Chapter 31 (Not proofread).
I was standing in my room. My own room and fixing my makeup for the first time since they sent Finn down. My scent of perfume was winding around my bare legs and the mirror was glinting from the light that was coming through the window.
“How’s everything going?” Mum asked, pushing the door open a crack. I turned and nodded, offering her a small smile. I’d shown her the dress when I’d come back from shopping that day but I hadn’t put it on before, apart from in the changing room.
“It’s going alright, thanks.” She let herself in, looking around. The room still contained that sense of edge, that part of fear. Mum sat down at the desk, on the opposite side of the bed and the looming wardrobe. My photographs of Carter, Jenna and Harley everyone in my life were on the wall. The only person missing from them was Eli.
“You look beautiful, love,” Mum whispered, getting up. I watched her move in the mirror, her graceful walk slowing as she stopped behind me to place a loose strand back in my bun. Her dark hair was also tied back, matching the dark tones of her dress. She’d been invited along by Lisa and was our ride to the church.
“Thanks, you look good, too,” I said, looking at us both in the mirror. I hadn’t been able to stand that closely to my mum in a while and having her there, smiling at me like nothing abnormal was going on gave me a surprisingly warm feeling.
“I’ve invited your dad,” she said quietly. I spun in surprise, nearly knocking her over.
“You invited Dad?” I asked, absolutely incredulous. She blushed, a light dusting of pink covering her cheeks.
“I should’ve asked you first, I’m sorry,” she started but I cut her off, wrapping my arms around her in an embrace.
“I’m not upset, just surprised. A good surprised,” I assured, pulling away with a smile. Mum wasn’t ready to let me go so pulled me back against her.
“Good,” she murmured, rubbing my back for a moment before pulling back. She stayed with me and helped me sort out the rest of my makeup until the doorbell went.
Moving out from my room, I felt the sides of the skater dress skim my legs and I pulled my cardigan around my chest before opening the front door. Eli had put a white shirt on, one that framed his shoulders and went in with his waist. His black tie was hanging from his collar loosely, clearly not done up properly. He smiled, the dimples in his cheeks coming into view as he stepped forwards, his dark jeans mixing with his black vans.
“You look... wow,” he trailed off, grinning sheepishly when I thanked him and let him into the front room, slipping a little in my tights on the wooden floor. Eli followed me upstairs as we went to get my bags and my shoes.
“Can I sit anywhere?” Eli asked politely when I let him into my room. I was hesitant about it at first and my suspicions were confirmed when having a male in the room made me uncomfortable. Carter never used to follow me in there, we always spent all our time out in the garden and my dad never went in my room. Finn was the only one and I never really invited him in, he normally invited himself.
“Hey, hey,” he said, his voice softening. I took a deep breath and looked up at him. He ran his hands up and down my arms, trying to warn away the goosebumps. It began to work and I was tempted to rest my head against his chest, if it wouldn’t mess up my hair.
“Sorry,” I stammered and Eli’s expression saddened.
“Don’t ever apologise to me,” he said. The words hung in the room and I smiled, he followed suit after a moment.
“You were going to say sorry then, weren’t you?” he asked and I laughed, trying to get rid of the tension.
“I was,” I admitted and leaned down to get my shoes. I had to grab a pair of Jenna’s heels, considering that I never wore them. When I straightened, I caught Eli looking at my legs. I managed to catch his eye and his cheeks went a deep shade of scarlet. Deciding against saying anything, I slipped into the heels and stood in front of him, checking our height. I grinned, finding that we were nearly the same height, only a few inches in difference.
“You’re catching up,” he said with a wink and glanced at the wall behind me. I watched him walk over and look at the only picture I had of Finn on the wall. It was from when we were really young, not even ten yet, both playing with our horses in the field. Harley and Tempest were in the background, galloping around and Finn was giving me a piggy back. The picture had frozen our beaming faces, both mid laugh, as I clung onto Finn for dear life. At that moment, he had been my lifeboat, as time had passed; he was the one that had caused me to drown.
Eli stood in silence, watching over the pictures, looking at Carter, Jenna and Harley.
“Your childhood looked so normal. So does your room,” he muttered under his breath, avoiding looking at the bed as he turned to face me. I did the impossible and stared down at my bed sheets, fighting off tears to avoid running my makeup.
“In places it was,” I said, still looking down, shoving away any flashbacks that were attempting to blind me.
“C’mon,” Eli whispered, sensing my discomfort. “Let’s go.” He offered me his elbow and helped me down the stairs to meet my mum in the landing.
Just as we came out onto the porch, we heard a honk from the car park. My dad waved his arm out of the window and whistled when he saw my mum. I couldn’t help but smile as Mum grinned and started to hobble down the steps.
“Oh, Kat!” she exclaimed, taking her foot back from the grass to give me a sad look. I frowned, following down to the bottom step. Her dilemma was obvious, it was also about to become my problem. The mud was stodgy and since the slight flooding we had during the winter, the path that was once there, had gone, leaving a sloppy mess on the bottom of our porch.
I scrunched up my nose and glanced back up at Eli, who was running his hand through his dark hair. I walked back up the steps and next to Eli. He was chuckling so I hit him in the stomach with my bag. He didn’t even flinch but did look down at the mud and grin at me.
“Would you be okay with a piggy back?” he asked, gesturing down towards the mud. I looked up and met his beautiful, innocent eyes. I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat as he went down to the step below and gently took hold of my upper thighs. I wrapped my arms around his neck, squealing when he stumbled, nearly dunking us both in the mud.
His grip on my thighs was loose, not tight and threatening. His walk was bouncy, just like his usual stroll and I had to hold tight onto his shoulders. I leaned forwards to open the gate for him and kissed his cheek from the side just as he let me down.
“Thank you for saving my heels,” I replied and he gave me a small bow.
“Anytime.”
Dad had to go back and carry Mum out to the car. He drove down to the church behind us, picking Miss Holdana‘s sister on the way.
Miss Holdana was already at the wedding, waiting to give Ally away and Josh was also there as the best man.
The church was all decorated on the outside, a few groups of people crowded around. Most of them were the Tirrans family, but with Ally’s mother having passed and her father in prison, I didn’t expect many people to be there. I couldn’t see Carter or Dale, nor did I spot many people that I knew apart from Cooper’s parents.
Mum and Dad went their separate ways to Eli and I as soon as we got inside. A warm gust of air hit me and Eli put his arm around my shoulder, gently kissing the top of my head. As we went to try and find seats, I noticed Carter with Dale to our right.
“Hey,” I whispered, skimming through to sit in with Carter. Eli followed behind me, gently clasping my hand and holding it in his lap when we sat down.
“Dale, meet Kat,” Carter introduced and Dale grinned, nodding.
“Alright? This is Clara, my girlfriend,” Dale said, leaning back as a petite girl, complete with red hair, tipped black and dark makeup leaned forward.
“Afternoon,” she greeted before leaning back against the pew, proceeding to lean on her boyfriend.
Carter was about to say something when we both noticed Cooper and Josh slip to the front of the church. Cooper was clearly nervous as he rubbed his hands on his trousers, earning a slap from Josh. Cooper grinned, checking over his suit as some music started. Everyone quietened as the back doors to the church opened.
Looking over my shoulder and cricking my neck in the process, I saw Ally enter. She was the very definition of breath taking. The long, white dress was pooling at her feet, trailing behind her. She wasn’t wearing a veil, instead, having long blonde curls covering the side of her face, framing her petite form and large hazel eyes. Miss Holdana was hobbling proudly beside her, looking up at her adoringly. When I glanced at the front, Cooper was completely entranced, staring at her as if she would disappear at any moment.
The church was silent as she made her way up to the altar, in front of the vicar. Ally’s smile was intense and she kept looking at her feet abashedly.
The vows weren’t there own, Ally claimed to be unimaginative and English wasn’t Cooper’s best subject, so even though they went along with the words of the vicar, every word that came out of their mouth hit home, especially when Ally subconsciously touched her stomach and looked up at her husband to be.
Miss Holdana cried, so did Lisa and Sadie, Cooper’s mother. When the rings were placed, you could hear Sadie’s attempts at being quiet failing. She had to go and redo her makeup before they went outside of the photographs.
Ally was positively giddy when doing the photos, so much that the photographer had to chuckle and take a moment to photograph the others while she calmed down. Eli and I stuck to the sidelines, leaning against the church wall, talking quietly as we watched the proceedings.
“Photo?” I asked, reaching into my bag, taking out my camera. Eli smiled, taking it from me. He leaned closer, holding the camera in front of us as we smiled and took a second one as I kissed his cheek. When Carter came over, I took one with him and some with Lisa, Ally and my parents.
We changed around on the car share, my dad being the one to take us to the reception. Apparently, he wanted to meet Eli officially.
“So, how are you?” My dad asked Eli as he put the car into drive. I sank down in the seat, giving Carter my best ‘save me’ look. Carter just grinned, obviously thinking that if he had to go through it, it was only fair that Eli did, too.
“I’m good, thanks, sir, you?” Dad let out a noise of approval and I let out my sigh of relief, grinning when Eli glanced back at me out of the corner of his eye.
“I’m very well, thank you.” They managed to get a conversation going about Tempest and how Australia was. Thankfully, Ana wasn’t mentioned so the trip was pretty calming.
When we pulled up outside the hall, everyone was already there, even people that weren’t at the actual church. I didn’t know where Ally was, but she couldn’t be there as the limo wasn’t there. Lisa and Josh were standing by the door so we went over to talk to them.
“Wasn’t that amazing?!” Lisa exclaimed, grinning when we reached them. I nodded, leaning into Eli as he put his arm over my shoulder.
“Wait till you hear my best man speech, that ceremony was nothing compared to this,” Josh teased with a wink and I smiled.
It wasn’t long before the happy couple themselves showed up, laughing with everybody as they made their way into the main hall.
Lisa had changed from the large bridesmaid dress into something more comfortable, the dress she’d bought at the shop when we all went together. Ally was right when she said that Josh would be drooling over her, the cleaner would definitely have a puddle of the stuff to clean up if he continued the way he was.
The reception wasn’t as full as most weddings that you see, but it seemed to make it quainter, closer even when everyone sat down on the large table to eat the buffet. Excited chatters filled the air until Josh tapped a glass, good old fashioned style and stood up, clearing his throat.
“I’d just like to say, Cooper, you are a lucky groom. You’ve married Ally, who’s beautiful, smart, funny, warm, loving and caring, and she deserves a good husband. So thank God you married her before she found one. And Ally, if you’re that’s feeling nervous, apprehensive and queasy at the thought of what lies ahead, it’s probably because you just got married to Cooper Tirrans,” he said, grinning. The room was chuckling and everybody was smiling. Josh brought his glass closer to his chest and took a moment to speak again.
“Ally’s been through some hard times; Cooper has been there through them. I won’t go into details but a relationship like you have, guys, is something that is worth preserving, so congratulations,” he said and then grinned again. “There are obviously two very important people here today, without whom very little of this would have been possible. And the great thing is that as the evening progresses, most of us will get to spend more and more time talking with them. So please join me in a very special toast,” he paused, winking at Cooper’s smiling expression. “To the bar staff!” He exclaimed. Cooper let out a bark of laughter and Josh grinned, pulling Cooper’s head under his arm.
Cooper shoved him off and sorted out his hair, smiling at his bride.
“I’m kidding, of course. To Ally and Cooper Tirrans!” Josh exclaimed. Everyone raised their glasses in a toast, a feeling of excitement erupting in an explosion around the table. When the couple cut the cake, it was just as exciting. I got my camera out and took a picture of the large cake and Ally with her knife.
The excitement of the night calmed down a bit after the food. I left my camera with my parents, who seemed to be getting along nicely, before going to dance with Eli.
Cooper and Ally’s first dance had been amazing, modernized and elegant at the same time. It made us all look like amateurs. Eli and I especially. He had his hand on my hip and I had my arms around his neck but neither of us knew what we were doing.
“You look beautiful,” Eli whispered, leaning his forehead against mine. I forced myself to keep my eyes open, to watch Eli, to remind myself that it was him and not my brother.
“You’re not too shabby yourself,” I whispered and he grinned, showing me my favourite dimple.
I looked at him for a moment and then down to his lips before looking at his eyes again.
“Hold still.” He nodded at my words and I leaned forward, very gently placing my lips against his. The softness of them set my blood alight, the way he kept himself held back to keep my calm made me heart race against my ribcage, hammer against my chest.
I would’ve kept myself there longer if Finn’s face didn’t flash in my head. I pulled back, my blood pumping with panic. Eli looked at me with a concerned expression before gently cupping my chin with his hand.
“I’m never going to hurt you,” he whispered before rubbing his thumb across my lip, a gesture so tender that I couldn’t possibly feel fear when he leaned in and kissed me softly, his lips barely brushing past mine in a whisper.
I sighed, and moved my hand up to the back of his neck, feeling his soft hair. My body molded against his when he pulled me closer, his heat warming me.
“Wait,” I said, pulling back and taking a deep breath. Eli waited before I leaned forward again, letting him hold me still as his lips pressed against mine harder. Shivers went through my spine and I pulled away, resting my head against his shoulder. I could hear him take a deep breath as he gave a squeeze and continued to move us to the music.