He smiled at me and asked, “Are you ready, Miss Birk?”
I nodded my head and walked over to stand next to Garrett. My heart was pounding a mile a minute. I couldn’t believe I was fixin’ to become Mrs. Garrett Thomas Mathews.
Garrett held my hand and quickly rubbed his thumb back and forth across my skin. Each movement left a trail of fire in its place.
As the justice of the peace started the ceremony, Garrett and I stared into each other’s eyes. I wasn’t even sure what all was being said. All I knew was that we were getting married, and there would be no more sneaking around. We were free to be with each other. I could now take care of Garrett and help him with his recovery—in more ways than one.
Garrett gave me a smirk and lifted his eyebrow at me. My face instantly turned red. He must have known what I was thinking.
“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride, Garrett.”
Garrett licked his lips, and my insides melted.
Oh, how I want him more than anything.
I leaned down, and Garrett slipped his hand through my hair. He held me close to him as we kissed. He moved his tongue along my lips, seeking entry, and I opened myself up to his passionate kiss. Soon, we were lost in each other…until I heard my father clear his throat. I smiled against Garrett’s lips and pulled slightly away.
“I love you, Emma Rose Mathews.”
My heart soared. “I love you more, Garrett.”
Emma stopped just short of the restaurant.
I turned and looked at her. “Em, what’s wrong?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I said such horrible things to Marg. What if she doesn’t forgive me?”
I pulled her into my arms. “Trust me, Margie misses you like crazy. It’s been four months since you’ve seen her. Now, come on. They’re waiting inside.”
We were meeting Billy and Margie in Fredericksburg for dinner. It was the first time the girls would be seeing each other since the night of the fight. I was still having a hard time moving around, but I was slowly making a go of things.
As we walked in, I saw Billy stand up. He was grinning from ear to ear, and I couldn’t help but smile. We made our way to the table, and Margie jumped up.
“Emma Rose,” she whispered.
It didn’t take long before they were in each other’s arms. Billy and I both let out a sigh of relief.
Thank you, God.
They had both been so unhappy during the last few months.
Billy smiled and winked at me as he held out his hand. “How are you feeling, Garrett?”
“Sore still in my ribs, and my leg is giving me a bit of trouble, but other than that, I’m slowly getting back to it. You?”
His smile faded slightly before it came back. “I’m a hundred percent now.”
I nodded my head. “Good. I’m glad to hear that.”
We all took our seats, and within seconds, Emma let out a small scream. Everyone in the restaurant looked over at us.
Emma said, “Oh, I’m so sorry.”
I looked at Emma. She was staring down at Margie’s hand.
I snapped my head up and looked at Billy. “Congratulations, Billy! When did this happen?”
Margie and Emma were lost in conversation—something about dress shopping and where the wedding would be held. They were making my head spin.
“I asked her a month ago. She didn’t want me to tell you because she wanted to be the one to tell Emma.” Billy glanced over at the girls and smiled. “They seemed to have just fallen right back into place.”
I glanced over at the girls and smiled. I looked back at Billy.
He leaned back and asked, “So, when are y’all planning on having the wedding?”
Emma and Margie stopped talking, and they both turned to look at me.
“Ah…”
Emma smiled as she gave me a wink. We hadn’t really talked about when we would reschedule the wedding. Our focus had mainly been on my slow recovery from all my broken bones and the work on the ranch.
I shrugged. “I guess that’s up to Em.”
“I’d like for Garrett to be fully recovered and for things to settle a bit since he is taking over more and more with the ranch.” She looked at Margie and took her hand. “Besides, we have another wedding to plan first.”
Margie wrapped Emma up in a hug, and both girls began crying. Finally, things were getting back to normal.
January 1962
I slowly made my way down to the barn. I was still trying to recover from the fight I had been in last summer, and my leg was giving me hell this morning. I glanced up and saw my father standing there.
He smiled and said, “Leg giving you problems today?”
I shrugged and nodded. I didn’t want to tell him that it was probably because I had taken my wife against the wall and then again in the kitchen.
“It’s just stiff. I have to move around for a bit, and it will loosen up,” I said. I walked over to Jack and gave him a scoop full of oats. “You ready for the wedding?” I asked as I looked over at David shoeing a horse. Every time I had to shoe a horse, I thought of my father, and I knew that was why David did most of the shoeing.
He laughed. “Yes, I am. Your mother is not looking forward to heading into Austin though.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Billy doing okay? The last time I talked to him, he sounded like he was taking something to make him talk stupid.”
David laughed. “You wait until this summer, boy, when you get married.”
I turned around and walked over to him. “I am married. The wedding this summer is going to be a piece of cake. Why would I be nervous?”
David looked up at me, and I could tell he was holding back his laughter.
“You don’t think you will be nervous, son?”
I shook my head. “No, Dad, I really don’t.”
He chuckled. “Want to wager a bet on that?”
I smiled and ran my hand through my hair. “What are you suggesting?”
David stood up and appeared to be thinking before he smiled and said, “If you get nervous at all…during any portion of the wedding…at the reception, you have to stand up and give me a toast, saying how wise I am and that you’d be lost without my words of wisdom.”
My smile faded. I said, “You’re shitting me, right?”
He laughed harder as I looked over and saw my beautiful bride walking my way. She was carrying a tray with glasses of sweet tea on it. My heart began beating faster as she smiled at me, and I was instantly brought back to this morning when she had been on top of me, making love to me so slowly and sweetly.
She stopped in front of me, and I leaned down to kiss her.
She pulled back some and whispered, “I can totally tell you’re thinking of either this morning or perhaps last night.”
Lord, this girl kills me. My dick jumped in my pants, and I had to force myself not to drag her back to the house and have my way with her.
She bit down on her lower lip. “I’m going to work in the garden for a bit, but I wanted to bring y’all out some tea before it got too hot out.”
She set the tray down. She turned and started walking out of the barn, but then she looked back over her shoulder at me once.
David walked up to me and used his finger to shut my mouth. “Flies are gonna get in there, son,” he said with a chuckle.
I slowly shook my head and turned to watch him pick up a glass and drink the tea. “How do they do that? How can she just say one thing to me, and I go all pussy-ass pansy?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m guessing y’all are still on the honeymoon?”
I reached for the glass and took a drink. “Something like that.”
David downed his tea. “Ah hell, I forgot that I needed to take care of something over at the house. No one else is working today. You going to be okay, Garrett?”
I turned and looked at him. “Where is everyone?”
David shrugged and laughed. “I g
uess everyone needed a day off.” He reached down and grabbed his cowboy hat. He walked up to me. “Take the day off, son. Enjoy it with Emma.”
The next thing I knew, I was watching him drive away. I made my way into the house and to our bedroom. I smiled when I saw our quilt sitting on the chair in the corner. I walked over, grabbed it, and reached into the drawer to pull out a condom before I remembered that Emma was now on birth control. I was still leery about something so new, but Emma had insisted that it worked. My biggest worry was Em getting pregnant before our wedding ceremony.
I headed out the back door and smiled when I saw Emma leaning over and bitching at the weeds. I slowly opened the gate to the garden and made my way over to her. I grabbed her, spun her around, and quickly kissed her. Soon, we were both lost in the kiss.
When we finally pulled away for air, she looked down at the quilt and then back up at me. “Mr. Mathews, what do you have in mind with that quilt?”
“Hmm…burying myself so deep inside you that you feel my presence there for the next few days.”
Emma’s eyes burned with desire, and I couldn’t help but smile. I knew how much it turned her on when I talked a little dirty to her.
She closed her eyes. “Garrett…I need you.”
I quickly grabbed her hand and began pulling her out the gate.
She pulled me to a stop and said, “Wait!”
I turned around. “Emma, my dick is so hard that it’s painful.”
She smiled and looked over toward the barn before turning back and looking at me. “You said something to me once, and ever since then, I’ve been fantasizing about it.”
I looked at the barn and tried to remember if I’d ever said anything about having sex in the barn.
Then, it hit me.
“The day you told me your parents were moving to Austin,” I whispered.
She nodded her head and put her finger in her mouth.
I let out a small moan. “Shit, Emma.”
She began walking backward, and as the flush moved across her cheeks, she smiled. “I want to be fucked against the barn, Garrett.”
I dropped the quilt and quickly walked up to her. I picked her up in my arms, and she instantly slammed her lips to mine. I practically ran to the barn. I walked in and pushed an empty stall door open and set her down. I quickly began undressing her while she fumbled with my pants.
“Jesus, Emma…what you do to me.” I ripped my shirt open and stripped out of it. I quickly pushed her hands away and pulled my pants down, exposing myself to her. I watched as her eyes widened with delight.
She shimmied out of her knickers, and before she had them off her feet, I was picking her up and pushing her against the barn wall.
“Garrett…please…” she said. Her breathing picked up, coming in and out faster and heavier.
I pushed myself into her, and we both let out a moan at the same time. She felt so good.
“Damn, it feels so good to be inside you with no condom,” I hissed through my teeth.
“Yes! Garrett, please…” she said as she snapped her head and looked into my eyes.
“Tell me what you want from me, Emma,” I said as I slowed down to almost a stop.
“Garrett, move…God, please move.”
“Tell me, Em…tell me what you want.”
Emma closed her eyes and bit down on her lower lip. Then, she opened her eyes and smiled. “Fuck me, Garrett. Hard. Please. I want to feel you for the next few days.”
There was nothing sexier than my sweet and innocent wife telling me to fuck her hard. I gave her everything she’d asked for and more. As she started to scream out in pleasure, I let my release go. Pouring myself into her body was one of the most amazing things ever. I couldn’t wait until the day we made a child together.
We stood there for a few minutes, attempting to catch our breaths. I rested my forehead against hers and let out a laugh.
She giggled. “What’s so funny?”
I shook my head and looked around. “I just fucked you in our barn. Anyone could have walked in and seen us.”
She bit down on her lower lip so hard that it was turning white. I reached up and pulled it out from between her teeth.
“You’re so beautiful, Emma. You steal my breath away every time I look at you, and you make me want to be a better man.”
“You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever known, Garrett. I’d be lost without you,” Emma whispered as she brushed her fingers through my hair. “Take me to bed, Mr. Mathews, and make love to me.”
I smiled and gently put her down. As we slowly got dressed, I watched her every move. I still couldn’t believe she was mine. I stopped and just watched her as she got dressed and attempted to fix her hair.
She looked at me and tilted her head. “What?”
I shook my head as I reached for her and pulled her to me. “The first time I ever saw you, I knew.”
She smiled that sweet, innocent smile, and her eyes lit up. “You knew what?”
“That someday you would be my wife. I knew that I’d wake up every morning and roll over to breathe in your heavenly scent. I knew you would taste sweeter than honey and that you would invade my thoughts every waking moment. I dreamed of making love to you while your belly was swollen with our child.”
A tear was slowly making a path down her perfect face, and I brushed it away. “I knew I would love you for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, Garrett…” Emma choked back a sob. “If only I hadn’t been so foolish.”
I smiled as I reached down and picked her up. I carried her to our house while she buried her face into my chest.
She placed her hand on my chest and said, “I can feel your heart beating.”
“It only beats for you,” I said. I reached for the door, and pushed it open with my foot.
I carried Emma through the house and into our bedroom. After I placed her down on the bed, I closed my eyes and thought back to the very moment when I’d walked through the door to the drugstore, and I’d seen her. When I opened my eyes, she was already naked and lying on our bed.
“The first moment I saw you, Garrett Mathews, I knew my life would never be the same. Those feelings that rushed through my body that day still rush through my body every time you look at me. I’ve never in my life loved someone like I love you.”
I gently moved onto the bed, and I began kissing every inch of my wife until she was begging me to make love to her. We spent the rest of the day in bed, talking and making love, only leaving once to eat.
“Tell me you love me, Em,” I whispered as I ran my fingers up and down her back.
“I love you, Garrett.”
“Marry me.”
She pushed off my chest and let out a giggle as she looked into my eyes. “When?”
I smiled and looked up, like I was thinking. “How fast can you plan a wedding?”
“Are we going on a honeymoon?” she asked as she wiggled her eyebrows up and down.
“I’ll take you wherever you want to go, Buttercup.”
She smiled bigger. “July. Let’s get married in July.”
I quickly rolled her over and slowly slid inside her, and she let out a slow, soft moan.
As I gently made love to Emma, I whispered in her ear, telling her all the ways I would make love to her on our honeymoon. When she began calling out my name, I pushed in deeper, and I was so overcome with the most intense orgasm of my life that I almost cried. I stayed inside her for a good ten minutes before I rolled over and pulled her to me. I closed my eyes and began drifting off to sleep as I dreamed about Emma walking down the aisle dressed in white.
July 1962
“Emma, why are you so nervous? Y’all have been married for a year already,” Margie said as she messed with my hair.
I looked down at my hands, and they were shaking. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my beating heart. It felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest.
“Emma?”
I turned around a
nd saw my mother standing in the doorway. The moment I saw her, I jumped up and walked into her arms. I tried desperately not to cry, but the second her perfume hit me, I began crying.
“Oh, baby girl. Now, why are you crying? This is far better than your little bedside wedding last year.” She winked as she pushed a piece of my hair back.
“Oh, Mother. This last year with Garrett has been amazing, but for some reason, this wedding makes it feel so real, like maybe before we were just playing house. Now…well, now—”
“You’re truly going to be his?” my mother said with a smile.
I nodded my head and whispered, “Yes, that’s how it feels.”
My mother let out a small laugh as she guided me back over to the chair. I sat down, and Margie began messing with the curls framing my face.
My mother let out a sigh. “You look breathtaking, Emma Rose. Garrett is going to pass out when he sees you.”
Margie let out a chuckle. “I’m pretty sure Garrett is going to want to, um…er…uh…” She looked at my mother and down at me.
I couldn’t help myself. I wasn’t going to let it go. “He’s going to want to what, Marg?” I asked as I raised my eyebrow.
“Um…you know. I’m just so glad I’m here for this wedding. Aunt Maria, did you see how beautiful the flowers are? They’re so fresh,” Margie said in an attempt to cover up what she had been about to say.
I let out a giggle and rolled my eyes. I glanced down at Margie’s stomach and placed my hand on it. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I whispered.
Margie placed her hand on top of mine and said, “So am I.”
It hadn’t taken me long to forgive Marg after the incident last year, and things had gotten back to normal fairly quickly. Now, Margie and Billy were expecting their first baby in six months.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
She starting placing pins in my hair, and she let out a sigh. “Sick as a dog. I’ve never thrown up so much in my life, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”
My mother laughed. “It is all worth it in the end.”
After a few more touches on my makeup, I was led over to the other side of the room where my wedding dress was hanging up. My mother had spared no expenses when it came to my wedding dress. It was fashioned after Grace Kelly’s wedding dress, and I had to admit that it was beautiful, even with the rounded collar. In keeping with the whole theme, the full skirt was made of ivory peau de soie, and the fitted bodice was a Duchesse lace embroidered with small white pearls. The yards of silk taffeta making the dress still baffled my mind. I smiled when I looked at my petticoat. My mother and aunt had spent hours sewing blue satin bows onto it, again fashioning after Grace Kelly’s petticoat.
A Forever Love Page 15
