Music of the Heart, page 24
CROSS
Ashleigh and I have been back together for a month now and she is leaving for another month on the road after Thanksgiving which is one week away and will be back the week before Christmas. I know for a fact that I am ready to ask her to marry me. Hell, I’d marry her tomorrow if she’d let me. I’ve asked Merritt if she would meet me for lunch at my office and I’m going to show her the ring I picked out for Ashleigh to see if she approves.
I tried to find the perfect ring for her. I spent a while picking out the most flawless diamond and designing it with one of Atlanta’s best jewelers. Ashleigh likes simple things and doesn’t wear a lot of jewelry as it is so I knew exactly what I wanted for her.
“Knock, knock. Lunch has arrived.”
Merritt offered to swing by the deli and pick up lunch for us. She starts opening everything up and setting it out on the small table in my office. I walk over to her and give her a hug.
“So, what’s up? You aren’t normally the one who invites me to lunch. Usually, I pester you to eat with me. So I’m pretty sure something is going on.”
Merritt knows me very well. I look at her with a smile on my face and walk back over to my desk to get the ring box from my drawer.
“You’re right. There is something I need to talk to you about. Well, actually, two things. Please don’t freak out when I tell you this though. I designed a ring for Ashleigh.”
“A ring? Like an engagement ring?! Oh my God, are you going to propose?”
I pull the box from my pocket and hand it to her.
“Holy shit! You already have the ring! Can I look?”
“Yes. Please do. I want your opinion. Let me know if I did a good job on it or not. I spent a lot of time picking the diamond and then planning the design. I tried to take her likes and her personality into consideration.”
She opens the box and her mouth drops open. Sitting inside is a 4 carat cushion cut, platinum solitaire ring. I had them put it on a delicate band of all diamonds as well. Ashleigh is not a person to flash her money or everything she has to others so I didn’t want to go too big. She also likes more simplistic things so that’s why I didn’t add any additional diamonds other than the band.
“Cross, this is pure perfection. You nailed her taste exactly. She is going to flip out. When are you going to do it?”
“Okay, I had this idea. I actually saw it on some website I was looking at and thought it would be perfect for her but you’re her best friend so I want your input.”
I spend the next thirty minutes talking to Merritt and she loves the idea for the proposal. I told her to plan on Saturday which is only five days away to start helping her plan a wedding. Well, of course, that is only after Merritt’s wedding on January 7th.
I make phone calls to all the guys to let them in on the plan as well as my parents and her parents. This engagement involves our whole family and our friends. Merritt is going to round up the girls and her parents as well to be there. In just five long days, Ashleigh will be the future Mrs. Harper and shit if it doesn’t surprise how happy and excited that makes me.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
ASHLEIGH
I have no idea what is going on with Cross but he made plans for us to have our picture made together today by a professional photographer. I told him it sounded kind of cheesy but he said he won the package at a charity event and thought it would be nice to have pictures of us together.
Merritt heard about them and helped me pick out my outfit. So here I am getting dressed in super skinny dark jeans, a hot pink gingham button up shirt with a fitted black sweater over it and my gray knee high boots. I add a chunky necklace for a pop of color and add the perfect pink lipstick. My hair has gotten really long and I leave it down with beachy curls.
I walk downstairs where I see Cross standing at my kitchen counter wearing dark jeans, a gray long sleeve thermal shirt with a black puffy vest over it. He looks incredibly hot right now and I would really rather take those clothes off of him than go have our pictures made. He hears me come down the stairs and turns to look my way.
“Baby, you look gorgeous. You ready to go.”
He leads me to the car and we head out to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens where we are meeting the photographer. When we arrive, the photographer is there setting up for us. She turns around and I see that it is Ellis.
“Ellis! What are you doing here? Are you the one taking our pictures?”
“Hey sweets! Yes, I am and I am so excited! Are y’all ready?”
Ellis starts by taking some individual shots of each of us and then some together. She brings out these old rustic chalkboards and some chalk and walks over to us.
“Okay, I tried this with another couple a few weeks ago and they turned out so cute. I want you each to write one thing you love about each other but don’t show it yet. I want you to stand back to back and I’m going to take pictures. Just follow my lead, okay?”
Ellis starts taking pictures of us we write and when we both get finished, she takes our chalk and takes our individual pictures of us holding our signs up.
“Okay, I want both of you to turn around on the count of three and see what the other wrote. I’m going to snap some shots of your reactions as well. Here, scoot apart a little bit so you don’t hit each other when you turn around. You ready? One, two, three…”
CROSS
Ellis is about to do the countdown for us to turn around. I am nervous as hell as she starts to turn. When Ava told us to scoot apart, that gave me a minute to sneak over, prop my sign up, get down on my knee with the ring ready.
“Okay, I want both of you to turn around on the count of three and see what the other wrote. I’m going to snap some shots of your reactions as well. Here, scoot apart a little bit so you don’t hit each other when you turn around. You ready? One, two, three…”
Ashleigh turns around and looks over at me. Ellis had walked behind me after she took my picture down on my knee. It is perfect timing to catch the expression on Ashleigh’s face. Her mouth is seriously hanging open and she already has tears in her eyes. She starts walking towards me with her hands over her mouth and stops right in front of me. She doesn’t even notice Elis is not only taking pictures of us but also of all of our friends and family off to the side watching.
“Baby, are you okay?”
“Cross, is this for real?”
I stand up for a minute so I can be face to face with her.
“Baby, I love you more than you can even imagine. The moment I met you, everything changed in my life and that is the honest truth. That whole weekend, all I could think about was changing my ways and wanting to settle down with someone. Every time I thought of it, your face was the one I saw. It’s been a little over a year since we met and although we had our ups and downs, there was never a moment that I didn’t love you.”
I get back down on my knee and grab her hand.
“Ashleigh, I love you more than anything and I don’t think I could go through life without you by my side. Would you please do me the honor of being my wife?”
I look up and she is crying and shit, she’s even beautiful when she cries.
“Cross, I love you so much. I would love to marry you.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
She throws her head back and laughs and cries at the same time.
“Yes! Yes, I will marry you!”
I open the ring box and her mouth hangs open again when she sees the ring. She holds her hand out and I slip it on her finger. It is perfect. Merritt helped me get the ring size right and I couldn’t be happier right now.
“Cross, it is perfect.”
She gets down on her knees in front of me and grabs my face in her hands. She leans in to give me a kiss and then wraps her arms around me in the first hug as my fiancé. The whole time I see our friends and family crying and jumping up and down and she still hasn’t seen them. All is about to change as they bring Greer out from the car and she goes darting towards us.
“Aunt Ashweigh! Aunt Ashweigh! What are ewe doing? Ooh… wook at youwa pwetty wing! Are youwa getting mawwied?”
“Greer! What are you doing here?”
I tell her to turn around and when she does, she almost breaks down in tears again. There stands both sets of our parents, Merritt and Dixon’s parents, her sister and brother-in-law, my brothers and their wives and all the guys and girls. Everyone comes running over to her and immediately she is pulled away from me and embraced in hugs from everyone.
After many more pictures, I finally get everyone to calm down enough to tell them I have dinner reservations for all of us. We all head to Fins and my friend who owns it reserved the back room for us and has it all ready with champagne to celebrate. We go through the evening with tons of laughs and a lot of love. We did take a moment to ask everyone not to post anything on social media yet or tell anyone else until we had the chance to talk to Ashleigh’s publicist. That’s the only thing with our jobs is you just can’t shout it to the world quite yet.
I finally steal a quiet moment with my fiancé.
“Hey baby. How are you?”
“Really Cross? You’re asking how I am? I’m over the moon. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been this happy before. I’m ready to get you alone though and thank you properly.”
I groan at her and my dick stands at attention. Thankfully, my shirt hangs out enough to cover it up.
“Well, I think it’s time we wrap this dinner up and I take you home.”
“Speaking of home Cross. Where are we going to live? I mean you have your condo but it’s kind of a bachelor pad. I have my house which has plenty of room but do you want to find something else?”
“I was thinking I would keep my condo as an investment and then I figured I could just move in with you at your house this week.”
“This week? You’re not wasting any time are you, babe?”
We laugh together and I kiss the hell out of her. We make our way back into the room and finish up dessert and finally, we say our goodbyes to everyone.
The minute we walk in her house or I guess I should say our house, I strip her and myself out of our clothes and we spend the rest of the night and the morning practicing for our honeymoon.
Chapter Forty
6 MONTHS LATER
ASHLEIGH
“I can’t find my garter. Has anyone seen my garter?”
I am searching frantically around the bridal suite for my garter. Merritt comes over and tries to calm me down.
“Ashleigh. Calm down. I have your garter. I have everything. For the love, I’m the damn wedding planner and one of the matron of honors! I know where everything is!”
It’s May 20th and it’s finally my wedding day. It’s been a whirlwind of craziness since Cross proposed last November. We got through my touring schedule, and the Christmas holidays. Merritt and Mason got married on January 7th and it was absolute perfection. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from Merritt. She wasn’t overly thrilled when I told her the date we wanted to get married. That only gave her six months until the wedding day and really only four to five months to plan due to the holidays and her own wedding.
Cross and I went home after he proposed and immediately chose a date. I had a big Summer tour coming up and he wanted to be able to call me his wife before I went on the road. He also stayed true to his word and moved in that same week so we’ve been living together since November.
I had called my publicist, Kelly the Monday after he proposed and told her about the engagement. She was so excited and quickly got to work on how we were going to announce it. Cross and I didn’t want to wait to tell people. We were ready immediately so she checked over our social media posts we had planned and then contacted People magazine to see if they wanted an exclusive for the engagement. I could have cared less about the magazine but she insisted people wanted to know all about it.
Merritt was also not overly thrilled because I traveled some and Cross traveled quite a bit during the engagement which took away from planning. The last step that made it a little harder for her was I wanted to get married in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama so she had to deal with many different people.
The day is finally here though and we survived the planning and I am so nervous but at the same time excited.
Our wedding will take place outside at this gorgeous golf resort and spa in Birmingham. Our wedding party is pretty big too. I have ten bridesmaids and he has ten groomsmen. We also have two flower girls and two ring bearers. The ladies all look gorgeous. If you know me well, you know I love pink and of course I enlisted the help of Tommy Langner to design my bridesmaid dresses as well as my one of a kind wedding dress.
The bridesmaids all are wearing the same flowing skirt in pink and Tommy designed ten different tops, each one matching each girls style and personality. When it came to my dress, I wanted something simple but that also made a statement. He designed me a gorgeous strapless dress where the top was fully beaded with a thick bead and crystal belt that actually ties in the back with a flowing ribbon. The skirt is poofy and full and looks like icing on a cupcake. I opted for no long train on the dress or veil because that just isn’t my style.
I stand looking in the mirror at myself one last time before I put my dress on. My hair is perfect, my make-up is perfect and my nails and toes are perfect. Now, it’s time to get in my dress and get ready to marry my man. Merritt walks over to me and hugs me from behind.
“You okay? You look a little lost in thought over here.”
“I’m good Mer. I’m just really happy right now.”
“I know you are and you and Cross are going to be so happy together. I am so lucky to have my best friend marrying my other best friend. You are truly perfect for each other and I am so happy for you.”
I give Merritt a big hug and she asks if I’m ready to put on my wedding dress. I look around the room and see each bridesmaid all dressed and ready to go, my mom looking beautiful in her tiffany blue dress, Cross’s mom all decked out in a beautiful grayish-silver dress and Merritt’s mom in a stunning coral dress. Everyone is talking until Merritt gets their attention.
“Okay everyone, it’s time. Ellis, are you ready to take pictures of her? Okay, let’s get this dress on.”
They get me all dressed and ready for our pictures. I wanted Cross and I to take all the pictures before the wedding but he said he didn’t want to see me until I came down the aisle. After I informed him that was old-fashioned and it was rude to make everyone wait on us at the reception, he put his foot down. I believe his exact words were, ‘I don’t fucking care if the guests wait five hours for us. I don’t want to see you before the wedding and they can all just get over it.’
He wouldn’t give in on that so we got all the individuals made of everyone. We also did the group shots of bridesmaids and groomsmen for each of us as well as the family pictures. All we really had left was everyone together and the bride and groom together. Ellis promised it wouldn’t take more than thirty minutes if everyone cooperated. She had a photographer helping her since she was in the bridal party so it should go fast with two of them. I did tell Dixon to taunt Cross about seeing me already and how beautiful I looked.
Merritt walks back in the room after pictures are over and let’s me know everything is in place and we have five minutes before we need to line up. Our moms and grandmothers head out to get ready to be walked down to their seats. Merritt tells the bridesmaids to start walking towards the door to walk down the aisle. It’s killing her now because it’s time for her to hand the reins of the wedding over to her assistant, Peyton, as it’s time for the matrons of honor to walk down the aisle.
So, here I stand waiting with my two flower girls and my sweet daddy. As Peyton tells the flower girls to head down the aisle, I look up at my daddy and give him the biggest hug ever. Peyton walks over and let’s us know it’s time. Ready or not Cross, here comes the bride.
CROSS
I hear the minister announce for everyone to please stand and then I hear the wedding march begin. The French doors open up and I see Ashleigh’s dad first and then I see her beautiful face shining with the biggest smile. Fuck, my woman looks amazing – drop dead gorgeous. Dixon and Reed had been taunting me since they had already seen her and they weren’t lying. She is beautiful and she’s all mine.
We get through the vows and music and I’m just ready for the kiss. As the minister pronounces us man and wife, I grab her and give everyone a show when I kiss her. I can tell she wants to sock me because I embarrassed her. I sneak one last kiss and then the minister introduces us for the first time as husband and wife, Mr. & Mrs. Hamilton.
And speaking of Mr. & Mrs. Hamilton, that was another discussion we had to have. Was Ashleigh going to change her last name? Of course, you know what I wanted her to do but with her career being so established as Ashleigh Kennedy, we had to really think about what would be best. Thankfully, she decided for now, to hyphenate her last name so she will start going by Ashleigh Kennedy-Hamilton but just for her career. Everything else, she said she would only use Harper so that made me very happy.
