Rich Soldier (The Dirty Thirty Pledge 2)

“Fair enough,” he says, smiling. “How about before my birthday, then? I don’t want to wait, and I don’t want Glenn making a fuss because I broke that stupid pledge.”

“That,” I say, “I think I’ll be able to do. God.” A thought hits me. “My parents are going to roll their eyes.”

“But will they be happy?”

“I hope so,” I say. “Even if they aren’t at first, I’m sure that they’ll come around. My father already seems to like you.”

“True.” Wallace leans down and plants a kiss on my jaw. “I love you, you know.”

“I love you, too.”

Epilogue

Wallace

A few weeks later

There are nerves running through my body, even though I’ve never been as sure as anything else in my life. But I’m standing up in front of a small group of people in a small church and I’m waiting for Tia to come walking down the aisle. I haven’t seen her since yesterday, and it’s absolutely killing me.

Ever since she said yes, we’ve been practically inseparable. To the point where our friends and family are laughing at us. I was right, Tia’s parents were happy for us. They said that it made sense, and they figured that it might happen someday.

Ever since starting therapy, the nightmares have been getting better. They’re not gone completely, and the couple of nights that I’ve woken up screaming next to Tia were scary for us both, but lying next to her, I can honestly say that I’m getting the best sleep that I’ve had in years. I’ve never felt more rested or at peace. I can’t wait to keep getting better, now that I’m seeing progress.

I hear Glenn muttering behind me as I wait, and I turn to shoot him a glare. “Are you complaining again?”

He rolls his eyes. “No.”

“Yes,” Frankie says, with a wicked grin. “Absolutely.”

“It’s just such a waste of potential. Why buckle yourselves down when you could be having the time of your lives? It doesn’t make any sense.”

I shake my head and glance back up the aisle. “I’m going to bend over laughing when you find your girl, Glenn. She’s going to take you by surprise and suddenly everything that we’re doing is going to make perfect sense. And when that day comes, we’re both going to want an apology from you.”

“It’s never going to happen,” he mutters under his breath.

Frankie snorts. “It will. You’ll see.”

And that’s the end of that because there’s a swell of music and the church doors open to reveal Tia standing there with her father. My heart is pounding in my chest and my eyes are blurry with tears, but I blink them away because I don’t want to miss a second of this.

She’s stunning. Her dress flows down her body and I don’t think that she’s ever looked more radiant. And she’s mine. After today, I can say that forever, and there’s a piece deep inside of me that’s calm and settled now. I’m home.

Tia is wearing a veil, but even through it I can see that she’s smiling. My chest feels so full that it’s going to burst and I have to hold myself back from running down the aisle so I can get to her faster. But I can’t look away from her. And when she’s finally here and her hand is finally in mine, I know that I’ll never have to look anywhere else for happiness ever again.

* * *

I carry Tia across the threshold of her house, and she laughs. “Thank you for not bumping my head on the door.”

“I don’t think that would be a very good omen for our marriage if I did that.”

“Maybe not,” she agrees, as I put her down. We’re both exhausted. It’s been a long day. Even small weddings are weddings, and after the reception, surrounded by friends and family, I’m glad that we made the decision to start our honeymoon tomorrow and spend the night at home tonight . Here. Together. In the home we’ll share until we can build ours together. She built this one, and it’s beautiful, but we always talked about building a house together, and we still want to do that. Take the best bits of both of us and build it together for a place that’s just ours. It’ll be free of the memories that have plagued us and a fresh slate for new and happy memories.

We’ll start on that as soon as we get back from our honeymoon—a tour around the world that’s going to last a couple of months. For once I’m using the money from First Shot for something that actually feels good and that I don’t feel guilty about.

We’ll have all the perfect resources to build our house too, since Tia will be taking over her father’s company when we get back. He told her that deciding what she really wanted and taking steps to make it happen was what he’d finally been looking for. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen Tia, aside from today.