And when I step toward her and her mouth meets mine, it's more than a kiss. It's the beginning of a life.
Afterwards, we dance in that big red barn. The music now isn't a harp. It's a big old band, and everyone's having a hooting and hollering time. My cousins, Cash and Williams especially, are getting down.
Abby asks if this is everything I imagined. "It's more than I imagined," I tell her. "It's everything. And what about you? You're the bride."
She laughs. "This is beyond my wildest dreams. But you know we still have our wedding night. And I’ve had plenty of dreams about that too."
"Now have you?" I ask, holding my girl ever so tightly, kissing her again, hard.
My cousin Cash whistles, and Abby laughs. "Oh my God. Those Rowdy boys really are rowdy. They think they're at a party, not a wedding."
"You want me to go Rough ‘em up?"
"No, I don't want you to go rough them up, but maybe you need to go rough up Rye.”
We look over at my brother in the corner. He's drinking a beer, growling about something.
“You think Rye has a chance of ever being happy?" Abby asks.
"You want to know what I heard?"
She nods as I swing her around the dance floor. "My father is about to send him off to our old family hunting cabin in the Rough Valley."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I heard him talking to Grandpa Reynolds before the wedding, saying if Rye doesn't snap out of it, he's going to send him to the cabin to clear his head because he is in one bad mood."
"You mean like send him out to the sticks alone and tell him not to come back until he’s able to be nice?"
"I don't know. Look, he looks like he's going to argue with anyone who gets too close. He needs someone to soften him up."
"Or screw him silly," Abby says.
"I like what you're thinking." I give her another kiss, more than ever ready to drag her out of this place altogether.
Soon enough, I can. And I do.
We make our way to the Home Away From Home Bed and Breakfast. Hijinx is happily spending some time with Plum and Rueben while we're away in Hawaii for our honeymoon next week. But before we can get to the warm, sunny beaches of Maui, we have one night here together.
"Funny, if I had been able to stay at this bed and breakfast that first night in town, maybe I would've never ended up with you," Abby says as we enter the quiet lodgings.
Mary hands us our keys without another word, knowing this night is ours. She looks away, probably not wanting to think about what's going to happen next. I appreciate her discretion and realize she's probably had to do a lot of looking away over the years, managing a hotel.
"I think I would've ended up with you no matter what, Abby. You and me, we are a perfect pair. Remember?"
"Oh, I remember," she says as I scoop her up from the floor and carry her to our room, unlocking the door and carrying her past the threshold to the bed. She laughs as I move on top of her, toward her, into her, filling her, taking her. "Oh my God," she moans.
Naked before me, my bride wears nothing except a veil in her hair. "You look so beautiful," I tell her. "Head to toe perfection."
She runs a hand over the scar on my shoulder where the bullet met my bone. "I love you so much, Bartlett," she tells me, wrapping her arms around my neck, her naked body against my naked body, her skin, my skin.
We move as one to the bed, my lips on hers, kissing her deeply, knowing that this night is one I will never forget.
She is my memories from here on out.
We move together, her body linked for eternity with mine.
I touch her, fingering her and licking her and making her wet, making her moan and making her happy in a way she deserves.