Doesn’t matter. I can’t continue driving while she’s crying, pouring her heart out to me. I pull over, the tires rolling gently to a stop. Within seconds I’m across the gear shift, holding her any way I can without hurting her more.
“I’m such a m-m-mess that I’m in the car, telling you I can’t have sex and crying about it as we’re on our way to get married!” Lindsay says, incredulous. She looks at me with red-rimmed eyes and a wild expression. “Why in the hell would you even want to marry me?”
I kiss her. In the kiss, I pour out my heart, my soul, my anger, all the feelings that make up the impossible answer to her impossible question.
The kiss has to give her a proper response to her eternal why?, and as seconds pass, our lips sweetly slant against each other, my tongue parting her mouth open to say Yes, I love you.
To say We’ll be a mess together.
To say I’ll take you however you’ll give yourself.
To say I do, forever.
By the time the kiss ends, we’re breathless. I taste her tears in my mouth.
I also taste her surprise.
“I love you. I want you. The real you. Not just your good parts. Not just your unmessy self, Lindsay. I want it all. I need it all. I don’t need you whole, but I need the whole you. Can you trust me with that much of yourself? Because I think that’s how this goes. I don’t know, because this is all new for me, too. But don’t ever think that I love you one iota less for showing me all of your moments, dark and light,” I tell her.
“You mean that? Really?”
“I do.”
She’s breathing hard, color in her cheeks, a pink arousal in her skin and an intense look in her eyes that I swear is passion. She’s coming back into focus, the old Lindsay slowly emerging from the dark internal cave where she’s been hiding, waiting for it to be safe to emerge.
That’s my job.
To love her and make it safe.
“Four years ago, I knew I loved you, Drew. But it was an immature love. A surface love. Love was defined by our friends, by Mom and Daddy’s approval, by dinners with your parents and by all the trappings of society and the media. I knew I loved you because we held hands, we exchanged gifts, we went to parties together, we became one word – LindsayandDrew – and because we were a couple who were a sum of all those parts.”
I just listen.
That’s my job, too.
“But this – what we’ve been through, how we’ve come back together, what we’re doing now running off to Vegas, but more important – what you’re saying to me right here, right now. This is...”
“Love. Real love. Anything less wouldn’t be fair to either of us, Lindsay.”
Lindsay
No one tells you that moments like this even exist. I can’t imagine Daddy and Mom talking to each other this way. None of the movies and television shows I watch have couples doing this. Going so deep you touch the bottom of the emotional pool, hoping you can hold your breath long enough to come up for air.
It’s intense and painful, authentic and hopeful. If he means it – truly means it – then I’m the luckiest woman in the world.
Really.
Because what man talks like this?
“I want to marry you,” I say slowly, my thoughts falling in line with my mouth, “because I’ve loved you since we met when I was in high school. And I don’t care about beating Mom and Daddy at their own game, or making you my next of kin. Those are bonuses.”
His lopsided smile makes me want to kiss him again. My shoulder screams when I twist in a funny way. I gasp from the sudden pain. He frowns.
“You okay?”
“Just pulled something in my shoulder.”
“Let’s get to Vegas. Get the license. Find a chapel. And get you to bed.” He clears his throat with meaning. “To rest.”
I laugh. All the earlier churning inside, the worry and the flashbacks that plagued me when I thought about being intimate with Drew, have somehow faded. They’re not one hundred percent gone. They’re not. And yet, they have less power.
They’re less immediate.
Drew is safe. More than safe. In the unbridled comfort of his words, his actions, his unwavering commitment to me, he’s creating a space for me to unfurl.
I’m grateful.
And I’m responding.
As we pull back onto the highway, Drew’s phone buzzes. He grabs it and answers, pulling it to his ear. Then, as if second-guessing himself, he puts it on the console and presses speakerphone.
“Hey Gentian. You’re on speaker.”
“Oh, uh, hi Lindsay.”
“Hi Silas!”
“What’s up?”
“Your cover story is starting to slip. Mrs. Bosworth is upset that Lindsay didn’t invite her to the shopping trip you told them you were taking her on. Says she should have been consulted when it comes to selecting outfits for Lindsay’s potential public appearances.”
“Translation,” I say. “Mom has nothing better to do and is pissed I skipped out on my psych eval.”
Silas coughs into the phone and says, “You said it, Lindsay. Not me.”
Drew should laugh, but he doesn’t. Instead, he speeds up slightly, pushing the speed limit.
“Stall as much as you can. We need about three more hours. Two to get there, one to get the license and get married,” Drew tells Silas.
“Got it. I’ll do my best.”
Click.
“Really? It only takes an hour to get the license and get married?”
“If the line isn’t long. Half an hour to get the license, then go find a chapel.”
“Will Elvis marry us?”
“You want that?”
“Could you imagine the look on Mom’s face if I show up with wedding pictures with Elvis as the minister?” I can’t stop laughing at the idea, giggling so hard my bruised ribs start to hurt.
Drew laughs, a deep rumbling of amusement. “That makes me want to do it.”
“Do they have Elvis drive-thru chapels? Kill two birds with one stone?”
Drew grabs my hand. “It’s good to laugh with you.”
“So that’s a yes? Drive-thru chapel with Elvis?”
“Anything you want, baby. Anything you want.”
Chapter 19
Drew
In our one and only wedding photo, Lindsay and I are in the backseat of a pink Cadillac, with Elvis at the wheel.