Page 24

Chapter Twenty

Vivienne

M usic booms, shaking the dance floor beneath us. All around, lights twinkle, the trunks of palm trees shining all around us. In the periphery, sparklers glow and people laugh, glasses clink and shoes shuffle. Reed sifts his fingers through my hair, our bodies swaying together amidst the chaos.

“Can you believe we’re married?”

Reed twists us on the dance floor, and we come side to side with my father and Maribel dancing. Her hair is up, a long white veil trailing behind them.

“I know, I’m so excited,” I tell her, holding Reed tighter. “The reception is so much fun!”

In the last month, Reed and I have been at Clear View Country club so much. Helping our parents finish wedding plans, but also, to plan a wedding of our own. A surprise wedding, one that only Maribel and my dad know about .

“Are you ready?” Maribel whispers, leaning toward us.

I look up at her son, finding the plethora of blues in his eyes, my heart expanding at the sight. “So ready.”

Brooke and Ricky, approach, arms linked. “Hey, Maribel, did you want to cut the cake? The wedding lady is looking for you,” Brooke says.

I reach for her hand, and Reed takes Ricky’s and pull them toward us. In the distance, Fab and Sin wander over, because they’re the only two that Reed cared about having here tonight.

Reed nods, and Fab comes over, Sin on his arm. The six of us stand in a circle, and Reed smiles at me, and I know it’s time.

“You guys feel like being our wedding party?” I ask, biting my bottom lip to contain my excitement.

“What?” Sin asks, looking at Fab. “You didn’t tell me this was happening!” She swats his chest with her purse.

“I didn't know,” Fab says, looking up at Reed. He extends his hand, and they shake. “Congratulations, and of course, we’ll do it.”

“Holy shit,” Ricky exclaims. “You guys really are gonna get married?”

I nod. “Yep.”

Reed beams. “Fuck yes.”

No one tries reminding us of things we know.

Our age. How much time we have to meet other people.

How the baby can be raised without us being married.

How there’s no rush. No one says any of that shit.

Instead, Brooke pulls us into a hug, her head between both of ours when she says, “I’m so glad it worked out. ”

She has no idea how glad we are, too .

That morning last month when Elijah and my mother walked in on us…

I thought it was over, that we’d lost it all.

And in those minutes of dad punching Reed and Maribel screaming to keep them apart, I thought my life was supposed to be filled with sadness to make up for all the pain I’d caused everyone.

But dad, immediately after he hit Reed, apologized.

He apologized over and over, then he apologized to Maribel, and he apologized to me, too.

“A mistake,” he said, “is something you did that hurts someone or multiple people, and there is no good in a mistake.” He looked at Maribel, and took her hand, then looked at Reed.

“Hitting you was a mistake because no good came of it. But you two, you’re not a mistake, are you? ”

Reed shook his head, and turned back to the bed to take my hand. He sat next to me since I couldn’t get up. “Timing wasn’t great, but we love each other.”

“I had a plan,” I told them. “I had a plan to marry Murray, postpone college, and have a full life being an NFL wife. Murray would raise a child that isn’t his own, because he has a good heart.

And then you two could preserve the happiness of your marriage, Reed could go on and finish his degree and have a full life. It was, I thought, a good solution.”

“Just because Murray is a good person doesn’t mean doing that to him is fair,” Maribel had said, making me feel two inches tall.

“I just… I see how much my dad loves you. And how happy you are. I didn’t want to ruin that, I didn’t want to take that away,” I admitted, and Reed brought our linked hands to his lips, kissing my knuckles right in front of them.

At four fifteen in the morning, the four of us had coffee in th e kitchen and talked about everything that had happened.

I admitted all my lies to my dad, and apologized profusely.

Tears were shed, hugs were exchanged, and thank god that Reed and I woke them up.

Thank god that Maribel was nauseous that morning.

The stars aligned for us, because Elijah and Maribel decided they would support us, and stand up to Bipal with us.

Turns out, our parents saw themselves in us. They saw the connection they found in one another when they looked at us, the same connection that they themselves spent years trying to find; my dad hunted longer than Maribel, but still, they wanted us to have each other the way they have each other.

I’ll admit it took my dad some time to get used to Reed, his protege in all things information technology related, being the guy who got his daughter pregnant. But after that first ultrasound, the noise quieted, and the four of us became focused on the future.

I’m going to college in a few months. But I’m going to go to the University with Reed.

He’ll be done in two years now that my dad has helped him choose his schedule, with accelerated course selection to ease him into a waiting internship at Beaumont Industries.

While he starts his internship and I finish school, Maribel has decided it’s perfect timing for a prolonged break at work.

She’s appointed someone to work in her place on contract for a full year, to get us through the hardest years.

We’re not going to stay at home, though.

Our parents have found us an apartment, and with Reed starting his internship early, he will pay for it.

And of all the things he’s wanted in his life, paying his own way is one of them.

And the internship, my dad has promised, wasn’t a nepo- baby handout–Reed deserves it.

Reaching between us, I hand Fabian the ring I picked for Reed, and Reed hands the ring he picked for me to Brooke.

We exchange rings with my dad and Maribel dancing next to us, and our friends around us.

Clear View is brimming with all the most famous business owners and heirs in Bipal, here to see my father and Maribel wed.

Knowing that so many people love and care for them, that we’re staying in Bipal together and I don’t have to run off with Murray is beautiful.

I nestle against Reed, settling my head on his chest, his heart thumping like wild. His arms engulf me, his wood scent consumes me, and in this moment, the entire world is right. Everything is perfect. Nothing could make this night better.

“Oh my god,” I breathe, jumping back out of Reed’s arms.

“We sign the papers to make it legal in a few minutes, don’t worry,” Reed soothes, thinking he knows why I’m suddenly shrieking. But a girl reads the itinerary on the day of her secret wedding, so of course it’s not that.

I take his hand and place it on my belly.

“She just kicked.” I blink at him, the glow of lights looping the palm tree trunks illuminating him from behind, leaving an angelic glow around his profile.

He looks down at my belly, sliding his hand around, feeling me everywhere before she kicks again, and his head whips up to mine. Behind his frames, his eyes are glassy.

“I felt it,” he breathes.

And now it is a perfect night.