"Holy hell, you're married," Shea giggles. "Let me see those rings."

I hold up my hand and the diamonds and sapphires sparkle in the light.

"Hrmpf. It's not fair. You get a hot rocker who's loaded and I get zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada."

"Aww," I murmur, pulling my best friend into a hug. "Your Prince—or Princess—Charming is right around the corner looking for you."

"I'll just take someone who'll fuck me," she teases.

I laugh. "Well, there are enough horny eighteen-year-old guys here—and girls—to make your wish come true."

She looks around. "There is quite a bounty of ass here."

"There totally is."

"But I don't want no clinger. I don't do clingers."

"By now, everyone knows. You've made it more than clear to a few guys—and girls," I remind her.

"Yeah." She pauses. "And even if they do cling, I'll overlook it during the sex. But afterward? Foot in ass as I kick 'em to the curb."

I laugh. "That's my bestie!"

"And don't you forget it!"

Shea flounces off in search of her good time and Jesse steps next to me, watching her work the crowd.

"How much has she had to drink?" he asks.

"Enough but not too much," I answer.

"Good. I'd hate to have to beat someone's ass at your wedding."

"Aww, such a good protector," I tease, pinching his cheek.

He doesn't crack a smile but rather he looks put out. "Don't let that get around."

"They wouldn't believe me even if I did."

He nods. "I'm happy for you. You finally hooked that stubborn son of a bitch."

"The way Xander's telling it, he hooked me."

"Let him keep thinking that. In ten years or so, we'll remind him of who caught who." One side of Jesse's mouth lifts slightly. The man rarely smiles. I understand why, but just once I'd like to see that full on smile that can bring even the strongest woman to her knees. One day, he's going to meet his match and I'm going to laugh my ass off because I know she's not going to put up with his shit. She's gonna be one special lady.

"We're gonna sing for a while. That okay?" he asks.

"Of course. You never have to ask."

He nods, pulls me into a hug, kisses the top of my head, then walks away. It brings tears to my eyes because that was Jesse Kingston's way of telling me he loves me.

"You all right?" Xander asks, as he wraps his arms around my waist from behind.

I nod. "Really happy."

"Good."

"You're not playing with them?" I ask.

"Nah. They got that Trey dude to fill in. I'm gonna dance the night away with my wife!"

I turn into his arms and hug him back. "You think they're going to play the song?"

Xan's grin matches mine. "Yep. I told them it's our first dance song so they gotta play it."

I laugh. "I can't wait to hear Jesse sing it."

Xan laughs. "This is going to be epic. I have about ten people who're gonna record it for us."

"They're going to kick your ass for that," I tease.

"Well worth the pain, baby. Well worth the pain.”

The dinner goes quickly. It's catered, so Mrs—I mean Mom doesn't have to do any of the work. I'm thankful for that. Silly toasts are made. Lots of forks clink against champagne glasses. Crude and rude statements are made about the wedding night and honeymoon. Sadly, the honeymoon will have to wait because I'll be back in school all too soon and Xander wants at least two weeks on a tropical island. I'm all for that.

The staff removes the unnecessary tables and moves the others to make room for dancing. We're starting off with a DJ and the guys will perform here and there throughout the night.

The sun is setting and fairy lights and hurricanes with fat blue and white candles set the scene. It's romantic. It's perfect.

Xan and I work the crowd. So many people showed up. I think it's almost the entire senior class. Granted, our high school isn't very big, but our class has 100+ people.

"Can I have your attention, please?" Jesse says into the microphone. The crowd hushes. "It's time for the bride and groom to have their first dance, but before they do, I want to say if anyone records this, I'll kick your ass. Xander, Tera, you gotta know we love you if we're singing this shit for you."

I let out a laugh and so does Xan.

"Mrs. Mackenzie," Xan says, holding his hand out to me.

"Mr. Mackenzie," I reply, taking his hand in mine. He leads us out to the dance floor and that's when Jesse and the guys start playing This I Promise You by NSync. When Ben, Kennedy, and Ethan join in, singing the background parts, they all roll their eyes. They are all up there looking bored out of their minds—except Jesse, who is singing his ass off. Granted, it's not the higher-pitched sound this song has nor is it sweet and syrupy, but it's completely Jesse with his gravelly voice, the occasional growl. When he hits those high notes, my jaw drops and Xan smirks at me.

"Didn't know he could do that, huh?" Xan asks.

"No." I shake my head, still dazed and awed by that.

We all applaud when the song is over and I look at Jesse, who sends me a wink.

"Congratulations, Mackenzies. I hope you enjoyed that because it's never happening again," he growls.

I laugh and blow him a kiss. He catches it and stuffs it in his pocket.

"I'm saving that one for later, baby," Jesse teases, wiggling his eyebrows.

Now it's Xander's turn to growl.

"He's just playing around. Stop it," I scold. "You're being ridiculous."

Xan grunts.

The guys start Celebration by Kool and the Gang and that's when the party really gets started.

It's a night of laughter, dancing, champagne, hugs, and happiness. I couldn't have asked for a better wedding.

The night is winding down and I wrap my arms around Xander's neck as we sway to Jesse singing Your Song by Elton John.

"This is the best day of my life, Xander."

He looks down at me. No smirk. He's serious now. "Mine too. Thank you for being my wife."

"I'll remind you in twenty years that you said that," I tease.

"It'll still be true then."

I sigh, stand on tiptoes, and kiss his lips softly. He's everything to me. Everything. I really hope nothing ever changes that.

* * *

The next day, the morning after Christmas, the morning after our wedding, Xander gets a call way too early.

"Ignore it," I whine. We spent most of the night making love and it feels like we just fell asleep.

He picks up the phone, looks at the caller ID. "Can't ignore it. It's Mr. Nichols."

My head lifts and dread fills my belly.

"Hello?" he answers. He looks at me while he listens. Then he closes his eyes and hangs his head. "Yeah." He listens. "Yeah." Pause. "Yeah, sure." Pause. "All right. See you then." He presses the off button but doesn't raise his head.

"What is it?" I ask, already knowing.

He sighs and rolls to his side, facing me. "We need to leave sooner than we thought."

I nod, fighting tears, trying to look upbeat—for him. "When?"

"In two days."

"Two days? But you just got here," I say quietly, when what I really want to do is scream.

"I know. Trust me, I know. They want us to play a New Year's Eve event." He's watching me closely and I am trying to give him nothing bad to see.

"I see. No New Year's together then," I say, and I don't hide the pout this time.

He pulls me to him, hugging me tight. "I'm sorry, T."

I nod. "I know. This is your big break. This is it. I know it, so I won't throw a tantrum like I want to."

He groans. "Fuck. Why can't you just go with us?"

It's a rhetorical question but I still answer. "Because I have to finish the year here if I want a chance at getting into a good college for the arts."

"I know."

Silence cloaks the room as we just stare at each other, our heads resting on a pillow, so close we can breathe each other's breaths. I mean, really, what's there to say right now? He's leaving. Again. We could complain and whine about being apart, but it's for an amazing reason. I would never do that to him.

* * *

And they're gone again. I sigh, my head hanging as I make my way to my car. As my arms swing, sunlight glints off of my wedding rings and I get butterflies in my belly. I press my hand against it.

Xander's my husband. My husband. Mine. Forever.

"He'll be back before you know it," a voice says from behind me, startling me from my thoughts. I let out a squeak of surprise and Carter laughs.

"Damn it, Carter. You scared the crap out of me!" I scold.

He chuckles. "Sorry. I thought you heard me but you must've been more lost in thought than I figured."

I nod, then tilt my head to the side. "What're you doing here?"

He shrugs a shoulder. "I just figured you could use a friend. Wanna go grab a burger or something?"

I bite my bottom lip. I don't know if I should. I mean, we're just friends, but will Xander get upset?

"I already asked your husband if it'd be okay if we hung out. He's cool with it."

I lift a brow. "Really."

"He did threaten to cut my balls off if I even looked at you wrong."

I laugh. "Now that sounds more like Xan."

He nods and chuckles. "Let's go eat. I'm fucking starving."

"You've been lifting?" I ask, remembering how hungry Carter always is when he lifts weights and works out.

He nods. "Swam for an hour and lifted for another."

I whistle. "Swimming is so exhausting. I'm a little surprised you lifted after that."

"I didn't push myself. Kept the weight my norm and the reps and stuff low. I just don't want to get out of shape. I'm gonna have a hell of a summer when I get to NYU."

"They're gonna work your ass off," I tell him, unable to imagine how hard they're going to push him.

He nods. "I know it. Let's take my car. We'll come back and pick yours up."

"Sounds good."

The ride to Gill's is short and filled with small talk. When we walk in, I see Shea sitting with a bunch of Carter's friends. I turn to look at him and smile, tears welling in my eyes.

"Thank you."

He merely nods. There's no smile. None of this can be easy for him. He's so selfless. It's no wonder I love him. I'll always love him, it just wasn't the way I love Xander and knowing I can feel that way, I would never settle for less.

We sit down and order. We're joking and waiting for our food when Shea's mouth pulls tight and her eyes go flat.

"Well, well. Look who's here."

I turn and there's Sasha Clay, her two minions standing right behind her. I grind my teeth. Rumor has it she's one of the chicks Xander would take to the shack on a regular basis, which means he fucked her on a regular basis. Married or not, that eats at me something fierce because that was during the time he made me feel as if I wasn't good enough—and he succeeded.

"Oh look, it's the Wicked Witch from Slutsville," Shea taunts.

A few of the guys cough "whore" into their hands, and as immature as that is, I want to hug every one of them for doing it.

Sasha zeroes in on Shea. "Have you decided which way you're gonna swing?"

I fist my hands and my eyes narrow. No one has ever made fun of Shea's sexual orientation and this slut isn't going to start now.

"Why? You want a piece of her?" I ask, looking her up and down with disdain.

Shea snorts. "She wishes, but I don't want to ride the bike everyone in town's already ridden."

The guys chuckle and Sasha fumes. Her face gets red and she takes a step forward. I sit up straight and Carter rests his hand on the small of my back to comfort me. This bitch isn't going to hurt, intimidate, or try to shame my best friend. I won't allow it.

"How unoriginal," Sasha retorts.

"Like you, you mean," I taunt.

"Your husband's been gone less than an hour and already you're with your ex," she tsks. "I wonder what Xander would say if he knew."

"He wouldn't say a damn thing because he knows I'm with friends today," I reply.

"Friends," she scoffs.

"Don't worry your skanky gossiping pea-brain. I made sure to mention all the names of the people I was with," Tera says with a snort.

"Sure you did. There's no way Xan—"

I stand up now and I'm in her face. I'm short, at least six inches shorter than she is, but it doesn't matter. I get all up in her shit.

"You don't mention his name, bitch. You don't know him. You don't know anything about my marriage either. Let me fill you in. Xan trusts me. In fact, Carter asked Xander if it was okay if we did things together, not that it's any of your business." I take one more step forward, her eyes widening as I poke her in the chest. "Do you know what he said? He said he didn't care. You know why? Because unlike you, I haven't fucked the entire varsity football team—including the coach—and I've never given him a reason to doubt me."

She's got nothing to say to that.

"Run along with your whore friends," Shea tells them.

"The skank corner is over there," one of the guys says.

"You may be married to him and maybe you're not cheating, but if you think he's not on the road fucking every groupie he can, you're delusional. They're falling at his feet, touching him, kissing him. You think he's going to stop them when they grab his dick? I don't. No guy would stop that, especially when they're on such a high from being on stage," she scoffs.

I hate that she found my insecurity on the first try. I swallow it down and fake it.

I roll my eyes and turn to sit back down. She grabs my shirt and spins me around.

"You don't turn your—"

"Don't you ever fucking touch me with your filthy fucking hands. Don't you ever act like you know more about my life than I do. And most of all, don't you ever act like you know Xander better than I do. You may have been one of the easy chicks he fucked, but he's my husband now and that means he's mine forever."

"I was more than a fuck to him. We were tog—"

That's it. I see red. Nothing but red. She fucking laid her hands on me. She won't shut up. She's pushed me too far. Hell fucking no.

I pull back my arm then let my fist fly right into her overly made up face. It's not easy hitting someone when you're this much shorter than them, but I did it. I think I might have jumped up to hit her because I got her in the eye.

She screams and her friends gasp.

"You hit me! You bitch?" she wails.

I nod. "I sure as fuck did. Now move the fuck on before I do it again."

Sasha and her friends scurry out of the diner and Gill walks over. He lets out a whistle.

"That was one hell of a right hook." He gives me an ice pack for my hand—which hurts like hell.

"Let me see." Gill pushes on my hand testing out the pain. "Doesn't look like anything's broke, but that's gonna hurt for a while. Keep icing it, girl, and you'll be all right."

"Thank you."

He chuckles. "Latina temper. You're a force to be reckoned with. I doubt she'll be forgetting that any time soon."

Shea fusses over me as does Carter.

"I'm fine. Really. Just bruised a bit."

As soon as I say that, they all start laughing.

"Holy shit, Tera," Dane, one of the football players says. "That was fucking epic."

"Tell me you got that on video," another player says.

"Fuck yeah, I did."

"Oh God. Please don't show that—"

Dane looks up. "Too late. It's already gotten over 200 hits on YouTube."

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit. If Xander sees that…"

My phone rings, but it's in my back pocket. "Can you grab that for me?" There's no way I can move my hand like that.

Carter grabs the phone and looks at the caller ID. Xander.

"Oh hell." I nod at Carter, who pushes the talk and speaker buttons. "Hey."

"Hey," Xander replies. "Is this my wife who I see in a video doing a great impression of Mike Tyson?"

"Uh… you saw that, huh?" I hedge.

"Baby, over seven hundred people have seen that already."

"Seven hundred? I don't even know seven hundred people!"

Xan chuckles. "Well, they sure know you now."

"Great."

"Just tell me one thing," he says.

"What's that?" I ask, a little afraid.

"Did you break your hand, T?" The concern in his voice makes me want to cry. He's been gone for a little over an hour and I've already given him a reason to worry about me. I'm an asshole.

I sniffle. "No, Xan, but it hurts something fierce."

"Guess Sasha's head is harder than mine then, huh? When you punched me in the face, your hand was just fine," he teases.

I snicker a little, remembering the not-so-good time when all those girls were hanging out at the house and he took his joking a little too far. It felt more like him picking on me. I'd warned him to stop. But he kept going. That's when my fist met his face. It was one of the best and worst moments of my life.

"Or maybe I just hit her a lot harder."

"Maybe," he replies.

"She had it coming, Xan," Shea says.

"She did. I know she did, but damn. You could've waited to do that until I was around. Now I'm over here all hot for you and you're over there," he jokes.

The guys all wolf whistle and make lewd suggestions.

"You knew you were on speaker phone, huh?" I ask with a snicker.

"Hell yes, I did. Carter," Xan calls out.

"Yeah, man," Carter answers.

"What happened to you taking care of my wife? You just sat there, dude."

Carter chuckles. "Xan, you know as well as I do, if I'd gotten in the middle of that, Tera would've punched me too."

"No," I say. "I'd have kneed you in the balls."

Carter winces.

"Dude," Xander says. "Good call."

"She was scary, man," Dane calls out.

"That's my girl. She's a spitfire when you get her riled," Xan answers. "Makes for some hot times between the sheets."

"Xander Mackenzie!" I scold, my face turning red as everyone teases and laughs.

"Babe, they already knew that. One look and anyone can see it," Xan tells me.

I look at the guys, who are all nodding their heads and agreeing with Xan.

"See?" he says.

I cover my face with my good hand. "Oh my God. This is like one of those dreams you have where you're standing in front of the class having to give a speech only to realize you're naked."

That's how I feel right now. Naked. Exposed.

"They could only hope," Xander tells me.

"I'm not sure how I'm going to eat my burger, but it's just arrived, Xan. Can I call you when I get home?" I ask.

He chuckles. "Yeah, of course."

"You're a beast!" Linc yells in the background.

I groan again.

"Talk to you soon. I love you," I tell him.

"Love you too, T."

I look around and everyone's watching me.

"What?"

Then it begins. The ribbing. "Aww, that was so sweet."

I flip them all off and they laugh.

"Now, who's going to help me cut this burger into pieces I can hold?"