Rugged Guard - Jason Collins Page 0,60
love with you, Parker Williams. And I’m… sorry that it took me a few cocktails to say it. I should’ve said it a long time ago.”
“You love me…” I murmured, setting my drink down on the bar. “Huh. That’s… interesting.”
“Interesting?” Derek’s face fell. “Is that your way of letting me down gently?”
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s interesting, because I love you, too.”
“You do?”
“Yes,” I admitted with a smile. “I love you, Derek Lavine. I love you so much that I would—”
I stopped myself short, interrupting my own response with a deep sigh.
Derek gently nudged me in the shoulder as he asked, “You love me so much that you would what?”
“I never really thought about getting married, Derek.” I kept my voice low as I replied. “It’s not… after I saw what marriage did to my parents… it’s not exactly something I thought would ever belong in my dream life. But… I think… I love you so much that if you asked me to marry you, I would say yes.”
“You would say yes to marrying me?” Derek grinned. “Parker, I couldn’t even get you to say yes to being my boyfriend when we were on the plane.”
“We talked about that, didn’t we?” I went on. “You asked if the answer was going to be yes after we got through with that meeting with Gavin, and I said it would be. Which technically means that you’ve been my boyfriend ever since we left Rollin’ Dice.”
“Technically, I think you’re right.” Derek let out a light laugh and reached a hand out for mine. “Well, in that case… Parker Williams, I think we’ve been dating long enough to know if we’re ready to take this relationship to the next level, don’t you?” Derek then leaned in toward me before he spoke again. “Parker, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I answered without even the hint of hesitation.
“Will you marry me tonight?”
“Yes.” My second answer came out just as swiftly as the first. “But… could we even do that? Don’t we need to have our vows written or something?”
“Vows aren’t that hard to write,” Derek explained. “It’s just stuff like… Parker Williams, I vow to keep you safe for the rest of my life. And I vow to love you, even when times are hard. I vow to keep you close to me, at all times, even when we’re far apart. And I vow that I’ll never falter or stray, not as long as you’re mine.”
“What the hell?” I squinted over at Derek in suspicion. “Why are your vows so good? How long have you been getting ready for this?”
“I…” Derek paused for a moment. “I started thinking about our vows… back on the Ferris wheel. When I saw you looking out on the city… it reminded me of the way I feel when I look at you. And I knew that I wanted to feel that way with you, for a long, long time.”
“Derek…” I felt tears starting to sting behind my eyes as I shifted closer to him at the bar. “Can we just go get married now? Before I start weeping right in the middle of this bar?”
“Yeah. We can.” Derek smiled and softly kissed me on the cheek, his palm gently stroking my knuckles, one by one.
Derek and I were walking down the Vegas strip, hand in hand, as we followed the map on Derek’s phone, attempting to locate the nearest wedding chapel. The buzz from the cocktails was still moving through my veins, but now it was joined by a steady, excited thumping of my heartbeat, as I imagined a life with Derek, a life we were going to build together.
Derek and I had stopped at the Hawaiian-themed bar’s gift shop before we left the building, picking up two Hawaiian shirts that featured a cheap-looking, built-in necktie, our outfits now matching as we made our way through the city streets. We were also wearing matching pairs of sunglasses with rainbow-colored rims. At first, I thought that wearing shades at night would’ve made it impossible to see anything, but as we stepped under the lights from the Strip, I was quickly reminded that everything in Vegas was illuminated so in a way, it was never really dark at night, even when it was supposed to be.
Soon enough, Derek and I were walking into a chapel, complete with near-blinding, shimmering crosses set up all around the building. There was also a small woman seated at a desk in the lobby, its counter littered