Page 83 of All I Have Left

EVIE

Y our wedding day is supposed to be peaceful and everything goes smoothly because it’s well, your wedding day.

Are you laughing? I bet you are because it’s been my experience, from the one wedding I was in, it did not go down like that. In fact, the only mellow part about Ethan and Frankie’s wedding was the part where they said their vows. Everything else had been a clusterfuck.

That’s also the night Grayson and I almost broke up.

Now here we were, our own wedding day, and nothing is going as planned. The caterer showed up late and the florist delivered black roses instead of pink.

“Did he think he was coming to a funeral?” I ask, staring at the very large display of roses.

Frankie snorts, holding one of the roses up. “That can’t be a good sign.”

“What? Really? Do you think it’s bad luck for our marriage?”

“No way.” Julia waves her hand around. “Don’t let her freak you out.”

“I’m sorry,” Frankie says, shifting Wesley, who’s crying because she won’t let him eat the rose, to her other hip. “I think I’m just tired.”

After the black roses incident, Grayson sees me the morning of our wedding, because he says not seeing the bride before the wedding is an old wives’ tale and doesn’t mean shit. He also admits to not know what an old wives’ tale is.

I’m not entirely sure I agree with him, but I go with it because I don’t want to fight with him about it.

Also, I think some of the silly traditions that come with weddings are just weird.

Wear something blue? Uh, no. I won’t. It’s not my color.

And besides that, my damn bouquet is fucking black because of the mess up.

Grayson also objects to our guest list of what he said would only be family. He tried to tell Frankie she couldn’t come, but as you can imagine, that didn’t work in his favor. What gets him is when Leigha and Dr. Nehls show up with their son. Gray.

Cute, huh? Looks like someone made an impression on them.

I take him in my arms right away because, yeah, I’m baby obsessed and hoping Grayson gets me pregnant tonight. Don’t tell him.

I’m kidding. We’ve talked about it already. I stopped taking my birth control pills two weeks ago.

“Aren’t you just the cutest thing in the entire world,” I tell Leigha’s son, trying to entice a smile. Nothing. Not even a quirk of his little baby lips. He’s also sleeping so that might be why.

Handing him back to Dr. Nehls, I lean into Grayson. Wrapping his arm around me, his mouth meets my ear. “Ours will be cuter.”

I slip my hand lower to his ass and squeeze. “What are you doing later?”

He bites my shoulder playfully. “You. Over and over again.”

“I knew you two had something going!” Frankie squeals. I had no idea Leigha was even pregnant, but I guess at Grayson’s last appointment, she did look like she had a little bit of a belly .

Grayson side-eyes Leigha who immediately yanks him into a hug. “Who invited you?”

“Grayson,” Julia gasps. “That’s rude.”

“Don’t worry.” Leigha turns and pours herself a drink, Dr. Nehls coming into the kitchen behind her. She flips her hand at Grayson. “This asshole told me to stick my penlight up my ass. I have thick skin now because of him.”

“It’s true,” Dr. Nehls adds, his jeans and button-down shirt making him look less like a neurosurgeon who I considered to be a god, and more like a human being who just happened to save my future-husband’s life. “She’s definitely tougher since Grayson was our patient.”

Grayson is not amused. “Do we have to talk about this shit right now?”

I gawk at Grayson. “You told her to do that?”

“She kept shining it in my eye,” he says defensively as he pours himself a drink. “After the fourth time that hour, I’d had enough.”

“Girl,” Leigha draws out slowly, my first taste of her Southern accent. “I could tell you all kinds of things he said to me when he was loopy.”

Grayson drops the drink he’s pouring and playfully grabs Leigha in a head lock and covers her mouth with his hand. “That’s enough. They don’t need to hear those stories.”

“Oh.” My eyes light up watching the two of them wrestle one another. “I might need to hear all about this.”

Leigha winks, untangling herself from Grayson’s arms. “It’ll be my wedding gift to you.”

“You two are never allowed to talk.” Grayson stands between Leigha and me, his arms wrapping around my chest as he yanks me backward.

“She’s lying about all her stories.” He turns his head and I’m assuming he’s glaring at her because she busts up laughing.

“Whatever happened to doctor-patient confidentiality?”

“I’m not your doctor.” Leigha points to Dr. Nehls. “He is. ”

Frankie sighs happily, watching the interaction between all of us. “Can we just adopt her into the family? She’s perfect.”

I stand my ground, refusing to let Grayson pull me out of the room, and stick my bottom lip out. “I want one detail. Please? It can be my wedding gift?”

He raises an eyebrow. “I have to get you a gift? Isn’t marrying me the gift?” I give him my best sad face and he caves with a dramatic sigh. “Fine. One story. And not the one from the CT scan. You are never to tell that one.”

“I want that one.” I beam, waiting like a child does in line for ice cream.

Grayson throws himself onto the couch in the living room. “Worst day ever,” he mumbles.

“So…,” Leigha begins. “We had given him some sedatives because, well, he’s Grayson and you know how it goes. The moment we took him out of the room for testing he’d freak out on us, so we sedated him.”

“She’s lying!” Grayson yells from the couch and then rolls off it, onto the floor and covers his face with a pillow.

“Anyway, we get the scan done and he’s waking up.

We’re on the way back to the room, in the elevator with like, four other nurses who were assisting me because again, Grayson .

” I nod, understanding exactly what she means.

“And just about the time the door is going to open, Grayson lifts the blanket up and checks out his…” Leigha motions between her legs, laughing hysterically to the point I think she’s going to pee herself.

Grayson lifts his head up and then the pillow. “It’s not that funny.”

“Yes, it is,” Leigha says, barely able to get the words out. “So he lifts the blanket up, flashes all the nurses and says, “Good news, looks like the rocket ship still works.” And then puts the blanket down and calmly went back to sleep.”

Both Frankie and I start laughing, but it’s Julia who makes the story better by adding, “When Grayson was thirteen—”

“Okay!” Grayson practically jumps off the floor and runs over to his mom and tries to maul her to stop her from talking. “No fucking way. Keep your mouth shut!”

Laughing, Julia pries his hand off her mouth and for the first time in months, his cheeks blush. “I tried to have the sex talk with him because these two were together constantly and I thought I needed to.”

Grayson groans and drops his arms from his mom, stomping away. “I’ll be outside.”

I’m fully enthralled now and lean into the counter in front of me. “I need to hear this story.”

“My room was next to his.” Frankie shakes her head, Wesley in her arms now and follows Grayson outside. “I definitely don’t need to hear this. I lived it.”

Julia watches Grayson standing in the backyard looking pretty annoyed.

“He’ll get over it. Anyway, I thought I needed to talk to him about sex so I told him that his penis was his rocket ship and he should only invite people he trusts to ride on it.

I thought I was being the cool mom, but he just looked at me, completely blank-faced and said, ‘It goes off by itself so I don’t think I need passengers. ’”

Best wedding gift ever.

After nearly peeing my pants over that story, I sneak off to Frankie’s room so she can do my makeup.

It’s modest, like my white wedding gown that’s a simple flowy summer dress with lace accents and a pink ribbon.

And I’m barefoot, so even better. Everything about the day is minimalist, the way Grayson and I want it.

Just before sunset, on August twenty-second, in the backyard of the Gomez residence, I make my way down to the pergola toward my future husband. With purples, pinks, and oranges in the backdrop, Grayson watches me make my way toward him, Ethan beside me.

Sighing, I look up at Ethan. “Thank you for doing this.”

His voice shakes when he whispers, “It’s an honor.”

For a boy I’ve never seen cry in my life, it’s hard to see Ethan struggling with his composure. His eyes snap to mine and he wipes the back of his hand across his face in one quick motion. “You tell anyone you made me cry, I’ll toss your goddamn ass in the pool later.”

I start laughing, and then trip down the aisle and fall flat on my face.

Yep, wedding from hell. Who falls at their own wedding?

Me!

After composing myself, I shift my gaze to Grayson.

He’s smiling, and it’s hard not to burst into a sob at the sight of him.

Tall and so incredibly handsome with his hair falling into his eyes, his beautiful browns reflect all the love he’s had for me since I was a knobby-kneed little girl begging him to give me a piece of his bubble gum.

Just as I’m composing myself to make the final steps toward Grayson, the sky opens up and it begins to rain. Fat drops that soak the two of us. I laugh, and Grayson shakes his head, water falling from his nose. “Is this a bad sign?”

Grayson’s smile curves his lips, his eyes intent on mine. “Never,” he whispers. “It’s good luck to have rain on your wedding day.”

Laughter erupts from our family as they scramble under the tents. Everything passes in a blur of love, but I do remember when he slips the ring on my finger. A dozen memories flit through my mind as I watch him say the words “I do.”