Chapter 22 – Because You Loved Me

This was not how he had intended it to go. He had expected to be standing at an altar in a full tuxedo with a boutonniere pinned to his jacket; Chris, Justin and JC all standing next to him as his best men. He had hoped to be able to give her everything she had ever dreamed of, everything she could have possibly hoped for as a child when she thought of her wedding day.

He hadn't intended to be standing inside a courthouse, in one of the new “business” suits he had bought after the fire. His blue tie didn't match the colors that she had picked out for their day, either. He hadn't wanted to be standing in front of a Justice of the Peace's desk instead of at an altar in the old church in New Jersey that she wanted to get married at. The strange man stood next to him, waiting patiently with his arms crossed in front of his stomach. Lance had wanted it to be better than this.

But now that he was here, even though it wasn't the wedding they had talked about and planned to the last detail for the past year, he couldn't imagine that it could be any better.

The door opened as they were both waiting, and Joey, Chris and Melissa walked into the room nonchalantly, all eyes moving immediately to Lance.

“You call me up out of the blue – out of nowhere – and tell me to pick up these yahoos that can barely get along to save their own lives and drive two fucking hours to New Jersey with no explanation,” Joey said. “This better be damn good, Lance.”

“Yeah, I was supposed to have class today, I'll have you know,” Melissa said, pointing a finger at Lance. “And telling me to wear a dress? I hate dresses, Lance, and you know this.”

“Why are we in a courthouse in New Jersey anyway?” Chris asked. “I mean, what the fuck, man? What's so important that you needed us here right away?”

Lance was about to open his mouth when he heard the doorknob turn and caught a glance behind the three. He only smiled as he saw her step through the door, remembering the day he had first proposed to her.

Adeline looked up from the drawer at him. When she saw that he wasn't joking, she felt her oxygen supply deplete.

“Will I what?” she asked.

“Marry me,” he said.

She stood for a moment, stunned and trying to keep calm.

“We have to go to the reception,” she said as she suddenly turned and walked out of the room without him.

“Well,” he said to himself, “that didn't quite go according to the plan.”

He joined her in his car a few moments later, but she looked away from him, out the window. The short drive to the reception venue was a quiet one, without a single word, sigh, or even breath from either of them. After he had parked, she exited the car without speaking and walked ahead of him into the building.

Once they were both inside the party, he noticed she was smiling as if nothing had even happened, greeting guests and shaking hands until they both sat down in their assigned seats at the head table.

They both remained quiet until he couldn't stand it after five minutes.

“Are you going to say anything?” he whispered to her.

“Why would you do that?” Adeline whispered back harshly.

“Because I love you,” he said.

“What hallucinogenic drugs are you on that would make you do something so stupid?” Adeline asked him.

Their loudly whispered fight had gained the attention of Jamie-Lynn, seated next to Adeline, and Joey, who had come over simply to wish the newly married couple his best.

“What did he do?” Jamie asked Adeline.

“I can't even say it,” Adeline told her.

“Well that helps us,” Joey said, smiling at Jamie.

“You don't even have a ring,” Adeline said, turning back to Lance.

“You don't know that,” he said with a smirk.

“Oh God. I'm gonna vomit,” she said.

“Whoa – ring?” Jamie said, then looked past Adeline to Lance. “What did you do?”

“Please,” Joey said, stressing his words. “Please, Lance. Tell me you didn't do what I think you did.”

“Someone please tell me what I did wrong,” Lance said. “I love this woman. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. So I did what any sane man in my situation would do; I asked her to marry me.”

“Now I think I'm gonna vomit,” Jamie said. “You call yourself sane? Since when?”

“Any sane man in your situation would run – as far away and as fast as possible,” Joey said. “Didn't we talk about this in the coffee shop that day?”

Adeline looked at Joey. “Wait – you talked about me that day?”

“No, Addy,” Joey said suddenly. “I meant a different day – another day after that.”

“Oh, come on Joe,” Lance said, now smirking at Joey. “Tell her the truth. Tell her what we talked about – how I called her husband a tool and you told me to stay out of her tool box. Which, I believe was a euphemism for her panties, but...”

“You told him to stay away from me?” Adeline asked.

As she looked at him, Joey noticed the hurt look on her face.

“I didn't mean it like that Addy. I just meant...he needed to be careful. You're a married woman. Who knows what your husband would try to do to him if he found out, you know?”

“I think he's been watching too much Law and Order,” Lance said.

“You see he didn't take my advice anyway, like usual,” Joey said. “What does it matter?”

“How much stuff has been going on behind my back that I still don't know about?” Adeline said, finally raising her voice to a level above angry whispering. “People wonder why I'm a basket-case – this is why. You know what? Where's the alcohol – this is one time that I really need to be drunk.”

Adeline stood up out of her chair without another word and walked away, all of them watching her. They only looked away when Joanna walked up to them in front of the table and leaned down.

“You know, I don't know what's going on here,” she whispered, “but I see drama. The wedding day drama is supposed to come from our family, not our friends. So whatever is going on...fix it,” she said in a threatening tone. “Whoever caused it – if you ruin my wedding, I will duct tape you to the ceiling naked after this reception and you'll have to explain what you did to the janitor when he has to cut you down.”

She gave them her happy smile before she walked off in Adeline's direction.

“That's not a bad idea,” Joey finally said.

“You need to be duct taped to the ceiling naked,” Jamie said as she looked at Lance.

Lance was about to open his mouth to respond when Joey reached up and slapped him on the back of the head, before he walked off.

“You so deserved that,” Jamie said.

He had watched her carefully from his seat at the head table, giving her a few minutes and a couple of songs before he decided to get up out of his seat and attempt to approach her. She had her back turned toward him and was standing in front of Joanna's large, four-tier wedding cake looking it over when he came up behind her.

“Spare a dance for the idiot?” he asked.

She turned her head to look at him, rolling her eyes. But it wasn't long before she broke into a smile and grabbed his outstretched hand to let him lead her to the dance floor.

“I'm sorry I took you by surprise,” he said, pulling her close to his body as they slow-danced to the last few notes of “Heaven” by Bryan Adams.

“Why would you do something so crazy?” she asked, briefly lifting her head from his shoulder to look at him.

He was about to answer, but when he heard the song fade out and into the next song, he only smiled.

“For all those times you stood by me, for all the truth that you made me see...”

It was a few moments before she realized that he was speaking along with the music. By then, he had grasped her waist and pulled her closer to him, lacing his fingers tightly through hers and leaning his head down to hers.

“For all the joy you brought to my life, for all the wrong that you made right,” he sang at a whisper in her ear, holding her tightly. “For every dream you made come true, for all the love I found in you...I'll be forever thankful, baby...”

From her place in the comfort of his arms, she glanced over and saw her friend Joanna. She and Nick were in the middle of the dance floor, arms entwined with each other, swaying along to the music. She would occasionally glance up at her new husband, flashing him a smile that Adeline only now realized that she reserved only for him. It was her glowing smile. That was what it truly meant to be content; to be with the person you loved, and you knew you could spend the rest of your life with. They looked drunk with happiness – and they were.

She didn't think she'd smiled at her husband like that in years, or that he'd smiled at her like that in years – if he ever had.

“You gave me wings and made me fly, you touched my hand I could touch the sky,” he continued to sing to her. “I lost my faith, you gave it back to me...you said no star was out of reach...”

She wanted that, and Lance gave that to her every day. She wanted the silly, stupid, drunk-in-love feeling to last an entire lifetime. It was only now that she was realizing that the only reason she feared his proposal was because she wanted to accept so badly.

“I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you, Adeline,” he said, never letting go of her. “Because you loved me.”

Joey, Melissa, and Chris turned around and looked at her, barely standing in the doorway. Melissa's mouth dropped as she looked at her friend – wearing the silky, long white dress with her purple, pearl-beaded shawl wrapped around her shoulders and tied in front; her hair pulled back loosely with a wispy strand grazing her eyelash.

“Surprise,” she said as she pushed the hair out of her eye.

“What the hell is--”

Joey stopped, mostly out of shock, when Melissa reached up to clamp her hand over his mouth. She let out a quiet but shrill shriek.

“Shut up, Joey, you'll ruin the moment,” she said.

As Melissa moved her hand and walked to Adeline, Joey sighed.

“Sorry,” he said, looking at Lance as he stepped up next to him. “Didn't know we were having a moment.”

“They're having a moment,” Lance whispered with a smile. “Let them have it.”

“You're doing this,” Melissa said. “You're really doing this.”

“We're doing it,” Adeline responded with a smile.

“Wait – what are we doing?” Chris asked.

“They're getting married!” Melissa yelled, unconcerned that her voice carried loudly enough to make Chris's ears ring.

“Wait – here?” Joey asked, looking at Lance. “Now?”

“No, in three months at two in the afternoon, you dolt,” Chris said. “Why do you think we're at a courthouse in New Jersey?”

“Guys, I hate to rush this along,” Lance said, “but I've been waiting like, a year and a half for this, so can we maybe wrap it up?”

Adeline laughed and looked at Melissa.

“Okay, you need something old, new, borrowed, and blue,” she said.

“My grandma's shawl is kind of old,” Addy said.

“Good enough. Oh, my earrings are blue!” Melissa exclaimed, reaching up to remove her blue stud diamond earrings. “That takes care of borrowed, too, because I want them back you little sneak.”

Adeline smiled as Melissa put the earrings in her hand, and she started putting them in her ears.

“Two birds, one stone,” Melissa said. “But I don't think I have anything new.”

As she put the last stud in her ear, Adeline glanced at Lance and smiled.

“I think Lance and I have that one covered,” she said.

Lance smiled and winked slightly.

“Do you know what they're talking about?” Joey whispered to Chris.

Chris only smiled back. “I'll tell you when you're a little older, Joseph.”

“Is everyone ready to begin?”

Everyone, including Lance and Adeline, turned to face the Justice of the Peace when they heard him speak.

“Are you ready?” Adeline asked Lance with a smile.

“More than ready,” he responded, smiling back.

She cleared her throat and looked at Joey.

“I believe that someone needs to walk me down the aisle as he promised,” she said.

Joey snapped to attention with a grin. “Oh yeah, that's me.”

Melissa and Chris cleared the way, taking places on each of their “sides” as Joey and Adeline took their place on the other side of the room. She looked up at Joey before hooking her arm through his, and making the silent walk toward the front of the room. As they approached, Lance saw Joey lean down and whisper something in her ear, to which she only looked up and gave a smile, her eyes bright.

Joey stepped up to Lance and, grabbing her hand in his, reached out to Lance – handing her over to him.

Lance smiled as he took her hand in his. She looked back briefly at Joey before stepping to her place, directly in front of Lance.

“We are assembled here in the presence of God and of these witnesses to celebrate the joining of this man and this woman in the unity of marriage. No other human ties are more tender, no other vows are more solemn than those you are about to make. True marriage is the holiest of all earthly relationships. Where there has been cold, you have brought warmth to each other...”

Lance looked at the woman across from him and smiled, knowing no truer words had ever been spoken.

“Where there was dark, you have brought light to each others lives...”

Adeline squeezed his hand in silent acknowledgment, knowing that he had come into her life at one of her darkest moments.

“Please exchange rings and repeat these vows after me...”

Lance slipped the ring on her finger, grasping her hand tightly.

“I, James Lance Bass, take you, Adeline James, to be my wife. You are my companion in life and my one true love. I will love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you. I will laugh and cry with you, with unfailing love. I will stand by you through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep.”

As Melissa handed over the ring to her, Adeline felt tears in her eyes. When Lance smiled at her as she looked at him, she knew it was obvious. She only hoped she could make it through her vows audibly.

“I, Adeline James, take you, James Lance Bass, to be my husband. You are my companion in life and my one true love. I will love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you. I will laugh and cry with you, with unfailing love. I will stand by you through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep.”

“To love is to come together from the pathways of our past and then move forward...”

By the time the Justice of the Peace started his final speech of the ceremony, Adeline and Melissa had both started tearing up.

“In so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in matrimony, have promised your love for each other by these vows, I now declare you to be husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

Chris and Joey couldn't stop the smiles on their faces as they watched Lance pull his wife closer to him and smile before he placed his lips on hers. He glanced over at Melissa and chuckled as he saw tear tracks staining her cheeks, even as she tried to hide them.

“You're finally my wife, Adeline James Bass,” Lance whispered against her mouth as he held her close.

“Forever,” she said with a smile.