Sweet Bonus Scene from Cage by Harper Sloan

Bonus Chapter ~ Wedding

“Hey Beauty?” I ask, propping my head up on my hand and looking down at her.  Her face is still flush and her eyes still have that far away look that I love putting there.

“Yeah?”  She shifts, turning her body so that she’s facing me.

“Let’s go up to Tennessee this weekend.  Take Cohen up there and visit Gatlinburg.   There’s a bunch of stuff we could find to do, tourist type place.”  She looks at me, slightly confused at how I can go from taking her hard on the living room floor to chatting away about vacation plans.

Real smooth, Greg, real fucking smooth.

“You just want to take off to the mountains?  That’s a little last minute, don’t you think stud?”  She laughs but quickly stops when she notices the lack of humor on my face.

Jesus, I never thought I would be so nervous for this.

“Be right back.”  I jump up from the floor and walk over to where I had thrown my jacket when we got home earlier, snagging the box out of the inside pocket before walking back over to her.

“So, I took Cohen to the store last week.  Remember, it was when you were out with the girls and I told you not to worry about us?  Right… the point.  I had a talk with Cohen.  We went down to that god-awful kid bouncy place that he likes and had a man-to-man over pizza and apple juice.  I get that our situation is different.  It’s not just you and me but you, me and our son.  We’ve been through some heavy stuff that most couples could never imagine.  Bottom line, we’re forever.  I want to be the kind of man that Cohen can look up to.  Be proud of.  The kind of man that deserves this happiness.  So I asked other man in your life if I could marry you.  Asked his permission to make this ‘the Cage’ family.  It’s not easy to explain to a three-year-old why you love his aunt but baby, I do.  I love you more than you could ever imagine and I love our boy just as much.  I want more than anything to make you mine.  Officially.  Melissa Larson, what do you say?  Run away with us… me and Cohen, and let’s get married.”

I pull her left hand from her lap and place the ring on her finger, admiring the way the large diamond looks on her hand.  I didn’t even notice she had gone completely silent until her breath hitched.

“Beauty?”  Holy shit, maybe she isn’t ready for this.

I’m getting ready to open my mouth but before I can speak she pushes herself into my arms, burring her face into my neck.  Her tears rolling silently down my naked back.

“Melissa, babe, I might be reading the signals wrong here but is this a yes?”

She pulls back, a beautiful scowl on her face and laughs, “Seriously?  Of course it’s a yes!”

That night, lying in our bed with her asleep across my chest, I finally fell asleep with one big cheesy ass grin on my face.



~*~*~*~

“Melwee!  Melwee!  Why can’t I wear my cape?  What if someone comes and tries to hurt you?”  Cohen is in rare form today.  Greg made quick work of the hotel reservations and before I knew what was happening we were packed up and on the way to Tennessee.  Cohen has been going nonstop since we pulled onto the interstate about all the things we planned on doing.  And Greg… Greg hasn’t stopped smiling since he asked me to marry him.  The only nagging thought in the back of my mind was that he wasn’t including the others.  Hell, there hasn’t even really been time to let everyone know what we had planned.  We just said we were taking some time off and would be back in a few days.  With everything that’s happened the last few months I know they didn’t question it.

“C-Man, we already talked about this, remember?”  Greg says with a smile, looking over at me and taking my hand in his.  The same tingles I get every time this man touches me shoot up my arm and cause me to shiver.

“What if someone hurts my Melwee?” He says, his little chin wobbling slightly.

“Hey baby, no one is going to hurt me.  I’ve got the two strongest men in the world to protect me.  You know those bad guys would be silly to try and take you on.”  I reach back and give his small hand a squeeze and smile at his adorable face.  He looks so much like Fia when he is pouting that I can’t help but laugh a little at his expression.  She would be so proud of the little man he is becoming.

“He what about me?  Wouldn’t the bad guys be scared of me too?”  I give Cohen a wink before returning my attention to Greg’s strong profile.

“Oh, well… I guess they might be a little scared of you but Cohen is just so strong, Greg.  Not only that but look at him, hate to break it to you babe but there is just no competition between you and my hero, C-Man.”

Cohen starts laughing hysterically in the backseat and even though Greg knows it’s all good fun we both laugh even harder at his expression.  Seems like the pouting went from the little guy in the back seat to the grown one in the front.

The rest of the trip up to the mountains is full of laughter.  When Cohen finally falls asleep about an hour outside of town Greg looks over at me with a huge smile and says, “You do know they would be more scared of me right?  I mean come on Beauty… look at all this.”  I burst out laughing immediately.

Men and their egos.

That weekend, with my new husband and Cohen, is one of the best weekends of my life.  We had a small wedding at a beautiful chapel on the side of the mountain and spent the night in one of their cabins.  It wasn’t the honeymoon many would dream of but that night with Cohen snuggled between us and Greg’s arms wrapped tightly around us, I was in heaven.  The last thing I saw when I fell asleep as the new Mrs. Gregory Cage was his handsome face and bright blue eyes sparkling with love.

We spent the next day wandering around town, playing miniature golf, and just enjoying each other.  We had just sat down for dinner at one of the local mom and pop restaurants when Cohen dropped his first bomb.

“Melwee?”  He asks with an adorable crooked smile.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Since you and Daddy are married does that mean I can be a big brother?  Daddy told me that you have to be married to have babies, so can I have a baby now?”

Who knows how long I looked at him in shock.  How did my little guy get so grown?  I vaguely remember hearing Greg tell Cohen that we would talk about it later but it would be a little while before he would be a big brother.  He looked over at my shocked face with a smile before continuing his dinner.  My mind was still stuck back at the thought of having children.  Of course it’s something I wanted but now?

“Breathe, Beauty.” He whispers in my ear, “Little man is smarter than you think and babe I will be putting a baby in there as soon as possible.”  I get a quick kiss on my temple before he starts eating again.

“Melwee!”  Cohen all but screams across the table.

“Cohen.  Not so loud!”  I smile when a light blush covers his cheeks.

“Melwee,” he whispers, “I saw you this morning.  You saw Daddy’s wiener and you smiled!  You have to go to timeout when we get home!  You aren’t supposed to look at Daddy’s wiener.”

Oh dear Lord!  Leave it to Cohen and his not so whispering reprimand.  Now the whole dining area is looking over at us.  Of course it could be the booming laughter coming from my husband that draws the most attention.

“Oh my God.”  I mumble.  Cohen, bless his little self, is smiling huge and very proud of himself for ‘catching’ me in the act.

“C-Man, no worries, I’ll make sure that she gets a spanking for looking.”  He starts laughing even harder when Cohen bobs his head up and down rapidly in agreement.

Once I was able to get over my shock, I had to admit it was pretty funny.  We were able to finish up the rest of our meal without any baby or wiener chat and made our way hand in hand down the crowded streets of Gatlinburg.

The rest of the weekend was spent just the three of us, doing little things to keep the memories of our families alive.  We each picked something that would remind us of them and made the best of including them.  It wasn’t easy, not having the people that meant the most to us there.  It was Cohen’s idea to get a bunch of feathers and let them fly off the mountain.  On the way home we stopped on the side of the road and let the feathers fly.  We stood there, Greg holding Cohen who was laughing at the feathers, and his other arm wrapped tightly around my shoulder and with all the love we had for each other smiled up out at our family, thanking them for playing their parts in bringing us together.