“Here we go,” Lincoln grasps Savannah’s hand. Signaling to Hamilton and me, he urges, “You two go on in. We’ll join you at the front in a moment.”
I squeeze Savannah’s hand. We share a smile, and I wink. We’re about to reveal a betrayal, and I know Lincoln’s mother will not appreciate it. I remind myself to not make a scene as I protect Savannah from the fall out. My friend is happy, and that is all that matters.
Hamilton opens the door, the crowd quiets, and all eyes fall on us as we make our way down the makeshift aisle. At the front, Hamilton places a chaste kiss upon my lips before we part, awaiting the arrival of the bride and groom.
The guests stand when Lincoln and Savannah appear. Audible gasps are heard at their beauty. My eyes are locked on Lincoln’s mother and sister. Seated in the front row, they have yet to notice Savannah’s attire.
Lincoln escorts his lovely wife slowly up the aisle. Lincoln’s mother’s hand flies to her mouth, and his sister leans close to speak in her ear. They’ve noticed Savannah is sans muumuu. My friend beams. No doubt she’s more comfortable and confident in her pantsuit.
At the front, they turn to face the crowd. Lincoln leans in to whisper in Savannah’s ear. She pats his arm, and they turn to face the minister. Lincoln releases her arm and steps towards him. They speak quietly for a moment which ends with a nod from the preacher.
With a microphone in hand, Lincoln faces the crowd, smiles at Savannah, then announces, “There will not be a wedding.”
Murmurs sweep through the crowd as heads turn from one to another. He waits for the reaction to wane before continuing, “Savannah and I are already married.”
With this news, the crowd sighs with relief. His mother and sister look offended while his father simply smiles with hands folded in his lap.
“We took a trip this morning and eloped,” Lincoln states before kissing Savannah’s cheek and holding her hand. “We hope you will now join us for our reception. My mother and sister planned a delicious dinner and secured a DJ for dancing. Thanks again for coming. Let the fun begin!”
The crowd cheers while Lincoln’s family approaches the newlyweds. Hamilton joins me, standing behind Savannah and Lincoln in solidarity.
“Congratulations.” Lincoln’s father hugs his son, patting him hard on the back. Next, he hugs Savannah. “Welcome to the family.”
“Where’s the dress I spent hours hunting?” His sister’s snotty tone causes my hackles to rise.
“Stop!” Lincoln demands.
“I can’t believe you disrespected the hours we spent putting this together for you,” his mother whines. “I need to sit down; I’m not feeling well.”
The strong woman I observed yesterday suddenly disappears as she attempts to seem frail. She portrayed a healthy woman until Lincoln’s announcement. I imagine she’s faking it as she didn’t get her way. Father and daughter fuss over Lincoln’s mother; we wait and watch.
Lincoln’s sister walks towards Savannah. “This is all your fault,” she points towards Savannah and me. “We scrambled to plan this wedding for you. We shopped online for hours and in several bridal shops to find the perfect dress for you. And what do you do? You’re ungrateful. You ruin everything.”
I step in front of Savannah, but before I can speak, Lincoln jumps in.
“You love the dress,” he pokes his sister’s shoulder. “Your fiancé is here. Go put on the ‘perfect dress,’ and let’s have your perfect wedding right now.”
Her lips, covered in bright red lipstick, open and close like a fish out of water. “Well… uh…” she sputters.
Lincoln tugs her arm towards the door, “C’mon. I’ll escort you to the dress.”
“It’s not perfect for me,” her shrill voice shouts. “It’s perfect for her.” She points at Savannah. “We did all of this for her.”
“No, you didn’t,” I spit. “Savannah and Lincoln asked for a small wedding. Savannah stated she didn’t want her mother to attend. They asked you to keep it simple.” I stand nose to nose with her. “You didn’t listen, or you didn’t care.”
I point to Lincoln’s mother. “You planned a big wedding that you wanted. You invited her mother. You planned a large dinner and chose a hideous dress.”
I take a quick breath. “The ‘perfect dress’ is a muumuu that old women wear. It resembles a white tent big enough to fit three women inside. You tried to humiliate her and don’t even try to deny it.” My index finger moves between mother and daughter.
Lincoln jumps in. “I gave in when you begged to plan a simple wedding for us,” Looking to his mother, he shakes his head. “I decided last night that I wouldn’t allow you ruin our special day and took matters into my own hands.” He pulls Savannah snug to his side. “If you disrespect Savannah, you disrespect me. And I will not stand for it. I love Savannah, we’re happy, and the two of you better get on board or get used to me not being in your life. Now, if you’ll excuse us, my wife and I would like to go greet over 100 guests we didn’t want at our wedding.”
With that closing remark, Lincoln escorts Savannah towards the tables and their guests. Hamilton and I remain with the family. I want to make sure they don’t plan to cause a scene.
Lincoln’s father tells his wife to come enjoy their son’s special day before he follows the newlyweds as they mingle through the guests at their tables.
“Let’s eat,” Hamilton suggests, guiding me toward empty seats near our friends.
I lower myself into the seat beside Adrian that Hamilton pulls out for me.
“I’ll be right back,” Hamilton states, walking to the doors.
I don’t have time to ask any questions. I watch as he looks to his phone. I quickly look at my phone, worried I missed a call from Memphis regarding Liberty. I breathe a sigh of relief when the screen shows no missed calls or messages.
Hamilton returns a few minutes later with a large gift bag in hand. Now I know what he was up to. The photos we purchased of this morning’s wedding ceremony have arrived. I wave for Savannah to join us at the table as Hamilton returns to my side. He hands the bag to the newlyweds.
Savannah pulls out the framed eight-by-ten print while Lincoln flips through the scrapbook of many more shots.
“How did you do this?” Lincoln asks, not tearing his eyes from the photos.
“Hamilton placed a rush order while I distracted you,” I explain.
Our friends join in, congratulating the couple and enjoying the photos.
Again, Hamilton’s distracted by his cell phone. I place my hand on his holding the phone. “Something wrong?”
He swiftly tucks his cell into his front pocket. Leaning in, he whispers near my ear, “I need to return a call. It should only take a moment.”
Try as I might, I can’t decipher the emotions on his face. Is it worry? Is it anger? Or is it something else? He slips out the door, leaving me worried about what might be more important than our friend’s wedding. Slowly, conversation pulls my attention back to the room.
Hamilton
In my peripheral, as I hold my phone to my ear, I notice a gentleman striding my way in the lobby.
“It will not air,” Berkeley promises. “Seems once I provided proof that it was your wife in the video and not some groupie, they no longer cared to distort the video for the purposes of the show.”
“Good,” I bite, frustrated. “And what of the copies of the video?”
“They assure me they have deleted them, and they apologize,” Berkeley states. “They only ran with the story based on the false information the hotel staff member gave them. Hamilton, don’t you have a wedding you should be at?”
“Yes, thank you.” With her assurance that the matter is over, I need to return to the reception. I’m sure Madison is upset with me. We end our call, and I head to the ballroom.
“Excuse me, sir,” an older gentleman standing behind me calls. “Mr. Armstrong?”
“Yes,” I turn to face the stranger, the man that had approached while I was on the phone.
He informs me he is the manager of the hotel before apologizing profusely for the behavior of his assistant manager. I’m only half listening as Madison approaches the two of us. Without saying a word, she stands beside me.
“I’ll comp your stay,” the manager states.
“That won’t be necessary,” I respond. “We were able to squash it before any damage occurred. It is not the hotel’s fault; the employee acted alone.”
I feel Madison’s arm slide along mine; her fingers curl into mine.
“We are responsible for the security and privacy of all our guests,” the manager states. “I feel we need to…”
“It’s not necessary,” I interrupt. “I’m pleased with the prompt manner in which you remedied the situation. Let’s just leave it at that.”
“I’ll let you return to your engagement,” the manager offers before excusing himself.
Madison squeezes my hand. I release her to pull her to my chest, wrapping my arms around her body. I need to put her mind at rest. I’m sure she has a thousand questions, but I need to hold her. I’ve attempted to hold my emotions inside while I waited to hear the fate of the leaked video, and now it’s all crashing down at once.
“So, is everything okay, now?” Madison murmurs into my chest.
“Yes.” My voice cracks. I clear my throat. “The call I had to make was to Berkeley. She assured me that all is taken care of.”
“Well then,” Madison pulls back to look up at me. “Shall we go celebrate?”
I search her cerulean eyes. Does she really not need to know everything right now? Doesn’t she want to know what happened?
Pulling my hand toward the doors of the ballroom, Madison informs me, “You can tell me what you’ve dealt with for the past two hours when we’re alone in our room tonight.”
“I love you,” I profess loudly. In return, I’m awarded with a beautiful smile.
“Son,” Lincoln’s father greets me as we reenter the ballroom, “I’ll make my announcement in a moment. I’d like you to stand near me when I do.”
Madison’s inquisitive eyes dart to mine. I didn’t tell her about my previous conversation with him—I didn’t see the need to. I offered my opinion. I didn’t think he would include me any more than that.
“So many secrets,” Madison smiles.
I shrug. “You’ll love this surprise,” I inform her as we follow him to the front of the venue.
With a microphone in hand, he asks for the guests’ attention. Unfortunately, he holds the microphone too far from his mouth and the crowd’s too loud in their conversations to hear him. The music is still playing in the background.
Madison pulls a chair from a nearby table and hops to stand on it. At the top of her lungs she announces, “Quiet!”
Instantly, the room is silent—my girl has a gift. She motions for Lincoln’s father to continue.
“My wife and I would like to present our wedding gift to Savannah and Lincoln,” he begins.
Madison pushes the mic closer to his mouth as he speaks.
His wife approaches with an open laptop. She passes it to Lincoln. I watch as tears flood Madison’s eyes while she looks at the screen. Savannah and Lincoln stare in awe for a few moments before spinning the screen for the guests to view.
“We’ve purchased a home in Athens for the newlyweds,” Lincoln’s father announces. “We’d researched for a week. Then, with Hamilton’s knowledge of Athens, we chose this lovely home. You can pick up the keys on Monday,” he informs the couple.
The guests celebrate as Lincoln and Savannah share hugs with his family. Madison places herself directly in front of me, looking up with a wide smile.
“You’ve been a very busy man, Mr. Armstrong.” She places hands on my jaw, pulling me in for a kiss.
Her warm lips on mine stoke a fire deep inside me. I return the kiss, running my tongue along her lower lip, begging entrance. She opens to me. Her body presses tight to mine as our tongues mingle. Her hands perch at my waist. The overwhelming sensation of them so near my cock coaxes a growl from deep in my throat. Summoning strength I didn’t know I had, I pull my mouth from hers, resting my forehead to hers. My eyes remain closed as our breaths even out.
“When can we slip away?” I huskily whisper. I pray she feels as I do; I’m not sure how much longer I can refrain from ravaging her.
To my complete surprise, she whispers, “Let’s say our goodbyes.”