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RILEY

I lean against the bathroom door frame and watch Sarah apply her makeup. It’s finally Kamryn and Mason’s wedding day. And all week I’ve watched my girl run around Cincinnati like a chicken with her head cut off. Making sure her dress is altered to perfection, her speech makes sense, and that our timing from her house to the football field where they’re having the ceremony hits no snags. I’ve reassured her that we can’t avoid snags or bumps in the road to get to our destination. But her perfection tendency knows no bounds.

Her hair is in rollers and she’s wearing a navy blue robe that Kamryn gifted her with it saying Team Bride on the back in gold, despite her marrying them. I watch as she expertly applies color to her eyelids and pink to her cheeks before running a brush coated in black that somehow makes her eyes look bigger.

“Hey, baby,” she says, finally noticing my presence.

“Hi, beautiful,” I greet and walk over to her. “You look stunning.” I say and smile bigger when she snorts, noticing my eyes taking in the rollers in her hair. “Rollers and all,” I send my point home by lightly kissing her on the cheek and then moving off to the side to finish watching her get ready. Damn, I really love this woman.

She looks over at me and down to what I’m wearing. “Is your stuff ironed?”

“Blue, relax. Yes, it is. It’s in a garment bag in the closet.”

Sarah blows out a breath and turns back to the mirror. “Okay. I’m almost done and then we can head out.”

I don’t respond to her, because she doesn’t need my words. Sarah is an action type of woman and that’s what has made our relationship as strong as ever. It came from realizing that her last relationship was full of empty words. Slowly, without her knowing it, I undid everything she thought she knew about relationships by showing up in the way that she needed.

I take her free hand and kiss her on the back, leaving her with a wink before heading back out to her bedroom. My phone is just going dim from a text and I pick it up to see a text from Momma.

Momma: 1 image attached

Momma: See? They don’t even miss you.

Me: Traitors.

Momma: Have fun tonight.

Me: We will. Love you.

Momma: Love you too, Riley.

“I’m ready to get dressed,” Sarah announces from the bathroom.

I set my phone down on the bed again and turn to face her, ready to say something smart. “Holy hell. ”

“That good?” She asks, voice shaky from nerves.

“I think you’re the hottest minister I’ve ever seen,” I tell her, feeling like a cartoon character with my eyes falling out of my face, my jaw slack, and my tongue lolling out.

“I’m not even dressed yet,” she points out with her familiar sass in place.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Sarah pads over to me with a sultry sway to her hips that I love to grip when I’m inside of her. Her perfectly manicured nails trail up my torso and the sensation is like a bat signal to my cock that’s thickening against my thigh. Her hand curves around my jaw and I have no clue if I’m breathing because I’m already so turned on.

“We don’t have time to take care of your issue,” she says and I know she sees the bulge in my sweats. “Unless…”

“Unless what?” I ask desperately.

She turns me and backs me up to the chair that’s in the corner of her room. “Take off your pants and sit.”

Just call me Bruce Almighty because my pants have never come off my body so fast. I sit on the chair with my legs spread, cock resting against my stomach, and wait for what’s next. And what’s next turns my mouth dry. Sarah unties her robe and shrugs it off her body. The material pooling at her feet, followed by the lacy material she calls underwear.

“In order for this to work, your hands need to stay completely still. I did not spend all of this time on my hair and makeup just for it to be ruined before the night is over. And this needs to be quick. Got it?” She asks and prowls closer to me, stopping in between my legs.

The urge to place my hands on her hips is strong. So I curl them into fists and bite down on my back teeth as she straddles my lap.

“Got it?” She asks again .

I look up into her eyes and nod hard. “Got it.”

Sarah rises on her knees and takes my cock in her hand. I swallow hard as she swipes the head through her slick opening and my head falls back on the chair as she slowly slides my cock inside of her.

“Your cock feels amazing, baby,” she breathes out as she rises on her knees and drops down, swiveling her hips as she does.

The natural instinct to grab hold of her waist is strong, so I move my hands behind my back which pushes me up as she moves down.

“Riley,” she whines, with her eyes closed and her face a picture of pure lust.

I watch my cock disappear as she slides down on me and groan as she lifts back up. “Blue, I thought you said this needs to be quick?”

Her head lols down until our eyes lock and it’s like she’s remembering where we need to be. She lifts up halfway and clenches around me. “We do. Now use my pussy and make us both come.”

“Done. Hold still, baby.”

I watch as she steels herself and stiffens her legs before I’m topping from the bottom. My hips start their movement tentatively before I’m pistoning in and out of her. The sound of her arousal mixed with the sound of our skin slapping together is one of dreams. I hear the hitch in her breath when I hit a sensitive spot.

“Right there, right there,” she coaches.

I do the movement over and over until she’s yelling out my name. Her pussy sucks my cock in ever further as she comes which starts my orgasm. My strokes get sloppy as I chase my release and still as I come. Painting her walls with my release. Our panting breaths mix as we come down from our joint high. Her hips lightly swivel over me and my hands gently rest on her hips.

“Better every time.”

She kisses me on my sweat-dampened temple and gingerly climbs off. My limp cock falls against my thigh, but I pay it no mind as I watch her peach shaped ass walk towards the bathroom so she can clean herself up.

“Damn, Blue.” I groan when she walks down the stairs.

When she picked out her dress, she made it seem like she was the one getting married and refused to let me see her dress. And now for good reason. The dark teal silk halter dress cascades down her body leaving her back completely exposed, but the front of the dress completely covers her. It’s an absolutely stunning color on her that she paired with subtle gold jewelry. While I thought she would wear her hair down, she pulled it back to a high ponytail, with the ends softly curled. She’s an absolute vision.

“You don’t look half bad yourself, handsome.” She ogles me without shame and she’s about to cause another problem that we definitely don’t have time to fix.

With a spritz of her perfume that I’ve stocked her up on, we’re finally heading out the door. We have a car waiting for us to take us to the stadium and it’s good because I can ogle Sarah without having to pay attention to the road. I play with the rings and bracelets that adorn her hands, not so secretly trying to memorize the size of the one on her important finger.

The car pulls up to a stop outside of the entrance twenty minutes later. The driver opens my door and I hold my hand out for Sarah. Other guests are filing in and I realize I’m going to be surrounded by current and former football players. That thought makes me shiver and it catches Sarah’s attention .

“Nervous?” She jokingly asks.

“About being around all of these football players? Absolutely.”

“They’re just boys who play with balls,” she says in an attempt to calm me down.

That gets a laugh out of me and I finally relax. We walk down the tunnel to the field where the ceremony is taking place. My eyes widen when I take in the space. I knew Kamryn and Mason knew a lot of people, but this blows my mind.

There looks to be about two hundred brown oak chairs setup, starting at the end zone. Leading the way up the aisle is white roses with the green petals still attached, with what looks like battery-powered candles on both sides, creating a romantic path. The altar is on a raised dais with an archway in the middle draped with gauzy light pink drapery and more of the white roses framing the arch.

“Wow,” I finally breathe out.

Sarah’s hand squeezes my hand. “Yeah. And to think they sized the wedding down.”

I shake my head because this is a lot and will probably be the biggest wedding I’ll have ever attended.

“Come on. They planned for the guests to meet upstairs for cocktail hour.”

I’m still befuddled as we make our way back through the tunnel and towards the elevator bank.

“It’s a lot, I know.”

I usher Sarah into the elevator and she presses the button to take us up. “Is this the type of wedding you would want?”

“Are you asking me what I think you’re asking?”

I hold my hands out and pull her to me, still careful not to wrinkle her dress or mess up her hair and makeup. “No. Besides, you’ll know when I ask you.”

The blush that peaks through her makeup and brings forth a timid smile turns me all gooey inside.

“To answer your question, no. I would rather have a courthouse wedding, still with the white dress and two witnesses. Then a big party.”

“Noted,” I say, taking in every little thing about her facial features.

We stay like this as the elevator continues its ascent. Blue eyes to blue eyes. Heart to heart. I’ve filed everything she would want for a wedding in my mind. And what she described is exactly what I one day pictured. It sounds weird when a guy says they imagined their wedding. But growing up around so much love ensured that I would have what they have. And it is a heady feeling knowing that the person you’re with wants that too.

The elevator stops and pings before whooshing open. Noise from those already in the room filter down the hallway and we step off just before the doors close to go back down. The clack of Sarah’s shoes and her fingers entwined in mine, really makes me feel like I’m headed to prom.

Animated chatter and laughter, high and low, greet us when we step across the threshold.

“Geez,” I voice aloud.

“You can officially cross ‘attend a fashion designers’ wedding off your bucket list,” Sarah exaggerates and waves her hand in front of her.

We’re greeted by Dylan, Sarah’s friend Emily’s boyfriend's son. “Hi, Ms. Sarah. You look really pretty.”

“Thank you buddy. You look handsome yourself.”

Adam walks over to us sans Emily. “Hey, you two. ”

Sarah greets him with a kiss on the cheek and steps back to my side. “Are you finally ready to watch these two get hitched?”

“Yeah. Em has been stressing over the musical choices since they asked her to help them choose the playlist.”

The love in his voice when he talks about Emily is what I imagine I look like.

“I’m sure the playlist is perfect,” I tell him.

We mingle with some of the guests before Sarah lets me know she has to head to the makeshift bridal suite. She excuses us from some of Mason’s former teammates and I walk her to the elevator bay.

“I’ll see you in a few. Go have fun,” Sarah says and kisses me before disappearing into the elevator.

With her, being around new people has made being around them easier. Especially since most of these are athletes. I shake out my hands and head back into the room.

I slide my sunglasses on my face as the late afternoon sun shines in the stadium. I’m sitting in the second row with Adam next to me. Dylan is the ring bearer and Nina’s daughter, Kamryn’s friend from college and co-designer, is the flower girl.

Sarah steps onto the altar first, followed by Mason and his groomsmen. Our eyes clash and she sends me a wink and an air kiss. An instrumental version of an Ed Sheeran song starts playing and the first bridesmaid walks down the aisle. One by one until the kids come down the aisle and then the song switches to Can’t Help Falling in Love . Sarah signals us guests to rise from our seats as Kamryn makes her grand entrance .

A vision in white with lace and beads covering her dress. Thin straps hold her dress in place and a white veil trails behind her as her Dad walks her down the aisle. Her joy is evident based on the smile that hasn’t left her face since she took her first step. And when she gets to Mason, their combined joy is enough to make any doubter believe that they’re meant to be.

“Who gives this woman away?” Sarah asks, her question amplified based on the tiny microphone that’s clipped onto her dress.

“Her mother and I.” Kamryn’s Dad responds and kisses his daughter’s cheek before placing her hand in Mason’s.

Kamryn hands her bouquet to Emily and then steps up onto the altar with Mason.

“Please be seated,” Sarah instructs us.

The music ends and we settle in our seats. The energy in this stadium is unlike one I’ve ever experienced. And it all comes back to love.

Sarah’s hands are clasped in front of her, a microphone placed in front of her, but her position is as poised as ever. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the union of Kamryn Rawlins and Mason Brooks. And as their closest and dearest friend, finally!” The crowd laughs and some even nod their heads. “When you two asked me to be the one to marry you, I thought ‘why me?’ because I’m sure there was a better option. Like an actual minister.” Kamryn and Mason both roll their eyes and laugh. “But then when I snapped out of that daze, I found it an honor that you two would allow me to be a part of this special day and in this way. Eleven years ago you two met and I knew it then, that you two were meant to be. Mason, your calm and quiet presence made you a force to be reckoned with on the field. Which then helped you balance out your other half. Kamryn, your wild and chaotic aura made everyone marvel at your energy. You two together were a couple that most were envious of. You loved with a love that was bigger than most at that young age experienced. You both hurt in the way that no one should have to. Most of us know your story, but for those who don’t; these two are proof that second chances can work when the one you love is willing to work just as hard.” The three of them look at each other with fond expressions. “These two have written their own vows. So, ladies first. Sorry, Mason.”

Sarah steps back and hands Kamryn the microphone. “You swept me off my feet when I was eighteen, we hit a big pause a couple of years later, and when I least expected it you showed back up and would not leave me alone.” Sarah, Mason, Emily, and Jax bark out laughter as do the rest of us in attendance. “You see me, the way no one ever has. You challenge me, the way no one ever has. You love me, the way no one ever has. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Laughing with you. Fighting with you. Making up with you. Having babies with you. I love you.” She ends with a watery laugh.

She passes the microphone to Mason who blows out a breath. “Thank you, baby. I’m not sure how I’m going to top that. The first day I saw you, I knew then that I would give up everything to spend the rest of my life with you. While we faced a major obstacle that forced me to lose you, I thank fate and even destiny, that we landed in the same city after all those years. Kamryn, I promise to be your biggest fan, your number one motivator, and the one you always lean on when the going gets tough. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, and that includes babies. Lots and lots of babies. I love you.” He ends with a smile that takes up his whole face .

Sarah steps back up to the center. “Well, by the power vested in me, and the state of Ohio, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Mason, you may kiss your beautiful bride.”

He steps forward and cradles Kamryn’s face in his hands like she’s the most delicate flower. They share whispered words and a smile before he’s claiming her in front of all of us. Cheers, hoots, and whistles from us are loud enough to be heard from outside of the stadium. Love is a powerful thing. And when it’s between two people who would do anything for each other, nothing can break what they have.