Ben (The Sherwood)

“We’ll think about it,” AJ replied after exchanging glances with Heath, but I knew he was patronizing me.

I pushed back from the table. “I’m done eating. I don’t want to be around any of you.”

I carried my plate to the kitchen and rinsed it. I was putting it in the dishwasher when she approached. I knew she was there. I could always feel her before she got too close. I glanced over my shoulder right before she laid her hand on my back. Then I turned and grabbed her in my arms.

The need to hold onto her was intense. I could feel things slipping away. They couldn’t understand. I still had to appear in court to get permanent sole custody of Asia. I didn’t need any trouble right now. They had me on pins and needles with this shit.

I closed my eyes and soaked up her peace. That’s how she had always made me feel. One week from tomorrow she would be my wife. One step at a time, things were going my way. I couldn’t let my brothers screw things up for me.

“Ben.” I opened my eyes. Matt stood in the doorway to my kitchen. “I know you’re worried…”

“You don’t understand, Matt. I have everything to lose, not just Disa. I could lose Asia too.”

He glanced down at the ground. Then up at me. “I’ll curb our plans until after your court date. Hopefully Hawk will come up with something before then.”

I hoped so too. I wanted this to be handled in a legal way.

Chapter 23

On my wedding day I was nervous. I’ll be honest. Not because I was marrying Disa but because I wanted it to go off without a hitch. My brothers had been good. We had no retaliation from Ron Parson. His silence was scary, so I expected something to happen today.

My brothers and I were at the church. Since Disa got a new dress she decided my brothers and I could wear jeans, a lavender shirt she picked out and vests. She liked the more casual look. We had purple boutonniere’s that Rachel pinned on us.

All my brothers were standing up with me. Elijah was my best man even though he had Matt be his. I was barely speaking to him at the time of his wedding to Jen, so I couldn’t blame him for choosing Matt.

Disa was having Danni as her Matron of Honor with a few girls from the pub. Jenny, Daisy, her sister and Lilah as attendants. Heath had broken down and agreed the girls could come to the wedding. She needed her sister to be there with her. He had a heart after all.

He had a guest too. Jacey Lee. She came with him.

I stood in the front of the church with Pastor Canfield waiting on Dis

a to make her way down the aisle. She was walking herself to me. She felt that was best and I agreed.

We cut out the part about who gives this woman to this man. She was freely giving herself to me. There was no one to ask.

The doors opened. I was still on pins and needles praying to Jesus as we stood inside his house that just because I was a lousy Christian, I needed this one thing. To make it through today without any bloodshed.

She looked so beautiful. She amazed me. I didn’t think it was possible for Disa to look more stunning, but she did. Her dress was simple with sheer layers over layers that clung to her curvy figure and hung from her slender shoulders by two thin straps. A veil was clipped to her hair and hung over her face, obscuring it slightly but I could still see how beautiful she was.

She approached carrying lavender roses with a bunch of other stuff. I’m a guy I didn’t recognize anything else, but her bouquet was pretty like her.

She stopped before me and placed her hand in mine. A show of trust. A show of giving herself over to me. She was mine forever after today.

The pastor began the service. Honestly, I didn’t hear a thing until he asked, twice for me to repeat my vows. I did without taking my eyes from her face.

“I take you to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.” I squeezed her hands and Disa smiled at me.

“Disa, it’s your turn,” Pastor Canfield informed her.

“I take you, Ben to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better for worse, for richer, for poorer,” Disa’s tears choked her words. She had to collect herself. She cleared her throat. “Where was I?” She asked. Her nerves were getting the best of her.

“Poorer,” I informed her.

The crowd laughed at us.

“In sickness and in health,” she declared. “To love and to cherish until death do us part.” She mumbled under her breath that I had better not leave her first. I grinned at her.

We turned slightly back to Pastor Canfield. “Do you have rings?”