I pulled my panties back on, grabbed my dress and put it on before he opened the door. He left, I cleaned myself up and walked out of the stall a few minutes later. One of the flight attendants had seen both of us coming out of the bathroom and shook her head in disgust. I went back to my seat, put my head on Brian's shoulder and fell asleep for the rest of the flight.
* * * *
When we got back to Michigan, we headed straight to Brian's house where Ron and Rose were waiting for us. Brian and Ron took off while Rose and I talked about how she wanted things for the wedding. She showed me the guest list and asked me if I could think of anyone else to invite at the last minute. I told her I didn't know of anyone and it looked like everything was covered. I headed over to my office, got updates from Bob and Phil, and then headed back to Brian's to wait for him. He came home a few hours later, looking sad and disappointed.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"Well, my dad asked me when you and I were gonna get married."
"Oh, Brian, I'm sorry. I thought you told him I didn't want to get married again."
"Yeah, I did, but he keeps hoping.” His look of sadness turned to frustration. "Why won't you marry me, Kathy?"
"It isn’t you, Brian. I’m just not ready. What's wrong with things the way they are?"
"Nothing, I guess, I just love you so much and I want everyone to know it."
"Well, if everyone doesn't know that by now, then we haven't been trying hard enough."
"I won't mention it again." A smile spread across his face. "As long as we're together, that's all that matters."
* * * *
Finally, the big day was here. Rose was more nervous than Ron, but I managed to get her to calm down a bit. The yard looked beautiful. We had an open platform set up in the middle of the yard with chairs all the way around it. There were folded tables leaning against the fence at one end of the yard to be set up later for the reception. The weather was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and around seventy degrees with a gentle breeze.
Brian took care of things with his dad while I tended to Rose. She didn't have a glamorous wedding dress, just a simple white silk sleeveless dress with a veil. She looked beautiful. She chose several different shades of blue as her colors. My dress was a navy blue sleeveless dress with a small bow in the back.
As the guests began to arrive, some of the guys from Ron's shop ushered them to their seats. I saw Gary, the guy who drives the tow truck, leading Jim from the diner and his wife to their seats. He glanced over at me and winked. It gave me chills again, but I brushed it off and continued the final touches on the wedding platform.
The ceremony went off without incident as we knew it would and I found myself growing increasingly annoyed when Gary kept staring at me. I said something to Brian about him and he told me not to worry. Everyone went inside while we set up for the reception. I’d noticed Gary had made it a point to be every place I was while we were setting things up. I finally approached him and told him to leave me alone. I thought he'd gotten the hint when he went inside to join the others, but when I looked up, he was watching me through the window. I brushed it off again and continued to help set up for the reception.
It was early evening by the time the party got started. Ron and Rose got in their first dance as husband and wife to I Swear by John Michael Montgomery. I thought it was the perfect song for the two of them. Every slow song played after that found Brian and I on the dance floor, holding each other close, swaying to the music. I took his scent in deep and held him tight while we moved around the floor, seemingly floating on air. When it came time for the tossing of the bouquet, I tried to stay clear, but Rose had other plans as she lobbed it right toward me. I moved aside to let one of the other women catch it and Rose looked at me as if to tell me she wanted a "do over."
Then it was time for Ron to toss the garter. The men gathered around as Ron removed the garter, turned around and flung it over his head. Brian caught it, to hoots and hollers from the onlookers, and twirled it around on his finger. He gave me a smile as he put it into his pocket. The woman who caught the bouquet leaned over and told me it was okay if either of us would be uncomfortable putting the garter on her.
The party lasted well into late evening and Brian and I would sneak away every now and then to get in a few private moments. He made his best man's speech and it brought tears to my eyes. When I looked over at Ron and Rose as Brian gave his speech, I saw they were crying, also. The night was going perfectly and I was surprised when I found myself not wanting it to end. I danced with Brian all night long, feeling content just to be with him, no matter where it was.
Things were starting to wind down at the reception and I’d noticed Brian was sitting with Jennifer and Adam. I took the opportunity to head up to our room and lay down for a few minutes to rest. It’d been a long day and I hadn't slowed down since early this morning. I laid on my right side facing the window. It was open and I could hear the music from the reception outside. A cool breeze blew in the window, the curtains rustled and it gave me a chill. I reached for the afghan at the foot of the bed and pulled it over me and drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I woke a short time later to the sensation of someone caressing my nipple. I thought it was Brian and I rolled over on my back to kiss him. When I opened my eyes, I saw it was Gary. I quickly tried to get off the bed, but he grabbed my hair and pulled me back down.
"I'm gonna get me some of this.” He grabbed my breasts and squeezed hard then ran one hand under my dress and pulled my panties off.
I struggled to get out from under him. He straddled me and held me down to the bed. I pushed and hit at him trying to get free. I heard the music stop outside so I started screaming for Brian. He put his hand over my mouth to squelch my cries, but I bit down hard and he pulled it back.
"Brian! Brian! Help me! Brii-aan!!" I screamed toward the open window hoping he'd hear me before the music started again. I struggled to reach the phone on the nightstand, but I couldn't, I wasn't close enough.
"You bitch!" Gary’s fist hit the right side of my face hard and I felt a stinging sensation under my eye.
He pulled off his shoes, threw them on the floor, removed one sweaty sock and shoved it in my mouth. "That oughta keep you quiet.” He looked pleased with himself for being so creative. I gagged from the taste of his sock in my mouth.
As I continued to struggle to try and work my way loose, he straddled me again, pinning my hips between his legs, making it impossible for me to move the lower half of my body. He leaned over and started kissing my neck. I kept trying to get out from under him, but it was useless. He eventually released his hold on my shoulders and started removing his jacket and shirt.
I started to wiggle out from underneath while he was still removing his shirt. I kicked my legs wildly, working myself free while pulling the sock from my mouth. He lost his balance and fell to his side onto the bed and I attempted an escape. He rolled over in one swift movement with his feet landing on the floor. He stood, took a few steps and put himself between me and the door.
He grabbed my waist and pulled me to him. I raised my knee hard and hit him square between the legs. He released his grip on my waist and fell to his knees, holding his crotch, still blocking my only way out. I ran to the window and started screaming for help, but he followed, grabbing me by the hair and putting one hand tightly over my mouth. He put his other arm around my waist, lifted me off my feet and walked over to the bed, my legs kicking in all directions.
I heard Gordon's voice in the hallway and started grunting as loud as I could. While Gary threw me on the bed, I kicked at the nightstand, knocking the lamp and the phone to the floor. I kicked at him to keep him away but he grabbed my legs and held them down to the bed. His hand slipped off my mouth in the struggle and I started screaming for help. He hit me across the jaw causing my head to fling to the side as Gordon came running into the room. Annie was right behind him.
"Go get Brian. N
ow!" He struggled to hold on to Gary. Annie raced out of the room calling out for Brian. She returned a few minutes later with Brian right behind her.
"You son of a bitch!" Brian yelled as he rushed into the room and pulled Gary by his hair away from Gordon.
He started hitting him in the face and threw him against the wall. Gary reciprocated the punches, causing Brian to stagger a few steps back. Gary lunged at me as I got off the bed, grabbed hold of my foot and pulled me back down to the mattress. Brian grabbed him by his hair again and pulled him away from me. As I broke free, I fell onto the floor, hitting my head on the leg of the nightstand.
Ron and Rose had entered the room by this time and Brian had Gary on the floor, punching him repeatedly. Ron and Gordon both had to pull him away. While all this was going on Annie had gone downstairs to call the police. They arrived a short while later and restrained both Brian and Gary. Gordon explained to the officers what had happened and they released Brian. He walked over to me, picked me up gently and sat down on the bed, cradling me in his arms while I floated in and out of consciousness. I held him as tight as I could while I cried into his chest.
The police escorted Gary out of the house in handcuffs and had called for an ambulance for me. I felt a stinging sensation on the right side of my face and my head was pounding from where I hit it while they wheeled me out of the house, Brian holding my hand.
"Brian," I said breathlessly. I could feel my jaw throbbing from where Gary had hit me.
"I'm here, baby, I'm here.” He had tears in his eyes.
"I—I'm—“ I said trying to force sound past my lips. "I'm—sorry—I ruined—the wedding—I'm sorry—“ I managed to utter as they put me into the back of the ambulance.
"Shhh, baby, don't speak, everything's gonna be all right." He continued to whisper soothing words and gently kissed my cheek.
"This is not your fault, Katherine," I heard Ron say before door of the ambulance closed.
* * * *
Brian sat at my bedside the entire time I was in the hospital, jumping at the slightest movement from me. He called Katie and she showed up at the hospital a few hours after I was admitted. I was groggy from the medication I was given, but managed to at least tell her hello and we talked for a few minutes. She told Brian to go get himself some food while she stayed with me and by the time he got back, I’d dozed off again. I could still hear Brian and Katie as they talked, just beyond the curtain.
"How could I let this happen, Katie?" he asked and I heard his voice breaking. "She told me he'd been watching her all evening and it made her uneasy. I brushed it off. What an asshole I am."
"None of this is your fault or hers. I wish the two of you would stop blaming yourselves."
"I'm the man. I'm supposed to protect her. Some protector I am, huh? He better never show his face around here again. I'll kill him with my bare hands." The tone of his voice changed from sadness to anger.
"Brian, pull yourself together. Kathy needs you right now. The last thing you want or she needs is for you to go to jail. Let the police handle it."
"How can anyone do this?"
"I don't know. There are a lot of disturbed people in this world. Love her, be there for her and don't do anything stupid. She blames herself for this and you need to convince her it wasn't her fault."
I opened my eyes and watched them. Brian looked like he’d been crying and Katie reached out to wipe a tear from his eye. They hugged for what seemed like an unusually long time and I saw Katie run her hands through Brian's hair. She pulled back blushing while looking at Brian, leaned in and kissed him. Brian pulled away immediately, but Katie grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer. I felt anger brewing inside me, but I contained it. He put his arms around her waist briefly, and then pulled away when he realized what he was doing.
Why are they doing this to me? "Brian," I said and he broke their kiss.
He turned and walked over to my bedside, his face was flush. "Everything okay, sweetheart?" He briefly glanced back at Katie with a guilty look on his face. I couldn't tell if he knew I saw them or not.
"Yeah, everything's fine, I just want you to sit with me for a while." I shot Katie a look that would’ve made the devil himself drop dead.
"I'm gonna go see if I can get you something to eat.” Katie turned to leave after seeing the look in my eyes. I think she knew I saw them.
"I'm not hungry. I want the two of you to stay with me for a while. I'm scared." I pretended I didn't see what’d happened.
The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Neither Katie nor Brian would make eye contact with each other. Katie's cell phone rang and she walked out of the room to answer it. I asked Brian to go home to try and get some sleep, but he refused. Katie came back into the room, told us it was Mark on the phone and she had to leave. She hugged me good-bye and glanced Brian's way as she left, trying to stifle the guilty look on her face. I put the incident in the back of my mind for the time being. I was far too weak to deal with either one of them.
* * * *
I was discharged a few days later. After we got home, Brian and I went upstairs to pack. I still felt weak, so he did most of the packing while I sat in a chair in the corner of the room. The phone rang and he walked around the bed to answer it.
"Hello? Oh. Hi, Rose. Yeah, she's here. We're leaving today. She just wants to get back to Texas and try to put this behind her.” He glanced over at me with a worried look on his face.
"I wanna talk to her." I got up and walked toward him. He handed me the phone and walked back to the other side of the bed to continue packing.
"I'm sorry I ruined your wedding, Rose.”
"You didn't ruin my wedding, Kathy. It was that bastard Gary.”
"If I hadn't come up to rest for a few minutes, this wouldn't have happened, so I blame myself. I was your maid of honor, it was selfish of me to think of myself on your wedding day."
"Stop it!" she shouted. "This is not your fault! You’re the victim!"
"I saw him watching me all day and I should have known better.” The tears fell freely now and I ignored anything else Rose had said.
Brian came back around the bed and took the phone from me when he saw how upset I was getting. He talked to Rose a bit longer and I went back to the chair. He said good-bye, hung up the phone and walked over to me.
"Why are you blaming yourself for this?"
As I stood up, he put his arms around me but I pushed him away. I remembered back to a few days earlier when I saw him and Katie kissing and I felt the anger welling up inside me again.
"Don't touch me!" I turned to see the tears in his eyes.
"You know I’d never hurt you, Kathy. Why are you pushing me away?"
"This is going to take awhile to get over, Brian. I'm not ready for physical contact yet.” I saw it was killing him he couldn't hold me, but I couldn't get the vision of him and Katie out of my head. "Why did you kiss Katie?"
"Sh—she kissed me." He broke eye contact. "I don't know why she did it. We were talking about what’d happened to you. I was upset and she gave me a hug, then she kissed me."
"You responded to her kiss, I saw you Brian. I saw you with your arms around her, same as you do with me. How could you do this to me at a time when I needed you most? Both of you! My best friend and my boyfriend." I took a few more steps away from him. "You might as well have just fucked her right there in the next bed. It looked like you were really enjoying yourself."
"I don't—it—it wasn't what you think, Kathy," he stammered as he continued to look down at the floor.
"What was it then?"
"I don't know. I really don't. There's nothing going on between us. She threw herself at me and I shouldn't have kissed her back. You called out to me at the same time I pulled away from her. It's not her I want, it's you. Please forgive me, Kathy. It’ll never happen again. I love you, not her." He tried to hug me but I pushed him away again.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore. Just
take me home.”
* * * *
I slept for most of the flight and Brian kept his arm around me the entire time. I guess he figured I couldn't push him away while I was sleeping. I didn’t want to deal with the issue. I knew it wasn't his fault and I trusted him when he said there was nothing going on between them, but I still needed to deal with her. I felt safe with him despite what else had happened.
We got back to Texas and I immediately went to bed. I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was sleep. Brian was amazing. He jumped out of his chair every time I got up, wanting to wait on me hand-and-foot. He kept his distance from me because he thought that's what would be best, but I knew it was killing him. He didn't even get into bed with me at night. He pulled a chair beside the bed and slept there, holding my hand while we slept.
CHAPTER TWELVE
A few months had passed since the wedding and things were starting to get back to normal. I’d forgiven Brian for his one indiscretion with Katie. We got a call from Michigan State Police and they told us Gary's bond had been denied for a second time. I was relieved he couldn't try to come after me again, but still felt insecure whenever I left the house alone and I was always looking over my shoulder.
I had nightmares about that horrible night, same as I did when I was in college and even with Brian here to hold me, I still felt vulnerable. I knew he loved me and he would never hurt me, but I still wouldn't make love to him. My body ached for him as I'm sure his did for me, but I wasn’t ready. Brian came home from work one day looking happier than I’d seen him in awhile. He ran in the door, grabbed me and kissed me.
"What's gotten into you?"
"We're getting our own place!"
"What? How?"
"Nick moved to Colorado a few weeks ago and he called me today and told me we can live in his house. He said we can move in tomorrow if we want!"
"Just like that?"
We both walked to the table and sat down.
"Yeah. His house is paid off; all we gotta pay is utilities."
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