Society Weddings (Corrigan & Co. Book 11) (3 page)

“I’ll never give up on you,” he tells me
softly. “But I can only be your whipping boy for so long before
there’s nothing left of me.”

My eyes fill with tears as he gets up and
walks to his dresser. I don’t move as he pulls out a t-shirt and
basketball shorts. “Where are you going?”

“I need to clear my head. I’m going to the
school for a little bit. I have some recipes I should work on
before the next session starts.”

Gavin opened a free cooking school for low
income students after everything happened with his mom. It’s been
open for almost two years, and he’s had to hire eight other chefs
to keep up with the demand of students who want to learn. He always
oversees the menus for each session, so I know he’s telling the
truth about having work to do. But I also know he’s going there to
avoid me. I deserve it after the way I’ve been acting, but it still
hurts.

“I could help,” I say, my voice wobbling a
little.

He hears that wobble, and immediately turns
around. “I love you, Faith. Never doubt that. I just need a little
time alone to get my head sorted out.”

“Okay.” It’s not, but I’m responsible for
what’s happening, so I can’t really argue. “I love you, too.”

“I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t know
that. I’ll be back in a few hours. Try and get some rest.”

He walks over and wipes away the tears
falling from my eyes as he kisses me. I hold onto his wrists for a
moment, not wanting to let him go. I know he’ll come back, but I
still hate that he has to leave. I need to get my head together,
and remember that it’s the marriage and not the wedding that’s
important.

I force myself to get up and take a shower
after Gavin leaves. I can’t eat breakfast, though. Just the thought
of food makes me ill. That alone tells me I’m making the wrong
choices. I only stop eating—and cooking—when my life is in extreme
turmoil. Times like now.

There’s a knock at my door, and I brace
myself for another lecture from one of my friends. They all agree
with Gavin, telling me I should stand up to my grandparents and
have the wedding of my dreams. They don’t understand, and I’m tired
of trying to explain myself.

When I open the door, it’s not my friends on
the other side. “Grandfather? Grandmother? What are you doing
here?”

“We had no choice but to come here,” my
grandfather says, squeezing my arm as they walk past me into the
living room.

“Why? I’m doing everything you ask of
me?”

“And that is the problem,” my grandmother
says. “Where is the strong girl who stands up to us when she knows
we are wrong?”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Yes, we are. You don’t want a fully
traditional wedding, and we don’t really want that for you either,”
my grandfather tells me.

“What?”

“We wanted you to finally stand up to us
again. You are not to blame for what happened, Faith, and we were
hoping if we pushed you on this, you’d finally be yourself with us
again,” my grandmother explains.

“But instead, you are pushing Gavin away
because you are so unhappy.”

I turn to my grandfather.
“You’ve talked to Gavin? Did he make you come here and say these
things?” If he did, we are going to have a problem. A
big
problem.

“You really think I would threaten your
grandparents in any way?” Gavin asks, standing in the doorway,
looking angrier than I’ve ever seen him look before.

I’m too far gone in my
guilt and pity party to recognize that I’m still pushing
him
too far, so I just
keep going. “There’s no other explanation as to why they’d come
here and say these things to me.”

“If you truly believe that, then there’s no
reason for us to get married.”

No. Oh my God, no. “You don’t mean
that.”

“Yeah, Faith I do. I can’t marry a woman who
would rather accuse me of wanting to hurt the people she loves than
face the truth. You are punishing yourself for things that aren’t
your fault, and until you accept that you’re human and can’t
control everything in everyone’s life, we don’t have a future.”

“I don’t like ultimatums.”

“And I don’t like being marginalized by the
woman I love. Again.”

Have I done that? Yeah, I have. “I’m
sorry.”

“So am I.”

“Please don’t leave me. We can put off the
wedding if you want, but please don’t break up with me.”

I know it’s not PC or very liberated of me,
but right now I don’t care. I may be a mess about everything else,
but I know that I’m a strong, kick-ass woman. And I also know that
I need Gavin. Not to fill some part of my life that society thinks
he should, but because I love him. I don’t need a man to define me,
but I need the one who completes me.

“I don’t want to put off the wedding. Hell,
I’d run to the nearest chapel and have Elvis marry us right now.
But I can’t fight the ghosts who are holding you hostage. I’m just
a man. A mere mortal.”

“You’re everything to me. I’ll run with you
to that chapel if you need me to prove it to you.”

“You’d do that? What about your
grandparents?”

I turn to look at them, seeing that they
look as scared as I feel. I know they love Gavin. “I’m going to
marry Gavin today. We can try to find a Chinese looking
chapel.”

They nod, and then I’m pulled into a strong
set of arms. “I don’t need to get married today. I just need you to
be happy on our wedding day. Happier than you’ve ever been
before.”

I tell him the truth. “Every day with you
makes me happier than I’ve ever been before.”

* * *

Gavin

Saying that the last few weeks have been
crazy would be an understatement. Once Faith admitted that she
deserved her dream wedding, it was full steam ahead. With all of
her friends rallying around her, Faith has pulled it off. And so
have I. I have some surprises for her, and I can’t wait for her to
see them.

I stop in the kitchen at Cyndi’s Vegas home,
which she offered us for the wedding. She still lives in Chicago,
but she bought this place when Corrigan & Co. moved its
headquarters here. It’s got a lush, beautiful garden, despite being
in the middle of the desert, and Stella has turned it into Faith’s
dream. I looked out the back windows when I walked in, and saw
Chinese lanterns and modern centerpieces. Once I check on the food,
I’ll take a closer look at everything else.

“Is everything going okay?” I ask Levi. He
was one of the first teens to graduate from my cooking program, and
now he works for us part-time while he attends college.

“Yeah, man. It’s pretty much perfect. We all
know how important the food is for you and Faith. We’ve got
this.”

“I know you do. Thank you.”

“Nothing to thank me for. You know how much
you’ve helped me with your program. This is the least I can do,” he
tells me with a smile. “Your ingredients are all ready for
you.”

“Thanks.”

I greet the other guys and girls working in
the kitchen. It really does mean a lot to me to have my students
and former students prepare the appetizers and meal Faith and I
created for tonight. Her grandfather should be here soon to help me
with what I want to create. It’s a special meal for the two of us,
one that will mean more than just something good to eat.

“Sorry I’m late, Gavin. Traffic was
horrible,” Faith’s grandfather says, rushing into the room.

“It’s fine. I have everything prepped. We
just need to put it together, and then I can go and get changed.
Wouldn’t want to keep Faith waiting at the altar.”

“No. We definitely don’t want that.”

We work together, with him showing me how to
do the things I’m not sure of, and me doing the same with him. When
it’s done, we both take a few bites, and decide that everything is,
in fact, perfect.

“Thank you for helping me with this.”

“Of course. This dinner is something very
special for both you and Faith. She will be very touched that you
thought of this.”

I hope so. I don’t have time to dwell on
whether she will or not as I hurry through getting ready. I change
into my suit, and dress shoes, before heading out to take my place
under the elaborate arch that’s been erected. As I turn towards the
assembling crowd, I see that Faith has had photos of our fathers
placed on chairs in the front row. I also notice her mother is
already seated, and we smile at each other. Faith’s grandparents
will be walking her down the aisle to me, and as I hear the music
for the bridesmaids starting, I turn to the men next to me and
smirk, knowing they’re all anxious to see their ladies.

There is no best man and no maid of honor.
Our friends are equally important to us, and we weren’t going to
try and pick one to have a special place of honor. Faith’s girls
have been with her for years, and their guys have become my best
friends. It’s an honor for us that they want to share the special
night with us, and as I see Alex start down the aisle in a white
dress, I wonder what else Faith has in store for tonight. I can’t
wait to find out.

* * *

Faith

In a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride
will change at least twice. She starts with a red dress, changes to
an “Western” white dress, and then wears a ball gown. Because I’m
me—more modern than traditional—I flipped this part of the
tradition on its head. I’m wearing a deep maroon dress that is
almost purple for the wedding. It’s sleeveless lace from my
collarbone to my thighs, with sheer organza falling from there to
trail behind me on the floor. My bridesmaids are the ones in white.
Sleeveless organza dresses with some swirling pattern on them.
Their dresses start at the neck, and after a fitted top half with
an overlay, they flare out a little. Not exactly to a princess
silhouette, but not mirroring my own, either. After the ceremony,
I’ll change into a fire engine red gown. It’s also sleeveless, with
a mix of shiny fabric with a subtler satin pattern, ending in
layers of tulle from thigh to floor. I’m still covering all the
bases, just not in the expected way. Totally me.

Stella hands me my bouquet, which is white
lilies with some green and red flowers behind it. I don’t ask her
what kind of flowers they are, because that isn’t important to me.
The flowers are beautiful, and perfect, and I thank her for them,
and for everything she did to help me pull this together. My
bridesmaids line up, holding the fans they’re carrying instead of
flowers, and as I watch them go, I feel myself tear up.

My grandmother hands me a tissue. “I hope
those are happy tears.”

“You know they are.”

“He is a good man.”

“The best.”

She nods, and then my music
starts. Instead of the traditional wedding march, I’m going with a
Chinese C-Pop wedding song. Kace helped me arrange for the singer
to be here and perform it for us. My grandparents take their places
beside me, and we begin to walk. My steps falter when I see Gavin.
He’s wearing a Mandarin coat, with a patterned vest underneath.
From old wedding pictures, I know he is dressed exactly how my
father was when he married my mother. As I walk closer, I realize
that the vest is
exactly
the same design as my father wore. I have to bite
my lip to keep from openly sobbing at this beautiful gesture from
him. He smiles so brightly at me that my feet automatically start
moving again.

Gavin holds out his hand for mine as we
reach him, and after they both kiss my cheeks, my grandparents take
my right hand and place it in his. “Thank you for the most
beautiful gift of your granddaughter,” he tells them. The feminist
in me wants to yell at him for saying that, but the romantic woman
who is in love with him overpowers her to swoon a little.

“You’re wearing…”

“Is it okay? Stella was able to find the
vest at a vintage shop.”

“It’s perfect. Thank you.”

“You’re
perfect. You look amazingly gorgeous.”

“Thank you.”

“We should probably get married now,” he
tells me with a smile.

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

The ceremony is a traditional Western one,
but I have something planned at the end. Before we walk down the
aisle, I turn to Gavin, speaking loud enough for those gathered
with us to hear. “I wanted to do something that would honor our
fathers, and also let our friends honor any loved ones they’ve
lost.”

“I love that you want to include
everyone.”

“I do,” I tell him, giving him a kiss before
I turn back to the guests. “Everyone, please join us in the front
of the house. We are going to light lanterns and send them into the
sky for our loved ones who have passed on.”

We lead everyone to the front, and light our
lanterns first, letting them float out of our hands and into the
night sky. My friends all do the same. The Corrigans light theirs
together, and then I see Matt light another one, and I know it is
for the man he accidentally killed. Reina wraps her arms around him
as he lets it go. It’s a beautiful sight, the sea of lanterns
floating through the air. Gavin turns me to him, and kisses me
again. “Beautiful.”

“They are.”

“I meant you.”

“Oh, well thank you.”

“Candi’s motioning us over for pictures, and
then we can have dinner.”

“I can’t wait. I’m sure your students did
justice to our recipes.”

“They did. I checked in on them before I got
dressed.”

“I’m sure you did,” I say with a laugh, as
we walk over to join the rest of the wedding party.

We take our pictures while the guests inside
enjoy some appetizers, and a traditional lion dance. I change into
my red gown, and Candi takes candid pictures of us as we walk in to
cheers. The lion leads us to our table for two. Our friends and my
family are seated around us, but there are too many to include at
one table. Gavin really wanted it to be just the two of us, and
after driving him crazy over the wedding, I wasn’t going to argue
with him over this. Especially since eating between us is always
very intimate, no matter where we are.