A Merry Vested Wedding - Melanie Moreland Page 0,4
stroked together, our breath mingling. I was aware of everything. How she fit against me. The subtle shiver that ran through her body as I touched her. The air surrounding us, the sound of the waves. How her nipples brushed against my chest. She fit against me seamlessly, melding against my chest. She tasted of chocolate and moonlight and all things Addi. It was a life-changing kiss for us both.
Breathing hard, I broke away. Our eyes met and held, hers wide and shocked, mine pleading and determined.
“I don’t want you dating Todd or Derek or anybody else.”
“Oh,” she breathed out.
“You’re mine, Addi. You have been your whole life. No one knows you the way I do. No one will ever understand you like me.”
“But you’ve never…” She trailed off.
“I didn’t know. Until this week. But it hit me. That’s why I’ve hated every guy who looked at you twice. Why I go crazy thinking about someone else kissing you. Holding you. Because you’re mine. You belong to me.”
She swallowed, the tears spilling over her cheeks.
“What?” I asked again, wiping away the wetness. “Tell me.”
She gripped my wrists, a shaky smile ghosting her lips.
“I thought you’d never figure it out.”
Laughing, I kissed her again.
The next week was filled with ups and downs. I was on a high the next morning until I saw Addi on the beach. She looked pensive and upset.
“What’s wrong?”
“We can’t do this, Bray.”
“Do what? We’re not doing anything wrong,” I insisted, yanking a hand through my hair.
“We’re practically family. And I’m older than you.”
I rolled my eyes with a snort. “By a little over a year. We grew up together, but we’re not family in that sense, Addi. We’re not related in any way.” I grabbed her hands. “Don’t overthink this. We’re perfect for each other.”
She shook her head. “I need time to think.”
That was never a good thing. Addi would think and analyze to the point we would never have a chance. She would talk herself out of this. Out of me.
In desperation, I went to Sandy—the adoptive grandmother of all of us. She had been the assistant to our fathers, her role growing and adapting as the years went by. She became their nucleus and had been part of our world our entire lives.
I confessed everything to her. My feelings. Addi’s sudden hesitance and worry.
“Am I wrong, Nan? Am I wrong to have these feelings for her?”
She studied me. “Wrong? No. But have you thought of all the implications if this doesn’t work out?”
“It will,” I insisted. “Addi is mine. She always has been.”
She smiled. “You sound just like your father.”
“I know I’m young, but I see my whole life with her. As soon as I kissed her, I knew.” I lifted my shoulder. “Maybe even before.”
“What do you need, Brayden?”
“You know how she gets. Stubborn. She’ll overthink and decide the risks are too great. She’ll push me away.”
“You want me to talk to her?”
“She’ll listen to you, Nan. She always does.”
I waited for two days. I was sitting on the rocks, watching the sun sparkle on the water. Addi lowered herself beside me.
“Hey.”
I peered at her warily. “Hi.”
“Nan called me over. We talked for a long time.”
“And?”
She slipped her hand into mine. “Forgive me. I panicked.”
Relief tore through me. “So, we’re good?”
“She said a year was nothing, and I was being foolish.”
“She’s right.”
“She told me she isn’t shocked by this ‘development’—” Addi used her fingers to make the quotations “—and that we’re both more mature than most kids our age. She told me sometimes we’re lucky and find our soul mates early. That what was important was how we felt, not what others would think.”
“Ah,” I murmured, hope beckoning.
“She told me to look in my heart.” Addi squeezed my fingers. “She said that was where my future was, not in my head.”
“Nan is a wise woman.”
“I want to try.”
“Then let’s do it.”
After talking to Addi and letting it settle for a few days, I spoke to my parents. It was a surprisingly short conversation. They weren’t shocked, telling me they had seen it long before I did.
“We were waiting for you to make up your mind,” my mother told me, cupping my face. “Your head had to catch up to your heart.”
My dad had asked some good questions but informed me he wasn’t really surprised about my feelings for Addi.
“You two have always had a bond.” He paused. “But you need to come clean with Bent,” he stated.
“I am. Tomorrow.”
The next day, I paid