“I knew it!” I dance around, shaking my ass as I do a little jig. “Ha!” I say in Mark’s face as I continue my taunting. “I win. I win. I win, I win, I win.”
“There is no fucking way.” Mark grabs the paper from him and looks it over. “By that much?”
“The targets are there. You can count for yourself,” Pugh offers.
“Oh, the things you will do!” I practically squeal.
Mark growls as he stomps off to check the course.
He returns with a scowl. Clearly, I won. He couldn’t even lie to himself. This is a glorious day. “Thank you, Daddy,” I whisper to the sky.
“There need to be boundaries to this,” Mark grumbles.
This is going to be so much fun. I mean, he said he would do anything. Stupid, overconfident man. “This is what happens when men like you get cocky. You say words like anything and always. It bites you in the ass, but I’ll be more than happy to take advantage of this.”
He saddles up next to me in his Jeep. “Will you do your ass shaking dance again?”
“For you,” I grin, and lean back. “Maybe.”
“Don’t drown in your victory.”
“Don’t worry about me. I would start preparing for the Day of Charlie.”
“You’re naming your day?”
I huff. “Of course. Now to decide when to cash it in.”
“I’m sure it’ll be the most inconvenient of days.”
“Duh!”
When we pull into the driveway, Mark surprises me by taking my hand. He shifts his body toward me and his green eyes bore into mine. I wait for him to say something, but he just sits with our fingers intertwined. “We need to leave in a few hours for Jackson and Catherine’s wedding.”
“Okaaay.” I’m confused by the tone in his voice.
“We don’t have long.”
“Mark?” My brow tightens. “You okay?”
“Never better.”
This reminds me of the time he got all weird on the plane because of the conversation he had with Jackson and what he thought he knew about me. We’ve spent almost all of our time together, so I don’t think it’s that, but he’s acting really odd right now. I turn my mind back to when he almost said those three little words, but . . . I don’t know.
“Let’s shower,” I offer. Maybe his mood will switch.
“You just want me naked.”
Of course that snaps him out of it.
“You know me oh, so well.” My playful tone makes him smile.
After our long and very dirty shower, we pack an overnight bag and head off to the vineyard. Mark and I make small talk and laugh about stories of old missions. I wish I could tell him more, but I can’t. Instead, I’m vague, but he doesn’t push. It’s a nice thing about our relationship, that there’s an understanding that work sometimes can’t be shared.
“Wow!” I exclaim as we turn into Keswick Vineyards in central Virginia. “This place is breathtaking.”
The driveway is a little dirt road that hugs the vines. We travel until a huge white house comes into view. It has grand pillars and a gorgeous fountain in front. The dirt road circles around it, giving a magnificent picture. Everything is crisp. The greens are deep and rich. The white of the house is stark, and makes everything feel elegant. I can see why they’d pick this place. It’s perfect.
We park off to the side and Catherine rushes to the car. “Charlie! You came!” Her smile is luminous. She’s the image of a blushing bride. Catherine is so happy, so hopeful, so full of life.
“After phone call number eight, I knew I couldn’t say no,” I tease her.
“I’m persuasive,” she winks. “This is my best friend, Ashton.” A gorgeous redhead comes forward. Her blue eyes are stunning. No wonder Mark had a thing for her. Thankfully, he told me their story and how they never really dated. It was more of a, we could, but we won’t situation. Neither of them were willing to make an effort, but remained good friends.
“So, you’re the girl who tamed the idiot.” She smiles and embraces me. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” I reply.
I’m not a jealous person. But I can’t help but hold a slight bit of curiosity about her. I know she had been seeing their friend, Quinn, but still. Mark is a hundred times better catch—at least in my opinion.
She laughs. “Believe nothing you’ve heard. Especially if it’s from him.” She lets go of me and walks over to Mark. She punches him in the arm playfully then they hug. “It’s good to see you, Twilight.”
“Quinn here?” He asks with an edge to him.
“No.”
“Fucking Asshole.”
“Let’s not ruin today with talk of the douchebag.” Ashton smiles before turning to Catherine. “It’s not every day I get to see my Biffle get married.”
“Biffle?”
“Best friend for life,” Catherine explains. “Ashton has her own language. It’s ever growing with her made up words.”
“Whatever!” she says with her hand up as she saunters away.
I’ll need to drink to keep up with this group. It’s funny how Mark is so integral to so many people. He fulfills a different role for each of them. For Natalie, he’s her support in some ways, only more brotherly. With Catherine, he’s more playful and again brotherly, but more annoying. With Jackson, he’s his rock. He stands beside him, will fight for him, and he has this seriousness around him. Then, when he’s with me, there’s a side no one else gets to witness—something just between us. Then again, he sees something within me that I’ve never shared.
Catherine giggles. “Come on, we’re having wine and hors d’oeuvres over in the picnic area.”
Mark takes my hand and we follow her over. When we arrive, Jackson immediately stands, kisses my cheek, and hugs Mark. When he sits down, Catherine perches herself on his lap. God, they’re so in love.
Ashton makes a choking sound when they start to kiss. “You two need to just get this over with so we can all stomach food.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Mark laughs. “She’s not kidding. You’d figure by now it would’ve worn off.”
Jackson regards Catherine and then brushes her hair back. “It’ll never wear off. When it’s right, it’s forever.”
I’m not sure whether to laugh or swoon.
Mark grabs his drink and guzzles it. We spend the evening this way, drinking wine and eating until the sun sets. The lights from the fountain set off a glow. The night is so beautiful, it makes me wonder how I would feel if I were the bride.
“Okay, people.” Catherine slaps her legs and stands. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.” She gazes at Jackson as he pulls her in his arms. “A day I feel like we’ve waited forever to get here.”
Jackson holds her close. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll be there.”
“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. Tomorrow you’ll be Mrs. Cole.”
My heart swells. This is what true love looks like. It reminds me of my parents. My father used to say the sweetest things to my mother. If they were fighting, my dad would just tell her some beautiful line and she was putty in his hands. They loved each other with every part of their being, and I see that in Jackson and Catherine.
“Awww,” Mark says sarcastically. “You’re going to be Mrs. Muffin.”
She glares at him. “You’re such a tool.”
Mark shrugs. “I’ve been told that a time or two. But it’s better than being the nickname for a pussy.”
“Ignore him, baby.” Jackson cups Catherine’s face. The adoring way they look at each other sends shivers down my spine. “Tomorrow we’ll be married. You’re already mine, and I’m already yours, but tomorrow . . . I’ll show the world.”
“Hallmark has nothing on you two. Maybe you should debate a career change to gynecology since you apparently like being a vagina.” Mark busts out laughing, and Ashton slaps the back of his head.
Does he do this with everyone? “Mark,” I say, to diffuse another bickering match and the fact he ruined such a beautiful moment. “Let’s head back to the room. You have to be nice tomorrow, and I’m sure that requires sleep.”
“Again with needing me in bed.”
“Let’s go, Romeo.”
We’re both a little drunk from the wine. I slip into Mark’s T-shirt and climb under the covers. His arms open, and I nestle in. I’ve never been a spooning type girl, but something about letting him hold me is appealing. We fit together, in so many ways.
“Tell me about the last mission,” he says against my neck.
“What about it?”
“Why did they take it away from you?” I tense, and being that his arms are around me, he has to notice. “Sometimes, after we came home from a mission . . . our group would talk it out. Things we did wrong, things we did right, the things we wanted to do differently. It was a time to kind of see things from everyone’s eyes. Jackson would view something in a way I didn’t and vice versa. It can help.”
I understand his logic, but that’s what a debrief is—in a way. “I’ve already gone over this.”
“No, you had to give details. You had to talk about the way it went down, not paint a picture. There’s a difference. Paint me the entire scene. How you felt, what you saw, where you went.”
Mark throws his leg over mine, traps me, and then shifts so he’s on top.
“Hi?”
“We’re not having sex.”
“Well, that’s a disappointment.”
He laughs. “Tell me. Let me see it through your eyes.”
I don’t want to do this, but maybe he’s right. There’s a chance Mark can pick up on something I missed or help me to see it through his eyes. At this point, it’s worth a shot. We’re not any closer to finding either of our targets.
If I thought the grounds were beautiful yesterday, today was like seeing it through new eyes. I spent the morning with Catherine and Ashton. We had a small breakfast and talked a little about how they grew up together.
Around midafternoon, Ashton and Catherine’s other friend, Gretchen, from New Jersey arrived.
Ashton and Gretchen kept both me and Natalie a part of everything. All these women are so different from the ones I’ve known. They’re sweet, considerate, and truly—nice.
Natalie and I decide to sneak off for some wine while the girls are getting their hair done. “I never had a chance to really talk to you,” she says with nerves clear in her voice. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”
“I do. I mean . . . I did. Aaron has answered a lot of them. Liam has helped fill in the gaps of what he thinks happened. It’s a really weird place for me when it comes to all of this.” Natalie pushes her blonde hair behind her ear. “I mean, on one hand I should hate you. You kept my husband at the time as a hostage. On the other hand, if that hadn’t happened I’d be living a very different life.”
I know what she means. It’s the guilt of almost being happy that it ended the way it did. Had Aaron come home, she wouldn’t be married to Liam. She may have never known all the secrets that Aaron kept. It’s a really hard place to be.
“I think things turned out the way they should’ve. Don’t you?”
She nods and fills our wine glasses. “To fate.”
I lift my glass and clink it with hers. “To fate.”
“You should really be happy that Mark is the best man.”
“Oh?” I wonder what else he would be.
“Oh, yeah. I’m sure he tried to convince Jackson to let him officiate their wedding. Catherine is a much stronger force than I am. I was an idiot and let him.”
“Wait!” I’m stunned. “Mark is a minister? My Mark?”
Well, I guess he’s my Mark now. That slipped out a little too naturally.
She laughs. “Yup. The one and only Father Dixon. Let’s not get too carried away, though. He got that damn thing online, and he’s taken it to a whole new level.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Lee looks at her phone “We should head back,” She says. “It’s almost time.”
Catherine insisted that Natalie and I get ready in their room. My dress was absconded so I had no out. It’s funny that I can take down heads of mafia rings, terrorists, and monsters far scarier than most will ever see, but I can’t fight off a bunch of girls.
I knock on the door and Ashton opens it when she sees it’s me. She’s beautiful. Her pale purple one-shouldered dress fits her like a glove. “Hey, come in. Catherine is finishing her hair.”
“Thanks.” I smile. The room overlooks the vineyard. There’s nothing but green as far as the eye can see. As I turn the corner, Catherine comes into view. “Wow,” I say as I get my first look at her. Her long brown hair is pulled low but has intricate braids crossing the back of her head. Her makeup is soft but still dramatic. She looks like a movie star. “You look gorgeous.”
“Wait till you see the dress.” Ashton grins. “She’s going to give Jackson a heart attack.”
“Stop!” Catherine’s eyes roll. “I’m so glad you could be here. I might need someone to restrain Ashton if she tries any of her shenanigans.”
I laugh. “I’ll protect you.”
They finish up and she heads into the dressing area to put her dress on. I gasp when she emerges. She’s absolutely breathtaking. Her dress has a long, tulip-shaped bodice. Lace adorns the entire thing down to her hands, revealing her skin beneath. The tiny beading along the edges literally makes her sparkle.
“Do you think he’ll like it?” she asks.
Natalie steps forward. “Catherine, you are positively radiant. There’s not a man in the world who wouldn’t be proud to have you on his arm. And Jackson, well, I’ve got a hundred bucks that says he’s sobbing before you reach the end of the aisle. You’re perfect.”
Catherine’s tears fall and mine start to form.
“It’s just . . . this isn’t his first time . . .” she trails off.
Again, Natalie comforts her. “Madelyn is his past. You are everything he ever wanted. Loving someone before doesn’t make you love the next person any less. That’s the beauty of love. It’s ever growing. You and Jackson have something so few ever have known. He loves you, he would die for you, move to the ends of the Earth. His previous marriage isn’t even in this place, trust me.” she smiles as she wipes her own eyes.
Natalie, of anyone, would know.
“I’m being silly.” She shakes her head. “I love him so much, and I’m always afraid the other shoe is going to drop. He’s everything that matters in this world to me.”
My heart cracks at her words. My mother used to say the same thing. This is what I’ve always wished for. A love where the idea of it disappearing would ruin you, but fear has kept a piece of me from ever letting it happen.
I wipe a tear from my cheek. “Charlie?”
“Sorry, you just look so beautiful. Jackson loves you when you’re not looking. That’s true love. It’s when your back is turned—and I’ve only ever seen that a handful of times.”
“Jackson and I almost lost each other because of pride and stubbornness, and secrets almost tore us apart. I wasn’t sure today would ever come. But you’re right, he and I have something unique and perfect. It’s time to move forward.” Catherine expels a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
The girls squeal a little and hug. “You’re getting married!”
“I’m getting married!”
“We’re going to head down and get our seats,” Natalie says. She takes Catherine’s hands in hers and pulls her close. “I’m so happy for you.”
They smile and Catherine steps toward me. “Thank you. You’ll never know how much Mark means to all of us. Having you around him renews our faith that he’ll finally have someone who makes him happy.”
He gives me hope. Instead of saying anything, I just nod with a smile.