Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
There’s a soft knock on the door and then it opens. Elle enters with Quinn right behind her. Now, I know this is against the rules. One visitor at a time—I remember that much from when Peyton was in ICU.
“Hey, man, it’s good to see you.” Quinn and I bump fists. “I’m a little confused though. Are we breaking rules now?”
“Elle’s broken all the rules since you were admitted,” Quinn says. He then looks at his sister and I know they’re up to something.
Elle gives me a kiss and then holds my hand. “Do you want to get married today?”
“What?” I look from her to Quinn. “I’m not out of here for a couple of weeks, at least.” Which doesn’t really answer her question about today.
“I know,” she says. “But you said something earlier, and it got me thinking. Life is unpredictable. The curve balls that have been thrown our way, we’re doing a good job dodging them now, but . . .” She pauses and shakes her head. “I want to dodge them with you, Ben. I don’t want to have to wait for someone to look at your chart to prove I’m your person, if that makes sense. If you hadn’t signed the directive in Los Angeles, I wouldn’t have been able to authorize care for you or be able to see you. I don’t like knowing I can’t take care of you or that I would’ve had to depend on your mom to make your medical decisions.”
“I wouldn’t have liked that either,” I interrupt her.
“That makes a whole family of us,” Quinn says. “By the way, she’s out in the waiting room and is eager to see you, and none too happy that I’m in here before her.”
“I can imagine.” I’m surprised she’s here, to be honest. She wasn’t too happy with me when I kicked her out of our house in Malibu.
“Guys, stop interrupting me,” Elle demands. I focus on her with my undivided attention. “I love you, Ben, and I think we should get married, today.”
“What about your dad walking you down the aisle?”
“We’ll have a ceremony later, once you’re in the clear and feeling up to it. Right now, I don’t want to wait any longer to be your wife.”
“But—”
“No buts.” She places her finger over my lips. “I want this. I want to be your wife. I don’t want to wait.”
Deep down, I know she doesn’t want to wait because of the cancer. I should tell her no and give her the wedding she wants, the one she deserves, but selfishly I want to be her husband, whether I live past tonight or not.
“Yes, a but,” I tell her. “You and your dad have made a compelling case for a wedding because you both want to walk down the aisle. I get it. It makes sense to me now. I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to do.”
Elle cups my cheek. “I want to marry you, Ben. Right here. Right now. My parents will understand, and when you have the all clear, we’ll have that massive wedding, in the vineyard, and my dad will walk me down the aisle. We’ll party until sunrise and then jet off to the honeymoon of our dreams. I want this for us, but if you want to wait, I understand.”
A smile spreads across my face. “Okay. We should see if I can get out of here for a bit. Maybe go to the chapel. There’s a chapel here, right?”
Elle nods. “There is, but the chaplain won’t marry us.”
“Oh, right. No license.”
“Right, but there’s this website and we fill out the form online, submit our driver’s licenses, and they do the rest of the work. There isn’t a waiting period.”
“But with no one to marry us—”
“That’s where I come in,” Quinn interrupts. “This website also ordains people and you’re looking at the newly minted Quinn James . . .” he pauses and looks at Elle. “Do I have a title?”
She shakes her head slowly. “I don’t think so.”
“Damn, a title would’ve been cool. Nonetheless, I can marry you. I mean—”
“We know what you mean, Quinn,” Elle says.
She looks at me and smiles. “Or we can wait.”
I bring her hand up to my lips and kiss the ring I put on there a while ago. “I don’t want to wait.”
“Me neither,” she says before leaning forward and kissing me.
27
ELLE
It’s been eleven days since Ben and I exchanged vows in his ICU room. At first, we weren’t going to tell anyone, but asking Quinn to keep something as monumental as us getting married a secret was unfair to him. All I could see playing out was Quinn acting like Joey in FRIENDS with the whole, they don’t know we know crap and while it would’ve been funny, it wasn’t right. I thought my parents were going to be hurt, mostly my dad, but surprisingly he accepted that Ben and I had to do it our way—not that this was the way we ever intended to get married—but my dad saw the magnitude of the moment. Life is short. Ben’s illness showed us this. I could find every excuse in the world, meaningful or not, to not set a date. Life gave us a reason why to get married.