I must admit, I was having a good time dancing with Quil. After a few moments, all thoughts left my head and I got lost in the beat. Same thing could be said for Quil. He had his hips bouncing along to the beat and I copied him. We could hear the laughter coming from Embry and Jake, but we didn't let it stop us. Half way through the song, Paul, Jared, Rachel and Kim joined us. The six of us formed a small circle and continued our dancing until the end of the song came.
They joined Quil and I back to our table.
"You looked like you were having a good time Clearwater." Paul said laughing.
"Yeah she did! Did you see the hips swaying?" Jared laughed.
"Bite me." I laughed.
"There's the Leah we all know and love." Rachel said with a giggle.
I took a seat on the edge of Seth's seat fanning myself. "Whew.. I need some water." I said.
"I'll get it." Embry said leaving his seat.
"Hey. Great idea, bon fire tomorrow." Paul said looking around the table.
"I'm down." Seth said.
"Me too." Jared said as he stroked Kim's arm.
"Quil? Jake?" Paul said looking at them.
Both looked unsure of what to say. We knew they both wanted to be with their little dance partners.
"You can bring your little one's." Paul laughed. This caused them both to smile and nod their heads in agreement.
"Great! Let's say at dusk." Paul said.
"What's at dusk?" Embry asked returning to the table and handing me the bottle of water.
"Thanks Embry." I said. He smiled down at me, then blushed and looked back to Paul.
"Bon fire tomorrow. You Game?" Paul asked.
"Sure. My mom's nurse comes tomorrow night, so yeah." Embry answered.
Emily's mother came to our table. "Guys, they're getting ready to leave, so everyone is lining up outside." She said.
This information brought back the sinking feeling. I had been having so much fun with my pack, that I almost forgot about why we were all joined together. I followed everyone else out the front door and everyone lined up both sides of the sidewalk. My heart beat picked up slightly at the thought of watching Sam ride off into his piece of forever. I felt a warm hand on mine. I looked up to see Embry standing next to me. He gave me that trade mark Embry smile followed by a smile. I smiled back with a shake of my head.
The double doors opened and Sam, holding Emily's hand came out the door and into the crowd. As they passed everyone, people were pulling them into quick hugs and handshakes. They passed by me with out so much as a glance to me. I tried not to let this offend me. They had so much going on and the thought of getting started on their honeymoon. The crowd started to follow them to the car as I stayed rooted to my spot. I started to go back in when I felt a hand grab my arm. I turned to see Sam standing there.
I was shocked. Sam pulled me into a crushing hug. This shocked me even more. My eyes grew wide and I saw my pack brothers standing together watching us with worried looks to their faces. Sam held me to him for a moment then released me.
"Thank you Leah. Thank you for your speech, for being Emily's maid of honor and well, thank you for helping me find her. I do love you Lee, whether you believe me or not. You know me better than anyone besides Emily. You've helped me become the man I am and you've given me the greatest gift. Her. Thank you." Sam said.
"Um…I…You're welcome Sam." I said softly.
Sam smiled at me then went back to the car. I watched as it disappeared into the night, still in shock over what had happened.
My pack came to stand to beside me as I still stared to where the car disappeared to. Jake threw his arm across my shoulders as Embry squeezed my other hand and Quil placed his chin on my shoulder from behind me. While my brother simply looked to me. None of them spoke. They were letting me process this moment. After a few moments I shook them all off.
"Ok. Enough of this. Let's go." I said.
"Where we going?" Seth said as he pulled off his tie. "Please say to get some food. Please Lee."
"I could go for some food too." Quil said looking to me.
"Do I even need to say it." Jake laughed.
"I want a big burger." Embry said as he too pulled off his tie.
"Well, I guess we're headed to the diner." I laughed.
"Yes!" Jake yelled as he ran a head to unlock his car.
I stopped to pull off the heels that were now killing my feet. After I had them off I watched as the others ran up to join Jake at the car. Quil and Seth were fighting over who got to sit up front and Embry was telling Jake how much he wanted his burger. I shook my head at them. That's when I realized it… I may have lost the one person I thought I was going to spend my life with to my cousin, but I still had these four amazing men in my life. And they proved today, that they would never leave me. Whether I begged them too or not. They may get on my nerves, or be awful dancers, or even dorks at times, but they were each my boys…..
"You coming?" Jake yelled over the roof of the car.
"Yeah" I yelled back as I ran up to the car.
"You ok?" Embry asked as he held the seat up for me to climb into the back.
"Yeah, I'm ok."
My heart may be broken, but at least I was happy.
