The Road To Heaven (Allendale Four 3)

Anderson stood. “I’m in. I hate those pricks.”

Oliver nodded and we let Heaven drive off before we piled in Oliver’s Jeep and drove to Oceanside.

43

Heaven

I arrived at Amber’s house and went straight up to her room. I hadn’t been there since college and it looked the same, a tiny snapshot in history. She sat on her bed, laptop in front of her, typing furiously.

“What are you doing?”

“They posted again, right after you reported it. Stupid bastards. Now I’m just going in and calling them out for being hateful assholes.”

I slid on the bed next to her and slowly removed the laptop. She cried out

but I took it, snapping the top shut and pushing it under the bed.

“You had no right to take that,” she said.

“Arguing with assholes on the internet is a complete waste of time. You know that.”

“I do, but I can’t just sit around!. I haven’t even told Ginger yet! She and my mom went out to run some errands. What if they bump into someone that saw it. My mom will be horrified. I mean, she’s always been supportive but you know how this town is.”

“Your mom has your back. Never doubt that.” Amber’s feisty spirit came directly from her mom.

“But what about Ginger? She’ll be crushed. She doesn’t deserve this.”

“Ginger is a strong, capable woman, I have no doubt she can handle herself, but you’re right, she doesn’t deserve this. Neither do you.”

Amber plopped back on her pillow. “I hate these people, Heaven. I knew having the wedding here was a terrible idea. Old mentalities die hard.”

“Tell me about it,” I said, lying next to her and taking her hand. “Why do you think I kept running from that place my whole life?” I took a deep breath. “I’m the one that let it out that the wedding was for two women. I thought they knew and the girl at the desk was someone I knew from way back. I had no idea she was still so awful.”

“I don’t blame you, Heaven. They would have figured it out when we got there. Two vaginas and no dick would have tipped them off.”

“I’ll do whatever I can to fix this.”

“I don’t think there is a solution and there’s no time anyway. Maybe we just cancel.”

“Hell no are we cancelling.”

“Then what? Have it down there? People want to protest. You know I’m in for a fight, but…”

“Your wedding day isn’t about giving these people a platform.” I sighed. “We’ve fought against the closed-mindedness of this town before. And we won, but not without a lot of heartache and exposure.” I took her hand. “Your wedding is about you and Ginger. It’s not about making a stand to the idiots of this town. They’d love a fight. A big nasty brawl down on the beach. My father may even come out of the woodwork to preach the salvation if he heard about it.”

“Oh god.” She covered her face with a pillow. I lifted it up.

“I want this day to be about you. About love. About family. Not about the closed-minded simpletons down in Oceanside.”

“How, Heaven? Where? It’s too late to book anything. All the deposits and payments are in.” She choked back a sob. “We should just head to the courthouse but they’d probably just follow us there.”

“That’s not what you want.”

“Apparently it’s not about what I want, anyway.”

I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. I knew what it was like to be judged, to be criticized and ostracized. I didn’t want that for Amber and Ginger. I wanted them to have happiness and love—like they’d given me so many times before.

That desire planted a seed of an idea, one that I was determined to see to fruition.