My man is on his way home after his first away-game of the football season.
Yes, Jude is back with the Paragons. Against all logic, against all likely outcomes, he’s back on the field and his team kicked Pittsburg’s butt last night.
Don’t ask me how it happened. Not even the doctors can explain how he did it. The sports commentators are calling it a miracle. The internet claims Jude is a bionic man with alien DNA who was part of a government experiment gone wrong.
The rumors floating around are crazy.
But according to Jude, his recovery is all due to the power of our love. I think that theory is my favorite.
Sometimes the doctors don’t have the answers. Sometimes the hospitals don’t have a clue. Sometimes love is the only hope for healing.
All I know is that my man has beat the odds. Again. And fuck the haters. There’s not one thing he can’t do.
After his second knee injury, when the doctors were all doom and gloom, Jude gave up, he accepted that he’d never play again. But I didn’t.
Although recovering from a repeat ACL injury is rare, a handful of footballers have done it in the past. And if anybody could recover from that kind of knee trauma—twice—it would be Jude, with his stubborn determination and his freakish Kingston genetics. What he needed most was my support. So, this time around, we worked even harder on his recovery than the first time. The outcome is my man back on the field.
I take a quick peek at my cellphone. I’m waiting excitedly for the minute he’ll be back home.
Jessa shoves another armful of dresses at me. Penny sifts through the racks of options I’ve already rejected. My mother drapes me in a sympathetic hug. They’re all making a big fuss. The girls sling encouragement my way, prodding me to keep going.
And I find myself smiling…
Not too long ago, I was lonely. I was a broke divorcée, trying to figure out the next phase of my life. But now, all that has changed. I have the best friends a girl can ask for, three sisters who claim me as one of their own, a mother who adores me and a soon-to-be mother-in-law who can’t wait till it’s all official.
And the best part…the very best part, I know that my man would marry me even if I showed up at the ceremony in a potato sack.
…Let’s just hope it doesn’t have to come to that.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Diana whisper something into Lexi’s ear. My best friend’s eyes light up at whatever my future mother-in-law just suggested.
“Hey, where are you going?” I call out as Lexi hustles off toward her office.
In a minute, she’s back with a clear garment bag in hand.
My eyes are watering as she approaches me reverently with the dress. “No way…” I whisper as I run my fingertips down the zipper.
Diana nods, chasing her own tears. “Yes, Iris…”
“What is it?” Lily asks, her confused gaze darting around to read our faces.
I glance up at my sister. “Diana’s wedding gown…”
On shaky knees, I head off into the changing room. There’s no way this will fit. There’s no way this will fit.
That’s what my brain keeps yelling at me. This is Diana’s dress. The gown my soon-to-be mother-in-law loaned to Alexia when she married Cannon.
Lexi’s waist is the size of a Sharpie pen.
There’s no way this will fit.
But minutes later, I’m standing in the middle of the bridal shop, draped in my mother-in-law’s gown and it fits perfectly. My friends fawn over me and wipe tears from my eyes. “This is the dress, you guys…”
Wild cheers go up around the room as I stand there in shock. I spent so much time focused on losing weight, thinking that it would somehow make me happy. But the funny thing is, when I got happy first, I didn’t even notice the weight melting off.
And at this point, it doesn’t even matter because Jude Kingston would love me at any size.
I take my future mother-in-law’s hands. “Thank you for accepting me into your family, Diana. I know I’m a bit of a mess. With my divorce and my lunatic ex and my string of failures behind me.”
“Shhh…” She scoops me into a hug. “Let go of the outdated idea that a woman has to be as pure as the freshly fallen snow to deserve love and happiness. I know I wasn’t.”