Selena

 

Everything was perfect.

 

I’d met up with Anjelica and we’d talked about my book. There was still a lot to be done – I needed to finish it in the first place and there was a lot of editing to do. I had to meet with a lot of different people. I needed an agent. I needed to refine my research. It felt like writing the book in the first place was the least of my worries. But it was going somewhere and I felt fantastic about it.

 

I had a feeling it would take a long time before the book appeared on the shelves but the publishing house was going to give me a fat advance, and I also had Logan who had promised to take care of everything so I could take a sabbatical and work on my book. It was perfect. Every day I got to know more of him there were more reasons to love him.

 

I got ready at Joanne’s house. Everyone was there. Everyone I held dear, except my parents. They lived upstate and it wasn’t possible for them to make it, but it wouldn’t have felt right, either. All of this was a passionate whirlwind romance and they were sensible people, the kind that would never do something like this. We were having a hen’s breakfast. The book club ladies were frothing with jealousy and surprise at my adventurous life that was real. I loved having them there even though I’d never felt like I fit in.

 

I told them in detail about all the things we’d been through and what we’d done together. The lake house was a setting we all agreed would be great in my book – the peace and the passion versus the tension and the danger. It was all like a fairytale.

 

Joanne was my maid of honor and my only bridesmaid. I had chosen a lacy empire waist type dress that worked for the weather and the informal venue without losing the bridal feeling. I had found lace ballerina pumps to go with it so I didn’t have to fall around on the grass in high heels. Joanne wore a peach-colored infinity wrap dress that she’d wrapped in an off the shoulder design and she looked regal, as always. Well-manicured and precise, she didn’t look like this whole thing had been jumped on her just a few days ago.

 

Joanne had arranged a hairdresser and a makeup artist to come to the house. We sat down in turns to have our locks curled and sprayed, eyeshadow painted on, and when we were done a photographer arrived. Between me and Joanne, we’d thought of everything. The whole thing felt like a dream.

 

When I stood in front of the mirror, looking at what the artists all around me had put together, reality hit me. My stomach turned and my heart hammered against my ribs and I was suddenly nervous. A fist of nerves knotted my stomach and I tried to breathe in deep through my nose and out through my mouth.

 

“Are you okay?” Joanne asked me, finding me in the room when I’d been gone for too long.

 

“I just realized what I’m about to do.” I looked at her in the mirror.

 

She came to stand next to me. We looked stunning next to each other.

 

“Do you love him?”

 

I nodded. I really did love him. He was everything to me and it was shocking how quickly that had happened.

 

“And you know he loves you?”

 

That I was more certain about than anything else in the world. He was more sure of his emotions toward me than my emotions toward him. If I thought back to when we’d just met, he had been set on courting me almost right from the start. I didn’t know where it had changed for him from looking for sex to looking for a relationship but I knew this was real.

 

It was real for me, too. It was just scary as hell because, well, marriage was forever. No one could take that shit lightly.

 

“I know you’re going to be just fine, then. If you both love each other and you know this is what you want – if you’re both willing to work on it – you will be perfectly fine. You’re not making a mistake, not in my books. Not if you know where you’re headed together. There have been people that didn’t know each other at all that were happily married for fifty years. Think about all those arranged marriages.”

 

I nodded. She was right. Of course, she was. Of all the women in my life she was the most down to earth, the most sensible. There was a reason she was my best friend. I was still scared, of course, because I hadn’t even had the time to think about this properly. But I knew it was what I wanted. If I thought about calling it off instead I knew for a fact that that wasn’t going to happen. And that was what kept me going.

 

“We have to get going if you want to be there at noon,” Joanne said.

 

I nodded. This was happening.

 

We’d ordered a limousine and all my friends piled into it. The car was luxurious. I’d never been inside one and it was stunning. We drove to the Girls and Boys Club, the place where I’d decided to make the venue, and I knew that this was a new beginning.

 

They were all there when we pulled up in the car. The kids were all arranged on the ground, sitting cross-legged, twisting around to see us. The Fallen Thorns were all in suits which was a spectacular sight. Let me tell you, no one cleans up as well as a badass on a bike.

 

Aside from my friends who were all taking their seats as they got out of the car one by one, Anjelica, my new publisher, and the editor, agent and PR lady were all there. Alicia stood to the side – I’d invited her, too – and some of the other staff I worked with at the library.

 

And right at the front, next to the priest I’d booked last minute, almost unrecognizable, stood Logan. He looked like an Adonis in his suit. I climbed out of the car and music played from speakers in the building’s windows. Life is a highway, and I’m going to ride it all night long. It was a song fitting of everything that had happened in our relationship until now.

 

Everyone clapped to the beat while I walked down the make-shift aisle to a very unconventional song. Logan beamed at me, tears in his eyes. Saul stood next to him looking emotional, as well.

 

When I reached the front he took my hand and kissed it, never taking his eyes off mine.

 

“You look amazing,” I said.

 

He looked me up and down. “You look fucking fantastic.”

 

“I’m glad you could make it,” I whispered as we turned to the priest. “It would have sucked getting married without you.”

 

“Sugar, we’re never doing anything without the other again.”

 

I smiled and the priest cleared his throat, starting his little sermon.

 

It wasn’t very long before we reached the wedding vows. Logan turned to me. He took a small piece of paper out of his pocket and folded it open. When he cleared his throat I realized he’d written his vows, too. I wondered when he’d done it, after he’d gotten ready, or had he somehow known?

 

“Selena Hastings,” he started, “soon to be Selena Frost.” A giggle through the crowd. I glanced at the kids who were glued to the ceremony, taking everything in. “I promise to love you the way I love you now until the day I die. I promise I will endeavor to stay alive until we’re both old, taking my life seriously from this day forth, and I promise to rescue you from any danger, whether it be a papercut or an attempt to kill you. You are the air I breathe, I didn’t know I was drowning until you came along and saved me. I owe my life to you and for that reason I give you my heart. From this day on I will forever be yours.”

 

When he was finished I had tears in my eyes. I tried to blink it away so that it didn’t smudge my makeup.

 

“Logan Frost,” I said and my voice wobbled but I gathered strength as I went along. “I promise that you are and will forever be my happy ending. You are the climax in my life story when I didn’t have a set plot until you came along. I promise you will be my hero, my sidekick, my best friend and my love interest from here on out and we will determine the ending of our story together. You were my hero when I was a damsel in distress, and you have made me the leading lady. I will love you and cherish you forever, and give you hell whenever I feel like it because that comes with the territory.”

 

There was another ripple of laughter and then we were pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Frost and Logan was allowed to kiss me. I was his wife.

 

He put his lips on mine and held them there as if he were scared I was going to disappear. When he pulled away again his eyes were dark and deep and I knew he had our wedding night on his mind. I smiled, touched his face.

 

We turned and the rest of the crowd became real to me again. The bubble burst and there were almost eighty people surrounding us where they’d faded while the vows were being said.

 

I waited for that feeling of dread to come, the feeling that I usually got when I made a mistake and it was too late to change it. It never came. This had been the right thing to do from the start and I couldn’t be happier.

 

The reception was simple and informal. We all moved to the other side of the garden where a cake had been bought – nothing fancy – and we cut it together and newlyweds. The kids cheered when we did and cued up for cake the moment we had it cut. We laughed and dished out one by one until they all sat around on the grass stuffing their faces. Their hands were filthy, their smiles full of icing and it was the happiest day of my life.

 

I looked at Logan who looked at them, too, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before we had kids of our own. He was a family man, and we would create a family together.

 

One by one our friends came up to us and congratulated us. Some of them had been skeptical but I knew they were all rooting for us and they were happy we were happy. That was all that mattered. Saul came up to us and clapped Logan on the arm. “Elijah would be proud,” he said.

 

Logan’s eyes welled up with tears again and I felt his loss, his regret that his brother wasn’t here to see it and his love for Saul and what the man had put into his life. He hugged Saul. “Thank you. Brother.”

 

They were both emotional. I stepped forward and hugged Saul, too. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for him and the man you’ve made him so I will be happy for the rest of my life. You are forever welcome in our home.”

 

He nodded and smiled at me, not trusting himself to speak.

 

Anjelica was next in line and Logan pulled himself together, ready with his charming smile the moment she was in front of us. “So, I’m guessing you’re the inspiration for the biker that’s made its way Selena’s book.”

 

Logan shrugged. “I would be flattered if that was the case.”

 

Anjelica grinned and Logan stepped away to talk to one of his men. I stayed with Anjelica.

 

“You should think about adding wedding scene to you book,” she said. “It could be interesting, I really like the way you manage to play up normal scenes and fill them with tension.”

 

I put my hand on her shoulder. “I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me, Anjelica.”

 

She shook her head. “It’s business, honey. You’re going to do a lot for me, too, once that book is published.” She smiled at me and walked on.

 

Logan returned a moment later, unwilling to be away from me for longer than a second. “So, the Biker’s Bride is going to be great, huh?”

 

I laughed. “It is but we’re still working on titles. They don’t want it to be too cliché. I’ll see what we can come up with. Maybe something along the lines of Bullets and Badassery.”

 

Logan pulled a face and I laughed. We joined the kids and danced the afternoon away.

 

We left when the sun was starting to set. I still had to get out of my dress and Logan was starting to look uncomfortable in his suit. We ordered a cab and left to my apartment where I’d left the bag I’d packed for the week away. I’d planned the whole thing in advance. We were going to spend the wedding night at Logan’s apartment and in the morning we were going on our honeymoon. When we got back we would decide where we would live but I figured staying in Logan’s place for a while would be great before we bought a place together.

 

I got out of the dress and into jeans and a t-shirt. Logan stayed in his suit until we got to his apartment where he got out of it and stayed naked. He draped himself over the bed.

 

I laughed.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I’m going to give you your wedding gift now.”

 

I laughed again. He had a massive erection and he looked like one of those male models in the art books.

 

I climbed onto the bed and he pulled me closer to him so I was lying on my back and he was against me, pressing his hard on against my hip bone.

 

“You know, being married to you means I get to sleep with you whenever I want.”

 

I shook my head. “When has that not been the case?”

 

He thought about it. “You’re right.”

 

He kissed me and I gave myself over to him.

 

“So, Mrs. Frost,” he said and I loved the sound of that. “We are going to have to talk about starting a family.”

 

“How about we get used to being married first.”

 

He kissed me again. “Of course,” he said between kisses. “But we definitely need to start practicing to make babies.”

 

I laughed against his mouth and he slipped his hand underneath my shirt. Lust overcame me. Lust and love and awe for how my life had turned out.

 

“You know I love you, right?” I asked when he broke the kiss again to pull my shirt over my head.

 

He nodded. “I know. I love you too. But you’re in for a wild ride. You have no idea what you married.”

 

I laughed as he tugged and pulled to get all of my clothes off. I let him take me the way he liked to, starting on top, and then rolling over to let me be on top. Sex with him was great, as always.

 

My life was finally beginning. A month ago I felt like my life was going nowhere. I was someone who didn’t fit in, stuck in a job that was going nowhere, not believing enough in my ability as a writer to go anywhere with it. In only a handful of weeks all that had changed, and now I was here, married, ready for the rest of my life. I had direction and love and a future. A husband. It almost felt too good to be true. Everything, including Logan. But I knew that it was. I knew what I had, I knew what my life was worth because I’d nearly lost it.

 

This was like a story in one of the books I wrote. If I’d read it in any novel I would have said this kind of happy ending was cliché, too good to be true, the kind of thing that threw readers off.

 

The truth was, though, cliché was perfectly fine by me.

 

THE END

 

 

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