“Huh?”
“A fairytale type of love, is that what you want?”
“How do you know I don’t already have it?”
I shrugged.
“A Chief to rescue the princess.” That had me smiling at Lourdè pulling at the strings in my damn heart.
“An original fairytale, Lou,” I said as I selected a Siren song that began to play over my speaker. I stood up, holding my hand out for her.
“I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of having our first dance yet, Queen Lou.” Her cheeks flushed as she smiled widely, accepting my hand. I pulled her up, twirling her around, causing her to break out in a fit of giggles.
“This is the perfect song, baby. I would definitely pick this as a wedding song,” she said once her feet were planted on the sand.
“What would you pick for our actual first dance song?”
“Oh that’s easy, there’s a song by this singer, Ruby Ro, called Always and Forever. It’s about an endless love of forever. It’s so beautiful.” I was familiar with the song and knew it was an older cut.
“I hope you didn’t already use it.”
Lourdè scoffed.
“Of course not. I didn’t even plan my first wedding.” She chuckled then spoke again. “My girls laugh at me but I plan these mock weddings now, hoping they fill this empty void.”
We got quiet, just staring at each other. I was ready for war behind Lourdè and her peace. “And before you ask, no, I don’t want to be a wedding planner. The weddings I plan are mine or my girls’ when I have them in mind.”
I sat there with my brows bunched together as I listened to her talk about her hobby. It wasn’t unusual, just different.
“If you don’t plan on using one, why do them? How does that fill the void?”
“Honestly, I never got the one I wanted. I love Mama Steph dearly, but my wedding was not my own. It was a grand show for the Wilsons. I didn’t even get a say in the cake the guests ate that day. It’s something I never got over. So planning my mocks, I get to pretend that I do…did.”
“Don’t worry, I’ma give you the wedding of your dreams one day, Lou. I promise.” The response flowed out my mouth so easily. I grabbed her hand, kissing the back before pulling her closer in my arms and placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.
She didn’t say anything and I didn’t know if she would for real.
“Grab my phone for me.”
“What for?” I asked.
“Because I want to remember one of the best days of my life by photo memory.” Lourdè leaned into me while I put my phone up, putting the camera on us.
“Best day?”
“One of, I said. The other was our first time together.” While she smiled widely, looking into the lens, my eyes were on her. Johnni Lourdè just didn’t know the best was yet to come.
“Okay, next question.” I listened to her rattle off her question before I answered. We danced the afternoon away on the beach, going back and forth until her phone sounded, reminding us both that she was only mine temporarily.
When I dropped her off,she made up a lie about wanting just to escape for a minute to go to the beach. When he didn’t say anything further, I thought he’d bought it until I went to leave and he walked me out.
“Tunk, hopefully Johnni gave you her schedule.” I lied and said yes. I knew she would text me.
“Good.” I turned to get into my truck when he called out to me.
“Wait, one more thing, I forgot to set some limits for my wife. I know I can’t restrict her from going to the island; that would be crazy. I hope this stays between us, but if she ever requests to go to the club Seventh Heaven, please let me know. Oh, and don’t take her. Now, I won’t ask if that’s where she went today, because I trust her not to lie to me, but sometimes people do new things. Oh and one final thing, don’t make me have to kill you by fucking my wife.” There was a bit of sarcasm or something in his tone that I wanted to address but chose to put a pin in it. Either way, it didn’t sit right with me, but I knew better than to fuck up so early in my mission.
Too late muthafucka.
