by Shey Stahl
I shake against her hold. “Yeah, but these kind of things don’t work out. I don’t even know him that well. Just this morning I thought he was engaged to that chick with the long legs, now I’m going to marry him? It’s dumb, right?”
“You do know him and these things do work out,” she tells me confidently, like she knows for a fact it’s going to work out. “With Tathan, they do. He’s not Colton. He’s Tathan Elliott Madsen. He’s a good guy, and for some reason, he loves your crazy ass. You’re going to marry him whether you want to or not. I’m making you.”
She will too. Zane’s beside us, the train of my dress draped over his waist, admiring himself in white. “I’m telling you, Muff. You don’t marry him today, I’m going to put this dress on and give it a shot.”
I’m nearing tears. What the hell is wrong with me? And then I do cry when my mind drifts to who isn’t here to walk me down the aisle.
My dad.
He’s never going to be able to give me away.
“I don’t have my dad to walk me down the aisle!” I cry, bursting into fat, girly emotional tears. It’s the kind of tears that leave you bedridden with a bottle of whip cream in one hand and Nutella in the other.
“It says here Elvis can walk you down the aisle,” Zane points out, gesturing to the pamphlet they gave us. “That should work, right?”
“Or I can do it,” a deep voice chimes from the doorway, peeking his head around the corner. “It’d be an honor to give you away, sweetheart.”
Casey lets go of me, smiling, and turns me around to face the doorway.
Of all the people to show up here. . . it’s the man I could consider a father figure lately.
Paul Madsen. The man who repeatedly steps in at the right time.
He smiles tenderly. “Tathan called me and asked if. . .” His voice fads, probably because my tears turn to me hyperventilating. Paul rushes toward me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pressing me to his chest. “Don’t cry.”
At some point, I don’t know why I’m crying, just that I can’t stop. But Paul does. He always knows.
Cradling my head to his chest, carefully like I’m a delicate flower, the opening notes of Elvis Presley’s “I Can’t Help Falling in Love” begins. It’s the song we chose for me to walk down the aisle. We. As in me and Tathan.
“I know you’re scared, Amalie,” Paul whispers. “But if anyone is going to love you for the rest of your life, it’s Tathan.”
Paul’s right. I may have only known him for a few months, but my heart’s know of him my entire life. He’s that guy I dreamed about as a little girl sweeping me off my feet. Only it’s drastically different than I envisioned, what with it being in Vegas and not a church, but it doesn’t change the guy, does it?
“He loves you,” he reminds me, drawing back. Brushing tears away with the pads of his thumb, he eyes me. Waiting. “I’d be honored to give you away, if you’d let me.”
My tears finally slow and I nod. “I’d like that.”
Behind me, Zane and Casey are crying too. Oliver just looks confused.
Bryan knocks again. “Times up. They got other weddings today.”
With a shaky breath, I fix my makeup and tuck my arm inside of Paul’s. “I’m ready.”
Winking, he leans in and brushes his lips to my temple. “You look beautiful.”
It’s easy to see where Tathan’s heart lies. Me.
It’s in the simple aspects of it too.
It’s in the moment he sees me in white, his smile beams.
He’s happy. He’s not nervous. He’s impatient to marry me.
I grin. Full-on grin. Only, I don’t move. It’s like I’m frozen in time, never wanting to lose the moment we’re in.
Paul tightens his grip and steps forward, pulling me along with him. And in the blink of an eye, he gives me away and into the arms of the man who will be mine forever.
A man I essentially started dealing and betting with a few short months ago, but loved my entire life without even knowing it.
Tathan takes my hand in his, gripping it a little tighter than necessary. It makes me smile again knowing this is exactly what he wants. His masculine beauty, his lips pulled up into a smile, he’s perfect in every way.
That’s about the time the Elvis impersonator slash minister, breaks into song and starts belting out “All Shook Up” through the room. He’s actually good, too, but it’s Tathan’s laughter I focus on and well, Zane’s dancing and finally, Oliver peeing on the Elvis impersonator’s foot. Apparently he doesn’t like Elvis as much as his mommy.
The man takes it in stride, and never misses a beat to the song.
“Welcome you two,” he finally says. “Welcome to the most important day of your life. The first question I have for you is, Tathan, do you take Amalie to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have to hold, to cherish from this day forward, in sickness in health, for richer and poorer and better for worse?”
“I do,” Tathan says immediately.
I repeat the same.
We exchange rings we bought in the lobby of the Aria hotel. It seems so crazy to me, but it’s a simple choice, really. I chose him, and I mean it, damn it. Regardless of my messy girl emotions. For whatever reason, he chose me.
Elvis looks at Tathan. “Now, Tathan, I want you to think back to that very first time you knew you were in love with Amalie.” I stare at him, waiting to see the look in his eyes. It starts out slow, like he is remembering. Falling all over again. I’m not certain of anything, but I’m certain of that look on his face. A love with depth even the stars wouldn’t understand. “And I want you to say, Oh baby. . . .”
I’ll leave it there because it gets a little over the top from there on out with a very animated speech he makes us repeat. I know one thing, I’ve never laughed so hard in my entire life and thankful when he finally tells us, we can take to the makeshift dance floor where Elvis sings “Can’t Help Falling in Love” again as we dance.
And that’s when Tathan hits me with a new bet. He ducks his head to the curve of my neck. “I have another deal for you,” he whispers against my collarbone he’s kissing.
You knew he would, didn’t you?
I smile, laugh a little and shake my head. “What’s that?”
He looks at me with that strange, tender look he has from time to time, and it’s far more charming than it used to be when I tried so hard to hate him. “I bet I can knock you up tonight.”
Now I know Oliver understands more than I give him credit for, or he has a very weak bladder because he pees on Tathan’s foot.
“Maybe we wait on that particular deal until after you’ve showered,” I tease.
I don’t know what’s changed from the me inside the dressing room, to the me now wearing his ring and sporting a new last name, but I don’t fear having babies with Tathan. I think Oliver fears them, but me, I can’t wait to start a life with him now.
Wet foot in all, Tathan picks me up bridal style, fitting given the day and moment, and carries me to the doors while I small guest list of four cheers us on. “I think I’m going to start right now. All deals are off.”
And then he carries me to the room and we make a baby.
The end.
Do you believe me?
You should, but only half of that is true. He does carry me to the bed, and we do attempt to make a baby, against the wall, the door, the shower, the window. . . and finally, the bed where he lays me down gently, admiring my body.
“My wife,” he breathes against my skin, kissing his way up my thigh.
Threading my hands in his hair, I smile and tug, making him crawl up my body until we’re flush against one another. “My husband.”
He laughs, the sound rich, then he sobers, his eyes so tender on my face. “Are we crazy for doing this?”
“Is anyone really sane? I think we’re all a little bit crazy.”
Leaning in, he kisses my lips. “My dad once told me to be a man that her heart dreams of and her min
d can’t comprehend. Be a man who makes her believe any man who made her believe she was less, was completely full of shit.”
My body shakes with laughter. “Sounds to me like your dad knew what he was talking about.”
He frames my face and plants a firm, fierce kiss on my forehead. “He does.” It’s then I realize he’s talking about Paul.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve married?” He’s hovering over me, planting kisses across my chest. “I don’t particular like mornings and I don’t like anything touching me when I’m trying to sleep. Oh, and for breakfast, I love chocolate croissants.”
He kisses my ear and whispers, in my hair, “Chocolate croissants every morning. Got it.”
“No exceptions.”
“I know what I’m getting into.”
Heat rushes between my thighs. “You do?”
“You,” he says, and I realize he is in fact inside me, again. “I’m trying to make a baby.” He chuckles, lifting one of my legs to his shoulder and kissing a path down the inside of my calf.
My lips brush the shell of his ear as I slide my hands around his neck and run my fingers through his hair. “Literally a happy ending, huh?”
He laughs. “I think I’ve earned it making deals with you.”
It’s my turn to laugh. “I suppose you have.”
He lowers his face to me again, growling deep as he enters me with the words, “I love you, deal?”
“Deal.”
While my laughter fades and my husband of two hours attempts to put a baby in me, I know this much. One, he’s a keeper. Forever. And two, I have drowned my own sadness and self-doubt for years, but with Tathan, he gives me a place where I can breathe again.
First, I have to thank my readers for wanting Tathan and Amalie’s ending enough that they begged me to write it. Hope you enjoyed them. I know it wasn’t a long book, but sometimes the simple shorter stories pack the best punch.
Thank you to Becky and Hot Tree Editing for everything you do for me and your patience with me.
Thank you to Sara Eirew for designing the cover and the hot picture! It turned out amazing!
To my family. . . thank you for understanding why I write and the need to do it. There are hundreds of stories in my head, ones I might not get a chance to write down, but you’re there for me even when I question my ability, and reasons why I’m doing it. You’re there to remind me, writing isn’t a passion, it’s a reason.
Shey is a USA Today best-selling author, a wife, mother, and daughter. Writing is her passion, giving words meaning, and readers experiences they’ll never forget. She’s a lover of sunsets, dirt track racing, and the south, where her soul wants to be. Currently, she’s living in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter and can usually be found near a dirt track with dirt in her beer and cheering on her favorite racers.
Visit her website for additional information and keep up to date on new releases: www.sheystahl.com.
You can also find her on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SheyStahlAuthor
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Racing on the Edge
Happy Hour
Black Flag
Trading Paint
The Champion
The Legend
Hot Laps
The Rookie
Fast Time
Open Wheel
Pace Laps
Dirt Driven (TBA)
Behind the Wheel (TBA)
The Redemption Series
The Trainer
The Fighter
Stand Alones
Waiting for You
Everything Changes
All I Have Left
Awakened
Everlasting Light
Bad Blood
Heavy Soul
Bad Husband
Burn
Shade
Love Complicated
How to Deal
Crossing the Line
Delayed Penalty
Delayed Offsides
The Torqued Trilogy
Unsteady
Unbearable
Unbound
