He chuckled. “You’ll know soon enough.”
He was right.
Ezra breezed out onto the deck with two boxes and down the steps over to where we sat around the fire.
When I saw the boxes I knew immediately what he was up to. He set them both in front of me and smiled down at me.
“You said you wanted to burn it,” he kicked the box where my wedding dress overflowed from the open flaps, “and I thought you might want to burn this too.” I looked at the other box and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw the sheets from the bed I had shared with Braden.
“You’re the best,” I told Ezra, meaning those words more than he could possibly understand.
He grinned a mega-watt smile at my words. “Ready?”
“Do you even need to ask?”
He chuckled and stepped back, giving me access to the fire.
Emma and Maddox both watched with a smile.
I grabbed the sheets first.
With a cry I launched them into the fire.
The flames licked the fabric, slowly burning away the floral material to a black crisp.
Emma let out a whoop and waved her hands in the air. Maddox said something to her that sounded a lot like, “You’re so adorable.”
“How do you feel?” Ezra asked, standing beside me. His arm brushed mine and my body hummed with familiarity.
“Unstoppable.” I answered with the first word that came to mind.
He smiled down at me, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans.
The four of us watched the fire eat away the sheets until they were barely recognizable.
I headed for the dress, struggling to get the massive thing into my arms.
Ezra grasped my elbow and I stopped what I was doing.
“Are you sure?” He asked, his eyes flicking from me to the dress.
I took a deep breath. “Yeah, I am. If I get married I won’t be doing it in this dress.”
“When,” he said.
“Excuse me?” I questioned, confused by his seemingly random response.
He smiled crookedly. “When you get married.”
“Right,” I sighed. That possibility seemed so far in the future now that I couldn’t even picture it happening.
Without a second of thought I launched the dress into the fire. Smoke licked the sky as the dress went from white to black.
How symbolic.
Ezra’s arm fell around my shoulders and I leaned against his body for support. His lips pressed against my forehead in a quick kiss and then the warmth of his lips was gone, replaced by his fingers as he wiped tears away from my cheeks.
“I’m okay.” I assured him before he could ask. “I really am.”
These tears weren’t of sadness. They were cathartic, clearing away all the negativity that had been clinging to my shoulders the last few years.
I felt it all drift away like a seed carried away by the wind.
I knew in that moment that I would be okay. Everything happened for a reason, and I needed this speed bump to teach me a lesson.
“Can we have s’mores now?” Emma asked, interrupting my thoughts.
Ezra’s arm dropped away from my shoulders and he grabbed the bags of stuff, passing them half.
I sat down once more and he set the items between us. I grabbed a marshmallow, sticking it on the skewer. I held it over the fire until it was a soft golden color. When I pulled it away from the fire Ezra already had a graham cracker with a block of Hershey’s chocolate on it waiting for me. He was always looking out for me, no matter the situation.
I bit into my s’more and the gooey marshmallow clung to my lips.
Ezra noticed and began to laugh.
“Don’t laugh at me.” I leveled him with a glare.
He shook his head. “You’re cute.”
I rolled my eyes, wiping the sticky residue off my lips. He was still laughing at me, so with narrowed eyes I reached out and wiped the goo on his arm.
He glanced down at his arm and his mouth parted slightly with disbelief.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” he muttered.
I grinned, bouncing in my seat like an excited child.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he warned.
I prepared to spring from my chair and run away, but he was faster.
His finger had dipped into the melted chocolate of his own s’more and he reached out, swiping his finger down my nose.
A gasp emitted from my lips. “Ezra!” I shrieked.
“Payback’s a bitch.” He grinned.
I shook my head. “You’re just mean.”
He chuckled, the sound warm and husky. “We both know that isn’t true.”
“Right now it is.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
He smiled at me, flicking a piece of hair away from his eyes.
Before I could retaliate Maddox called, “What about the fireworks?”
“Oh, right.” Ezra shoved the last of his s’more into his mouth and hurried over to where he’d left the boxes of fireworks. Maddox joined him and while they got everything set up I made myself another s’more.
Emma stood from her chair and made her way over to Ezra’s now vacant one. Her wild blonde hair blew around her shoulders from the evening breeze. She plopped into the chair, crossing her legs.
“Do you feel better now?” She asked.
I nodded, my eyes flitting to the fire where the remains of my wedding dress and those blasted sheets were barely distinguishable. “Much.”
“I’m sorry you have to go through this, but I’m also happy that he’s out of your life.”
My lips lifted with a smile. “You’re not the only one.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by a loud boom. We both turned to look at the same time as a small firework fizzled.
Maddox stood with his hands on his hips beside Ezra, both guys looking at the disappearing firework with a what-the-fuck expression.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Maddox muttered. “Should we try another?”
Emma and I both laughed as we watched the guys fiddle with another firework. It went off, burning out quickly like the last.
“Where did you get these?” Maddox asked, picking up one of the boxes and inspecting it from all angles.
Ezra shrugged. “It was a booth beside the gas station.”
Maddox huffed and threw the box on the ground. “That explains everything. The next time you decide to buy anything explosive call me, or Hayes. But not Mathias, he’s not to be trusted with fire.”
Emma and I both laughed again. It didn’t seem possible that I should feel this happy only a day after finding my fiancé in bed with another woman, but I did, and it was all thanks to the fact that I had the greatest friends in the whole world.
“So these are a bust?” Ezra pointed to the unopened fireworks.
Maddox nodded. “Sorry, bud.” He clapped Ezra roughly on the shoulder. “Those sparkers are doable, but rather boring.”
Ezra grunted and rolled his eyes, but picked up that box and opened it. He extended it in Maddox’s direction and he removed two of the sticks, one for himself and Emma. He ventured over to us and handed one to her.
Ezra grabbed two as well and gave me one. He held out a lighter and lit the tip of mine, then Emma’s, before lighting his own and Maddox’s.
I stood up from my chair and he eyed me, wondering what I was doing.
I waggled my brows and grinned. “Catch me.”
I took off running, swirling the sparkler through the air.
Ezra’s feet pounded behind me, urging me to run faster.
“Sadie!” He cried suddenly. “The lake!”
Oh, shit. I’d completely forgotten about the lake and it was dark enough that it completely blended in with the grass.
Before I could slow down my feet landed in the water, sinking into the mud.
I went down into the water, getting my whole body wet. The poor sparkler got lost in the water, extinguished by the wetness before it could meet its own fiery demise.
I came up gasping for air as his arm snaked around my waist.
Ezra pulled me against his now wet body and muttered, “You’re honestly the craziest person I’ve ever met.”