by Maine, Miley
He really is perfect, isn’t he? I can’t think of anything I would like more. Now that we have committed to one another again, I’m super excited to get married so we can get back on track to where we once were. Going to Vegas and getting married there... Well that is perfect for us.
“I love it. I absolutely love it. I can’t wait.”
We share a smile half blocking out Jenny’s shrieking as she’s over the moon with happiness, half embracing it as part of our own joy. This year is starting out to be wild and I have a feeling that the rest of the year is going to be just as amazing. Last year was a write off to be honest. It did show me that I’m strong enough to survive life alone, but I would rather do it with Taylor by my side. I love being in the team, our family is amazing, and now I can’t wait to get back to that place.
“I better pack some nice stuff then if I’m going to become a wife while we are there. I’ll see what I have.”
“You know what I think, you will look beautiful in whatever you wear.”
He really does mean that, I can tell, which just makes him even more perfect for me.
34
Taylor
January 3rd
This chapel is lovely, really pretty, floral, and adorable. Not what I’m sure anyone would imagine when they think of a Las Vegas wedding... but that makes it even better.
I am absolutely loving this. Making our wedding day only about me and her was the smartest decision I ever could have made. Big weddings are crazy. You spend so much time making sure that everyone else is happy, you forget about yourself along the way. This way we can’t. There is only us here. Well, us and an over excited bridesmaid anyway.
“When do we get to go in?” Jenny asks for what feels like the tenth time. “I’m too excited to wait.”
“Me too...” I admit. “But we have to wait until it’s our turn.”
Rebecca takes my hand and squeezes it to let me know that she is here with me, and that she’s going to be here with me forever now. She’s my calming influence even through my most nervous days. Just looking into her eyes immediately makes me feel much more confident in myself.
“Not long now,” she whispers to me before leaning across to kiss me gently on the lips. “This was a great idea, by the way. I couldn’t think of a better place in the world to get married than under the shining lights of Las Vegas.”
It isn’t just the wedding that’s going to make this trip special, I have arranged a helicopter ride for us all to go to the Grand Canyon tomorrow to celebrate our first day of being married again, We’re going to spend the rest of the trip seeing shows, exploring this city in the desert, and having fun as a family.
I thank my lucky stars that we are here, I’m so grateful that I was given the opportunity to even explain myself to Rebecca, never mind get her back again. That’s something I will always be happy about. I won’t ever take her for granted because I know what it’s like to lose her.
I’m going to give some amazing vows once we get into that Chapel to let her know how much of myself, I’m going to dedicate to her. I will give her everything and not hold back, and I hope she realizes that now.
“Oh, look.” Rebecca breaks eye contact. “It’s our turn. You better go in and wait down the other end of the aisle for me.”
Jenny is supposed to wait with her mom to come down the aisle with her as her bridesmaid, but she’s too excited and can’t wait, so she ends up coming inside with me.
“Wow,” She gushes as we get inside the room. “Look at all the flowers. It’s so beautiful in here.”
My daughter is right, is absolutely stunning in here. The perfect setting for a sweet little wedding. This doesn’t feel like a Vegas Chapel wedding at all, more like the happiest day of my life.
“Come with me.” I take Jenny’s hand and pull her with me. “We have to wait for your Mommy to come here.”
The wedding officiant explains to me what will happen while Jenny runs around the whole room sniffing every single flower, she can get her hands on, but it really isn’t long before the music is playing and it’s time. No fussing, no messing around, just time for us to declare our love.
I can’t stop grinning to myself as I watch my ex-wife and future wife walk towards me. Of course, I have already seen her outfit, I was in the store when she purchased the dress, and I have been standing outside the chapel with her for a while, but there is something magical about watching her in it walking towards me with a bunch of flowers in her hands and the glazed overlook of love in her eyes. It’s an ivory dress that grazes just below her knees, a simple design with a sweetheart neckline that makes my heart race faster, and it makes her look like a princess. She has curled her own hair and done her own make up because this isn’t the sort of wedding where we need a stylist, she’s never needed that anyway because she’s such a natural beauty.
“Hi,” she mouths coyly as she walks towards me, the way that’s reminiscent of our first wedding day. “You look awesome.”
“Oh my God, you look absolutely stunning as well,” I tell her, probably a little too loudly since I’m getting carried away with myself. “So beautiful. I really am the luckiest man alive.”
She takes my hand and stands beside me in front of the wedding officiant with Jenny by our side. Our daughter wasn’t born by the first time I’ve got married, so it’s pretty awesome to have her involved this time around. Much as I have hated the year apart, I’m kind of glad that we get to have this experience together, all of us.
My heart begins to really race the moment the officiant starts with the traditional wedding words. I can barely focus on them because I keep thinking about what’s going to come next. I keep planning how our lives are going to go, and it’s making me so excited. The new house, the new marriage, all the new anniversary dates... it’s going to be amazing.
“Now I believe you have arranged your own vows?” Rebecca looks totally horrified as officiant asks this, on my command. “Oh, sorry am I wrong about this?”
“Well, we haven’t exactly planned anything,” I admit. “But I thought we could just speak from the heart. Say what we feel. It feels right, don’t you think?”
“If you say so,” Rebecca replies cautiously. “But you are going to have to go first because I wasn’t prepared for this at all.”
I nod, totally happy to go first. I knew that Rebecca would want to hear what I have to say first, which is fine by me.
“Rebecca,” I say. “You came into my life a long time ago. I immediately knew that you were going to be someone who would turn my life around in the best way possible. And that’s exactly what you did. You made me the happiest man alive from day one. I instantly knew that you were perfect for me...” I sigh and hold her hands tighter. “But then I wrecked things. I pushed you away even though I didn’t mean to, I ruined the best thing in my life. You had no choice but to leave me, and I understand that now. But you have given me the chance to make it up to you, and I swear that I will be the best husband in the world. I won’t let you down again, I won’t ever push you away and ruin what we have, because I know I won’t get a third chance, and I also know that I can’t live without you.”
“Or me!” Jenny jumps in, but I think the emotion is going to get too much for Rebecca. Her eyes are already wet with tears. “You don’t want to be without me either.”
“Oh, of course I don’t, sweetheart.” I lean down and kiss my daughter on the head, not wanting to forget that she’s a part of this as well. “You are just as important to me as your Mommy.”
She smiles satisfied and lets us get back to our wedding. The only problem is, it’s Rebecca turn to talk, and she really doesn’t get ready for it.
“Are you okay?” I pull her to me for a hug and kiss her on the cheek, forgetting all about tradition I’m waiting until I’m told that I can kiss her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to drop this on your lap.”
“No, it’s okay.” she wipes a tear away from her eye. “I can do this. I want to do this,” she suc
ks in a deep breath before she begins. “Taylor, not everything that went wrong before was your fault, I think the last few days have shown us that. But the last few days have also taught us so much and now this time I know that we can have a strong enough marriage to last forever. We can be better from here on out, stronger, more of a team. For us, and for Jenny as well. I love you so much, Taylor, and I’m so happy that I get to be your wife again. There is no other place in the world I would like to be than by your side. Thank you.... just thank you for everything.”
Again, I grab her and kiss her. I’m pretty sure I hear the officiant telling us that I might as well kiss the bride already, but we aren’t listening. Rebecca and I are lost in our own little bubble of happiness once more. And this time, it’s where we’re going to stay for the rest of our lives. Thank goodness for that.
* * *
Jenny doesn’t take long to fall asleep in the plush hotel bed. I don’t know if it’s the comfort, the wonderful bed sheets, or the fact that she’s absolutely from all the traveling, but I’m glad. Not only because she needs the rest, but because I need some alone time with Rebecca.
“So...” she hooks her hands around my waist. “You are back to being my husband again...”
“It doesn’t feel like that though, does it?” I ask her curiously. “Although this is really familiar between us, it feels like a brand-new marriage, don’t you think?”
“It does,” she agrees eagerly. “I have been thinking that ever since we said I do... not that we really said those two words since we wrote our own vows, but you know what I mean.”
“I do. And I really think it’s a good thing, because a fresh start means we don’t know what’s going to happen next. I like that.”
“Me too.” she pushes up on to her tiptoes and presses her lips to mine. “I’m so excited for us.”
As the kiss deepens, I reach back and unzip her dress before slowly sliding it off her body, revealing her soft silky skin to me. I didn’t realize today that she wasn’t wearing any underwear, her nakedness gleams in the moon light, my whole body reacts with lust.
“Oh, you really are incredible, Rebecca,” I growl. “How did I get so lucky to call you my wife again?”
We fall into the bed together, with her rolling on top of me to straddle me. She sits astride me and lets me see every inch of her stunning naked flesh, while she unbuttons my shirt and takes the clothing off of me as well. Her eager fingers are desperate to have me undressed as quickly as possible, because desire is claiming her.
“You are beautiful.” I gently graze my fingers over her thighs and hips, brushing her ass as I get the opportunity to. “I love you so much, my wife.”
“I love you too.” She leans down and nips the skin on my exposed throat, combining the romantic words with the deep and intense pleasure, a sign of what’s about to come. “My husband. God, I love saying that.”
But we don’t have any more time to talk, because the lust has completely claimed us, and it’s time for us to lose ourselves in each other’s bodies. This has been building up all day long, I could feel it even through our wedding ceremony, we have been trying to get our hands on one another, to seal our love forever more, and we absolutely have to take the chance while it’s here. With Jenny on this vacation with us, there’s no guarantee that we will get a moment alone again...
35
Rebecca
March 20th
“Jenny looks happy, don’t you think?” I ask Taylor as I snuggle into his side. “She’s enjoying her birthday party with all her friends. She hasn’t stopped laughing once.”
“I just can’t believe she’s six years old already.” Taylor shakes his head in shock. “Can’t time just stop already? She’s growing up so quickly. Soon she will be in kindergarten, and then time will just fly by.”
“I know.” I nudge him in the side. “I can see that you really don’t like it but think about how fun it’s been watching her grow up so far, and how much fun it will be to see the rest of her life develop. She’s turning in to a real firecracker, and that’s going to be... well, an adventure for all of us as she gets older.”
“Hmmm.” To be honest, Taylor doesn’t sound convinced, but he will soon see how amazing it’s going to be. “Well I’m just glad that we all decided to move into the new house, because I don’t think we could have had a party this big in the old place.”
I nod and agree with him. He is right, and I am glad for the choice that Jenny made, but I’m also grateful we decided to keep the old house for Jenny in the future. Right now, we are renting the place out to Archie for a discounted rate to thank him for all the hard work he’s been putting in to Taylor’s company, since he has basically taken over the day to day running of everything to give Taylor more time to be at home with his family, but when she’s old enough, it will go to her. Then Jenny can do what she wants with it. She can sell it if she chooses, continue to rent it out, or keep it for herself to live in... I don’t mind, I just didn’t want to be the one to get rid of the house that we first built our family in. I am not ready to let go of the happy memories that we created in there. Of course, I don’t want to live around the bad ones either, so this is the perfect solution.
“Jenny must have known that she was going to be the most popular girl in her preschool class,” I joke. “This house for massive parties.”
“I don’t want to think about the parties that will come in the future.” Taylor bangs his palm to his forehead. “Just get through this one today, shall we?”
I start laughing but come to an abrupt halt when Maggie walks through the door. Immediately, I feel a bit nervous about my relationship. Of course, she knows about me and Taylor getting married again, I told her as soon as we got back. But it’s safe to say that she wasn’t too happy about it. She was scared that I was making a mistake again, and she didn’t want to see me go through it another time. Much as I insisted that I knew what I was doing, she won’t be sad that I declared that a million times and been wrong. She’s not wrong, and I knew that I didn’t want to fight her about it, so I did the only thing I could and I’ve waited because I know that only time will show her we know what we’re doing this time around.
I haven’t seen Maggie for a while, and she certainly hasn’t seen me and Taylor together, so I wasn’t sure that she would come to Jenny’s party... but here she is. Sure, her body language might be reserved, but she has smile on her face which I’m going to take is a good thing.
“I’m going to take a walk,” Taylor says quietly to me. “Let you and Maggie have a talk.”
It’s a bit sad that it’s like this, that they can’t get along, but I suppose I can’t expect everyone’s feelings to change overnight because of my decisions. I’m just grateful to have two people who care about me so much that all they want is the best for me. I know that makes me lucky.
“I have a gift for Jenny,” Maggie starts cautiously as soon as she’s close enough for us to talk. “But she looks busy playing right now so should I leave it off to the side?”
“Thank you.” I take the giant box from her, already a little overwhelmed by how generous she’s being. “That’s really nice of you. Thank you so much for coming.”
“I had to, didn’t I?” She smiles thinly. “I can’t miss out on Jenny’s birthday. I have been there for all the important events in her life.”
“I know, and I’m so grateful for you to come to this one. I know it’s a bit weird between us at the moment...”
“Well I did want to talk to you about that.” Maggie steps closer to me opening up her body language a little bit. “Because I think I owe you an apology. I shut you out of my life, not totally, but enough, because I was scared you would be heartbroken again. I didn’t like watching you go through the same cycle over and over just to get the same outcome. I didn’t trust you enough when you told me that you’ve done the right thing by marrying Taylor again. I thought you were being blind to him, just going along with what he wanted, without thinki
ng about consequences like you did last time... but I can see now how happy you are, I can see that it’s working. I realize now what you were trying to tell me all along. You kept getting sucked in because you knew that he wasn’t bad guy, that he made some mistakes in the past and he was silly not to tell you about them, but he isn’t bad inside. I have got such an idea of him in my head but that’s all come from how hurt you were during the divorce. I guess it’s made me forget about all the good things he has done for you.” She opens her arms wide and I immediately take the opportunity to hug her tight. I have so missed my best friend. I really hope this means I can have everyone in my life again. “You guys are good together, and I can see that this time you’re going to make it work.” She pulls back to give me a warning look. “As long as he is treating you right that is, because much as I have forgiven him for what he’s done, I can’t promise I won’t kick his ass if he needs it.”
“He doesn’t need it right now,” I giggle, feeling a little dizzy because of this new development. “But thank you for the offer, I will definitely keep that in mind. Thank you for being here, Maggie, and for finally trusting me. Believe me, I totally get it, I don’t really trust my judgement either. But I am sure that I haven’t made a mistake with this. Taylor and I are going to make this work.”
