Till It Hurts by Cora Brent
Epilogue
Jace
April 2nd
We’re leaving tomorrow. I’m just waiting for my best man to show up with the means of transportation, which is doubling as a wedding gift to my bride.
Our wedding was held at Capstone Park and while we tried to keep it quiet with a small guest list, some photographers and curiosity seekers showed up anyway. They didn’t bother me. I even waved at them. Nothing was going to interfere with the sheer bliss of making Tori my wife.
She was a vision in her dress, although truth be told she could have been wearing a tablecloth and I wouldn’t have minded in the least. Paul Elkins walked her down the aisle. Rochelle was the maid of honor and Carrie the junior bridesmaid. Colt, naturally, was my best man.
My aunt and her family, who had already visited us last fall, were delighted to be here. The only guests connected to my pro athlete days were Mike Campinelli and my friend Leon and his wife. Leon has mostly recovered, although he’s also permanently retired from football. He just moved his family to Austin. We promised to make plans to get together in the near future.
The rest of the wedding guests were local friends. Coach Toledo has been hanging in there and he was able to make it. Tori’s mother decided at the last minute that she didn’t feel like coming and she was missed by no one.
I did not invite my father. The day might come when I feel like dealing with him but it’s not here yet.
Gloria’s absence was the only sadness. A pang hits me when I think about how much she would have loved to see this day. Tori wore her tiger’s eye necklace to honor my grandmother and in the seconds before my bride walked down the aisle, I glanced up at the sky for a second.
Love you, Gloria. Thank you.
I owe my grandmother everything. I won’t forget.
McClane whines at my side as I pace around out front. Tori is in the house packing for the surprise honeymoon I promised her, but soon she’s bound to come searching for me. I’m checking my phone for the tenth time and about to shoot another text to Colt when a pair of bright headlights appear. McClane barks and I tell him to stay put before waving Colt over to the side yard. He carefully pilots the bulky RV to the designated spot.
Now that McClane has realized who’s here, he’s becoming difficult to restrain. He cries and his tail nearly wags right off his body.
“Okay,” I tell him. “Go say hello.”
Colt has barely jumped out of the front seat when he’s tackled by a very exuberant pit bull. Colt laughs and pats the dog’s back. “It’ll be just you and me for the next three weeks, buddy.”
I hold my hand up and Colt tosses me the set of keys. “Did you have any trouble picking it up?” I ask him.
“Nah. Paul drove me over to the high school parking lot where the dealer was waiting with it, just like he was supposed to be. I think he was anticipating a big tip but all I had on me was ten bucks.”
“Don’t worry about him. He’s been rewarded handsomely.”
Colt taps the side of the RV. “This is a beauty. You guys are going to be all set.”
Colt helped me plot out a route of the most beautiful places to see in the west. Tori and I will watch the sunset every night in some of the world’s most stunning places. I hope she thinks the honeymoon plan is romantic and exciting.
“Thanks for picking it up,” I tell Colt.
“No problem.”
“And thanks for watching the dog while we’re gone.”
“Hey, McClane and I are going to have a fine old bachelor time together.”
“Did you take care of the-“
“Yes, yes. I obtained your bag of rose petals. I left them on the bed. Do what you will with them. Just don’t ever tell me about it.”
“Deal.” I backtrack to the porch to grab the bag of dog food, along with McClane’s leash and dish. “Just fill the bowl twice a day.”
“I think I can handle that.” Colt left his truck parked here before the wedding. Now he opens the passenger door and whistles for the dog.
McClane looks up at me.
“Behave yourself,” I tell him and gently pet his broad, scarred head before releasing him to Colt’s care.
Colt ushers the dog into the truck and then props his hands on his hips. He studies me for a moment. “I should tell you something.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re the only one who could have ever been good enough for her.”
Hearing him say that means the world. “We’re officially family now, Colt.” I watch him carefully to see what effect the words have.
But he just grins. “We always have been, Jace. Safe travels.”
Then he gets into his truck, leaving me to wonder, not for the first time, how much he knows. Maybe he just means that blood is irrelevant. We’re brothers no matter what.
Remembering that I’ve still got a bride to surprise, I hustle over to the RV to make sure everything is just right. After a quick look around, I’m satisfied that this setup will suit us perfectly. There’s a small bathroom with a shower, a fully functional kitchen and a king sized mattress in the sleeping quarters. I scatter the rose petals and get my phone set up beside the bed with a preselected playlist ready to go. Now all I need is my wife.
Tori is in the house calling for McClane.
“Have you seen him?” she asks me worriedly.
“Colt already picked him up.”
She’s confused. “Colt was here?”
“Just for a minute. He was doing me a favor.”
Tori shakes her hair free from an elastic band. She changed out of her wedding dress hours ago and wears one of my flannel shirts. It reaches her knees. “I’m packed. Which was not easy because you’ve been rather tight lipped about minor details like where we’re going.”
“Are you ready to find out?”
“Yes, please. I’m extremely intrigued.”
I hold my arm out. “This way, Mrs. Zielinski.”
She flushes with happiness and takes my arm.
“What’s that?” she asks when we step outside.
“It’s called a Recreational Vehicle. It’s basically a tiny house on wheels.”
“Wise guy.” She bumps my shoulder. “I know what an RV is. What’s it doing here?”
“It’s yours.”
“Mine?”
“Your wedding present. It’s also where we’ll be spending our honeymoon.”
She stops and stares at the thing. “Where are we going?”
“Everywhere.” I hold her hand as she climbs the three steps and I open the door. “We can watch the sun set over the Grand Canyon one night and drive to Moab the next. We can see Glacier National Park and the Teton Mountains and Yellowstone Park and the Badlands of South Dakota. Colt gave me a whole list but if there’s something you want to add we can certainly do that.”
While I’m talking, Tori looks around in silence. Perhaps she was hoping for a more conventional honeymoon, like a trip to Hawaii.
She runs her hand over the kitchen counter and peeks into the bathroom. She crosses her arms over my flannel shirt and smiles. “Jace Zielinski, you have got to be the world’s biggest romantic.”
“You like it?”
She seizes me in a hug. “I love it. I love you. Where are we going first?”
My hands land on her hips. Interestingly, she doesn’t seem to be wearing shorts beneath that old flannel shirt. “I thought we might visit the bedroom first.”
She presses close. My dick gets all kinds of interested. She’s definitely not wearing shorts. But this is our wedding night. And I have a few more romantic tricks up my sleeve.
It’s not exactly a long walk to the bedroom. I stand to the side of the doorway and Tori gasps over the sight of the rose petals. My phone is still propped up beside the bed and I press a button to activate the music.
“Wait. Crap.” I didn’t mean for the playlist to start on that song.
Tori claps her hands, recognizing Sex and Candy, the song that played in my bedroom right after we had sex for the first time.
“Leave it,” she says, giggling because I already have the phone in my hand and was about to choose something a little more suitable.
At her command, I smile and set the phone down. “Cute outfit, by the way.”
She twirls in my flannel shirt. “I’m glad you appreciate the wedding night lingerie.” Then she sucks in her lower lip and thinks. “I actually have some. Wedding night lingerie, I mean. I can go change.”
“No need. You have panties on underneath that?”
Tori climbs on the bed. She’s on her knees and rolls one sleeve over a bare shoulder before delivering a highly seductive look. “Come and see, hot stuff.”
I tear my shirt off so fast that it rips, but who cares? My wife pulls me down to the bed and our mouths meet hungrily. Her legs eagerly wrap around my waist and I discover that she really has left her panties behind. I swear, I married the sexiest woman on earth.
I want all of her skin so that means the shirt has to go. Rather than deal with the buttons, I push it up and help her slide it over her head. She gets my belt open and rolls my zipper down.
Then I freeze.
I did not, in fact, think of everything. “Fuck.”
Tori arches an eyebrow. “We’re about to, aren’t we?”
“Hold that thought. I’ll be right back.”
She reaches into my boxers. “If it’s another surprise, it can wait.”
My cock enthusiastically agrees with her. He likes being stroked in her hand. But my brain argues that an essential accessory is still missing. “This place doesn’t come equipped with condoms.”
“Good. We’re not packing any.”
“No? I was sort of looking forward to a sex-packed honeymoon.”
“Oh, we’ll have a sex-packed honeymoon all right. The condoms just aren’t invited.”
I pause, brace myself on my palms and stare down at her. I think I know what she’s saying. If she’s sure, then so am I.
Tori gives me a rather shy smile. “Don’t you want to get started on that playground?”
I don’t need to think twice. “Hell yes.”
She slides up on her elbows and gives me a serious look. “Then let’s make a family, Jace. Let’s start tonight.”
My love. My heart. My every dream come true.
I answer her with my body and for our first time as man and wife I’m as slow and gentle as I was the very first time we ever made love. I cherish every second, every moan she makes and every shudder that takes her as she comes. When I give in and release inside of her, I’m thinking of miracles. She’s mine.
“I love you,” she whispers to me as I catch my breath.
We kiss and then I roll to my back to hold her in my arms until we’re ready to have each other again. It won’t be long.
Not every story ends well.
Not every triumph is easy.
You might break a little, or a lot, on your way to the finish line.
You might have to keep pushing till it hurts in order to find your way home.
But take heart; happily ever afters do exist.
And this is ours, Tori. This is ours.