Authors: Amanda Heath
This makes everyone laugh and Alexis drops right in front of me. She cups my face and looks into my eyes. “Are you sure?”
I roll my eyes at her. “If I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have asked.”
She smiles softly and leans in to give me a kiss. Her lips soft and open, inviting me in. We kiss for a while and I take that as my answer. She doesn’t always have to say yes; all she has to do is kiss me.
“Gross! No one said there was going to be kissing. Why are they always kissing?” Talia breaks into my pleasant thoughts.
Alexis and I break apart and look over to Talia, who sticks her tongue out at us. Marley has a hand on her shoulder, shaking from the laughter. Beau, Jason and Reed don’t fare much better.
“I get to walk her down the aisle,” Jason says, puffing his chest out at Beau.
“Bullshit, I’m the oldest, I get to do it,” he tells Jason, putting on his stern father face. None of us know where he learned that look, considering he hasn’t been around many kids in his adult life.
“You’re both wrong,” Marley says, crossing his arms against his chest. “She’s under my protection, so it’s my job.”
Then Talia narrows her eyes and puts her hands on her hips. “I’m walking her down the aisle. I don’t really know what that means, but she’s my momma and my word is law.” She mimics words I’ve heard Alexis say to her.
“Whatever, she didn’t even say yes. I think y’all are getting ahead of yourselves,” Claire butts in, walking up to Reed and wrapping her arms around his waist.
“She didn’t need to say yes. She was eating his face off, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen her kiss him like that before,” Jason tells everyone. At least he’s using his logic skills today.
“You know I’m going to marry you, right?” Alexis wraps her arms around my neck and puts her face close to me. “I’m going to marry the shit out of you.”
“I know.” I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her cheek before pulling back. “I just asked permission first and then asked you out of courtesy. I was just going to drag you down the aisle but I didn’t think that would go over too well.”
She giggles, leaning in to kiss me gently. “Yeah, I don’t think I would have liked that too much.”
“Jason, you can’t walk her down the aisle because you’re going to be the best man. So just take your name out of the hat,” Beau says. I turn to look and see that they actually have a hat and some paper strips.
“I can so do both. What are you talking about?”
Claire pushes him aside, throwing a piece of paper into the hat. “The whole point of a best man is so you can stand up for your best friend, that means being at his side the whole time, moron.”
“You’re just jealous,” he spits out like a child.
“Please. Like I’m jealous of you and all your nonsense.”
“Jason, you’re not putting your name in. End of story. Both of you just shut up,” Beau throws in.
Claire and Jason both narrow their eyes at him and I swear they are shooting daggers at him.
“They’re actually putting their names in a hat to see who walks me down the aisle?” Alexis laughs against my neck, where she’s buried her face.
“At least they’re not fighting over who gets to be the flower girl.”
“Oh God, at least there’s that.”
“Your family is weird. I’m not sure I can go through with this,” I say with a smile.
She slaps my arm before lifting her face and looking into my eyes. “They’re your family too. So don’t even put that one me.” We stand up together, our arms still wrapped around each other. “Which one did you ask permission?”
“Well, at first I thought about asking Jason. Then I thought that wasn’t right, so then I thought Beau, but that didn’t feel right either. Then Marley walked into the kitchen, so I asked him.” And my nerves were going crazy while I did it too. “He told me I’d already passed my background check and he thought I was a good guy so he gave me permission. And that felt right.”
“Marley’s walking me down the aisle!” Alexis announces, pulling away from me and looking at the group that makes up our family.
“Boo!” says Jason with a pout on his face.
“Whatever,” Beau states.
“Momma, that’s not fair!” Talia shouts.
“I told you guys. No one ever listens to me,” Marley mutters.
I just shake my head. They might be dysfunctional, but they are our family and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.
I wrap my arm around my fiancé and I lead her away from the still squabbling people we love the most. We walk hand in hand to my car, where I help her into the passenger seat even though she doesn’t need help.
I enter the driver’s seat soon after and I grab her hand and kiss it. Then I pull the ring out of the box and slip it onto her left hand ring finger. It twinkles in the sunlight, almost blinding me.
Then we drive off into the sunset hand in hand.
The End
About the author
Amanda Heath is from southern Arkansas where she lives with her husband and spawn. She spends most of her time watching Netflix and petting her co-dependent dog. She loves to read and she loves to her write but not as much as she loves Dean Winchester. She loves to hear from readers so feel free to contact her on Facebook or by email.