Chapter Nine

The room burst into cheers. After a year of the same response I'd grown used to it, but it never failed to warm my heart.

He was there, I knew. We'd gazed into each other's eyes endlessly at the wedding when we should have been thinking about Peyton and Jake. We hadn't made it with love-could they make it without.

I walked to the end of the stage, prepared to hop off, and froze. A hand was offered to me. A familiar, ring bearing hand. A ring bearing left hand.

I'd placed my right hand in his and come off the stage before I'd seized the bravery to look into his eyes. His deep, warm, brown eyes. Even in the pictures I'd seen of him in the last year, I hadn't been able to see the feeling in those eyes. Did he miss my eyes? Did he miss me at all?

He leaned down. He had to lean down far-even in my heels, my five feet four inches self was dwarfed by his six feet two self. Had he grown taller even? I loved that he was tall.

I should have expected the kiss he laid on me, but I didn't. What I did expect was the feeling it gave me. The feeling of love, desire, contentment, joy and promise all mixed into a kiss. The touch off his lips was passionate but not built on lust. He pressed the perfect amount to tell me that this wasn't a 'welcome home' type kiss. It was a kiss that said I love you.

I was aware of half the room staring at us as we kissed for several minutes. I suddenly felt bad, stealing Peyton's night away from her. I broke off the kiss but took his hand. He pulled me against him-as I'd always done I fit myself into him perfectly, inhaling his scent and feeling his hard stomach. I felt him rest his chin on the top of my head and felt his arms around me. I wanted to tell him I loved him. Because I did, and I was more sure than ever that we could make our marriage work. But breaking the silence would mean breaking the moment-the perfect, loving moment that I wanted to last forever.

I pulled away after several more minutes but kept his hand in mine. Silently I led him to the fire escape, a place often used at Tric nights for making out. I sat down on one of the uncomfortable steps and leaned against him.

"Are you really here?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"I don't think I can handle you leaving ever again," he admitted.

"You'll never have to," I promised.

"Chris?"

"He's a jerk. You were right. He was possessive and controlling and presumptuous. He couldn't handle that I didn't want him," I said.

"So you never… with anyone?" he asked. His voice sounded hopeful. Could we really erase all the damage in one night on a fire escape?

"Never. Not so much as a touch," I said, running my hand through his spiky hair.

"Me either," he said. I laughed.

"Can we really make this work?"

"The only thing we can do is try," he said. I stood and began my way down the fire escape.

I still had our apartment key in my purse and I unlocked the door. The wedding wall was gone. My keyboard was gone. The Andy Warhol pictures Peyton had drawn were even gone. The walls were covered in sickly bubblegum pink, the floor in candy wrappers and waste. I winced. This was my fault.

"If I'd known you were coming…" he said apologetically.

"It's okay. We'll paint tomorrow. We'll even get Peyton into decorate," I said.

"She might be kind of busy," he reminded me.

"I wonder if they can make it work?" I said.

"They will. Once they realize how great it is," he said. I turned to him. I leaned up and our lips met again. Passionately.

"Maybe we can talk tomorrow?" I suggested. His hands found mine.

"Whenever," he said. We made our way to the bedroom.

Nathan was no less beautiful in the moonlight than he'd been a year ago. We'd had pain, we'd had lies. Had they really made us stronger. I shivered. I moved closer to him as our old habits came back to us-after a night of what we'd just done and even on innocent nights I'd rested my head on his shoulder, he'd wrapped his arm around me and I'd cuddle into him, my arm across his stomach. He claimed he liked this. Did he really? In his sleep, his hold on me tightened.

"Didn't we used to have curtains in here?" I grumbled as I awoke. We were in the same positions as we'd been the night before.

"They were too frilly," he said.

"How long have you been awake?" I asked him. I could tell by the clock on the wall that I was almost noon.

"Hours. I'd forgotten how beautiful you are when you sleep," he said. I blushed. He loved to make me blush.

"Last night was incredible," I said after a silence. I felt his nod on my hair.

"If we can make this work, Hales, we could have a lifetime of 'last night's," he said.

"A lifetime of all I want. All I'll ever want," I promised.

"You've given up on being a rockstar?" he asked. He knew how much it meant to me-this time, I knew, that even if I'd wanted to continue my career we could find a way around it. But there was nothing I wanted less.

"I've had my fill. I've got money now, and I could live without the press. I'm all yours," I said, rolling over onto him.

We were eating breakfast when my phone rang. It surprised me, how he managed to live with almost completely bare cupboards.

Anyway. My phone was ringing.

"Mr. And Mrs. Nathan Scott," he said, reaching into my bag and answering it. He winked and I grinned. I'd forgotten how nice that was. I heard a shriek through the phone and he held it away from his ear.

"Brooke?" I mouthed. He nodded as she shrieking continued and I held my hand out for it.

"Brooke!" I yelled as I held it to my ear. She sobered down quickly.

"As soon as we've dealt with Peyton you have to give us every dirty detail," she said.

"Dealt with Peyton?" I said worriedly. Nathan looked up and frowned.

"She left early, like just after you did and she hasn't been picking up her phone. And I'm at school and Jake's at school but she's AWOL. And I know this is lame, but I've got a test and I can't get down there," explained Brooke.

"I'll go," I said quickly.

"Thanks," she said gratefully.

"But can't you just ask Jake?" I asked her.

"You'd think. But he's like completely out off it. All distant and cold. Did they have a fight, do you think? He was being adorable when they were here, but she was…" Brooke trailed off. Staring at Luke? I'd noticed, too. I hoped Jake hadn't.

"I have to go to Peyton's," I said regretfully, hanging up the phone. I know I needed to be with her, to comfort her. But my heart yearned to be with him.

"I'll drive you," he said. We walked out and climbed into the car that Nathan and Keith had fixed up soon after we'd married.

He turned on the CD player as we began to drive. Out came my voice-crooning one of my songs from my last album. Hastily he turned it off.

"This one doesn't have Chris on it, does it?" I asked, laughing.

"Hey, I missed you," he said. I'd gotten the impression that my name hadn't been mentioned in his presence or by him in a year-and he had my CD in his stereo?

Peyton's car was in the driveway. I sprang out and ran up to the door.

"Peyton?" I called as I entered the house. Uncharacteristically, I couldn't hear music being blasted from her room.

Her room was empty. I could tell it had been slept in, but I could only tell that his side had been touched. I heard a cough from the bedroom across the hall.

She was back in bed, curled up like a little girl. Slipping off my shoes I joined her. She turned around to face me.

"Hey," I said. Her sad, puffy red eyes looked into mine.

"Hey," she answered.

"What happened to you?" I asked softly.

"Well let's just say it wasn't exactly a wedding night to remember," she said.

"What do you mean? You're not a virgin," I said. She sighed.

"Okay I'll tell you what happened. He carried me very romantically into the house and we began kissing on the sofa. Then I noticed Jenny wasn't around and was informed that she was with her grandparents. Why? Because apparently people enjoy a certain level of intimacy on their freaking wedding night!" she said angrily. I searched for the part where sense came in.

"People do enjoy a certain level of intimacy on their wedding night," I said.

"I know! But I just got so scared, you know? Consummation made it so real. And wedding night is such a wedding thing to do and I've kind of been pretending it didn't really happen," she said. I sighed and reached for her left hand. Her ruby twinkled on it.

"Look at that, Peyton. It happened. You're going to have to accept that. And he's a great guy," I said.

"So on your wedding night… you…?" she asked. She didn't say anything, but I understood what she meant.

"On the night before he met me outside in the rain-remember that? And then we went back to his apartment and he took off his shirt and he was so wet. And then I just looked at him and it hit me that I was crazy for waiting so I took off my shirt and I was wearing this camisole he'd bought me, and then we just… did. And then we decided to get married," I answered. I though fondly of the time.

"You two are totally getting back together," she said.

"We already are," I said. She smiled.

"That's so great. So I guess you were the only one that got action on my wedding night?" she said. I wrinkled my nose at her.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked her.

"Do you think he'll understand if I make him wait?" she asked. I considered this.

"No. But I think he'll accept it, because he loves you," I answered.

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