Chapter Twenty-Five
Erica
“Where to next?” Chase asked. We stood in front of the building, with Chase’s arm around me, still donning my wedding dress and our friends gathered around us. My parents had left long after we caught Chase up on the surprise wedding, and his family had followed closely behind.
“I’ll grab your things.” Jack went to his truck, grabbing the bag I already had packed for the impromptu honeymoon I had set up for us. It was funny because Chase actually already knew about the location, but had no idea we were leaving today.
“Grab what things?” Chase asked, looking down at me.
“I packed a bag for our trip.”
He tilted his head, questioning me.
“You’re starting your honeymoon now,” Max spoke up.
“Were all of you in on this?” Chase asked, scanning our friends.
“They were. It was the only way I was going to get it all done,” I answered for everyone.
Alexa and Lilly reached for me, taking me into a bear hug, then letting me go before Jack, Greg, and Max all did the same. It was crazy to think at one point in time Chase and I didn’t want them to know because we knew how crazy involved they would be in our lives, but now I loved it. I loved knowing I had these people no matter what.
Jack held out my bag to me and I grabbed Chase’s hand, ready to lead him on to this next adventure.
“Ready for the honeymoon?” I asked him.
“Aren’t we supposed to be in Savannah on Wednesday for a shoot?”
Everyone laughed at Chase’s question and I felt bad for still keeping him out of the loop for this long.
“We are going to Savannah now.” I squeezed his hand. “That was the plan all along. Go to Savannah, learn about your past, where you grew up, and just enjoy our time together.”
“In your wedding dress?” Chase laughed at me and I shrugged at him.
“Whatever it takes.”
He leaned down to kiss me. The girls made cute ahhs at us and Jack and Greg made gagging noises.
“You two go have fun. The office won’t burn down without you, I promise.” Max shooed us and Chase grabbed my hand, leading me to his car, where I threw my bag into the back and crammed myself and my dress into the front passenger seat.
“To Savannah?” Chase looked over as he put the key into the ignition.
“To the future.”
Chase
It wasn’t the quickest trip to Savannah, especially with Erica wanting to stop anytime she saw a place to eat. Then after an hour in her dress, she complained until I stopped so she could change into shorts and a tank. Four hours and we were finally pulling into the city and my heart started to race.
I was about to show the love of my life where I grew up for most of it. I was about to show her all the places I never got to spend with her. My favorite book shops, coffee shops, where I went to school, anything and everything for her to know that even with all the years, I still constantly thought about her.
“The GPS says the hotel is just around that corner.” I focused on where she was pointing to and turned into the little bed and breakfast Erica had booked for us. The Cottage Inn. I had passed it many times over the years and thought it looked like a retirement home, but now seeing it as somewhere Erica wanted to stay, I got it. The charm of it, sitting on the porch with her and a cup of tea. It all made sense. Life made sense with my wife.
Sitting next to her for the rest of my life made sense.
“Isn’t it so cute?” Erica jumped around in her seat before hopping out of the car just as I put it into park.
She ran toward the front door, where an older women already had it open, waiting for her. I got the bag Jack had grabbed out of his truck. I hadn’t been paying much attention to see that it wasn’t just one bag, but two. My duffle and hers.
I shook my head. She had literally thought of everything, just like Greg had with Lilly’s wedding, but this felt different. This wasn’t me trying to win Erica over, because I had done that so long ago. This was our last step at becoming everything we should have been so long ago. There was only one step after this and even though the guys had joked the other night about kids, knowing that Erica was officially my wife had me wanting to put a baby in her sooner rather than later.
