Chapter Twenty-Three
TRUE TO GAGE’S word, Jake didn’t say a word to anyone about their bathroom tryst. But that didn’t stop Sally from imagining that everyone knew why she’d come out of the bathroom freshly washed up and grinning like the well-fucked wife she was.
Dinner passed with lots of laughter. Coco and Seth were so cute, she spent most of the evening watching them, imagining how cute her and Gage’s baby would be.
After dinner, the guys cleared the table and the girls washed the dishes. Blue and Jake started wrestling in the living room and Duke and Gage hauled them, and the rest of the guys, outside to chop wood, which seemed silly to Sally, considering they were all decked out for the holiday. Boys will be boys.
Siena and Andrea, Gage’s mother, went to change the twins’ diapers, and Gabby wasn’t feeling well, so Lizzie took her outside for some fresh air, leaving Trish and Sally alone in the kitchen.
“Your dress is really spectacular.” Trish ran her fingers down the crinkled chiffon skirt. “I’d wear something like that to the Oscars.”
“Your brother insisted on buying it for me in Virginia. You and Boone are definitely going to win. You can borrow the dress if you’d like.”
“If I still fit in it.” Trish put her hand over her stomach. “We’re not telling anyone yet, but Boone and I are trying to get pregnant.”
Sally gasped. “Oh, Trish! That’s wonderful.”
“I’m a little scared,” she admitted. “I know I’ll be stressed about the Oscars. That’s not good for the baby, right?”
“Babies are pretty resilient. Besides, if you’re like me, you’ll be so in love with the idea of having Boone’s baby, nothing else will matter. I feel like my stress has gone way down, even though it should be through the roof.”
“Baby bliss,” Trish said. “That’s what Gabby calls it. She said nothing can stress her out anymore, because she’s too happy about their baby.”
“She’s right. Although I could do without having to pee every few minutes. I swear this baby’s only as big as a penny and it’s already affecting me that way. Can you excuse me for a sec?” Sally went to use the bathroom, and when she came out, the house was too quiet.
She walked out of her room and found Rusty standing in front of the tree. He looked so grown up in the white dress shirt and slacks he’d insisted on wearing. I’m not a kid anymore, Mom. I can dress up.
“How’s it going, honey?”
Rusty smiled. “I was wondering where you were. We have to go.” He put her black wool shawl over her shoulders and offered her his arm.
“Go where?” She held on to his arm as he led her to the door.
“You’ll see.”
“Rusty…” They went outside and followed the lighted path down toward the barn. “Is that where everyone disappeared to? The barn?”
Rusty pushed open the barn doors, and Sally clung to his arm, afraid her legs would give out. The big wooden barn had been transformed into a wedding wonderland. White lights and greenery hung beautifully from the rafters. The posts were draped with white silk and bound with more twinkling lights. A red carpet ran down the center, separating two rows of chairs, which were decorated with red and white roses and pink and blue ribbons. At the other end of the red carpet, Gage stood beside his father, looking handsome and so very proud beneath a wedding canopy like the one he’d constructed in Oak Falls, it drew more happy tears. Treat flanked his other side. She’d forgotten Treat was ordained.
Her eyes swept over the room, catching on a table that she hadn’t noticed behind Rusty. On it was a five-tiered wedding cake decorated with red roses and imprinted with the pictures they’d taken over the last few weeks—in the gym in Virginia, while they were skiing, in their honeymoon suite. Emotions bubbled up inside her.
“Happy wedding day, Mom. Would it be okay if I gave you away?” Rusty handed her a tissue.
“Yes.” She wiped her eyes and tried to regain control of her emotions as the song “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri rang out and her son led her down the aisle.
Every seat was filled. Danica, Blake, and Chessie sat with Kaylie, Chaz, and their twins. Max held little Dylan on her lap, and her daughter, Adriana, looked beautiful decked out in a pretty pink dress beside her. Tears filled Sally’s eyes as they swept over Gage’s family, and—Ohmygosh. A rush of emotions swamped her as her parents came into focus sitting beside Gage’s mother. Her parents’ smiles brought a flood of tears she didn’t even try to stop.
She had no idea how she made it down the aisle, but when Rusty kissed her cheek like the man he’d become and said, “I love you, Mom. And I’m happy for you,” she forced herself to stand tall and blink away her tears.
Gage mouthed the words to the song as Treat said what she was sure was a lovely ceremony, but she couldn’t hear past her thundering heart, couldn’t see anything but her beautiful husband who was promising her forever. When he slipped the wedding ring on her finger, she realized she didn’t have a ring for him.
His father handed her a gold man’s ring. “It belonged to Gage’s grandfather.”
Fresh tears spilled from her eyes. She was trembling as she put the ring on Gage’s finger. Then she was in his arms, and his lips were on hers, her happy heart drowning out everything else, as Treat pronounced them man and wife, and their friends and family cheered.
They cried and laughed, and when Gage set her on her feet and said, “I love you, my precious bird, and I will love you until my very last breath,” she thanked the heavens above that what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas.