“I say-uh, welcome to the Chapel of Rock, baby.”
“Fitting,” Trey said.
“Do you got the paperwork, baby? We need a license to make it legit.”
Brian handed Elvis the marriage license they’d picked up at the bureau that morning. “Best sixty bucks I ever spent,” Brian said.
While Elvis did whatever it was he needed to do with the marriage license, Brian slid up to sit on the trunk of the convertible with his feet resting on the front seat. He drew Myrna up to sit across his lap, wrapping one strong arm around her back. He took her hand in his free hand, holding it gently. She stared into his eyes, and his encouraging smile made the entire world melt away. This was really happening. She was marrying Brian Sinclair. Becoming his wife. Forever. Her smile widened until her cheeks hurt.
“Is this man your hunka hunka burning love?” Elvis asked.
Myrna laughed. “I’ll say.”
“Does this woman have you all shook up?” Elvis asked.
Brian grinned. “Yeah, she does.”
Elvis broke into a decent rendition of “Love Me Tender.” Sed joined him in the second chorus. By the time Elvis finished, the entire band was accompanying him at the top of their lungs, even Brian. Myrna couldn’t stop laughing. How many women could claim that Elvis and Sinners serenaded her on her wedding day? Only her. And as obnoxious as it was, their willingness to make fools of themselves on her behalf meant the world to her. At the end of the song, Myrna hugged Brian and whispered into his ear, “God, I love you... and your stupid band too.”
He chuckled. “That’s good, because you’re stuck with us for life.”
And where that idea had once terrified her, a lifetime suddenly didn’t seem long enough.
She looked up into Brian’s intense brown eyes, her throat tight with emotion, her eyes prickling with tears.
“Do you have vows you want to recite to your baby?” Elvis asked.
Words tumbled from Myrna’s lips like toppling dominos. All the things she’d been afraid to voice, to feel, since she’d first met Brian, poured out in one rush of emotion.
“I don’t know how you knew what I needed more than I did. Or why you refused to give up on me. I’m just so very glad you didn’t. You loved me when I didn’t want to be loved. Lifted me when I didn’t realize I was down. Gave me so much I was too stupid to take, too afraid that I’d come to need you and lose myself. I thought that by loving you, I’d become weak. I know now that loving you doesn’t make me weak, Brian, it makes me stronger.” She tugged his hand against her chest over her pounding heart. “I know I’ve hurt you more than once, and I don’t know how to make that up to you other than trust you with my heart and love you the way you deserve to be loved. That’s what I vow. I vow to love you and tell you often. I vow to stay beside you no matter what the future brings. Have faith in you. In us. I also vow to be true to you—heart, mind, body, and soul—and never cheat on you with Sed.”
Brian laughed and touched her cheek. “Never?”
“Never. I want only you. Need only you. Always.”
She turned to look at Trey, who looked more than a little nauseated. She wasn’t sure if the nausea was due to his head trauma or the fact that she was so openly committing to Brian.
“Ring?” She extended her hand in Trey’s direction. He dropped Brian’s thick platinum band in her hand. Myrna took Brian’s left hand and slid the ring onto his ring finger. “With this ring, you’re stuck with me, because I refuse to ever let you go.”
He grinned, his eyes turning skyward with a look of elation. How could any woman resist a man who was so overjoyed by her expressions of love? Brian should have been married years ago. She silently sent a word of thanks to Sed for being such a jackass and destroying Brian’s previous relationships. In a strange way, she owed Sed one. Or twenty. Hopefully, one day she’d be able to return the favor and help him find a woman who truly made him happy—as happy as she was with Brian. Boy, would that be a tall order to fill.
Waiting for the words he would say to her, Myrna suppressed the urge to hug Brian. She didn’t want to distract him. She needed to hear what was in his heart.
Brian cleared his throat and stared at Myrna’s chin. “Trey was right: I should have written this down.”
“You wish you would have listened to me now, don’t you?” Trey said.
“Just tell me how you feel, baby,” Myrna encouraged, stroking Brian’s hair behind one ear until he looked up at her again.
“I think I’m better at showing.”
She lowered her eyes to hide her disappointment. It probably didn’t help that his four band mates were witness to the verbalization of his feelings. She knew he loved her; that was good enough for her. He could tell her when they were alone.
Brian tucked a finger under her chin, and she lifted her gaze to meet his.
“I thought I knew what love was, that I understood its depth, its importance, its beauty and the happiness and the heartache it brings.” He huffed—a small sound of amusement. “I wasn’t even close. When I look at you, I see radiance. I know pure happiness. Everything else pales in comparison. The thought of living a single moment without you tears me apart inside. Just when I think I love you as much as possible, you open your heart to me a little more, and my love expands—grows—wanting to fill every emptiness inside you.”
“You have,” she whispered. And that was just it—the reason she could love him forever. This moment wasn’t the ultimate expression of their love; it was just the beginning. As long as they continued to nurture what existed between them, their affections would burn brighter, lift them higher, bring them closer. Grow.