Breaking the Rules (1st in Breaking Series)

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

"Last chance to back out, Mr. Atkinson," Elizabeth warned as she pulled on the simple, light blue cotton, short sleeved dress that Carol Anne had laid out for her. Nerves were dancing around in her stomach and disbelief filled her mind. This was happening so fast and so sudden that she couldn't help but think that at any moment Brody was going to point at her, laugh about her foolishness at thinking he'd really want to marry her and then walk away.

Brody finished buttoning the black vest over his white shirt and looked down at the bottoms of the pants, that were pooling around his ankles because Charlie was so much taller than he was, "I can honestly say I've never had this problem before." he said pointing down at his feet, hidden beneath the folds of fabric.

Brody was nervous as hell and nervousness was not something he knew how to deal with. Why in the hell did this amazing woman want to marry him? He had nothing to offer her and he had not lived the last nine years as a good man. Surely she would change her mind and laugh in his face for thinking she'd ever settle down with the likes of him.

He spared a quick glance in her direction and saw that she looked just as nervous as he felt as she chewed on her lips and smoothed her hands over the blue dress. The dress was tight up top and hugged her breasts before the simple fabric flared slightly at the waist and fell to her ankles. Elizabeth was beautiful. She began to braid her hair and Brody saw her hands were shaking. He kicked himself for being an idiot. They were getting ready to get married and yet he still hadn't told her just what she meant to him. He hadn't told her why he loved her.

Brody had worked so hard for the last nine years to never show his emotions that he had forgotten how to open himself back up.. Until now. He squared his shoulders and crossed the room in two long strides. Brody was a proud man but the doubt and fear in her eyes as she had been lost in her thoughts had him losing all pride and just wanting to assure her.

He grabbed her shaking hands, pulling them away from her hair, which he wanted her to leave down, and then looked deeply into her emerald eyes.

"Brody, I..."

"Hush," he said gruffly as he massaged her tiny hands with his calloused thumbs. "I used to be a real open man, Elizabeth. I loved to laugh and have a good time. My older sisters used to get mad enough at me to spit because I always knew how to push their buttons and I loved to do it. I was loyal to a fault and lived for those I loved. The Yankees took that away from me. I hadn't really laughed in nine years. I hadn't had a good time in nine years. I had turned my heart off and I lived in a kind of fog that blinded me to any goodness left in the world.

"Then I met you. You're a pain in the ass. An arrogant, bossy, beautiful, amazing, proud, hardworking woman and you woke me up. From the day in the barn when you pulled your gun at me and I held your body against mine, I knew there was something about you that was special. Then I got to know you, I watched you work, I heard your sadness when talking about your father, I worked side by side with you and I saw deeper into your heart and I realized that if anybody could make me happy again, it was you. But it was against the rules and I didn't want to cause trouble between you and your father so I pushed you away.

"Then you told me you were marrying Grant and damned if I didn't feel so jealous I would have shot the man in the head just to show you that you were not going to be marrying him. Do you want to know when I knew I had to marry you? When I knew that you were made for me? When I woke up in that wagon after we'd been taken and my first thought wasn't about me. It was about you. I saw you lying there and I thought you were dead and the entire world stopped spinning for a full second. I love you, Elizabeth. I'll live for you and I'll die for you. I still say you deserve better but I can promise you that I'll do anything and everything to make sure you have anything you ever want or need. You gave this back to me." He took her hand and laid her palm against his chest and a tear rolled down her cheek as she felt the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her hand, "You are my life," Brody finished.