Her Forbidden Love (Forbidden Ties Sequel) (Forbidden Ties Series Book 3) (4 page)

              The next day came and went faster than I wanted it to. I spent the morning with the hungover girls before finding Allen again in the casino. He took me to the aquarium, then the roller coaster, and finally, to a lovely dinner.

              I felt bad for not spending more time with Mairead (especially since Penny was sending me hateful messages on my phone, claiming that I had ditched her), so Allen and I split it once again to join our friends after the meal.

              We had an early flight out the next morning, so most of us didn’t drink much that night before. By that, I mean, everyone except for Leslie. She became so drunk that she woke up in the morning remembering nothing from the bachelorette party weekend.

              “Does Leslie always party this hard?” Penny asked Mairead as we heard the muffled sound of her vomiting in the bathroom.

              “Her boyfriend just broke up with her,” Mairead explained. “They were engaged.”

              “That’s terrible,” I said. Suddenly, there was an entirely new dimension to the drunken girl in the bathroom. When I heard her heaving again, I stepped away from the door.

              “She can’t drive,” I said.

              “I know,” Mairead sighed. “I’ll have to take her back in her car.”

              “I’ll go with you,” I volunteered.

              “No you won’t!” Penny said as she stamped her feet.

              “Why not?” I asked.

              “You bought plane tickets!” Penny said while sounding annoyed with me. “Don’t you remember?”

              “Yes, I do,” I said calmly. “But I’m not going to leave Mairead here to deal with her. Plus, I’m fine with losing the money, but I’m sure that the airline will give me some sort of credit.”

              “Ugh!” Penny said as he grabbed her bags and placed them next to Mairead’s in the room.

              “What are you huffed about?” I asked her.

              “Fine, I’ll cancel my ticket, too!” Penny groaned.

              “Road trip!” Mairead yelled. As the bellman came and collected our bags onto the cart, I started to feel excited as well.

              “So,” Mairead said as she looked over to me in the passenger’s seat as we drove down the desert highway. “Is there anything you’d like to tell us?”

              “Like what?” I felt caught off guard by her question.

              “I don’t know,” she said, coyly. “Meet any boys– or old acquaintances– this weekend?”

              “Cade told you?” I gasped.

              “Of course he did!” Mairead giggled. “He never keeps secrets from me.”

              “Good to know,” I said, looking out the window.

              “What is she talking about?” Penny asked as she sat forward in the backseat. Leslie, who had been sleeping against her arm, fell a few inches before she blinked a few times, and switched sides to lean against.

              “Allen Dunbar!” said Mairead.

              “What?” Penny exclaimed. “Is that who you were with while you
ditched
us?”

              “Lighten up, Penny,” I said. “I didn’t ditch you.”

              “I thought you were planning something nice for Mairead with the boys.”

              “I’m sorry, Mairead,” I said in a playful manner. “I was chasing boys and not planning you a surprise party.”

              “How can I
ever
forgive you?” Mairead joked in a funny sounding voice.

              “What was that?” I laughed.

              “Southern accent?” Mairead said.

              “Not quite,” I said. Then she and I started to laugh so hard that tears came out of our eyes.

              “So, you finally fucked Allen Dunbar,” Penny said, plainly. “Good for you.”

              “Maybe,” I said.

              “Good for you...” Penny said. I couldn’t tell what she was trying to prove, but I decided to stop the tension.

              “Look, Penny,” I said as I turned around in my seat. “I’m sorry. I know that you planned this awesome party with an amazing room, and everything didn’t go as planned. However, to be completely honest, I had the time of my life. What about you Mairead.”

              “Oh yes!” she said nodding. “I don’t think I’ll have the opportunity to live that lavishly in Las Vegas ever again.”

              “Did you guys really have fun?” Penny asked.

              “Of course we did,” I smiled at her.

              “Okay!” Penny said as she clapped her hands. “That’s all that I wanted. Now turn on the raid to something I can dance to!”

              “Perfect!” Mairead shouted as she attached the auxiliary cable to her phone. Soon, music was blaring throughout the car. “I’m getting married tomorrow! I can’t believe it!”

--

              The next couple of hours went by with the help of us singing to some of our favorite songs from high school. It was corny, but to us, it was the stuff that made our friendships strong. Somehow, Leslie slept through the entire thing.

              “Welcome, ladies,” said the guard at the front gate to the Mayville Estates. We all waved to him as we drove into the downtown district. That was when I heard someone stirring in the back of my seat.

              “What did I miss?” Leslie asked with a yawn.

              “You’re just in time,” Penny said, gleefully. “We’re almost there!”

              “
Woo
!” shouted Leslie. “Las Vegas!”

              “You do know that we just
left
Vegas, right?” Penny asked her.

              “What do you mean?” Leslie asked with a foggy expression. Then she perked up a bit. “Wait, did I dance with a shirtless stripper.”

              “You did!’ Mairead said.

              “I thought that was a dream!” Leslie said while sounding somehow accomplished.

              “We’re here!” Mairead said as she pulled up to the driveway of her aunt and uncle’s house. “I wonder if the boys are back.”

              I saw the front door open and Mairead’s aunt– also Cade’s mom– Alice, stepped onto the front lawn. She smiled as she jumped up and down at our arrival.

              “Hi, Aunt Alice!” Mairead said as she stepped out of the car.

              “Hey, girls!” she said. “Did you have fun? Oh, wait, what happens there must stay there, right?”

              “Not if you didn’t even see a cock,” hiccupped Leslie as she stumbled on the driveway. Alice gave the messy blonde a concerned look before glancing upward at me.

              “Oh, I have a surprise for you, Jill,” Alice smiled.

              “For me?” I asked, bashfully.

              “Yes,” Alice said with a giddy expression. “He wanted to surprise you.”

              “Who did?” I asked. That was when I saw him walking through the open door. He was wearing a crisp, short-sleeved shirt and black slacks like he usually did. His face on turned his famous, handsome grin.

              “Hello, Jill,” said Walker. My knees buckled, and I felt as though I was going to faint.

              “This isn’t good,” said Penny, who was standing directly behind me. Alice’s happy face turned flat when she saw how upset the other girls were by the professor’s appearance.

“Maybe we should go inside, ladies,” said Alice as she grabbed onto Leslie’s arm to keep her from falling over.

              “Surprise!” Walker said as the girls headed into the house and closed the door behind them. “Your friend Mairead’s aunt is
extremely
sweet. I called the number on the wedding invitation you left in the geology library, and Alice answered. She has been such a gracious host and helped me get in those guarded gates at the front. These are some expensive houses... did you grow up here, too?”

              “What are you doing here, Walker?” I asked while ignoring his casual demeanor.

              “I wanted to say that I’m sorry,” he explained.

              “For leading me on?” I asked. “Or for showing up here unannounced?”

              “You invited me!”

              “That was
before
you rejected me. At that point, you became uninvited.”

              “Is that how you feel?” he asked. “Am I
uninvited
?”

              “I don’t know, Walker,” I said. “That last time I checked, you didn’t care about what I felt.”

              “I do care about you, Jill,” he said stepping closer to me. Then he put his hand on my arm.

              “Don’t touch me,” I said as I twisted my arm away from him.

              “Why, baby?” he asked as he stepped closer to me. “You always liked when we did things rough.”

              “That’s a past tense phrase,” I said.

              “Don’t be so cold,” he said. “I drove all the way out here to be with you, and it’s not fair for you to just turn me away.”

              “You don’t want to be here when the photographs are taken during the wedding,” I said. “They will be posted online for everyone to see that you were here with me.”

              “That’s right, I’m here for
you
,” Walker said. “None of that other bullshit matters, baby.” I looked into his steel blue eyes. They reminded me how cold hearted he could be. Suddenly, I could see behind them.

              “You were fired, weren’t you?” I asked. He froze for a moment, which let me know that I had struck a vital artery.

              “It wasn’t like that,” Walker said, as he looked frustrated.

              “They found out about us, didn’t they?” I asked. “What gave it away? The invitation? A leftover piece of clothing? A hidden camera?”

              “None of those!” he shouted.

              “Then, what was it, Walker?” I mocked. “I thought you were
so
careful!”

              “Somehow the dean of sciences found out,” he said. “Maybe you told someone? I will forgive you if you did.”

              “I didn’t say anything,” I told him. We were at a standstill when the right question came to my mind. “How many girls were you fucking, Walker?”

              “Shut your mouth!”

              “Two more? Five more?”

              “I said to
shut up
!”

              “Wow, did you fuck every girl in the class?” I was heated after knowing that he was sleeping around. Never before had I felt like such a fool. I wanted to cut him deep. “What about the boys, Walker? Were you with them in the library, and screwing them, too?”

              “You fucking cunt!” he yelled as his arm pulled backward. I felt it cut through the air and strike me across the face. The impact stung with force. My legs gave out, and I fell onto the concrete.

              I held my hand up to my face to see if any swelling had occurred. It felt like a million bees had taken to one spot on my cheekbone. I felt terrified of the man towering above. His face was menacing and anger filled.

              The sound of a revving engine boomed from down the street. I could see the red truck moving swiftly toward us. Even before it could make a complete stop, the door flung open. Allen leapt out of the car and charged up the driveway.

              “Hey, fucker!” he yelled. Just as Walker turned around, Allen’s fist swung into his face. It didn’t matter how athletic Walker was, Allen’s rage overpowered him. I saw Walker’s feet tumble backward as he hit hard on the concrete.

The rest of the bachelor party rushed to Allen’s side. Walker scurried around on the ground, looking dazed from his beating. Allen stepped in and kicked him on the side.

“Stop!” I yelled. Allen looked at me, calmed for a moment, and helped me off the concrete.

“I’m sorry,” he said, softly. “I was livid that he did that to you.”

“I’m going,” Walker said with his hands in the air. He stood up from the driveway and stepped backward toward his car. Once he climbed inside, he didn’t bother to look back at me. Instead, he scurried away like the cockroach that he was.

              Then my focus moved back to Allen, who wrapped his arms around me. Suddenly, I started to cry. It wasn’t out of the pain swelling on my face, or my crushed pride, or even the deceit I faced from Walker. I was just so content being held by a man who truly cared about me.

              My arm was wrapped tightly around Allen’s as we stepped down the rows of people. I could hear the trickle of water from the creek behind the altar as it moved through the valley.

              A gentle spring breeze floated purposefully through the air. The gust danced through the hair of the cellist who played softly as everyone stood from the seats. It touched the blush colored fabric of my dress Allen and I parted ways to stand next to the altar.

When Mairead came down the center of the aisle, the breeze continues to do its job. Gracefully, it lifted her white chiffon off of the ground and billowed tenderly back on the runner along the grass.

The ceremony was quaint with about sixty people– which, for our town, was miniscule. Originally, Cade wanted to be married overlooking the valley from a high mountain. Mairead, on the other hand, wanted something closer to the ground.

She and Alice found a spot near a creek bed. Because it was spring, the flowers were in bloom along the grass and the trees had full foliage. Being two of the most amazing people I would ever know, the ceremony seemed to fit Mairead and Cade to perfection.

As she stepped down the aisle, Mairead looked like the most stunning flower in the field. Her uncle Tim had his arm wrapped tightly around hers, and she carried a locket her neck with her late mother’s photo inside of it. My shift changed to Cade whose eyes were pink with tears. Everyone around was speechless.

“By the power vested in me,” the priest said after the couple exchanged vows. “I pronounce you husband and wife; you may now kiss the bride.” Cade embraced his beautiful wife and kissed her sweetly on the lips.

I felt my vision blur as a tear raced down my face. There wasn’t a spot in my heart that wasn’t overjoyed with their love. I noticed someone looking at me from across the altar. It was Allen Dunbar, who looked handsome as ever in a black tuxedo.

After Cade and Mairead walked down back down the aisle, I followed suit. Allen and I linked arms again. I felt him press tighter into me and a tingling sensation flushed through my stomach.

“You better dance with me later,” Allen said with a smile.

“I’m sorry, I’m all booked up,” I joked as we moved into place for the photographer.

“I guess I’ll have to take out a few more guys this week,” Allen joked.

“You’re my bodyguard!” I laughed. “So what are your plans after the wedding?”

“Finish this semester,” he said. “Then graduate.”

“Sounds like my plan,” I said.

“Yeah, but your plan doesn’t end up as happy as mine.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Nope,” he smiled.

“And why is that?”

“Because you don’t get to be the luckiest person after that.”

“And how are you going to be lucky?” I asked.

“If I ever see your face again, Jill,” he said as we stopped in our tracks. “That’ll make me the luckiest guy in the world.” The camera flashed, capturing one of our perfect first moments together.