“You know, no one is expecting you to walk down the aisle on your own. I could carry you or grab a bunch of Reid’s teammates and make them carry you in like a queen.”
Jack had walked behind Sarah as she made her way to the doorway at the end of the aisle she’d walk down to meet her groom. Sarah’s plans were a little harder than she’d originally envisioned, but she was determined to walk instead of using her crutches or being carried. When Reid had originally talked about them being married, he’d said they’d get married that summer, and Sarah had done everything she could to hurry her recovery along and make that a reality.
The reality was that along with the broken bones, the spine that everyone thought had made it through the crash wasn’t quite okay when all the swelling went down. Once she realized the summer wedding wasn’t happening, Sarah focused on fall. Neither of them wanted to wait until even the summer date they’d talked about, but fall seemed like the earliest Sarah would be on her own feet. That was a requirement as far as she was concerned.
Reid’s schedule made things tricky, especially since the season would just be starting and he’d taken a leave of absence to be with her the season before. They’d had to wait until the schedule for the season came out before they could find a weekend he had off and get the invitations out. Sarah had thought it’d be a small event, but the last count she’d seen was over a hundred people in the confirmed column.
That was at least a hundred people who were going to see Sarah either make it down the aisle or fall flat on her face trying. Sarah was really rooting for the former.
Reid had lobbied for them getting married on the ice at the arena, which he assured Sarah would be covered to eliminate any slips. The idea had been considered up until they found a small church that felt like it had a history that spoke to them. They both got the sense of belonging in the intimate setting, and short of getting married in the backyard of their new home, there wasn’t anywhere they could come up with that gave them the same feeling. The home option was out because of the number of guests filling the church.
“I’ve got to do it myself, Daddy. He knows I’ve been working on it, but he hasn’t seen me walk on my own in almost a year.”
The leaves were turning shades of red and yellow outside thanks to the changing late October weather. There were no white horses bringing Reid down the aisle towards her, and the idea he’d had about them saying their vows while skydiving was quickly ruled out, but they were going to be surrounded by people who cared about and loved them both as they officially started their lives as a married couple.
“I know, but the father in me had to offer to make things easier on you. I think we both know that me carrying you all the way down that aisle would be as a momentous event as you walking, so we’ll let you be the center of attention. Just remember that I’m right here beside you in case you need someone to lean on.”
“You’ve always been there, so I expect nothing less. Are you ready?”
Sarah pushed away from the wall she’d leaned against to gather herself and smiled at her father. She’d only walked a couple dozen steps it felt like and even the stoppage didn’t help relieve how tired it made her feel.
“Am I ready to hand you over to my replacement as the man you depend on most? I’ll never really be ready for that, but I’m ready to walk down that aisle beside you and threaten Reid’s health if he ever treats you wrong.”
Sarah’s smile widened as she shook her head. She saw Jack signal the person standing on the other side of the door, who was the lucky person that got to trigger their entrance music. There had been all sorts of ideas batted around as far as how traditional the wedding would be. Sarah had teetered on whether to go the full formal affair with the same old music every bride marched down the aisle to.
The attire ended up as traditional as it came, with Sarah in a full white dress to make sure the skirt didn’t trip her legs up. She’d opted not to wear fancy heels, since she could barely walk in tennis shoes. The ballet flats that looked like they’d been in a war with a box of glitter were as dressy as she could get and feel any safety about getting down the aisle.
Reid and his groomsmen were in black tuxes with pale pink ties that matched the bridesmaids’ tea-length asymmetrical dresses. Reid had Nico and his brothers standing up with him, none of which seemed excited about having to get dressed up.
On Sarah’s side of the aisle, Kellie was her matron of honor and a few friends from high school filled out the three other spots. One of those friends was May, who’d heard about Sarah’s accident and sent flowers with a long note about how their time apart had made her realize she never knew the real Sarah behind the girl who followed along with the pack. The note ended with a request to relearn everything she could about her best friend.
With all the rehabilitation Sarah had been working through, they hadn’t had a lot of time to work on rebuilding their friendship, but Sarah was happy to see her friend standing up with the wedding party when she rounded the doorframe after the first note of the song started.
The song was not traditional, but it said everything in its lyrics that Sarah wanted Reid to know about how he made her feel. It was about someone being hurt and let down over and over, but then someone walked into their life and made everything make sense. Reid claimed he felt the same way about her, but Sarah didn’t think he truly knew how much them meeting at the speed dating event changed her life.
For the first time in her life, she was the strong woman she’d always dreamed she could be. Decisions were hers to make, even if she had trouble telling him no. He never asked for anything he wasn’t sure she’d agree with, which meant so far things were working out in her favor.
Sarah focused in on Reid after she took a second to look around the room and see the smiling faces watching as she came into view. There were whispers she could hear passing around through the crowd, but once she made eye contact with her soon-to-be husband, the rest of the room didn’t matter to her.
When she took her first step over the threshold, she saw him flinch to head towards her, but Sarah held up a finger and took a second step. The jolts of pain were expected. They weren’t the debilitating ones she’d felt off and on during the process of getting back to her feet, but they let her know her body was still thinking about the whole walking thing.
Even though she moved as fast as she could, it had to be one of the slowest walks down the aisle in history. She hoped there weren’t any record-keeping organizations in the audience with stopwatches.
Once the walk down the aisle was complete, Sarah let out the breath she’d been holding as she fought to get her legs to work and not let the pain get to her. For the first time during the walk, Jack took his daughter’s hand and helped get them started as the minister asked who gave the bride to the groom.
The ceremony itself was short and sweet. Sarah knew going into it that she was going to try to make it down the aisle, so she’d insisted that the time she had to stand around was kept to a minimum. That meant they didn’t make up their own vows. It wasn’t like they were needed. They’d said everything they needed to say a number of times over the year they’d been together.
As soon as the minister told Reid to kiss the bride, Nico was quick to add his own two cents worth.
“Make it fast. Pretty girl going to fall down if she have to stand too much longer.”
Reid shook his head and rolled his eyes. Since his eyes were still locked on Sarah, she assumed the annoyed look she had on her face wasn’t missed by him.
“I think I’ve got it covered, Nico, but thanks for the advice.”
Being careful to pull her closer to him from the middle of her back, instead of the lower part that was known to give her fits, Reid leaned down and settled his lips on Sarah. His moist lips met her somewhat dry ones and Sarah felt like she could’ve stood up there forever with him. He could have very well felt the same way, but the solid kiss moved to quick pecks before she was ready.
“I not joking about getting her to a chair. You need help carrying? We can put her in a chair to make sure we don’t hurt her back and then carry down the aisle.”
It sounded almost like Sarah’s dad had been chatting with Nico about her being carried around like a queen. The idea of being carried at all sounded a bit painful. The walk out to the limousine waiting to take the couple to the reception wasn’t far, but she planned on leaning on her new husband the whole way.
“Thank you for the offer, Nico, but I walked down that aisle once, I can make it down it again.”
“You say so, but I walk behind you just in case you need catched.”
Over the year they’d known each other, Nico had become a big brother figure in Sarah’s life. He was a goofy big brother, who really needed to find a woman to tame him, but he was a big brother nonetheless.
Reid interrupted the back and forth going on by turning his bride towards the crowd and serving as a crutch as they started the walk out of the church. Sarah tried her best to do everything on her own, but as the guests cheered and clapped for them, her left arm snaked behind his back and gripped tightly on his jacket.
“I know he thinks he has a quick reaction time, but I’ve got you in case it gets to be too much.” Reid sighed contently and waved to people as they walked by the guests. “I honestly don’t think I can describe what I felt when you turned that corner under your own power. You’ve worked so hard, and I couldn’t be prouder to have such a hard-headed woman as a wife.”
Sarah chuckled and rested her head on his shoulder. They were about halfway down the aisle and she was sincerely thinking about asking him what he thought about the carrying option. Even with the short service, Sarah had spent too much time standing in one place and her lower back was stiff.
It made her feel like she was walking like the robot Reid sometimes called her. She was still trying to decide if she preferred the nickname over silly. Both of them could’ve gone back to the drawing board, but she was terrified to hear what he’d come up with next.
Once they cleared the doorway, Sarah shared her response to the hard-headed comment. It was something she should’ve waited to say when they were alone in the limo, but she figured with Nico as the closest person to them, no one would be shocked by her words.
“You’re only excited because me walking around means you’re going to have the honeymoon you wanted.”
Their sex life could’ve started up once she was spending more time at home than in a rehab facility, but Reid was overly cautious about what her body could take. The whole pelvis being broken basically freaked him out.
Sarah had been worried what internal damage happened aside from the hemorrhaging and broken bones. The whole broken pelvis had terrified her just as much as it did Reid when she first heard about it. They’d talked about how much they both wanted kids, and Sarah feared that part of their future was over before they could try.
“You’re lucky people are watching us, because my hand is itching to paddle your bottom for those words. You know for a fact that I’m more than willing to wait until you’re able to dance a jig before we get freaky.”
Since he mentioned it, Sarah went ahead and swatted his butt instead. She’d been afraid with the way their relationship sparked like an inferno in the early months that, even though she was wearing the ten-ton rock of an engagement ring he’d bought her, the lack of sex would send him looking for someone to fill in for her.
The man didn’t leave her side if he could help it in the first days after she regained consciousness. She’d had to force him to go back to work after they got her moved back to New York, and he only did so if he was guaranteed one of her parents would be there in his place while he was gone. Talk about someone who was hard-headed. Sarah liked all the attention, but she was afraid he was going to sew them together at some point.
“I wouldn’t put it pass me to at least attempt a jig, so you better bring you’re A-game tonight. Nico back there is getting anxious about us not creating all the beautiful babies he thinks we’re going to have.”
“She right,” Nico interjected before Reid could respond. “You two need babies so I can learn to watch them. I haven’t been around them and must learn to take care of them before I find my Sarah. It first step in commitment.”
Whatever he was talking about terrified Sarah. It sounded like he was offering himself as a babysitter, which had to be the most horrific idea she’d ever heard. Her eyes widened as she thought about it and turned her head slightly to try to catch Reid’s eye and see what he thought of the idea.
Sarah had no problem reading the “no” he mouthed when he saw she was looking his way. It was great that Nico was thinking about settling down and finding his Sarah, but he was going to have to find someone else’s kids to test his theories on. It wasn’t like they were going to magically have a kid for him to fulfill his plan anytime soon. If they were lucky, the start of that chapter would begin soon, but Sarah had a feeling she was going to have to talk Reid into proving the doctors were right about her ability to have a child.
“Let’s take things one step at a time,” Reid diplomatically suggested. “First step is making it through two hours of a reception.”
They reached the limo and Reid held out his hand to do what he could to help Sarah climb in. The conversation had kept Sarah’s mind occupied during their march out of the building. Putting one foot in front of the other was one thing, but Sarah didn’t want to think about the car ride ahead of them. The sounds of traffic sometimes set off images she didn’t remember seeing the day of the accident, but she saw them clearly with certain triggers.
She hadn’t thought she’d have an issue with the way she’d ended the chase, but she hadn’t meant to cause Aaron’s death. Part of her was relieved that she wouldn’t have to look over her shoulder anymore. It wasn’t until the very last day that the vague threat came calling, but what she’d learned during their ride told her that his insistence that he loved her and they were meant to be together wasn’t going to magically disappear.
That being said, she’d lived with the man for months and there was a connection between them. It wasn’t the same one that drew her to Reid, but there was something there at the beginning that she’d once let herself believe could be what she wanted in life.
“It’s soundproofed, so you won’t hear anything around us,” Reid said, bringing her out of her thoughts.
Sarah bit her bottom lip and looked up at Reid with a mischievous glint in her eyes. There was nothing right about going from mourning her ex to playfully joking with her husband, but no one had ever said Sarah was logical.
“Does that mean people can’t hear us from outside either?”
She stuck her tongue out and licked her upper lip playfully. They’d laughed in the months of recovery about the fact that some guardian angel must have known their ability to have sex would be in jeopardy, so they got in a year’s worth of sex taken care of in only a matter of weeks.
“Your ballgown might make your ideas a little interesting, princess, but we can do a little experimenting if you really think your back is up to it.”
For the first time in months, Sarah looked forward to getting in a car. She didn’t bother using Reid’s hand as she ducked down and worked said ballgown through the door. She’d already worn it the one time she was going to, so she didn’t care whether it got dirty or otherwise mangled in whatever fun they could figure out to try in the back of the limo.
The second Reid got in and shut the door behind him. Sarah climbed into his lap and started a deep kiss that she’d yearned for, proving that she wasn’t a delicate flower. She knew that she talked a good game, but the drive to the reception would only last a few minutes, so clothes weren’t going to fly around the limo.
Her goal with the kiss was telling him how much she loved him and couldn’t wait to let everyone know they were husband and wife. After a year together, no one could question whether things were moving too fast, but Sarah hoped everyone found that person in their life who made them feel the way Reid made her. The sensation of spinning out of control while knowing there was someone there with you who would always keep you grounded was something everyone needed to feel at least once in their life.