Stuck Landing

by Lauren Gallagher

  At the end of the country club’s long, forested driveway, off-duty state troopers and county cops checked invitations, verifying that names matched photo IDs. Halfway up the driveway, another set of cops verified the same.

  “So when do they do the body-cavity searches?” Scott asked from the backseat as he tucked his ID back into his wallet.

  Jeremy chuckled. “I think you have to pay for those.”

  “They’re not included with the open bar?”

  Jeremy and I both laughed.

  “Knowing Levi,” I said, “they might actually be included.”

  “Perfect,” Scott said.

  I laughed and gazed out the window as Jeremy drove us up the remainder of the driveway to the country club lodge.

  Outside the lodge, several security guards were posted. With all those guys standing around in tuxes with sunglasses and semiconspicuous earpieces, one would’ve thought the president was visiting.

  Gotta love Hollywood weddings.

  I’d teased Levi about hiring some TSA agents to scan people on the way in, but Carter had shot me the most murderous look and warned me about giving him any ideas.

  I sympathized with Levi, though. He still resented the spotlight as it was—he loved his fans, but hated the media intrusion—and everyone knew celebrity weddings were a magazine’s wet dream. Make it a gay wedding between America’s heartthrob and a fairly-recently-out ex-action-star macho man, and the press had pretty much been frothing at the mouth for details since the guys announced their engagement. Someone had even put up an ad offering ten grand for a copy of an invitation—Levi had responded with a tweet saying, Let me know your preferred payment method, with a photo of an invite with all the pertinent details blurred out.

  So, I understood why he’d stopped just short of marrying Carter inside Fort Knox.

  The tabloids were itching for leaked photos, so the photographer the grooms had hired had signed a million agreements promising not to sell the photos to anyone but approved buyers. Guests had also been gently asked to please not take photos with their phones. There would certainly be images released to the public, but both men were incredibly guarded about their privacy.

  The location had been shrouded in secrecy for weeks. Though Levi and Carter weren’t members of the club, Hunter had made some calls and pulled some strings, and the club had agreed to host the wedding and keep it a secret.

  By the looks of the thin crowd of familiar faces heading inside, the secret had been successfully kept. I didn’t see any reporters around, and everyone seemed relaxed. The security guards were vigilant, but in the same way Jeremy was—ready in case anything happened, but obviously not overly concerned. Like they were present as a deterrent rather than with the expectation of actually needing to remove an uninvited guest.

  We walked past the guards and into the foyer. There, the guys’ engagement photo was framed above the guest book, and I couldn’t help a soft laugh as I signed the book. Carter had been joking for a while now about being stepdad to Levi’s two cats, and I rarely saw him at the house without Link hot on his heels or Zelda draped over his shoulder. But there was something simultaneously silly and touching about that photo and the way he was holding Link to his chest while Zelda lounged across his lap and Levi’s. That picture had leaked to social media—probably Levi’s doing—and fans were going nuts from the sheer cuteness. I couldn’t say I blamed them.

  Gazing at the photo, I smiled. The guys and their kitties made an adorable couple, and the most adorable little family. It had taken Levi a long, long time to find Carter, but as happy as they were, I had no doubt it was worth the wait. And even better, they could get married now. Legally. For real. That had been a pipe dream when Levi and I were younger, but here they were.

  “Anna?” Jeremy’s voice startled me.

  I swallowed and— When the hell had I started tearing up? Quickly wiping my eyes and hoping I didn’t mess up what little makeup I had on, I turned around. “Hmm?”

  He cocked his head. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. I’m good.” I cleared my throat. “Did we find a place to put the gifts?”

  He gestured past me. Beside the table with the guest book was a pile of gifts, but they weren’t for the couple. Instead of a wedding registry, Levi and Carter had asked guests to—if they felt compelled to give a gift—purchase something for the local cat rescue.

  Jeremy and I set our contributions on the table, and he chuckled. “You know, I’ve been to some weddings with shitty catering, but this—” he held up a can of Fancy Feast “—is definitely a first.”

  All three of us burst out laughing, which turned some heads, but whatever.

  Then we continued into the ballroom, which was still being arranged for the ceremony. Guests were trickling in, and I didn’t see Natalya yet. She was arriving a little bit later, since she had some other things to take care of this morning. Even on the day of a wedding, we all had to take advantage of rare blocks of time off.

  And since there was so much security, I decided there was no need for my bodyguard to be hot on my heels every minute of the day. If anyone disagreed, then I dared them to say something, but for now I left Jeremy and Scott to mingle while I went looking for the grooms.

  In a hallway outside the ballroom, Alfonse stood by a closed door, looking every inch like Secret Service.

  “Hey, Alfonse.” I smiled. “How are you?”

  “Good. You?”

  “Good.” I nodded at the door. “Is Levi in there?”

  Alfonse shook his head. “Just Carter.”

  “They doing the whole ‘can’t see each other before the ceremony’ thing?”

  Chuckling, he nodded. “Didn’t think either of them was that superstitious, but there you go.”

  “I don’t think they’re being superstitious.” I grinned. “I think they’re being sentimental. Twenty bucks says Carter knows damn well Levi’s going to tear up as soon as they see each other.”

  A laugh burst out of Alfonse—probably the most boisterous sound I’d ever heard from him. “I’m not taking that bet, because knowing them, you’re right.”

  “Of course I am. So where’s Levi?”

  Alfonse gestured down the hall.

  I followed his direction and found another door at the end of the hall with a tuxedoed guard posted out front. “Is Levi in there?” I asked.

  He nodded but didn’t move.

  “Could you tell him Anna’s here?”

  The guard tapped the door, paused, then opened it and spoke quietly.

  Levi replied, “Yeah, yeah. Send her in. Thanks.”

  The big man stepped aside and gestured for me to go in.

  As I closed the door behind me, Levi was focused on the mirror, fussing with his bow tie.

  “Hey, you,” I said.

  He turned around and flashed a smile before he faced the mirror again. “Hey. Just about . . . ready . . .”

  It wasn’t the first time I’d seen Levi in a tux but now, as he fussed with his bow tie and his cuffs, he reminded me of a kid putting on a tux for the first time and nervously waiting for his date to arrive. Despite his graying hair and the lines his face had accumulated in the decades we’d known each other, he could’ve passed for eighteen just because of the wide-eyed way he met his own gaze in the mirror.

  He scowled at the bow tie and untied it again. “Fucking thing . . .”

  “Do you need a hand with that?”

  He sighed with defeat and faced me. “I know how to do these things, but—”

  “But Levi Pritchard’s motor skills are the first thing to go when he’s nervous.” I took the ends of the bow tie and carefully wound them together. “It’s okay, you know. To turn into a total klutz on your wedding day.”

  He chuckled. “You sure I’m not abusing the privilege?”

  “If I were marrying Carter, I’d probably have fallen on my face a dozen times by now.”

  Normally, he’d have made a snarky comment. Something alon
g the lines of “Of course you would’ve fallen on your face, because you’d have to be drunk off your ass to marry a man.”

  But he just smiled. Really, really smiled. Then he tugged at his sleeve. “Maybe we should’ve done this in shorts or something. It’s fucking hot to be wearing a jacket.”

  “You can always take it off after the ceremony.” I paused. “What ever happened to getting married on Valentine’s Day, anyway?”

  God. Even after all this time, it was still strange to see that silly, ass-over-teakettle-in-love smile on Levi’s face.

  “Oh, you know,” he said. “We were both too busy last winter to plan it, and neither of us wanted to wait another year. So . . .” He shrugged. “Spring will do. Valentine’s Day can just be the anniversary of getting engaged.”

  “In other words, an excuse to spoil your man rotten for your anniversary twice a year?”

  “Pretty much, yeah.”

  “So much for hating Valentine’s Day, right?”

  He laughed. “February fourteenth has finally redeemed itself. That’s almost as much of a miracle as me landing a husband like Carter.” His teeth snapped shut and his eyes widened a little, as if he hadn’t thought about it before he said it. Not unusual for him. “A husband like Carter. God. We’re . . .” Eyes closed, he took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

  I touched his arm. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Just . . .” He smiled and met my gaze. “I’m marrying him in—” he checked his watch “—twenty minutes, and I still don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet.”

  “If I know you, it’s going to sink in right about the time you’re at the altar with him.”

  Levi exhaled again. “Probably.”

  “And legally too.” I shook my head, my heart fluttering just thinking about it. “Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

  “Tell me about it,” he breathed.

  I forced my emotions to stay in check so I wouldn’t set his off. “You’re not going to pass out on us or anything, are you?”

  “I’m good. Just, um, nervous.” He gulped. “Really nervous.”

  “What do you have to be nervous about?” I smiled and hugged him gently. “It isn’t like you’re going to say anything stupid that he hasn’t already heard.”

  Levi laughed. He squeezed me tight. “You really do know how to put a man’s mind at ease, you know that?”

  “If you’re laughing, you’re breathing. Right?”

  “Fair point.” He hugged me for a few more seconds, then released me. “Thanks again, by the way. For all the times you got my head out of my ass before I completely sabotaged things with Carter.”

  I laughed. “Well, if you ever need it again, you know where to find me.”

  “I do. And I probably will.”

  “I know you will.”

  He shot me a glare, and we both laughed.

  “To be serious,” I said, “I’m really happy for you. Carter’s a lucky man.”

  He smiled, and I swore his eyes welled up a little as he said, “I think I’m the one who won the lottery here.”

  I swiped at my eyes as subtly as I could. “I’d say you both made out like bandits.” I gestured toward the door. “And, um, you might want to go out and greet your guests, don’t you think?”

  Levi glanced toward it and rocked from his heels to the balls of his feet. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I should.”

  “Come on.” I nudged him gently. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Neither of us spoke on the way down the hall, and the sharp clicks of dress shoes sounded weird as they echoed around us. It wasn’t like we’d never been dressed up around each other—I’d lost count of the red carpet and black-tie events we’d attended—but this was different.

  Getting to this point had been a long, bumpy road for Levi, and it wasn’t just because he was as good at relationships as I was. For years, he’d fought his own sexuality. Kept it hidden at the whim of studio execs. Then he’d come out, and he’d lost the relationship with his parents that he’d worked so long to repair. Nearly lost Carter when he tried to go back in the closet. Almost lost his job when he’d flung the closet doors off for good.

  Walking down the aisle with Carter was a hard-won victory that no one deserved more than Levi. On one hand, it gave me hope that I could eventually get there too. On the other, it made me wonder how many mountains were left between me and my happy ending.

  At the edge of the ballroom, which had been set up for the ceremony, Levi looked out at all the guests gathering on the folding chairs. “It’s funny. I always thought it would bother me if my family didn’t come to my wedding.”

  “It doesn’t?”

  He pursed his lips and shook his head. “Not really, no. I mean, part of me still wishes things were better with them, but they’re not.” He half shrugged and turned toward me. “So why would I want any of that shit here? Carter’s all the family I need.”

  The sudden lump in my throat caught me off guard. I quickly cleared my throat, gazing out at the guests. “I’m glad you found him. You deserve nothing less than someone like him.”

  “Just makes me wonder what he did in a past life to get stuck with me.”

  I laughed, facing him again. “Oh shut up. You know damn well you two are made for each other.”

  He smiled, and as he nodded, he reached for me. “Thank you again. For not letting me fuck this up.” He hugged me tightly. “I wouldn’t have him if it weren’t for you.”

  Glad I got someone’s relationship right.

  “You’re welcome,” I whispered. As I drew back, I smiled, “Just don’t wander off and be late to your own ceremony, okay?”

  “I won’t. Promise.” He gestured at his guests. “I should, um, go say hi to everyone. Before Carter comes out.”

  “Good idea. I’ll see you after the ceremony.”

  “See you then.”

  We hugged once more, then went separate directions. I wandered into the group, saying hello to people I knew. There were quite a few familiar faces, either from Wolf’s Landing or from other film projects. Some had worked on the Chad Eastwick series with Levi.

  It was kind of strange to see so many people from work in this kind of environment. No one but the photographer—who I knew from countless promo shoots—carried any kind of gear aside from punch glasses, and there were ties and heels on people I was used to seeing in costume or dressed for eighteen-hour-shoot comfort.

  Of course, plenty of people were strangers too. I’d never met Carter’s family, but it was pretty apparent that he’d come by his good looks honestly. Whoever they were—siblings? cousins?—they had the same sharp jaw, blond hair, and blue eyes.

  The hair on my neck prickled, and I turned.

  My breath got lost in my throat.

  What was it about weddings that seemed to bring out the softer side of everyone? Levi looked like a nervous kid on prom night. Hunter and Kevin were all smiles and affection, stealing glances at each other and little kisses now and then. Jeremy and Scott barely seemed to notice there was anyone but them in the room.

  But it was Natalya who took my breath away. She was hot in anything she wore—or didn’t wear—and I’d always wondered what she’d look like dressed up, and now that she was, she looked . . .

  Perfect.

  She sat in one of the middle rows, one leg crossed over the other and her phone clutched in her hand. She’d worn a wide-strapped wine-colored cocktail dress, and a simple silver chain rested on her collarbones. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her wearing makeup beyond a touch of eyeliner now and then, but she’d put on just enough to add a hint of softness to her features while making her eyes unavoidably intense. Her dark-blond hair was piled on top of her head with a few strategically arranged strands tumbling down and keeping the look from being too rigid.

  Despite her petite stature, she didn’t need high heels to create the illusion of long or slender legs. Her legs didn’t need any help. But . . . that didn’t mean those strappy pumps weren
’t a nice touch.

  Right then, she turned toward me, and her smile sent my pulse up to where Levi’s probably was right then. She patted the empty seat next to her.

  Oh God. Could I keep some semblance of dignity sitting next to her when she looked like that?

  Oh hell. It was worth a try. And not sitting next to her would raise some questions, since we’d planned to meet here and be each other’s dates. So I made my way between the rows and took the seat beside her.

  She shifted a little and brushed her hand across mine. Our eyes met, and we both grinned. Maybe we’d be “friends” here in public, but I was pretty sure that cocktail dress was spending the night on my bedroom floor. Assuming we made it that far. The thought of our clothes rumpled on the stairs made my pulse soar.

  Soft piano music started. Quickly, the last few guests took their seats. The officiant took his place at the altar, and the ceremony began.

  Neither groom came down the aisle, but stepped in from either side of the altar.

  And the instant they were both in sight, eyes locked from a few feet apart, I had to force back a lump in my throat.

  Levi smiled tightly, and he hadn’t even made it to the altar before he had to wipe his eyes. As soon as he and Carter met in the middle, they hugged tightly. Probably not something they’d rehearsed, not something that was part of required wedding decorum, but I couldn’t imagine anyone in the room disapproving. Especially since we were all too busy sniffling and wiping our eyes.

  You bastards. Your ceremony hasn’t even started and you’re already making everyone cry.

  They separated but kept their hands joined between them as the ceremony began. I could hear their vows and everything the pastor said, but none of it really registered. Staring up at the two men, the only thing that held my attention was the love radiating off them.

  Though I was thrilled with the single life, there was a part of me that wanted what Carter and Levi had. No matter how many times the two of them screwed up—or, well, Levi screwed up and tested Carter’s seemingly infinite patience—they always circled back to this. To the long looks, those moments when they locked eyes and seemed to forget anyone else even existed.