Page 93 of Reckless

Nitro’s smile softens. “You got into my car carrying the weight of a life that had convinced you surviving was enough.” His thumb strokes slowly across the back of her hand. “You left me a note that should’ve been goodbye…” his voice catches for the smallest moment before he finds it again, “… and somehow it turned into forever.” Silence settles over the room. “You reminded me kindness still exists. You reminded me that home isn’t always a place.” He smiles at her, his eyes shining. “Sometimes, it’s a person, and I vow to spend forever making you my home.”

Somewhere behind me, Queenie gives up pretending she isn’t crying.

Marley laughs through her tears as Bear nods toward her. “Marley, would you like to recite your vows?”

She wipes beneath one eye before looking back at Nitro. “I spent a lot of years believing surviving and living were the same thing.” Her smile trembles. “I got really good at settling, and settling for the wrong things.” Nitro’s jaw tightens. “Then you wandered into my life…” she lets out a watery laugh, “… and stubbornly refused to let me go.” A chorus of chuckles ripples through the room. “So thank you.” She squeezes his hands. “For never letting me settle for a life that didn’t have you in it. Because I will forever choose to be your home and want you to be mine.”

I smile, along with everyone else.

Then, my eyes drift.

Not intentionally.

Almost instinctively, and Ghost is already looking at me. The warmth I’d felt walking down the aisle blooms all over again, deeper somehow, and for a long moment neither of us looks away. Fireworks dance under my skin as our eyes stay on each other, and it is like popping candy crackling all over my body. It’s a rush that knocks the breath from me while Bear’s voice becomes little more than a distant murmur somewhere beyond the space between us.

I know I should be paying attention.

I really do.

But every time I try, my eyes find Ghost again.

He’s standing exactly where he was a minute ago, hands folded loosely in front of him, his expression giving almost nothing away. But I’ve become frighteningly good at reading the smallest changes in him.

The slight softening around his eyes.

The corner of his mouth threatening another smile.

The way he watches me as though he’s checking, even now, that I am still here.

Days ago, I watched this man make an impossible decision because somebody pointed a camera at me.

Six days later, he’s looking at me like I’m the safest thing in the room.

Something inside me shifts, just enough that another thought quietly settles beside it. Maybe this is what forever looks like.

Not grand declarations, just finding the same pair of green eyes in every crowded room and knowing they’ll always be looking back.

I wonder if he’s thinking about that kiss inside my apartment?

About the awkward one before it.

About the way everything between us changed without either of us ever deciding to let it.

Or maybe? Maybe he’s wondering the same thing I am. What happens now? The thought lingers just long enough that I almost forget where I am. Almost.

A soft cheer breaks through my thoughts as Bear’s voice rises. “You may now kiss your bride.”

The clubhouse explodes into applause before Nitro has even closed the distance between them.

Marley laughs against his mouth as he kisses her, one hand cupping her face with so much tenderness it steals the breath from my lungs.

The spell between Ghost and me breaks as I tear my eyes away from him, laughing as I clap along with everyone else, my gaze finding Marley instead.

She’s radiant.

Not because of the dress.

Not because of the flowers.