Paisley just rolled her eyes. “I may not have ever talked to your mom as your girlfriend, but she’s always known how I felt about you, and I know for a fact that she would kill us if we didn’t have a huge wedding.”

I was no longer surprised by anyone else knowing; I knew I’d been the only one blind to Paisley’s feelings. “Did you ever tell her that wasn’t what you wanted?”

“No . . .”

“Then who cares what she wants.”

Paisley choked out a laugh. “Eli! She’s your mom. You’re supposed to care, just like I do.”

I crawled back onto the bed with her and held her stare. “Tell me exactly what you want when I finally force you into marrying me.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Force me, huh? Thanks for the fair warning,” she teased, but then the humor in her eyes and smile changed into something softer. “I just want you. I don’t want anything big, I just want simple. I want to wear a white dress, and I don’t want to have to be around a bunch of people after. I just want it to be you and me, like we are right now. I don’t want a ring—”

“Fuck that,” I balked. “I’m getting you a ring.”

“Language, and I don’t want one! You told me to tell you exactly what I wanted, and I’m telling you.”

“If you don’t let me get you a ring, how are people supposed to know you’re mine, Pay?”

When she spoke again, her voice was nearly inaudible. “I’ve always been yours, Eli. My love for you has never been a show for everyone else. It’s always been just for you; that’s not changing now.”

Well fuck. She just had to go and put it like that. “No ring,” I conceded with a sigh.

“If you want, I’ll get a tattoo.”

“You hate needles.”

She shrugged and smiled mischievously. “I’ll get a portrait of Lurch on my shoulder or something.”

I dropped my head onto her chest, and my shoulders and back shook from the laugh I was trying to hold back. Once I was sure I could keep a straight face, I looked back up to her. “If you get Lurch, I’m getting a troll with purple hair.”

Her eyes widened and her head shook slowly back and forth. “No,” she mouthed. “But, that’s what I want. I just want simple; I just want us.”

“Then that’s what it will be,” I assured her. “Anything you want, Paisley. Always.”

Epilogue

October 4, 2014 . . . one year later

Eli

“YOU’RE FUCKING KIDDING me.”

“Language!” Paisley hissed. “And whatever it is, I doubt I’m kidding.”

I walked through the cottage and into the bathroom where Paisley had just stepped out of the shower, and held up the box in my hands. “Condoms? Pay, you are out of your damn mind if you think I’m wearing condoms anymore.”

She held out an arm like she had no idea why I was getting mad, but laughed when I was done. “It’s a habit to make sure I have them since someone conveniently forgets to buys them or throws them away when he finds my stash.”

“Is it so bad that I want to be able to look at you walking around with a big pregnant stomach?”

A small laugh burst from her chest, and she walked forward to wrap her arms around my neck. “It was because we weren’t married. Your mom is already mad enough at me for having a small ceremony and nothing else. The last thing I needed was her giving me the same lecture she gave your sister when Kash informed everyone right after the wedding that Rachel was pregnant with twins.”

My face fell. “Do we really have to talk about that right now? I’m still not okay knowing that my sister has had sex; you don’t have to make it worse by reminding me that she’s pregnant.”

“Fine, we’ll act like she got pregnant all by herself. No sex involved.”

My eyebrows pinched together, and just as I started to tell Paisley how much that didn’t make sense, I huffed. “Huh. Yeah, I like that actually. But none of that matters right now. What matters is that you’re my wife as of four hours ago, I’m not wearing condoms anymore.”

“You don’t have to,” she crooned, and kissed me softly. “Like I said, it was habit.”

“I’m burning these,” I grumbled against her lips.

“Fine.” She leaned back enough to unwrap the towel, and let it fall to the floor. Grabbing my pants, she unbuttoned them and pulled the zipper down, then pushed them off me. Once she had my boxer briefs down past my hips and was gripping me in her small hands, she said, “But do you mind waiting until after? After all, like you said, it’s been a whole four hours, and we still haven’t made this marriage legitimate yet.”

I grabbed her up in my arms, and covered her mouth with my own as I turned to walk her into the bedroom. “I fucking love you, Pay.”

“Language,” she mumbled halfheartedly, but soon the only sounds coming from her were incoherent words and erotic noises.

Four months after our first weekend here at the Crystal Pier Hotel, Paisley’s lease ended and we officially moved in together. An entire two days before we announced our engagement—as our parents had been reminding us up until today. While our original plan had been to only have Kristen and Jason as our witnesses today, not one person in my family, or Paisley’s parents, had been okay with that or allowed it to happen. And even though my mom had tried planning a “surprise reception” that wouldn’t have exactly been a surprise, I’d finally gotten her to agree to stop pushing the reception issue about a month ago. Paisley didn’t want one and refused to let me tell my mom because she didn’t want to upset her more, but I’d promised Paisley she would have the wedding she wanted, and I wasn’t going back on my word.

Even though it had been a joke between Paisley and me for the last year, we didn’t get married at a courthouse. We had a pastor marry us on our crest overlooking the ocean, and like Paisley had wanted, there were no rings, only two small tattoos that we’d gotten done right after the short ceremony. Paisley now had an outline of a small heart on the side of her wrist that went with the arrow I’d gotten on the side of mine.

And after a couple hours on the road, we were back in the exact same cottage we’d been in a year ago. There was no one in the surrounding cottages, no one would be able to get ahold of us for the next week, and there was nothing for us to do but spend every day wrapped up in each other as we started our life together that was long overdue.

THE END