Captain

by Lauren Rowe

  She laughs.

  “Four,” I continue, “for the next year, Kat says you can borrow any item of clothing in her closet at any time, no need to ask permission, since none of it fits her, anyway. Five, I’ll expertly fold all our fitted sheets—I promise.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know. Life-changing. And, six (and this is by far the most valuable perk), Ball Peen Hammer will shake his ass for free at Charlotte’s next birthday party!”

  Tessa hoots with laughter.

  “Now, do you really wanna be the one to tell Charlotte you turned down a lap-dance for her from Ball Peen Hammer?”

  “Hell no,” she replies. “Actually, Charlotte’s birthday is next month. I’m thrilled to be able to get my shopping done so far in advance.”

  Oh my God. Did Tessa just tell me she’s prepared to say yes to me today? Holy fuck! I think she did.

  I move to the next slide, my pulse quickening. “Reason Six: If you marry me, I’ll take ballroom dancing lessons.”

  She flashes me an adorable smile. “Really?”

  “Really. I wanna be able to lead you and not embarrass myself.”

  She clutches her heart. “I can’t wait.”

  My heart is gonna break my sternum. Why, oh why, did I write ten fucking reasons into this presentation? The ring box in my pocket suddenly feels like it’s on fire.

  I click on the next slide: “Reason Seven: If you marry me, I promise the sex will always be fucking amazing.”

  “This one is self-explanatory,” I say. “But lemme just say, I’m gonna worship your body every night of my life, I swear to God.”

  She shoots me a sexy smile.

  I move to the next slide: “Reason Eight: If you marry me, the universe will be happy. We’re fate, baby,” I say. “You think it’s coincidence I met you in a bar in Seattle, hacked nine airlines to find you, and then happened to run into you on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Bah. There’s no such thing as coincidence. We’re meant to be. Clearly, the universe wants us to be together, Tessa.”

  “Well, gosh,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint the universe.”

  I feel like I’m gonna pass out. I click to the next slide, leaping out of my skin with excitement: “Reason Nine: If you marry me, I promise to make you happy.”

  I swallow hard. “Tessa, to be clear, I don’t actually believe one person can make another person happy long-term—true happiness is something a person’s gotta find for him or herself. But I sure as hell promise to give you everything humanly possible to allow you to find your happiness. I promise I’ll be the best husband and father I can be. I’ll support and protect and love you with all my heart and soul. I’ll worship your body and cherish your heart and nurture your soul. I promise I’ll never do anything to hurt or betray you. I promise. We’ll be a team, love. A family. Me and you. You’ll never, ever have reason to doubt me.”

  She looks deeply moved. Speechless. She presses her lips together, obviously trying not to cry.

  I click on the final slide, my entire body quaking: “Reason Ten: If you marry me, you’ll get to wear this fucking awesome rock on your finger ’til the end of time.”

  Her eyes widen. She inhales sharply.

  Quickly, I kneel before her, pull the burning ring box out of my pocket, and open its lid to reveal the big-ass, sparkling rock my momma helped me pick out (with the help of Tessa’s momma via FaceTime)—and, just as I hoped she would, Tessa instantly morphs into a gasping, trembling, sobbing mess.

  “Tessa Rodriguez,” I say, tears in my eyes, my voice breaking. “I think you hung the moon, baby, and I always will. I love you the most. So, please, for the love of God (and all the reasons outlined in my Power Point presentation), will you please say ‘hell yes’ to becoming my wife?”

  Tessa nods furiously. “Hell yes.”

  I slide the ring on her trembling finger with a whoop and leap up to kiss the living hell out of her. After a few moments of kissing and gasping and whispered promises, I disengage from her and pull out my phone. “Let’s get Josh and Kat over here to celebrate.”

  “Oh my gosh,” Tessa exclaims. “I totally forgot they’re at the coffee place!” She looks down at the ring on her hand. “I can’t wait to tell them.”

  “Hey, Tim!” I call through a door behind the bar. “Crank the music and pour the champagne! We’re getting married!”

  The bartender enters from a back room and Tessa holds up her hand, displaying her sparkling rock. “Make it champagne for four, Tim!” Tessa shouts happily. “We’re gonna have ourselves a little party.”

  “No, baby, we’re having ourselves a big party.” I call to the bartender: “Make it champagne for twenty, Tim!”

  Tessa looks at me quizzically.

  “You’ll see,” I say.

  Two seconds later, just as my chosen song (“Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias, of course) begins blasting overhead, the front door swings open and our engagement party bursts in: Josh, Kat, my parents, Colby, Keane, Zander, Dax, Fish, Colin, Jonas, Sarah, and Tessa’s family (her parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and niece).

  Hugs and tears and kisses and high-fives abound and Tessa happily shows off her ring as champagne is passed out. Various introductions to Tessa’s family are made. Lots of chatting and laughing. And all the while, my hand is firmly clasped with Tessa’s, my heart bursting with joy.

  Kat comes over to tell me Henn and Hannah sent their love, but couldn’t make the party due to Hannah’s little sister’s birthday dinner.

  “Henn’s my brother for life,” I tell Kat, my arm around Tessa. “He didn’t find my girl for me (understandably), but that guy, more than anyone else, helped me keep the faith and listen to my heart.”

  “Well, cheers to Peter Hennessy, then,” Kat says, raising her glass, and Tessa and I clink it.

  “That reminds me,” I say. I turn to the party. “Hey, everyone! A toast!” I raise my glass, my arm snaked around Tessa’s waist, and everyone raises theirs, too. “First off, lemme just say, ‘Thank God this is a surprise engagement party, as planned, and not a ‘Consoling Ryan’ party.”

  Everyone chuckles.

  I aim my drink at Tessa’s family. “To the Rodriguez family: thank you for welcoming my family into yours.”

  The Rodriguez family salutes me.

  “To the Morgans,” I say. “You rock. You know it. Nothing more needs to be said.”

  My family cheers.

  “Thank you, Bob Gaskins, the man Wikipedia says is the inventor of Power Point. You rock, Bob, wherever you are—thanks for the dog and the wife.”

  Everyone laughs and cheers.

  “And, finally...” I look at Tessa. “Thank you to my beautiful fiancée for saying yes. In Moby Dick, Herman Melville asks, ‘Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more?’ Well, Tessa, for the first time in my life, I know exactly where my ‘final harbor’ lies: with you—wherever you happen to be.”

  Everyone claps and cheers and then descends upon us, offering hugs and kisses and congratulations. But after a few minutes, I can’t resist pulling Tessa into a corner for a celebratory kiss.

  “You good?” I ask, nuzzling my nose into hers.

  “I’ve never been better,” she whispers. “This is the best day of my life.”

  “Mine, too. I can’t wait to—”

  “Excuse me, Ryan,” Kat’s voice says behind me.

  I disengage from Tessa and look toward Kat’s voice.

  My stomach drops.

  Olivia.

  Kat’s got a fake smile plastered across her face and her arm around Olivia’s shoulders. “Look who texted me thirty minutes ago to complain you haven’t been returning her texts,” she says. “Look who begged me to tell her where she could find you so she could ‘pretend to run into you’ and ‘try to win you back.’” Kat turns to Olivia. “Oh, crap. Now that you’re here, honey, I just remembered a small detail I forgot to mention when I replied to you: Ryan’s at this bar for his engageme
nt party. Olivia, meet Tessa—my brother’s future wife. Oh, wait, that’s right—you two have already met, the night you called my future sister a ‘cunt.’” Kat’s smile is sweet but her eyes are blazing with unmistakable menace. “Do I have that right, Tessa sweetie? Did Olivia here call you a ‘cunt’?”

  “Why, yes, she did, Kitty Kat,” Tessa says, her tone as sweet as Kat’s.

  Olivia clenches her jaw. “Fuck you, Kat. You ambushed me.”

  Kat laughs.

  “Olivia, I’m sorry,” I say, glaring at Kat. “I didn’t put Kat up to this. You should go.”

  “I didn’t do this for you, Rum Cake,” Kat sniffs. “I did it for Tessa.” She smiles at Tessa. “Anything you wanna say to Olivia, honey? Now’s your chance.”

  Tessa pretends to yawn and puts her hand over her mouth, blatantly flashing her diamond. “Nope, not a damned thing.”

  Olivia shoots daggers at Kat. “Fuck you.”

  Kat laughs again. “You’re all class, Olivia. Come on. I’ll show you out.”

  “Don’t bother, bitch.” Olivia jerks away from Kat’s touch and stalks straight out the door in a huff.

  “Kat, what the fuck?” I say. “I never wanted to see Olivia again, especially not today.”

  “I couldn’t resist. I wouldn’t have instigated vengeance, but when I saw her text, I thought, ‘It’s fate.’” She shrugs. “If it were me, I’d sure as hell want that bitch to see my big-ass ring.” She looks at Tessa. “Did it feel good showing her your big-ass ring?”

  “It felt great,” Tessa says, shocking the hell out of me.

  They high-five and giggle.

  “Welcome to the family, sister,” Kat says, putting her arm around Tessa’s shoulders. “I just wanted to make sure you know: you’re not just getting a husband who loves you, you’re getting the Morgan Mafia, too.”

  Chapter 69

  Ryan

  “I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world.”

  Tessa and I can’t rip our clothes off fast enough. As fun as our engagement party was this evening, for the last hour of it, the only thing I could think about was bringing Tessa to my house for the first time and, finally, finally, getting to make love to her in my own fucking bed.

  I lay her down on my sheets, kissing her and pulling down her G-string, the tip of my hard-on already wet with pre-cum. I suck on her nipples and gently stroke between her legs, my entire body trembling with excitement, and she writhes and moans her appreciation.

  “You’re so wet,” I whisper, my fingers slipping in and out of her.

  “I’ve been crazy-wet since you opened the ring box,” she whispers back, and I laugh.

  “Is it wrong I got turned on when you wordlessly bitch-slapped Olivia?”

  “If I could have fucked you right in front of her, I would have,” she says.

  “Oh my God, you’re so fucking hot.”

  I trail kisses down from her breasts over her belly and then lap and suck at her pussy ’til she’s gripping the sheet and rippling in my mouth. In a flash, I’m on top of her, my balls tightening with my intense arousal, my wet hard-on nudging at her entrance, my heart exploding.

  “I’m clean,” I whisper, my body trembling, my cock aching to get inside her. “Are you on the pill?”

  “No,” she whispers, but when I move to grab a condom from my nightstand, she grips my arm, indicating I should stay. “We don’t need it,” she says. She widens her legs and tilts her hips up, rubbing herself against my aching tip. “Make love to me.” Again, she tilts her pelvis, rubbing herself against me, making me crazy.

  “Are you sure?” I gasp, my dick throbbing. “I’m so turned on, I can’t think straight. That’d be crazy, right?”

  “Do you love me?” she breathes, her slick, wet pussy gliding up and down against my tip.

  “With all my heart,” I choke out.

  “You’re gonna marry me?”

  My heart is exploding. My soul is on fire. My dick is straining. “I swear to God, no matter what,” I reply.

  She moans. “And you want babies with me?”

  Oh, God, my entire body’s practically convulsing, I’m so fucking turned on. “More than anything,” I gasp.

  “Then make love to me. We’ll let fate decide.”

  Without a single reservation or doubt, I pull her arms above her head, clasp my fingers in hers, and burrow inside her, groaning loudly as I do—and, the minute I get all the way inside her, I feel a sensation like nothing I’ve experienced before—a melting inside me—a fusion of our bodies and souls. “I love you,” I say, euphoria slamming into me. “Oh my God, you feel so good.”

  She mumbles something incoherent underneath me, squeezing my fingers in hers. I begin moving inside her, kissing her voraciously, my body telling her everything my words can’t convey. Oh, God, I’ve never felt so good, so fucking sure about anything in my life. Every splintered part of me has been made whole. She’s the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life—the one who makes this crazy, fucked-up world make perfect sense. “I love you,” I choke out as I come inside her, spilling my seed into her, taking a leap of faith. “Oh my God, Tessa, I love you.”

  Tessa stiffens as her body climaxes underneath mine, a declaration of love on her lips.

  After a moment, we unclasp our fingers and she embraces me tightly.

  When I look into her eyes, I’m worried to find tears in them.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. Literally, nothing.” She chokes up. “I’m euphoric.”

  I roll off her and put on some music (“Marry Me” by Jason Derulo), pull her to me, and kiss her. “This is gonna be a great life, my pretty chickadee.”

  “The best life.”

  We listen to the music for a moment, both of us lost in our thoughts—but, after a moment, I chuckle to myself.

  “What?” she asks.

  “I was just picturing us at the movies with Josh and Kat and you telling Josh to get his own fucking popcorn.”

  She giggles.

  I squeeze her. “So do you think we just made a baby?”

  “Probably not—I don’t think the timing is right. But if we did, it was meant to be.”

  “You wouldn’t freak out if we did?”

  She smiles. “No. I mean, yes, I’d totally freak out, but not because I’d be second-guessing anything—only because getting pregnant is gonna freak me out, no matter when it happens. What about you?”

  I consider my answer for a long beat, not wanting to say anything short of the whole truth. “I’d be absolutely elated if we just made a baby.”

  She considers that answer for a moment. “Growing up, I thought walking down the aisle with a baby bump would be the worst possible thing. But after watching Kat do it so joyfully, and seeing Josh morph into a husband and father before my eyes, I don’t think there are any one-size-fits-all rules about love and marriage anymore.”

  I stroke her face, marveling at how beautiful she is. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  I kiss her softly, my heart melting.

  “Hey, guess what I just realized?” she says, her lips an inch from mine. “Congratulations, Romeo—you finally executed your ‘master plan.’”

  A wide smile spreads across my face. “Yeah, but not in the way you mean. My ‘master plan’ wasn’t getting you into my bed. I lied.”

  “What?”

  “I mean, yeah, that was step one of my master plan—but not the full plan. I just said that so I’d seem sane and wouldn’t scare you off.”

  She laughs. “Yet another lie? Jesus, dude, you’re pathological.”

  I laugh.

  “So what the hell was the actual ‘master plan,’ then?” she asks.

  I grab her hand and touch the sparkling ring on her finger. “This.” I place my palm on her flat belly. “And this.”

  She visibly melts.

  I sit up and lean onto my elbow, looking down at her gorgeou
s face. “So when do you want to get married, Argentina?”

  She shrugs. “Next week? Next month? Three months? Whenever won’t conflict with the arrival of Gracie Louise because I certainly don’t want to...” Something in my facial expression makes her trail off, mid-sentence. “What?”

  I can’t form words.

  “What?” she asks again. “Are you okay?”

  I nod. “I just had a premonition.”

  “Of what?”

  “Of us. The future.”

  “Really?”

  I nod. “It was crystal clear.”

  “What did you see?”

  “I saw you and me and a bunch of kids. And Captain’s kicking ass. It was you and me against this crazy, fucked-up, wonderful world. And we were happy.” I squeeze her hand and press myself into her naked body. “Tessa, don’t worry about a thing, baby. I just saw the whole thing. And I’m one hundred percent positive: we’re gonna have a truly beautiful life.”

  Epilogue

  Tessa

  “Hey, everyone,” my gorgeous husband says to the small assembled crowd of our closest family and friends, our newborn daughter strapped to his broad chest, his blue eyes twinkling. “Thanks so much for coming out this afternoon to celebrate the opening of our fifth Captain’s location.”

  “And our second in Seattle!” Josh shouts, raising his beer.

  Everyone cheers.

  I’m watching Ryan and Josh from the back of the room (the same way I always prefer to observe events such as this); but this time, unlike the last four times I’ve stood at the back of a Captain’s grand opening event and swooned over my husband, it’s the middle of the afternoon, the place is riddled with kids, and I’m seated rather than standing, thanks to a precious (and very tired) little human (who bears half my DNA) who’s draped over my chest.

  Ryan places his palm on Claire’s tiny, sleeping head against his chest and continues: “Tessa had the idea for us to have a little family-friendly gathering with our closest friends and family before tonight’s adults-only soiree.” He looks directly at me at the back of the crowd. “And I gotta say, babe, it was a great idea.” He winks at me and I wink back.