“Your mom,” I said, waving my hand in front of my face, trying to pull myself together. “Was such an amazing lady.” I remember eating dinner at their house all the time when I was growing up. Mrs. Wheeler knew my favorite was her German chocolate cake and she’d always make it when she knew I was coming over.
“She was crazy about you too,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “When I told her I was taking Jodi Richards to our junior prom she was so disappointed. She thought it would be you.” He swallowed. “I can’t believe she died six months later.”
I curled my arm around his bicep, pressing my lips against the colorful ink decorating his tanned skin. “She wasn’t the only one disappointed about that. I thought you’d ask me too. Why didn’t you?”
He laughed. “There was no way you were gonna sleep with me. Jodi was a sure thing and it was my prom. I didn’t wanna be the only guy not getting any.”
I gasped before backhanding him in the stomach. I’d never been a huge fan of Jodi, but knowing she slept with my man, even if was years ago, made me glad she’d moved away after getting married. “I can’t believe you! How do you know I wouldn’t have slept with you?”
He shrugged. “We were friends. I knew I was going away. I guess I thought it would be harder to leave if we started something we couldn’t finish.”
That made me feel marginally better, but I was still kind of pissed. And hurt. Which was stupid, it was lifetime ago and we were just kids then. “But you weren’t worried about that with Jodi?”
“Why would I be? We were just… you know.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sex buddies?”
He grinned. “Not the term I would have chosen, but yeah.”
“I hate you.” He gripped my chin in his hand, kissing me hard. “You know how hot you are when you’re jealous?”
“I’m not jealous!”
“Liar.”
“You think you’re the only one who had sex the night of our prom, Wheeler?”
His eyes darkened and his hand curled into a fist. “You went to prom with Addison. I told him I’d knock him out if he tried anything with you.”
It was nice to know he cared enough to warn off one of his best friends, but it hadn’t worked. “Please, he was a horny teenager who’d had a few too many drinks. You can’t blame him.”
“I can’t believe that bastard slept with you,” he whispered. “He should be glad he moved to Costa Rica with his new bride or I’d kick his ass.”
Knowing that Joel was as jealous of my prom date as I was of his made me realize we really had wasted half a lifetime with other people when we should have been together.
I unfolded the note from his dad and bite my lip to keep it from trembling as tears blurred my vision while I read it. “You were so lucky to have them,” I said, passing the letter back to him as I reached for a tissue on my nightstand. “They were the best.”
“They were.” He put both letters back in the envelope before settling in beside me. “I wish they could have been here today. I really missed them. And knowing that I was marrying you would have made them so happy.”
I rolled onto my side, facing him. “They were with us,” I whispered. “I really believe that.” But like him, I hated that they couldn’t have been here in the flesh. “But I hate that you didn’t have any family here today.”
He touched the tears drying on my cheeks with his fingertip. “Will you be my family now?”
My heart clenched, knowing how vulnerable it made him to ask that question. “Of course.”
He smiled. “And you’ll give me lots of beautiful babies, who will hopefully give us grandbabies and—”
I touched my lips to his. “You want a big family, huh?”
“The bigger, the better.” He laughed at my look of surprise. “Okay, I’m good with four.”
“I think I can handle four.” I curled my hand around the back of his neck. “We’re going to have an amazing life together, you know.”
He sighed. “I hope so.”
Frowning, I asked, “What do you mean, you hope so? You don’t know so?”
“This show is going to change everything for you. You’re going to get opportunities you can’t even imagine right now. And I would never want to hold you back. If you ever feel you need to go, to pursue your dream, I want you to promise me you’ll go.”
