So i come bearing the next chapter to make up for last week!!! But I'm glad you guys like it!!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, especially not the music, that is Ella Fitzgerald and if you don't know who she is, go get on itunes cuz u won't be sorry!!


Chapter 9: The Wedding Pt.1

"I have tried in my way to be free."~ Leonard Cohen.

The wedding seemed a lot closer on the other side of New Years. By February, we'd started making up the RSVP list with the responses we'd gotten. In March, we ordered the flowers from a shop in Calgary. In April, Dee went to go test cakes (Paul, unfortunately got to go with her on that trip), and one of the few major things to put together in May was the decorations.

I could hardly believe that it was only a week until the wedding, so far the only things left on the checklist was to do final dress checks for Emma, Dee and me, putting up the decorations we'd finished yesterday and then picking up the tables and chairs since Dee decided to have the wedding and reception at her house.

"Shit!" I read over the list for the twelfth time it seemed like. "The tablecloths! Where are they?!"

"Probably finished being washed," Emma replied from the tailor's stool in the dress shop in Calgary. "And sitting in the washer."

"Okay, good." I checked it off the list.

"So how's the final tally looking?" Dee asked when she had taken off her dress after it had been altered for the last time.

"Good. The only things left to do are: final dress check-"

"Check!" Emma called out.

"Putting up the decorations, tablecloths and finish the table decorations-Emma, you're not getting out of that- ," I listed off. "Call the minister, the final RSVP list, manicures and pedicures on Friday afternoon-please don't forget four o'clock, guys-, picking up the cake, triple check the reservations for the honeymoon, and check the food for the reception."

"We are going to be working toward this wedding forever!" Emma rolled her eyes.

"Nope, because the wedding is going to happen next week no matter how unprepared we are," I replied.

"When I get married," Emma predicted. "There will none of this. You'll show up, I'll get married, I don't care what you wear because I'm going to wear jeans."

"You are not!" I retorted. "I will make sure that you're going to have a nice wedding."

"It will be nice! It won't be any trouble!"

"You're impossible!" Dee snorted as she re-adjusted the sash around Em's waist until she had it just the way she wanted it. The cream sash gathered the satin at the empire waist and then it fell nearly straight to the ground.

Emma only shrugged. "It's nothing new."

"I can vouch for that."

Then, Emma smiled evilly as the tailor was doing a quick hem on the bottom of her dress. She piled her hair on the top of her head and then let it fall as if testing out something to do with her hair for the wedding.

"So, Makayla Rose," I ground my teeth at her use of my full name, "how are things with Logan?" She teased.

Emma hadn't let me live it down since the New Years debacle. During the next semester at school, not one phone call went by without her asking that dreaded question, hoping the answer would change. And to her great disappointment, it never did.

"We're friends." I insisted, getting very sick of answering that particular question. And we were. After New Years and especially after Emma went back to school for the next semester, somehow Logan and I always seemed to run into each other. At first, it was a little awkward, considering the near-kiss and all, but then it became normal to see him after the first two weeks. We ate at the diner in town together, and he found out about my little coffee addiction, I told him every Emma story I had, and there was always Chinese night which became a staple for us. A part of me was guilty that I was sharing this was him when it was something that was a tradition for Emma and I. But it nice to have him there, to know that I could lean on him when I needed to. "Just friends." I said again, for all of our benefits.

Dee and Em shared a withering glance and then rolled their eyes at each other.

"What?" I wondered throwing up my hands. "What now?"

"Nothing," Dee sighed as Emma stepped down from the stool. Dee handed me my dress and indicated that it was my turn finally. I took it and changed in one of the back rooms. When I came back out and stepped up on the stool, Dee started fiddling with the dress, adjusting the sash until she had it just like Emma's.

For bridesmaid dresses, they were definitely not hideous and I'd seen a few with poofy sleeves bigger than the wearer's head. The dresses truly were a mark of how much Dee loved us both; the dark lavender satin a-line empire waists agreed with both our shapes and complexions.

"You know we only bug you because we love you." Dee told me quietly.

"That and we want to try to save you some trouble," Emma threw in.

"What do you mean by that?" I snapped.

"Dee," Emma placed her hand on Dee's shoulder. "I got this, okay?" She turned back to me. "You almost kissed him five MONTHS ago. What the hell is wrong with you? Why can't you close the deal?"

"I told you!" I retorted, pressing my fingers against my forehead. "He only wants to be friends….he hasn't tried anything since then. Besides I've been so busy lately with school and the wedding…."

Dee rolled her eyes. "…God…not that again."

"What?" Emma and I chorused.

"That crap she keeps sprouting about him just wanting to be friends! Have you seen the way he looks at her? It's like he's looking at the sun shine for the first time in years."

"Oh, I know!" Emma gushed as if I weren't there. "But this one," she swatted me on the behind. "Is completely blind."

I wasn't. I saw it, just like everyone else. I just put it out of my mind because I wasn't supposed to feel this way about him. I wasn't supposed to wish that Emma hadn't interrupted us on New Years, I wasn't supposed to look forward to seeing him, and I certainly was not supposed to get emotionally attached. Not like this, it wasn't supposed to be this way. Jesus, I was in deep.

The tailor stepped back, clapping her hands, signally that she was done. "Lovely," she said "Certainly able to make sure that man of yours won't look anywhere else."

Em and Dee both found this incredibly hilarious.


Dee and I were putting together the table decorations, which Emma conveniently scheduled a shift at the Wong's to miss, when we heard what might have been thunder. Instinctively, we looked up and saw that the sky was totally clear.

"What is that God awful sound?" Dee got up and I followed her into the driveway.

"Maybe it's someone's car?" I suggested as the sound grew louder and louder.

"Someone needs to check their transmission," Dee shook her head in disgust.

The trees clouded most of our vision and it wasn't until he came around the last bend before Dee's driveway that we could see that it wasn't a defective transmission on a car, it was a defective transmission on a motorcycle.

"Well, well, well." Dee smirked. "If it isn't your friend…"

"Shut up," I growled and went to meet him in the middle of the driveway. Logan'd been talking about buying a motorcycle for months now, since March actually. A guy he'd met down near Calgary had a bike he'd been trying to get rid of for weeks. But I couldn't believe he'd actually gone through it. "You didn't!" I yelled over the roar of the motor.

He cut the engine, smiling coyly up at me. "I did. Do you like it?"

I walked in a circle, surveying it not really knowing what I was looking for. "You're going to kill yourself…"

"No, I won't!" He snorted. "Quit being dramatic!"

"Yes, you will. And I am not going to cry at your funeral because I will have told you so!"

He rolled his eyes. "Come for a ride with me," he offered. "Come on and be stupid with me for a little while."

It was a tempting offer, I had to admit. He was beginning to read me too, because saying no to that half smile was almost too hard, especially when he looked so excited. "I don't know…" I gestured back at Dee and all of our work to be done. "We've got a lot to do…"

"Hey, Dee!" He called to her. "Could I steal her away for a little while?"

"She's all yours!" Dee called back and started singing Ella Fitzgerald.

"I've got a crush on someone…

Guess who…

I've got a crush on you, sweetie pie.

All the day and night time, hear me sigh…"

Logan smiled. "Dee seems okay with it," he tried to persuade me.

I glanced back at Dee, who gave me the thumbs up, all the while singing as she went back to work:

"I never had the least notion
That I could fall with such emotion.."

"Fine." I relented, partly because I needed to get away from Dee's teasing and partly because it did look like fun. "One ride, that's it. No tricks, no stunts, no cliffs, no jumping off stuff-" He cut off my listing when he revved the engine. I hopped on, looped my arms around his waist and squeezed my eyes shut as I felt us swing around and zoomed back onto the road.

"Open your eyes!" I heard him shout as we drove.

"No way!" I screeched back.

"Oh come on! Stop being a chicken! Live a little!"

I did, but I couldn't see anything at first. We whipped by the trees so fast they were nothing but a green blur as I adjusted to the speed. When we zipped through town, which was only about five minutes or so, I cringed as we passed the Wong's thinking of Emma. But I let the thought fly away with the wind and I held on tighter.

I'd always noticed how broad his shoulders were, how well they filled out his shirts, but I'd never got to appreciate him from this particular angle. From what I could feel, it was like he'd been cut from a slab of granite. Solid but inviting, warm just like leather left out in the sun for a few hours. Then briefly I wondered what he'd look like without a shirt…I shook my head to rid myself of that thought loose and let it join the other one.

We cascaded over the roads, climbing a few of the hills over Canmore and I watched it grow smaller and smaller as it faded from view. And strangely, the farther we rode from town, more and more quiet my worries became; what Emma would think, about Dee and how she would smirk at me. Instead, I focused on the road before us, wondering, not worrying, fleetingly where we were going. But I didn't care enough to ask, it didn't matter where we were going, just that we were.

We were riding a wave, it seemed. We were surfing the mountains as we climbed higher and higher. Canmore became smaller still.

A little laugh of exuberance rippled out of me before I could stop it. It became a louder one until I couldn't hold it in. They bubbled out, releasing something out into the universe; my fear, my apprehension, everything else that I'd been keeping locked away.

When we crested a small plateau, the whole bright blue sky opened up for us and for a moment, I swear we were flying. Giggling a little, I let go of him and threw my hands up letting out a loud "Yawp!" or two.

Logan laughed out at my "Yawp!" but didn't join in. He slowed the bike down to a stop, on a ledge overlooking Canmore.

"Wow…" I breathed, taking in the sight around us.

"Yep." He agreed as he put down the kick stand. "So what do you think?"

"Of what?"

"The bike. I mean I'm going to have to work on it, fix up the engine."

"That and Dee says you need to check the transmission. We heard you at least a mile and a half away. But you're going to kill yourself," I repeated.

"I am not." He argued and twisted around to look at me. "Really."

I shrugged. "If you say so."

He smiled. "What was that thing you yelled earlier?"

"What thing?"

"The 'yelp' or whatever it was…"

"I was sounding my barbaric yawp…." I got off the bike and stepped over to the edge of the cliff, feeling the wind push my hair back over my shoulders. "From Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"". I turned around and held out my arms like I'd done before. "'The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering./I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,/I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.'!" My voice echoed against the cliff faces and ledges, surrounding me a few times before it was stolen by the wind.

His eyebrows came together in confusion and amusement when I came back and leaned against the front of the bike. "I think you are the strangest woman I've ever met." He concluded finally.

"I wouldn't say strangest…unique would be a better word."

"Unique, then. You are the most unique woman I have ever met." But I didn't hear any of it, I was too busy staring at his smile, wondering what if would feel like against my lips, if he'd put his hand against the back of my neck again-"What? I'm sorry, I missed that."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I figured that…" He suddenly stood up and leaned forward. I knew exactly what would come next and this time I wasn't going to do a thing to stop it.

"No tricks remember?" I whispered with a smile when his face was only a few inches from mine.

"No tricks," he promised and cupped his hand around my neck like I hoped he would and pulled me forward. I didn't hold back, because there was no Emma to ruin the moment.

Like always, Logan surprised me. He seemed like the type who'd take a kiss, not give one, but that's what he did as he covered my other hand with his other one. I shouldn't have, but really, I shouldn't have wanted it as much as I did, but it was too late and simply enjoyed the feeling of his mouth on mine.

It was sweet, but was over way too quick. He suddenly pulled away, like he was ashamed of what we'd done. It would make more sense for me to feel shameful but not him. Surprisingly, I wasn't. I should have been but I wasn't.

Logan ran his thumb across my chin, just brushing my lower lip as he held me back. He was so…I didn't even know if there was a word for what I read in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I whispered even though we were the only two for miles.

He shook his head. "It's nothing."

"Well, it's not nothing because you look worried," I cocked my head to one side. "You can tell me."

"I will but…I'd better get you back, Dee probably needs your help." He let his hand drop and he started the bike again.

I ran my hand through my hair as I jumped back on behind him. "Yeah, okay."

The ride back down to Dee's was uneventful and when I went to get off in Dee's driveway, I turned around. "You are coming to the wedding, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll be there."

"I guess I'll see you then." I waved as he backed out of the driveway he only smiled briefly before he disappeared down the road. For the first time in a very long time, I was completely confused.


....so yeah, i kinda skipped a head a few months but the next chapter is gonna be awsome and then we are seriously gonna have to strap in for the ride to come!!