Listed: Volume VI by Noelle Adams Read Free Book Online

naturally
tried to hide it. “I never thought it would happen. Any of this. It gives me
hope that everything that is broken has the chance of being fixed. I never
thought it could happen.”
    “Me
either.”
    Her
expression changed then. “I’ve been thinking.”
    “What
about?”
    “I
want to ask you something, and I don’t know how you’re going to feel about it.”
    He
gaped at her. “What are you talking about? Ask me anything you want. I’ll do
anything you want.”
    Her
face softened with affection momentarily before she pulled it together. “How
would you feel about having another wedding ceremony. Kind of like a renewal of
our vows.”
    “It
hasn’t even been a year.” While he was fully prepared to give Emily anything in
the world she wanted, this was the last thing he expected, and he wasn’t sure
he liked the idea about it. “Our marriage was always real, Emily. It’s not like
we had a fake wedding the first time. I don’t think we need to act like we’re
just now married for real.”
    “I
know it was real. I wouldn’t change our first wedding for anything. But I just
wanted to have a wedding in the neighborhood. It’s fine if you don’t want to.
It was just an idea.”
    He
drew his eyebrows together. “Why did you want to do it?”
    She
shrugged and looked a little embarrassed.
    “Tell
me.”
    “You
remember right after we got engaged, and you told me you didn’t think it was
good that I was pulling away from everyone. All my friends and stuff.”
    “Yeah.
But that was understandable. People react in different ways to grief.”
    “I
know. But you were right. It wasn’t healthy. I feel like I’ve been living in
this…I don’t know…this bubble or something because I didn’t want to let anyone
in. Anyone but you.”
    He
reflected on this for a moment and realized she was right. He also realized
that he kind of liked the bubble since it meant that he was the only important
person in her life.
    It
wasn’t good for her, though, so he wasn’t about to indulge the feeling.
    “I
can see what you mean. So you think having another wedding ceremony would help
with that?”
    “Yeah.
I could invite everyone I know from the neighborhood. And Stacie and her mom
could be there. I just think it would make me feel like this marriage is part
of my real life. The life I’m going to be living for a long time now. Is that
okay? I didn’t mean to imply that our marriage was ever fake or that what we
have wasn’t real all the time.  I just—”
    “Emily,”
he interrupted. “I get it. I really do. I’m happy to have another wedding.” He
leaned down to kiss her. “I’d marry you every day for the rest of my life, if I
could.”
    She
kissed him back, hugging him tightly. Then she said, her voice muffled by his
shirt. “For a notorious bad boy, you’re really kind of sappy, you know.”
    “I
thought I was a geek.”
    “You’re
a sappy, bad-boy geek.”
    He
huffed with amusement. “Just don’t tell anyone else.”
    So,
a month later, they had another wedding ceremony in a church in the
neighborhood. Paul had to admit it ended up being a good idea after all.
    ***
    Paul wondered if the
idea of Emily's being interested in sex again that evening was overly
optimistic.
    Probably.
    This
morning, Emily had been sore and exhausted and hadn't wanted to get up, and
she’d teasingly told him that she’d been happy to indulge his primal nature the
night before but he shouldn’t expect caveman sex again any time soon.
    Paul
had drawled that he’d be happy to indulge her primal nature whenever and
as often as she wanted. She’d laughed fondly, but then she’d winced as she’d
gotten out of bed.
    It
wasn’t really that long ago—less than six months—when he’d been absolutely
convinced Emily was too young to think about sexually. She'd been completely
off-limits to him, forbidden.
    Many
things had changed in these last few months.
    They’d
had rough, wild sex the night before. He