MY BARE TOES curl into the warm sand, every step forcing my pulse higher with delirious anticipation. But also taking me one step closer to the man I love.
He’s so handsome. So brave waiting for me alone under an archway of scented tropical flowers, back lit by the setting sun. Just a few more steps and I’ll be able to hold his hand. To whisper, ‘I love you,’ and see my feelings reflected back at me in his eyes.
I pass our tiny gathering of guests—my parents, Brooke and Neve and their plus ones, and a handful of friends we’ve acquired as a couple over the past year. A year filled with highs and lows, compromise and laughter, as all real relationships are.
‘You look so beautiful,’ Ryan says as I arrive before him at the altar. ‘You’re the best risk I ever took.’
‘I feel the same way.’ I kiss him, ignoring wedding etiquette, and smooth one hand over the white linen shirt that covers his deeply bronzed torso. Ryan in board shorts turns out to be my favourite thing about Fiji. All I have to do is suggest a paddleboard and I get to watch all his tanned, toned body in action.
We’re supposed to face our local celebrant for the vows, but neither of us drops the other’s hand as we stand and stare, wearing matching sappy smiles. It’s our day, we can do what we want.
It’s only much later, after the vows and the cake and speeches, when I’m in his arms as we slow dance under the stars near the water’s edge, that it hits me I have a husband. I press my mouth to his, a distraction from counting the minutes until we can abandon our guests, and I can get him alone in Lailai’s best honeymoon bungalow.
‘I would have been happy to keep on living together,’ I say. Turns out happily ever after comes in all forms, once you meet the right person.
His smile is knowing, indulgent. ‘I wouldn’t, Mrs Dempsey.’ He lifts my left hand to his mouth, pressing a kiss over the wedding ring he placed there only hours ago. ‘I’m never letting you go. Best to make it official.’
I laugh because, in the end, he was the one adamant we tie the knot. The one to set the date. The one to make all the plans. ‘You mean Dr Dempsey.’
He picks me up, swirls me around and then kisses me.
‘Are you glad you didn’t change the place to singles only? We could hardly have come here for our wedding otherwise.’ I slide my hands under the hem of his shirt, caress the warm skin of his back.
‘Of course I’m glad. As a very smart and beautiful woman once told me, romance is good for business.’
I laugh and then press my mouth to his. As we move towards our guests, snag ourselves two glasses of champagne, I catch a glimpse of Brooke and Neve dancing with their dates under the palm trees.
‘Yes, it is. Cheers to that.’
‘And to us,’ says my husband.
We clink glasses.
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Take Me
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Under His Obsession
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Dirty Work
by Regina Kyle
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