CHAPTER 559: WEDDING BELLS ... OR NOT (5)

Ava stood with Rocky on the courthouse steps. She was a vision of grace and defiance. Tall, with the kind of curves that made strangers do double takes, her deep, smooth ebony skin glistening in the early morning atmosphere. Beneath her white dress, the faintest swell of her abdomen softened her silhouette, not enough to draw conclusions, but sufficient for those who knew her well to wonder.

Nicolas and Matt stood at the top of the stairs, rubbing sleep from their eyes. They were even more surprised to see Ava in a dress, as she was rarely in one, and it made her look different ... in a superb manner.

That didn’t mean they liked being up at the crack of dawn, though.

"I think we need to learn from Rocky on how to persevere through love and pursuit!" Matt said, and Nicholas smiled, a pretty one already in his mind’s eye. He sighed, wondering if he would ever get there, too and how he would try to approach her.

Rocky only had Ava in his eyes, and he didn’t flinch. Just looked at her with those clear, impossible blue eyes ... the kind that made people forget their own names ...and raised one brow as though the question itself was absurd.

"Do you think my answer will ever change?" he asked,

"It won’t! Not in this lifetime or even the next, Ava. You will always be my one and only!"

"Yeah .... I’m out of here!" Matt muttered and headed inside the building to wait for them. What was it with everyone coupling around him? At least Nicholas was still there, but Matt knew the early signs, and it looked like Nicholas had an object of interest. He just did not know who that was.

Rocky was barely out of boyhood, but he carried himself with the determination of a man who had made his choice a long time ago. Blond hair tousled, jaw set, shoulders squared as if daring the world to stop him. Also, life had pushed his social age up!

Ava hesitated only for a breath before he reached out, palm up, waiting. Her answer had already been given a long time back. Ava placed her hand in his.

Together, they crossed the threshold of the registry building.

About an hour later, they stepped out into the rising sunrise, newly tethered to each other by law and promise. Her fingers brushed the band on her left hand as if she expected it to vanish.

Ava still couldn’t believe it ... at almost twenty-four, she had married him. The boy who had chased her across everything, who had stood unshaken in the face of her refusals, her resistance, her fear. The one whose persistence had carved a place for himself in her life... and whose life now stirred quietly, invisibly, inside her. She used her free hand to caress her tummy and smiled.

He turned to her with a smile that managed to be both triumphant and boyish. She laughed softly, shaking her head before leaning in and planting a gentle kiss on his lips, brief but sure. Rocky leaned in for more, but she gently pushed him back.

"Not now...."

These simple two words made blood rush through Rocky, and he nodded, but still stole one kiss. "I’ll leave the family to you," she murmured, brushing her thumb across his knuckles, "since you insisted on getting this done today."

"Don’t worry, brother Ian and sissy may already know, but we’ll need to get something to placate Chairman Alex and Madam Geneva."

Rocky said, grinning and lacing his fingers more tightly with hers.

"Don’t worry, I think I can handle them, Mr Burnett!"

Rocky smiled at his new name, and his two friends couldn’t help but marvel at how hard and fast Rocky had fallen for his new wife!

"Hey, Rocky, we’re done here, right?"

"Leave him, I don’t think he hears anything when Ava is around."

***

The night before, Rocky hovered over Ava like a shadow that refused to lift, and this was unusual.

The doctor had reassured him yet again. "She’s in excellent health. In fact, for someone who just came out of a coma, she’s doing remarkably well."

Rocky nodded, but he was reluctant, as though he didn’t entirely trust good news. His mind knew it, but his heart couldn’t help but worry.

Once the room was quiet again, he busied himself with the little things, adjusting the pillows, straightening the sheet, tucking the throw gently around her legs. He moved with a quiet intensity, more focused than frantic, like he was trying to make up for every hour he had once thought he’d lost her.

"You’re fussing again, Rocky", she said softly, her voice still a little raspy.

He paused, looked at her and only then did the tightness in his face soften.

"I’ll stop," he promised.

But Ava knew better. His eyes, for all their calm blue sheen, were tired ... the tired you didn’t just sleep away.

She reached for his hand, thumb grazing his wrist. "I don’t want you falling behind in your studies and rotations because of me."

"Don’t worry, Ava. As I promised, I am on track. I remote in for the lectures, so ... it’s all good," he countered. "I’m not missing anything."

"I’m awake now, Rocky, but it doesn’t mean I want you watching over me like I’m going to disappear."

He didn’t respond right away. Then, with a faint smile, "Says the woman who nearly died on."

She sighed, leaning back against the cushions. "Then you’d better become a doctor fast, so you know what to do when something like that happens again."

He huffed a small laugh and kissed the back of her hand.

To avoid the daily back-and-forth, he had turned one of the rooms into a full medical study centre. It had almost all the tools he would need for his practicals, and Ava’s doctor doubled as his instructor. Nicholas and Matt came in rotation, bringing books, notes, laughter, and a bit of sanity. He stayed caught up, more or less, even if his attention rarely lingered on the screen.

That evening, as Ava drifted off again, her breathing soft and steady, he walked over to the window to let his eyes rest on something beyond glowing monitors and half-read textbooks.

Then he saw them.

Across the courtyard below, Currey hugging Angela.

Rocky blinked, leaned slightly forward to be sure he wasn’t seeing things.

And then he burst into a short, disbelieving laugh. "No way."

"Hmm?" Ava murmured sleepily behind him.

He turned slightly toward her, still watching the scene unfold. "You wouldn’t believe what I am seeing." Rocky quickly took a picture, then lingered by the window a moment longer, watching. Currey looked up then, and their eyes met, making Rocky burst out laughing.

He shook his head with a low whistle and turned back to the bed, but did not bother Ava as she had slipped into a deep sleep already. The gossip could wait, but Ava needed her sleep.

It was sometime past midnight and in the early hours of the morning when she felt him stir beside her.

Ava blinked awake to find him sitting at the edge of the bed, shoes on, hands fidgeting with something small in his lap. The room was dim, lit only by the soft yellow glow of the bedside lamp. His expression was unreadable, but his nerves were loud ... intense even.

"Are you okay?" she murmured, sitting up.

Rocky turned, startled. "Yeah. Yeah .... sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you."

This was unusual as Rocky was usually very confident.

"You didn’t," she said, tilting her head. "Why do you look like you’re about to face a firing squad?"

Rocky looked down at his hands, then back at her. "I know that you said you don’t want a big wedding ..."

She snorted, holding all her sarcastic comments. " ... "

He held out his hand.

"Come with me."

Still blinking off sleep, she reached for her robe. "What? Where ...? At this time?"

"Just... trust me."

Outside, the dawn was calm and quiet. A car waited in front, Matt behind the wheel, yawning into his hoodie but giving them a thumb-up as they climbed in. Nicholas, in the front passenger seat, turned and gave them a broad, but tired smile.

"Why do I feel like I’m being kidnapped?" she asked, amused.

"Do kidnappers look as amazing as we do?" he shot back.

She narrowed her eyes and settled back.

They first went into a private salon, which gave Ava a makeover and a choice of dresses, then to a lace that Ava had never been to. A sign by the door read:

Island Marriage Registry – Special Appointments by Request Only.

She stopped walking.

"Rocky? Wait... what is this?"

He grinned, slipping a small velvet box out of his pocket. She blinked. "You... you already gave me a ring.... Why are you wasting money?"

Rocky’s boyish grin was back! He opened the box to reveal a second ring .... not grand, but beautiful, wrapped with a quiet elegance, just like Ava.

"You deserved a real proposal," he said gently. "Not just on a hospital bed ..."

Her throat tightened.

He stepped closer. "I know you said no fuss. No spectacle. And I promise, this is as small and as quiet as it gets. But I love you. I’ve loved you since before I even knew what kind of man I wanted to be. And I don’t want to wait anymore .... not for another ceremony or some imaginary milestone."

Ava covered her mouth with one hand, heart thrumming.

He took her other hand and knelt. "So... will you marry me again? But for real this time?"

Tears welled up in her eyes as she laughed through them. "You idiot. I already said yes once."

"Well," he said, standing with a grin, "repeat it. I want that assurance in writing. With ugly stamps to make it official."

She threw her arms around him.

"Yes," she whispered. "Again, and again."

*********

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