“Why haven’t you smiled?” she asks as a dessert is placed in front of us.
Gunner overhears her and tenses beside me.
“I am smiling.” I force one, but she knows. She isn’t stupid.
“This has just gone so…” She doesn’t continue but I know how she feels. May stands, taps her glass, and Gunner looks at me but I won’t look his way.
Everyone quietens as the toasts start.
“I wanted to thank you all for being here today. Everly is a woman who’s much more than a friend to me, she’s the sister I never had. And I’m happy for her, I truly am, that she has found someone who makes her happy.” Her eyes direct to Gunner. May’s fake-smiling at him. “I hope you will continue to make her happy, from this day until your last, because if you don’t, I just want you to know that I know how to kill someone without evidence.” She winks at him while everyone laughs, but I wonder if what she’s saying is true, or if she means it. “Let’s raise a glass to them. May they live happily in this life as well as the next.” When she leans down and kisses my cheek, she whispers softly so Gunner can’t hear, “I will kill him for you, I want you to know that. Google is a very powerful tool.”
I laugh and kiss her cheek. She nods to Gunner, who when I turn around to look, is watching us with his dark broody eyes while both of his hands lie on the table next to his uneaten food.
Gunner stands and everyone goes silent, then he turns to face me lifting a glass in the air. “The only people I’ve loved in my life died many years ago,” he starts. I turn to see his grandmother at the table wiping a tear from her cheek. I didn’t know she could cry, she seems so self-contained, so rigid in the way she conducts herself. “But thanks to contracts and possibilities, I have found a woman who will be by my side for the rest of my life. Till death do us part. I envy the ground you walk on, the seat you sit on, because when you’re somewhere else my heart goes with you. And you should always be with me, my love, in this life, as well as our next.” He pins me with his stare as he sits.
The music starts to play, and they announce it’s time to do the wedding dance.
“Ev.” May nudges me.
Gunner and I stand at the same time. My hand slides into his as we walk to the dance floor. I feel all eyes on us, and I hold myself to him as he grips me tightly. We start moving, slowly rocking back and forth. His head drops to the crook of my neck and it stays there.
“I do love you, Everly.” His voice sends shivers all over my body.
I don’t reply.
“And I know you love me. This ride of ours will last a lifetime. Don’t be upset, my love. Many more things are to come that will make you mad.” His head lifts and he touches my face.
“Don’t you want me happy?” I ask, confused by his words. The hand on my face strokes ever so slightly. To everyone else it looks like an act of devotion, love, tenderness. How wrong they are.
“I want you to be wherever I am, so we both succeed. I don’t share, and you’re not something I could ever share anyway. You are mine, my dear.”
“And you are mine,” I say back through gritted teeth. “Can I not do what I choose?”
Gunner smirks at my words, his hand dropping back to my waist. “To an extent. You are my world now. And when you’re in my world you will see things, feel things, that may upset you, Everly. I won’t be like your father and shield you, you will see what it’s like.”
“I don’t want you to shield me, Gunner.”
He leans forward then kisses my lips softly. “Good, because I shall do no such thing.” He kisses my lips again. “Now tell me, wife. Tell me you love me.”
“I love you,” I say blindly.
Because I do.
No matter what, I will always love him.
Even when I’m mad at him.
That’s the scary part about loving a mad man.
“Oh dear, aren’t you just a breath of fresh air.” His grandmother grips my hand in hers and they are stone-cold just like her. She lets go when I don’t grip back and sits in her seat. “Tell me, did you wear black because you think this is a funeral?”
I smile at her words. “No. Simply because I can.”
She laughs. “You obviously don’t know Gunner very well if you think you can get away with much.”
“I can do as I please, Miss Reid. Now, if you will excuse me.”