“Breathe, my man,” Dan says, taking my attention away from my feet. I raise my head and meet his eyes. I’m actually standing at eye level. Standing! It might be assisted, but I actually feel like I’m part of the world again. Dan smiles. “You good?”

“Yeah,” I say breathlessly. “Yeah, really good.” He nods, and as he does, I look past him to see Lottie standing at the back of the room with her hands covering her mouth and tears making tracks down her cheeks. I jerk my chin up, signaling for her to come to me. She comes forward, and Dan steps to the side to let her stand right in front of me. It’s a feeling that has no words. Tears fill my eyes to mirror hers as I stand on shaky legs.

“Babe,” she whispers tearfully, placing her hands over mine.

“I may never stand unaided, Lottie. I may never walk next to you like I wish for. But I will always be by your side. I will fight with all I have to be everything you need me to be. I don’t ever want to be without you again. And I wish I could say this the traditional way, but nothing about us has ever been traditional… Will you marry me, Lottie Miller?”

“Marry you?” Her voice trembles and she looks at me with wide eyes.

“Yes. I want to marry you. I’ve always wanted to marry you; I was just waiting for the right time and the right place. But all of this has made me realize that I don’t want to wait. I want to seize every minute with you, and I want us to live like every day is our last. What do you say?”

“Yes,” she beams. “I say yes!”

All of the therapists and patients in the room cheer, and Lottie and I look at each other, laughing and crying at the same time. The emotional distraction takes its toll and my legs start to shake with the exertion. One of the therapists brings the wheelchair in behind me and Dan loosens the hoist straps to help lower me down. I seat myself back in my chair, breathless but deliriously happy. Lottie wastes no time when the harness system is rolled away, and launches herself in to my lap, flinging her arms around my neck.

“I love you, Spike.”

“And I love you, crazy girl. So much.” She presses her nose against mine and looks into my eyes. I click my wheelchair into action and push it hard to the left. If I had the use of my legs, I would be picking her up and spinning her around right now, but I’m getting used to the fact that for the majority of our lives, my wheels will be my legs. So I spin the chair in circles, around and around, and she laughs, the beautiful sound floating freely from her chest and filling the room.

Chapter 20

“Ari. You and D-man have one hour to get your asses to Stratosphere tower,” I announce as Arianna answers my call.

“What? What’s going on? Why are you … Stratosphere tower? Holy shit. Are you? Did Spike” Her words all roll in to the next and if she doesn’t take a breath soon, she’s going to pass out.

“Yes! And yes!”

Our matching squeals of excitement travel through the earpiece of my cell and I actually have to move it away from my ear or risk being deafened.

“You’re getting married? In a freakin’ hour, Lottie?” Arianna cries in disbelief.

“Yep.” I bounce up and down on the balls of my feet and glance over to Spike who’s on the phone with his mom, trying to explain why she has to throw together the fastest ‘Mother of the groom’ outfit in history.

“How did he …Hold on, what are you going to wear? How will you wear your hair? Did you even decide what flowers you’re having? Don’t you need a marriage license for that?” She rapidly fires questions at me and I laugh.

“Ari, I know you’ve probably planned your perfect wedding in your head since you were five years old, and I know you need to have every detail planned to military precision, but you know me, I don’t do normal, or traditional. Nothing about Spike or me is traditional. I have everything sorted, okay? Marriage license, dress, flowers, all sorted. Trust me. Just be here in an hour. Actually, you now have fifty-six minutes to get ready.”

“Shit. Shit. SHIT. Oh my god, Lottie, I’m so happy for you, babe.” Her voice wobbles and I shake my head, wondering how she’s going to compose herself at the actual ceremony if she’s started to get emotional already. “You’re getting married.”

“Yes. I’m getting married,” I answer, smiling from my head to my toes.

She sighs, “I love you, Lottie. I’m so happy for you and Spike.”

“Thanks, babe. I love you too. And Ari?”

“Yes?”

“Fifty-five,” I giggle, knowing just how much she’s going to be panicking right now.

“Shit. Okay, I’m going. Oh, do you need me to bring anything, shoes, flowers?” she asks hurriedly.

“Nope. Just you and D.”

“You know I’m cursing you for making me rush my choice of attire right now?” I hear clothes hangers being scraped across rails and she huffs down the phone line.

“Well, I’ll be cursing you if you’re not here in time.”

“I’ll be there, don’t you worry about that.”

“Good.”

“Bye Lottie. You’re getting married!” she screams before I hang up on her knowing that she has so much to say to me, and if I don’t cut her off she definitely won’t get here in time.

Spike looks up at me and grins widely. “You’re still good with this? I mean, if you want to wait”

“I don’t want to wait,” I silence him with my answer. I slide my cell into the back pocket of my jeans and place both my hands on his knees before bending down so my face is just inches from his. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. There never was.”

“It’s not always going to be easy,” he grimaces.

“I know. It wasn’t always easy before the accident,” I shrug.

My life has never been easy. His physical disability doesn’t faze me. In fact, it’s made me realize just how lucky I am to still have him in my life. I nearly lost him. He was nearly taken from me and a more powerful reasoning kept him on this earth and I refuse to waste another minute.

“We haven’t even talked about where we will live and,” he looks down and sighs deeply, “What about children, Lottie? We haven’t talked about any of this. What if I can’t … you know.”

I wish there was something I could do to make him see just how simple it is in my eyes. “Do you want children, Spike?” I ask quietly. He shakes his head before lifting his eyes to mine.

“I always thought we would have three or four children. I imagined we would have a big house out of the city with a tree house and a swing set in the yard. But now, I don’t even know if that’s a possibility for us.”

I shake my head out of frustration. “I want to marry you. You, Preston King. I don’t want to marry you for what you can give me. All I need from you is your love. Anything after that is a bonus. Now, are we going to stand here talking about ‘what ifs’ or are we going to go and pick up my dress and your suit and go and get married?”

His pained ‘boy lost’ expression melts away and the look in his eyes softens. “I love you, Lottie Miller.”

“Lucky that. Seeing as we are getting married in less than forty-five minutes.” I grin, a huge, face splitting grin.

“Shit,” he mutters under his breath. “Let’s get going, wife-to-be.”

Why is it that time moves as fast as lightning when you have so much to cram in to a few small minutes? Dress, suit, rings and flowers, all collected in twenty minutes, leaving just twenty (give or take a few, as I can always be fashionably late) minutes for me to get dressed. And now as I stand in front of the full length mirror, I can hardly believe how far we’ve come. The picture that stares back at me is a wonder after the rollercoaster we’ve ridden to get here. It’s been one hell of a ride. A knock at the door snaps me out of my reverie. “I’m coming,” I call out before taking one last look in the mirror. I smooth down the front of my dress before opening the door.