chose, wherever I go, this is the start of
something: the next chapter in my life. With him.

Together.

Not Quite The End …

***

Garrett carefully took down the bridal arch
and carried it to the back porch to store with the rest of the
chairs and decorations for the night. The wedding had been over for
hours. It was dark out now, and everyone else was inside in the
warm, celebrating the happy couple, but he’d insisted on taking
clean-up duty. It was the least he could do for Emerson and Juliet,
and besides, he needed the space away from the crowd.

He worked silently in the dark, snowy yard,
bathed in the glow of lights from the house, and the silvery moon
shining bright across the bay. His breath fogged in the cold, but
Garrett didn’t mind: he liked the sting of crisp air in his lungs,
and the pull in his muscles as he dismantled the heavy wood.
Anything to distract him from the memories spinning in his mind,
creeping through his usual defenses and catching him square in the
chest like a sucker punch he’d never seen coming.

They’d looked so happy, Juliet and Emerson. They
deserved it, he knew, but still, it was a thing to see, when she’d
appeared at the end of the aisle and Emerson’s jaw dropped. The way
she’d looked, walking towards him, so full of pride and hope and
nervous excitement, Garrett knew that expression by heart.

It was the way his wife had looked at him on
their wedding day.

A noise startled him out of old memories, and he
looked up. It had come from out past the woodshed, on the edge of
the property down by the beach. “Hello?” Garrett called, moving
closer. “Anyone there?”

There was another muffled sound, and when he
rounded the corner, he found a blonde woman there, fumbling with
her phone.

“Oh, hey, sorry.” Garrett stopped. She lifted
her head, and he recognized her from earlier. Juliet’s older
sister, Carina, he thought she was called. She hadn’t helped with
any of the set-up, she’d just arrived at the last minute for the
ceremony in an expensive-looking black dress, watching the vows
with a faint sneering expression, distant and remote.

Now, for a moment, her expression was open and
unguarded, her heart-shaped face looking young and alone.

“Are you OK?” he asked, stepping closer.

Carina flinched back. “Fine,” she snapped, her
voice high and shill. Her face shuttered shut, and in a moment, her
expression was aloof again. “What do you want?”

Garrett paused. “You’re cold,” he said, noticing
her slim frame shivering. “Here, you’ll freeze out here without a
real coat.”

He shrugged off his heavy jacket, but Carina
shook her head, her glossy blonde hair barely moving.

“I’m fine.” she insisted.

Garrett sighed. “Your feet are turning
blue.”

They both looked down to where her ridiculous
stiletto heels were sinking into the snow. Carina looked annoyed.
“I didn’t realize they were serious about having this thing
outside. Who gets married in the freezing snow when they can do it
inside, like civilized people?”

Garrett felt his patience wearing thin. “Either
take my jacket, or get inside. It would screw up their honeymoon to
have you die out here of pneumonia.”

Carina snatched the jacket from him, looking
pissed, and began to totter towards the house.

“A ‘thanks’ would be nice, darlin’” Garrett
drawled, walking behind her.

Carina turned, glaring. “I know just what kind
of thanks you want, and trust me when I say, it’s never going to
happen.”

“Woah there,” Garrett protested, indignant.
“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ve heard all about you,” Carina fixed him
with a penetrating stare. “You’re the good-time bar-keep who has
his way with anything in a skirt. Well, I’m taken,” she told him,
holding up her hand so he could see the huge rock twinkling on her
ring finger. “And even if I wasn’t, I’m not that desperate,” she
sneered at him knowingly. “Not in a million years.”

Garrett’s temper flared. Here’s what he got for
trying to be gentlemanly: this girl acting like he was something
she scraped up on the bottom of her expensive shoes.

“You sure about that, darlin’?” Garrett took a
step towards her, narrowing his eyes. “Because judging by the chip
on your shoulder and that stick up your ass, you haven’t been
getting what you need for a long, long time.” He reached out to
trail a finger down the side of her bare neck. Carina slapped his
hand away, flushing, but not before he saw the shock of awareness
in her eyes.

“Don’t touch me!” she demanded, her voice
carrying in the empty garden.

“Relax, sugar,” Garrett scowled. “You’re not my
type. I prefer my women flesh and blood, not stuck up ice-queens
like you.”

Carina set her lips in a thin line. “You’re
disgusting,” she informed him, stepping back. Her shoe must have
caught on something in the snow, because she lurched wildly with a
cry.

Garrett made to catch her, but then stopped
himself. “I won’t trouble you any longer then,” he told her with a
smirk. “You have a nice night.”

He turned and headed back for the house, leaving
her there, balanced on one leg in the snow.

“Wait!” Carina’s voice echoed after him. “You
can’t just leave me like this!”

Garrett kept walking, letting himself into the
house with a smile. He’d let someone know she was out there, send
someone to help, but for now, she could use a moment to cool off.
Literally.

A burst of noise and laughter hit him as he
stepped inside. Garrett paused a moment to let it wash over him,
chasing the dark memories away. The past was done, he reminded
himself. There was no changing it.

He grabbed a beer from the table, and caught the
eye of a girl across the room. She was friends with Brit, he
thought, a pretty brunette who seemed sweet enough. That was what
he needed, he decided, taking a first gulp and starting across
towards her. A few beers, and a woman for the night, and maybe,
just maybe, he wouldn’t wake up in a cold sweat like all those
other nights before, his heart beating out for a past he couldn’t
change; reaching for a woman who was never coming back.