As Indi, along with my dad walks up to me, my heart is racing so fast in my chest it’s taking my breath away. She’s graceful and beautiful and I can hardly contain myself. I want to run to her, but I stay steadfast to the spot as she smiles that earth shattering smile that touches her sparkling eyes.

She is mere centimetres away from me now and I can’t help myself, I step forward and put my hand out for her to take. She reaches out and a shot of electrical energy runs up through my hand and straight into my heart. I love that her mere touch can do that.

“You look stunning,” I whisper and she smiles shyly and steps up to stand in front of me. I move my free hand to her waist and hold her close. I don’t care about the foot apart rule of normal weddings. Indi and I aren’t a normal couple and this certainly isn’t a normal wedding. So fuck it, I’m not dealing with the standard conventional crap. I want to hold her, so I will.

She smiles and I lean in kissing the side of her mouth.

“You look so handsome in a suit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in anything other than jeans, a vest, and a leather jacket,” she says and we all chuckle because it’s true.

“Shall we start?” the celebrant asks and I stare at Indi looking into her beautiful shimmering blue eyes and nod. I tighten my hand on Indi’s hip wanting to feel her. She looks back into my eyes and everything slips away. I know the celebrant is talking, but I can’t hear a word as I stare into the eyes of the woman I love, my soulmate, my soon to be wife, and the best friend I’ve ever had.

I study Indi’s face and the small freckle above her lip. The way her lips curve in just the right places and the way her eyes are so big they light up the dimming sky with their brilliance. She really is the most breathtaking woman I’ve ever known, and I’m so undeniably lucky to not only know her but to be able to call her my own.

“Caleb,” I hear and I watch as Indi’s mouth turn up into a slight smile. “Caleb?” I hear again and she tilts her head toward the celebrant as I hear my parents chuckling. I come back into the now and look over at the celebrant.

“Huh?” I ask.

“Your vows?”

“Okay, yeah, right, sorry,” I say. Then turn back to face Indi taking both of her hands in mine and looking her right into her eyes as I say the words I’ve wanted to say my entire life.

“Indi you have made me the man I am today.

“Without you I could never have made my dreams a success.

“You make me better by supporting me.

“You make me better by believing in me.

“You make me better by being with me.

“And I honestly never thought I would ever deserve your love.

“But now that I have it, I don’t ever want to let it go.

“All that I have I give to you, all that I own is yours.

“Including my heart, my soul, my very existence belongs to you now.

“To cherish, to keep, to love and to honour.

“I will love you and make you proud to be with me.

“I will make sure to worship you every second of every day, not only because you are worth it, but because you deserve it.

“My life is yours.

“My heart is yours.

“Forever.

“You’re my angel and you saved me from myself, more times than I can count.

“You are my true saving grace, and I will adore you for all of time, as my wife, my lover, my friend and my confidant.

“With you by my side I am invincible.

“I love you Indi Malone and I’m honoured to become your husband. I will cherish you as my wife, from now until our time is no more,” I say looking into Indi’s eyes as they mist up. I bring my hand up to her cheek and caress it as I watch a tear slowly fall down her face. I lean in and wipe it with my thumb.

‘I love you’ she mouths and I don’t care about the rules right now. So I lean in and quickly kiss her soft pink lips gently. She kisses me back while my parents’ chuckle and the celebrant huffs. I pull back and she sniffs and smiles at me.

“How do I follow that?” she asks and I smile and continue to caress her cheek.

“Caleb, loving you has been the only thing that has felt right all my life.

“Knowing you and being in your life hasn’t always been stress-free.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, but being without you is something I cannot do.

“Without you I can’t breathe.

“My body doesn’t function.

“My heart can’t pump.

“My lungs don’t fill with air.

“I simply cannot exist.

“But when I am with you, you breathe new life into me.

“I feel alive.

“Being with you makes life better, it makes my life worth living.

“You make my life worth living.

“Within you I’ve found my heart, my soul.

“The place where I can be happy.

“My home.

“With you I am free from a world that is full of beige blah-dom.

“You colour my world so brightly that everything seems full of energy, enthusiasm, and a life where I couldn’t resist living in your world. Being with you is the only place I could be. Your love surrounds me and makes me the person I want to be. I need you to breathe and I want to live my life knowing you’ll be the oxygen I need for the rest of my life.

“I love you more than I have ever loved anything in this world, Caleb McCormack-Slade, and I’m honoured to become your wife. I will cherish you as my husband, from now until time is no more,” she says and another tear falls down her cheek as I wipe it away with my thumb.

Her words were beautiful and I sniff back as I try to contain my emotions. She leans forward and wraps her arms around my neck so we’re embracing each other tightly.

“Would you like to exchange rings now? Or do you want to do the whole thing your own way?” the celebrant asks and I chuckle pulling back from Indi and looking back at Dad as he hands me the ring.

I take Indi’s hand and move to place the ring on her finger.

“I, Caleb McCormack-Slade, take you Indica Caitlyn Malone to be my wedded wife. With this ring, I pledge my love and faithfulness to you, today, tomorrow and always,” I say and place the ring on her finger. She lets out a small sob.

Mum walks over and hands Indi, my wedding band.

“I, Indica Caitlyn Malone, take you Caleb McCormack-Slade to be my wedded husband. With this ring, I pledge my love and faithfulness to you, today, tomorrow and always,” she says and now her tears are flowing freely as she places the band on my trembling finger.

It looks fucking fantastic to finally see it on my left ring finger. It feels like the part of me that was missing has finally been filled, like a missing puzzle piece that’s been placed down and the puzzle is now whole.

“You may kiss your bride,” the celebrant says and I don’t hesitate. I take Indi in my arms and lean in dipping her down like they do in Hollywood movies and I kiss her passionately as my parents laugh and cheer for us. Indi wraps her arms around me holding me tightly as my tongue finds hers and a shiver runs down my spine when I realise I’m kissing her for the first time as her husband.

I bring her back up and slowly pull away. We’re both breathless as I lean my forehead against hers, she smiles and her dazzling beauty knocks the wind from me.

“I love you husband,” she says and a thrill of elation flows through me that I just can’t contain.

“Woo hoo, fuck yeah, I married my sweet pixie!” I yell out and then bend down and lift Indi up in my arms making her squeal as I twirl her around in a circle. We all laugh at my excitement. I’ve finally done it. I’ve married the girl of my dreams and right now as we celebrate, I could possibly be the happiest man in the history of the world.

 

***

 

We spend the evening having a romantic dinner and then we left my parents to themselves and spent the night in the honeymoon suite. I made love to my wife for the entire night, slowly and passionately showing her exactly how much I love her. She was so beautiful in her dress, but she was far more beautiful out of it with her body pressed against mine, moving slowly against me as we both strived for our climaxes.

Making love with Indi is always such a fabulous feeling. Making love with my wife was something so much more astonishingly profound that I nearly found myself tearful at one stage with the emotion that I felt. But I kept it together because I wanted Indi to see the man she had married, not an emotionally crippled boy that gets giddy every time he’s around her.

We got back on the Slayed Jet mid-afternoon and made our way back to London with Mum and Dad.

We’ve arrived back home and it seems surreal that this time yesterday we were in Scotland getting ready to become husband and wife. We walk up to the front door of the house as Indi reaches to place the key in the lock.

“Wait!” I call out as I drop the bags and race to her.

“What?” she asks looking around like there’s an issue.

I bend down cradling her to me and she giggles and wraps her arms around my neck. “What are you doing?”

“Carrying you over the threshold, it’s tradition.”

She shakes her head and leans in kissing my cheek as I step through the front door of our house.

“Welcome home, Mrs. McCormack-Slade,” I say and she smiles brightly as she slowly slips down from my grasp.

“Welcome home, husband,” she says standing on her toes leaning in and kissing my nose. “Now get my bags and fetch me a coffee,” she says in a snobby accent and walks inside sauntering off into the kitchen.

I smirk and shake my head. She’s so adorable even when she’s joking.

“I still love you even though you treat me like your man-slave now,” I call out and she giggles and comes rushing back taking a bag from me and closing the door behind me.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

I smirk and slap her on the arse with my free hand. She jumps and rushes off to the bedroom to put her bag away.

“I’m gonna call Rob, see how we go about an announcement,” I say as I follow her into the bedroom. She turns to face me as she places her bag on the bed.

“You don’t want to wait one more day where it’s just us before the world knows?” she asks and I smile and place my bag on the bed.

“Of course I can. I just think I should tell Rob before he finds out from someone else. I can tell him to hold off on releasing the story, but I think he should know now,” I reply. She smiles and walks over to me wrapping her arms around my waist and nuzzles into my chest.

“Okay, tell him, but let’s spend a couple of days together first before he releases the information and we have to do magazine spreads and shit, okay?”

“Okay baby, whatever you’re happy with.”

“Right, I need to go and call Kenzi. She will freak out when I tell her. You okay with me calling her?” Indi asks detaching herself from me.

“Yeah, of course, I’ll call Rob at the same time,” I say and pull out my phone.

She smiles and walks out of the room pulling her phone from her jean’s pocket. I dial Rob’s number and it rings twice before he answers.

“Luxley.”

“Hey Rob, it’s Caleb,” I say chirpily and he exhales like he’s really unhappy.

“Oh shit! Where have you been?” he asks.

“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Indi and I, we kinda went to Scotland and got married last night.”

I’m met by silence. “Caleb seriously, haven’t you heard?” he says and I tense up wondering what he’s talking about.

“Heard about what?” I ask.

“Annie’s birth mother…that Loretta woman…she kidnapped, Annie,” he says and the blood rushes from my body and everything starts to tingle in a bad way. Suddenly, I am freezing cold.

“What the fuck?”

“She held her for ransom, broke her thumb, tortured and drugged her. Then she gave Colt an ultimatum of bringing her a million dollars. When they did the exchange Loretta was shot and killed.”

I stagger and slump down on the edge of the bed as I start to breathe in and out really fast.

“Annie, is she okay?” I stutter out somehow.

“She’s in the hospital, but she’s really shaken. I mean her birth mother drugged her, kidnapped her, tortured her and died all in the space of a few hours, Caleb. How do you think she is?” he asks.

A wave of guilt flows over me that I was off getting married and having the time of my life while Annie was having the worst time of hers. I rub the back of my neck as my entire body begins to tremble.

“What can I do?”

“I don’t know, I’m in full crisis mode right now. I can’t deal with your stuff at the moment, I’ll have to deal with it later. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course, Annie comes first right now.”

“Sorry, this is overshadowing your good news. Congratulations, by the way. It’s been a long time coming.”

“What do you mean?”

He chuckles. “You and Indi? I’ve known you two have been back on for ages. It’s my job to know these things, Caleb. It might be a shock to the others, but I knew. I’m just glad there’s a bit of happiness in all this gloom. But ring Colt, see if there’s anything he needs you to do. Be there for your cousin, she needs you right now.”

“Thanks, Rob. Thanks for letting me know.”

“Just be there for your family. Look I gotta go. Talk to you later,” he says and hangs up the phone.

I sit on the edge of the bed and rest my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands as I think about everything Annie has been through. Poor Annie, I can’t imagine how terrified she must have been at the hands of her birth mother. But, more importantly, I wasn’t there to help her through any of it. Some family I am. I stand up and pace the bedroom as my bottom lip starts to tremble and I feel like I’m shaking all over. My chest is so tight it’s making it hard to breathe while anger surges through me at the thought that someone could hurt Annie like that.

I look at my guitar and I flare my nostrils. Walking over to my guitar, I pick it up and slam it into the wall as hard as I can. The sound of the wood breaking against the plasterboard reverberates through the house and I hear Indi scream, then running footsteps as I drop the broken shell to the floor while I turn to face the door. She runs in, looks at me and stops as my eyes flow over and a tear runs down my cheek. I continue to stare, needing her so much right now.

“Oh my God, Caleb. What the hell is going on?”

I shake my head as she rushes across to me and looks down at the smashed guitar and places a hand on my cheek trying to pacify me as I breathe heavily through my nostrils trying to calm the fuck down.

“Caleb, baby, talk to me. You’re scaring me.”

I look down and shake my head slightly. “Annie’s birth mother…” I trail off and Indi looks at me.

“Yeah?”

“She kidnapped her, tortured her, drugged her, and held her for ransom while we were gone,” I murmur and her eyes open wide and her hand shoots up to her mouth.

“Wait, is she okay?” she asks and I nod my head and run my fingers through my hair.

“She’s in the hospital with a broken thumb and God knows what else,” I reply and Indi’s eyes water as she moves in embracing me tightly. I hold her to me, feeling her body against mine is easing my rapidly beating heart slightly.

“Jesus Christ,” she whispers.

“She was suffering, Indi. All the time we were getting married and having the best time of our lives, she was being tortured and having the worst time of hers. Her mother was shot and killed. I don’t know the full story, but Annie would be…” I can’t finish my sentence because thinking of how Annie is feeling right now is making me feel sick.

“I know, baby, but we’ll be there for her now. And you can’t feel guilty. We didn’t know. We couldn’t know that was going to happen to her while we were away, and it’s not your fault in any way shape or form.”

I nod and take a deep cleansing breath. “I just hate that I was so happy when she was feeling her worst, you know?”

“I know babe, but you can’t take that on. Otherwise, it will spoil our special memories. But right now we need to see what we can do to help. You need to pull yourself together and call Colt to see what we can do.”

“You’re right. I need to do something. What about a surprise party for Annie for when she gets home from the hospital? So she knows we’re all here for her. We can get everyone to come so when she arrives home she’ll know how loved she is.”

“You have such a big heart, Caleb. I think that’s an excellent idea. Run it past Colt and see what he thinks.”

I nod, kissing her on her forehead, then grab my phone to dial Colt’s number.