Her Reluctant Husband by Erica Marselas (summer beach reads txt) 📗

I giggle. “I do. Are you taking me for an evening ride?”

“Better.” He smirks. “At least, it better fucking be. I spent my whole evening yesterday on this.” He slides open the barn doors and pulls me in as he flicks on the light.

Instead of the normal large fluorescent that would flicker on, white Christmas lights shine all around us, which have been hung from the ceiling and the stables.

“This is lovely. You did this?”

“It gets better and sappier. Wait.” He walks over to Elsa’s stable, where she greets him with a snort. From the ledge, he pulls out a radio with his iPod connected. He hits play and “More than Words” starts to play through the speakers.

“You’re right, it did get sappier.” I grin and sling my arms around his shoulders.

“I do know why Liz picked this for our wedding song and why you were crying.”

“I wasn’t crying,” I scoff.

He smirks, and lifts my chin, running his thumb across my cheek then across my lip. “You sure about that? I remember brushing away tears.”

I bite my lip, knowing I’m busted when he reenacts that moment. “I didn’t think you remembered.”

“I didn’t want to, but I did. So, I figured I could remake it for you.”

“You’re right, this is just what I needed after today.” We sway around to the song, and I purposely step on his toes a couple of times. When the song ends, he steps away and tells me to close my eyes.

I hear a little bit of shuffling, and then only seconds later I’m encased in his scent again.

He lifts my left hand and tells me to open my eyes. My wedding ring is on the tip of my ring finger. “No matter what, this ring is always yours.” He slides the ring past my knuckle. “Not only was it a gift from Liz, but those gems came from a pair of earrings I had wanted to give to you, to tell you will always own my heart.”

I think my Alex just stole my heart. “You’re going to end up spoiling me with all this cuteness and niceness. It might go to my head and you’ll have to woo me on a normal basis.”

He grabs my chin and his green eyes flicker with simultaneous amusement and seriousness. “June, I don’t want to lose any more moments with you. So, will you marry me? For real this time. Not because there is something to gain, but because I love you and I want to spend a fucking million years with you.”

There’s only one way to answer this.

“Sure.”

His eyes narrow. “Sure, honey bear, really?”

I shrug. “At least it was a fucking yes, asshole.”

EpilogueAlexNine months later

I walk into the house with a dozen roses in my hand. Tomorrow is our one-year anniversary. That memorable day that Liz had forced me to tie the knot with my Ju-Ju. It’s hard to believe that when Kelley first told me, I thought today we would be signing divorce papers and I’d be kicking her out of this house because there was no way in hell a marriage between us could ever work out.

How wrong I was.

Because Liz was right. All I had to do was open my heart, along with my eyes and ears to see what I’d almost thrown away. Liz gave us our chance.

I kick off my shoes and put down my bag, realizing it’s quiet. My eyes dart around the kitchen and living room, which we had completely updated with our own preferred décor. There’s still some of Liz hanging around, mainly in pictures, but we made this house our own. As I walk into the living room, I find my little sleeping beauty snoozing away on the couch. Our dog, Chip, sleeps at her feet. Now if this wasn’t the biggest thing to change this year: June sleeps. Full nights and I can find her taking naps in the middle of the day. She still gets nightmares, but they are fewer and further between now.

Chip, our golden receiver is a trained support dog and will wake her up if she's having a nightmare. It’s fascinating to see. He was recommended by June's new therapist to help with post-traumatic stress.

She eats now too. Fuck, if that isn’t a relief to see…and the curves that have come with it.

After the whole thing with Deacon, I saw the release she had. She was finally able to take down her boogeyman. I'm fucking proud of her and how strong she really is. Deacon is now in jail for the next twenty-five years. Hilbert stuck to his word and got all the charges to stick.

I lay the flowers down on the coffee table, and watch June as she snores softly. Though I did ask her to remarry me that night in the barn after all that shit with Deacon went down, and we did have a small ceremony a couple of months later, where I was much more pleased to see my bride walk down the aisle, we decided to keep this day as our official anniversary.

"This never gets old," I whisper as I hover over her sleeping form. I bend down and place a kiss on her lips. “Wake up, honey bear.”

Chip opens one eye and peers at me. He grumbles till he knows it’s me and closes his eye again.

“June.” I kiss her again and that seems to do the trick.

Her eyes flutter open and she stretches before giving a big yawn. "Hi."

“Hi.” I run my thumb across her cheek and wipe away the sleepy tear that spilled from her eyes and run it across her lips. She kisses it away.

"What time is it?" she mumbles as she sits up and fixes her hair.

"Five.” I