by A. J. Downey
I wasn’t following anything they were saying so I just kind of politely stood by while Rush measured the window and wrote things down on a notepad. He twisted his head back and forth and I said, “If it helps, I have the brackets right here.”
“That does help, yes!”
The rest of the day was spent watching these men, unfamiliar with working with stained glass specifically, but capable around wood and window installation, work to safely get a rack built in the back of the truck and the window itself framed out. My dad even helped when he got home and I was surprised to find that he seemed happier than he had been for a while to just have people around and something to do.
“Afraid we’re gonna run out of daylight before we can get this in back at the club,” Dragon said.
“I didn’t think we were gonna install it today,” Reaver called.
“Red-Thirteen already has the old window demo’ed out. He’s waiting on us.”
“Really?” I blurted, surprised.
“Damn straight. This beauty is going in and staying in.”
I was surprised, shocked and amazed that it would matter to them as much as me… Dragon smiled and huffed a bit of a laugh and said, “Let’s get going, boys or we’re going to have to set up the flood lights.
I looked at Blue who smiled at me like I was the sun and I felt my shoulders drop, as if a weight was taken from them.
They really knew how to make a girl feel like she belonged.
Chapter 43
Blue
We had to apply for a marriage license and apparently that shit took a little more time than we wanted, but that was okay. It gave the girls and yeah, even the guys, enough time to really plan the surprise reception. It also gave Everett the time to pull strings and get in touch with the one major concession that I wanted.
We were offering the three man band a lot of money to play at our reception. Yeah, the guys from the Harvest Festival and our first solo date. I wanted to remind my little one of all the good things about our relationship. I wanted her to be happy and I figured that would do it.
We were out back of the club, chillin’ around the fire pit. Hayley was laying on her side along the bench, head on the top of my thigh, staring into the flames. I’d been prepared this time, had picked up a light, fuzzy and cuddly throw from a local discount store to keep her and the baby warm.
“What about, Ezekiel?” Thirteen asked and Hayley laughed.
We were trying to come up with a boy’s name and a girl’s name for the baby and it’d sort of devolved into the worst names ever to name your baby.
“That one’s actually not bad,” I said and Thirteen looked at me from across the fire where he and Dani lounged on the hanging bench opposite of ours.
“Really?”
“I knew a Zeke once,” I told them. “He was a good kid… kept me out of trouble when we were both coming up together. My dad, he was a drunk. Zeke and his family would give me a place to crash when my dad ran afoul of the bottle.”
“Where is he now?” Hayley asked, voice a little far away as she was pretty much hypnotized by the flames.
“Died. Joined a gang, took a bullet when we were fourteen that paralyzed him, took eight more years but the bullet migrated and eventually finished the job.”
“Damn,” Reaver said and shook his head. Hayden looked grim in his lap, and he looked up at her. “No worries, Doll, I don’t have any hardware still floating around like that.”
She sniffed and her eyes welled up and she nodded, “I know.”
Reaver sighed and I echoed the sentiment… It’d been a real long time, fuck, pushing three years since he’d been shot and Hayden still hadn’t let it go. I didn’t think she ever would.
“What about Gertrude, or Eunice?” Data asked and there was a bunch of aww’s and hell no’s.
“Baby, not old lady!” I laughed.
“What? Those old ladies were babies once.”
“You hear about that celebrity that named her kid Audio Science?”
“No!” Hayley cried, “Absolutely not naming my kid, boy or girl, something that doesn’t even sound like a name.”
“I always thought Sailor would be a cute name for a little girl,” Hayden said and Reaver laughed.
Hayden gave him a withering look and he said, “Oh, shit! You were serious,” which made the rest of us laugh, even Hayden.
“You’re such an asshole sometimes,” she said between giggles.
“Just don’t name her ‘Tulip’ or some other flower name that’s just fucking stupid.” Trigger said.
“Flower names aren’t stupid!” Sunshine argued.
“Well yeah, not a flower name like ‘Rose’ but could you imagine calling your kid Tulip, or Hyacinth or some shit?”
“Sounds like a dog’s name.”
More laughter. Hayley rolled her head to look up at me and I looked down into her beautiful face. She rolled her eyes and I grinned, bending at the most awkward angle ever to peck her on the tip of her nose.
“Why does this have to be so hard?” she complained.
“You should do what Shelly did,” Ghost called walking up.
“Where is Shelly, man?” Trig called back.
“Home with a sick kid, she told me to save myself.”
“Oh. What did she do?”
“Picked the top three names she wanted for Harmony, went out the back door and screamed each one of them ten times at the top of her lungs out the back door.”
“Why?” Reaver asked, making a weird face.
“I asked her that, she said if she was gonna end up screaming it for the rest of her life that she might as well get to trying them out now. The one that was easiest or that she didn’t mind screaming was the one she stuck with.”
“Oh my god, that totally sounds like something she would do!” Hayden fell out laughing and a bunch of us joined in.
Hayley pushed herself up, “It’s a good thing that we have time to figure it out,” she said, stretching.
“Ready for bed?” I asked her softly and she nodded.
“K, come on.”
I stood and set my half empty beer aside and held my hand down to her. She got up and I called out, “Night all.”
“Night!” they called back.
We went tiredly across the grass and into the barracks. I let her into my room and she turned sharply. I put my arms around her to keep from completely crashing into her. She looked up at me, all seriousness in her eyes and on her face and said, “Kiss me.”
I bent carefully and played my lips acriss hers and it was the sweetest thing. I closed my eyes and rested my forehead on hers and whispered, “I meant it about waiting for the wedding.”
She chuckled lightly and said, “I understand you feel the need to punish yourself, but do you really need to punish me, too?”
I laughed a surprised thing that I broke off quick so I could ask, “That really the way you feel about it?”
“Maybe…”
“Don’t be coy, not about this.”
She nodded, and her face grew solemn. “I want you. I miss your hands on me…”
“I can’t remember all that I did.” I swallowed hard, “Doc says it could take six months to a year for certain things to show up in my bloodwork, so…”
“So wear a condom.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Fuck. I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t. It was killing me not being with her. I wanted her, I needed her so damn bad. I bowed my head and kissed her again and let my jacket and cut slide off my shoulders and into my hands. I swung the door shut behind me and hung it on the hook before I turned my attentions to getting her naked.
We moved slow, once piece of clothing at a time. Kissing, exploring, taking our time with each other and it was new and different. As if we were discovering each other for the first time. We stood in the quiet dark of my room, skin to skin, the cool air conditioned air pushing us closer together for warmth and I couldn’t say I re
gretted that one bit. If anything it made me want to crank that bitch up higher.
She kissed me as if she were poisoned and my lips held the antidote. I knew the feeling and I returned every bit of her desire and enthusiasm tenfold. I walked her over to the bed and reached into the drawer beside it for a condom. She took a step back to watch me roll it on and I loved how her dark eyes glowed with her arousal, how her lips parted, her long dark hair tumbling around her face and it was a miracle I didn’t come just from that expression on her face alone.
The fact that she was so turned on pushed me right up to the very edge. I went to her, lifting her bodily and flinging her back onto the bed. She yipped in surprise and laughed and I followed her, caging her body with mine, showering her in kisses, light little touches of my lips all over her chest, paying particular attention to any spot that had her arching into me. Licking and sucking my way down her body.
“Blue, please,” she begged, her voice sultry and full of passion and I raised myself up, making eye contact, showing her rather than telling her just how much I loved her. Just how much I adored her.
Her breath came in a passionate cadence, and I loved it. I worked my way back up her body, lying over the top of her, keeping her warm and the chill of the room at by and slipped inside of her, slowly, agonizingly slowly, using up every bit of self-control I had not to take her with the frenzy I wanted to. There would be plenty of time for rough sex later, right now, we both needed love and to support each other.
She bowed beneath me, her back arching off the bed, her pussy gripping me rhythmically and I gritted my teeth, trying not to go myself. I needed to draw at least two more orgasms from her before I could take any pleasure myself. She deserved that peace, she deserved to feel good after all of this bad, all of this pain and misery. Some of it caused by me, some of it caused by the gaping hole that Cell had left behind.
“Oh, god, Hayley…” I moaned as she twined her arms and legs both around me.
“Blue…”
I loved the sound of my name on her lips. I loved her just so goddamned much.
Chapter 44
Hayley
Slow, so beautifully slow and so full of meaning, love, and light I couldn’t even stand it. I adored Blue and the care he’d shown me the first time we’d made love since… Well, since. It was what was going through my mind as I stood, hand in hand with him in front of the judge marrying us.
Dragon, Dani, and Thirteen stood behind him, and I could feel my father, Melody, and Archer at my back as we exchanged vows. My hands trembled and shook with the magnitude of the moment as I slid the gold band Dani handed me onto his finger, his eyes alight with all things love, hope, and desire.
“Mr. Barry?” The Judge asked and Blue slid first a simple gold band and then a proper engagement ring onto my finger.
The judge’s voice was a wordless buzz in my ears as he finished what he had to say and Blue’s smile grew wider, I felt my own echo his and my heart swell and we kissed. The first time we ever would as husband and wife.
A couple of cheers, a smattering of broken applause and happy tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.
I just couldn’t stop kissing him.
I never wanted to stop kissing him.
“Alright you two,” the judge said with a wink, “I do have some more people that would like to get married today.”
Laughter, and Blue pulled me into the shelter of his arms and turned us away from the judge, taking the manila envelope with our marriage documents inside from the clerk.
“Congratulations,” she said.
“Well now, we need to get back to the house,” my dad said. “Finish getting your stuff moved in.”
I laughed and said, “Dad, all he really has are clothes… we can’t do anything about the rest for now.” Blue and I had agreed that his bed needed to come but we weren’t sure how it would fit in my room. There was still so much up in the air and undecided and I was going just a little bit insane trying to keep track of and implement all of the changes happening all at once.
“We’ll figure everything out,” Blue murmured. “We have everything we could want, or need, and the rest? We’ll figure it out and let the chips fall where they may.”
He was right. We’d already survived some of the worst things that could happen to a couple. Anything else would be so small by comparison.
My dad drove us home, and when we pulled up, it was to a line of motorcycles backed up to the curb in front of our house. I blinked and asked, “What is going on?”
“Surprise,” Blue said from the backseat of my dad’s Explorer. I twisted around in my seat and blinked at him, his smile smug even as fiddle music lazed through the open car window from our backyard.
As soon as my father pulled up to the curb past the motorcycles, Blue leapt out of the back and opened my door for me. The way he did it screamed that I would likely never have to open a door for myself in his presence again and I thought how sweet that he does it. It was, too. It spoke of a man who was desperately trying to be all that a man should be, but I knew that the only real role models that he’d had growing up for what that was, was how men behaved on television and figuring out from his dad’s behavior exactly what it was not to do.
He took my hands and steadied me as I stepped out of the truck in my heels onto the grass and made sure I was safe getting onto the sidewalk. I smoothed down the front of my summer dress. It was more than a little bit country and I loved it. White eyelet material and form fitting around the bust with just enough give to the front to hide the small pooch of me just barely starting to show.
It had taken a while to get an appointment to get married, some kind of a backlog with the courts, so here it was, June but here we were… married and apparently having a party?
Blue led me around the side of the house down the gravel of the drive to the backyard which was indeed set up for a reception. I laughed as everyone turned and yelled ‘surprise!’ and covered my mouth with my hands as I flamed in a giant blush.
My dad pulled off his suit jacket and loosened his tie and I took in our fully transformed backyard.
A barbecue pit was in full swing at the back of the house with food piled high. Rush had put up a little gazebo for shade near the lilac bushes my mother had so loved. There was a table for two under it facing out over several freshly built picnic tables all of them decorated with flower arrangements that I could see from here weren’t flowers at all but carefully folded and hand crafted paper flowers done by Blue.
Two aluminum troughs filled with ice, beers, wine, water and soda flanked the back steps and Blue went and got me a bottle of chilled water before coming back to me as I just took everything in.
In the main part of the drive, a tent had been erected and a dance floor put down over the gravel. To one side a small stage and on it? The band from our first date.
I couldn’t help myself… I started to cry.
Laughter and a whole bunch of ‘awe!’ caught my ears as Blue pulled me against his chest and rubbed my back murmuring, “I love you and I wanted your day, the one we talked about, to be perfect.”
“I love you all so much!” I cried and there was applause. The singer for the band put his lips to the microphone and started to sing and I spent a good portion of my time having person after person come to me and shake my hand congratulating me.
Melody came up and I hugged her tightly. She had her camera around her neck and had been taking photos at the courthouse for us and said, “I’d love to get photos of you and Blue at your table.”
I stood with Blue who had done what I asked and had stayed in the attire I most loved him in. His jacket and cut over a clean white, form fitting tee tucked into his best jeans with his motorcycle boots on his feet.
Melody took pictures of us from every angle doing everything and I loved her for it, never in a million years being able to afford a professional photographer.
“Blue,” I murmured at one point, “I don’t know how we’re
going to pay for all of this!”
“Hush yer mouth,” Dragon said from behind me and I startled. “There ain’t nothing to pay for, darlin’ girl. This is the club’s gift to y’all.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Sunshine and Trig paid for the band, and Rush built all of the tables and the like which will get used back at the club. The food came from everybody. The cake from Mandy and Everett, the rings from Dani and Thirteen… Setup was all the club and anyone that didn’t have a hand in the reception, their wedding gift is whatever we need done work-wise for the nursery.” Blue explained.
“You’re family now, sweetheart, and in this family, not no one wants fer anything,” Dragon said,
I swallowed hard, choking up and sniffed.
“Aw, come on now, don’t do that!” he said and I laughed a little.
“Why not? It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.”
Blue and Dragon both let out surprised laughs at that, Dragon’s booming out far more than expected causing me to jump.
“I say it’s time for you two to have your first dance!” Dray called out and there was a lot of raucous cheering at that.
“I’d like that,” I murmured and Blue smiled at me.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Chapter 45
Blue
Taking Hayley into my arms for our first dance was just as magic as it’d been taking her into my arms for the very first time all those months ago at the Harvest Festival. The band started something slow for us, a lazy, easy, slide of the bow across the fiddle’s strings and I stepped, taking her lazily around the dance floor, Melody snapping away with her camera.
I tried really hard not to think about anybody watching us and instead, focused on Hayley’s upturned face, her lovely brown eyes following every line, every plane, and every angle of my face as if the answer to existence itself could be found there… it took me a minute to realize that for her, maybe it had… that maybe it was for her just like it was for me.
