16
Sunday, December 23rd
Marissa
A knock woke Marissa from a weird dream, and she jerked upward in bed. “Who is it?” she called, looking to the other side of the bed. It was empty. Where the hell as Lance?
“It’s David Eastman. I’ve been sent to wake you up.”
Marissa grumbled but rolled out of bed and reached for a robe. She’d been up with Lance half the night hacking into porn sites and pulling down content that had been illegally uploaded. Technically they were breaking the law with their hacking, but she didn’t care. Not when it was for a friend.
She jerked open the door and David smirked. “Morning sleepyhead. Looks like you and Lance had a wild time last night.”
“Bite me,” she muttered. “Where is Lance?”
David shoved a hand in the pocket of his charcoal slacks. “He’s helping shovel some snow away from cabin doorways, so people aren’t trapped. It’s pretty nasty out there. I’ve been instructed to send you down the hall to Dakota’s room.”
Marissa glanced at her smart watch. “It’s barely seven-thirty.”
“I believe Lance’s exact words were, ‘tell her if she doesn’t get out of bed and get her ass down to Dakota’s room, I’ll drag her outside and force her to make naked snow angels while I drink hot coffee and watch.’” David shrugged and grinned. “I don’t know what you see in that guy.”
Marissa giggled. “He’s clearly up to something. You can tell him I was obedient for once. I’m going I’m going.”
“So, I shouldn’t mention that you told me to bite you?” David said with a wicked grin.
Marissa wrinkled her nose and shut the door in his face so she could put on more than a robe. Five minutes later, she was making her way down the hall to Dakota’s room.
When she knocked, the door flew open and she was yanked inside. Lana, Bethany, Isabelle, and Austin were all waiting inside with Dakota and they looked like they were about to attack her.
“What the hell is going on?” Marissa asked.
Austin shoved a piece of paper into her hand. “Read it.”
Marissa grumbled but looked down at the note. Her jaw went slack as she recognized Lance’s handwriting.
Marissa,
I know it’s not what we planned five years ago or even five days ago, but I would be honored if you would marry me today. I’ll be downstairs in the dungeon—which will be known as the Solitaire chapel for today—waiting for you at ten. I hope you’ll say yes.
Love always
Lance
P.S. It’s not really a request.
She smirked and Austin snatched the note from her hand while Bethany led her to a chair. “We’ve got less than three hours to make you into a pretty pretty princess,” Lana said.
Austin snorted. “Do you want her to punch you? We’re going to make her into a badass fucking Goddess.”
Marissa grinned at Austin through tears. “How long have you guys been planning this?”
Austin laughed. “You’re not going to believe me, but we haven’t. Lance got Elijah, Patrick and Hunter, and Samuel and some of the other fellas in on the planning. Then we got woken up at the butt crack of dawn to help finish turning the dungeon into a chapel so none of the kinky furniture shows up on the cameras.”
“Cameras?”
Bethany nodded while she fussed with Marissa’s hair. “Your mom and sister are waiting to watch it on some live stream thing Lance set up. He’s not sure if the weather is going to cooperate, but we’re filming the whole thing just in case.”
Austin snapped a finger at her. “Stop crying. We have to do your makeup.”
Marissa wiped at her face with the back of her hand. “I think I’m a little overwhelmed. I can’t believe he did all this.”
“Girl, Jasmine stayed up half the night turning out a dress for you and everything. He was determined to give you your Christmas wedding.”
“God I fucking love him.”
She sat back and let the women work on her hair and makeup while she tried her best not to cry and make a blubbering mess of her face.
“Wait a minute,” she said as Lana pinned something tiara like into her hair. “Who’s performing the ceremony?”
Austin grinned at her in the mirror. “So it turns out, that our good friend Dr. Mallincoat is also an ordained minister with some woo-woo non Jesus church. I don’t get it but she’s legally allowed to perform weddings so there you have it.”
Marissa just shook her head in disbelief.
Dakota clapped her hands. “Alright ladies. We’ve got like thirty minutes to get this woman into her dress and get her downstairs.”
Marissa had to fight back the tears all over again when she saw her dress. It was gorgeous and not at all something a princess would wear. It fit her personality better than anything she would have picked out with her mom or sister tagging along to shop.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go get you married,” Austin said when she was dressed and ready to go.
****
Lance
“Can you see everything, Daph?” Lance said.
“Yep. Now get out of here and go marry my sister. We’ll see you two whenever the weather lets up.”
Lance blew out a nervous breath and went to the front of the converted dungeon. He was pretty sure Marissa’s sister knew where they were, but there was no her mother did, so they’d worked hard to convert the dungeon into something more respectable.
Now he just had to wait for ten when the wedding was supposed to start. He stood at the makeshift altar with Dr. Mallincoat and Hunter by his side.
“Congratulations, Lance. You’ve pulled off an amazing feat here. And you saved my ass while you were at it.”
Lance gave a nervous nod to the woman. “Happy to do it. Thanks for helping us out today.”
There was a flurry of activity at the back of the room and he knew Marissa was just beyond the double doors based on the amount of female squealing that was happening.
His heart beat sped up when the music started and the doors opened. She looked like a snow queen or something. He didn’t know how Jasmine worked her magic so quickly but he would give her three times the amount she charged him for the rush order on the dress.
He could tell Marissa was nervous and he fought the urge to go to her and take her from Samuel who had offered to escort her down the aisle if she wanted it. It seemed she’d accepted his offer.
“I found her wandering the halls,” Samuel joked when they got close enough for Lance to hear.
Lance grinned and held his elbow out for Marissa.
“Hi,” he said as he led her to stand in front of Tamara.
“Hi,” she said, her voice sounding shaky. “I can’t believe you did all this.”
“I would do anything for you.”
Tamara cleared her throat and the couple turned so she could begin the short ceremony. Lance barely heard any of it. It felt like their troubled past was finally fading and they could move forward with the life he always knew they were meant to have.
He repeated the generic promises that came with wedding vows, because they didn’t have time to write anything new. But the meaning with which they spoke the words was all that mattered.