Chapter Forty-Two
Parker
I stared into the mirror, not seeing myself. I wasn’t seeing anything at all. In my mind, I was talking to my mother.
Not my actual mother. But the mother I should have had. The mother I’d wanted. I’d made up the imaginary version of her years ago. The version I’d believed was real until the day she told me she didn’t believe me.
That was the day I realized she’d never baked a cookie. Never made lasagna from scratch. Never done homework with me or made a costume for a school play.
I couldn’t even remember her reading me a bedtime story.
My imaginary mother told me I looked beautiful in my wedding dress. That I was a perfect bride. She told me that a good marriage was based on trust and respect, not just love and passion. It was a partnership, she said, and not to get too carried away with the romance and sex.
Although, she added, the romance and sex were good too.
“Parker?”
I blinked and the fantasy was broken. Kelly, Michelle, Payton, and Cassie stood behind me, wearing identical blue dresses. They were real. They were my family now.
“We have something for you.”
“You do?”
“Yes,” Payton said with a wide smile. “You look so beautiful.”
I smiled and took her hand, holding her eyes in the mirror.
“Something old,” Kelly said, pinning a sparkly vintage barrette into my updo. I couldn’t help but ‘ohh’ at the effect. It added something so special, peeking out of my waves at the crown.
“Something new!” Payton piped up, handing me a white lace garter. We both giggled as I slid it up my right leg.
“Something borrowed,” said Michelle, holding up a necklace. It was the one she wore every day, a heart-shaped diamond solitaire on a gold chain. I almost cried as she fastened it behind me.
“Are you sure, Michelle?”
She nodded.
“Of course, I’m sure! But I want it back,” she teased. I took her hand and squeezed it.
Cassandra was next.
“Something blue,” she said simply, handing me a jewelry box. I popped it open and sighed. It was a simple gold bracelet. There were sparkly blue stones set in small, uneven settings that clung to the individual shape of each stone. It was organic and lovely and special. The stones looked like . . .
“Raw sapphires,” Kelly added. “It’s from all of us.”
My jaw dropped, staring at the jewelry box.
“It’s too much! I can’t accept this.”
“You can, and you will,” Cass said, raising her eyebrows. She crossed her arms. Michelle nodded and Kelly lifted her stubborn little chin. Even Payton gave me the stink eye.
“We’re sisters. Sisters get each other nice things,” she informed me. I nodded tearfully and held the box out to her. Payton lifted the bracelet, setting it carefully over my wrist and fastening it in the back.
My eyes were rapidly filling with tears as I pulled Payton in for a long hug.
“I’m going to cry,” Kelly wailed, flapping her hands in front of her face.
“Group hug,” Cass announced.
I was laughing and crying as everyone squeezed me from all sides, careful not to mess up my hair.
‘Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t give you a lot of eye makeup,” Kelly said five minutes later when the waterworks had finally stopped. She dabbed a tissue underneath my eyes and stood back.
“No real damage at all. I’ll just add a little powder underneath and a tiny bit of shadow . . .” I held still while she repaired my eye makeup and then fixed her own. We’d all had a good cry. Michelle hadn’t been wearing eye makeup, and Cass had done her own. So in no time at all, we were ready.
Really and truly ready, I realized as it hit me all at once.
This was happening. I was marrying the love of my life. He loved me just as I was, scars and all.
Just like I loved him.
Shane was perfect as he was, even if he was determined to change things. I thought he was the best man alive. I didn’t care that he used to like to brawl and raise hell, even though I worried about him getting hurt. But I didn’t have to worry anymore. He had given up brawling for me. And he was determined to start something new. A business. Not just running the club and coasting on his inheritance.
I was proud of him, no matter what he did.
“Are you ready?” Payton asked, looking so sweet in her pretty pink dress and carrying her little basket of rose petals.
“Yes, sweetheart.” I took her hand. “Let’s go.”
The restaurant was elegant to begin with. The hotel wedding planner had sweetened the place up even more with white flowers and candles everywhere. It was the swankiest hotel for miles around here, according to my friends. Kelly had picked the place and then blushed when I’d asked her how she found it.