The CEO's Rose

Ryan’s POV

As it turned out, there was a downside to a beach wedding. Not only were they very wet thanks to their shenanigans in the water, they were now all covered in sand.

So instead of heading directly to the reception, as they had originally intended, all of them had instead split up. Everybody going to shower first to get all of the sand out.

Now with everybody wearing new clothing, (both he and Vivian having made sure to dress modestly in order to cover up their lovebites), they were back together. To be honest, it did not feel like a wedding reception, with only five people in attendance, it felt more like a family dinner, and Ryan found himself enjoying that a great deal. Bumping his knee with Vivian’s beneath the table, he smiled when she turned to him, throwing a wink her way and loving the way her face heated.

His attention was turned away from Vivian when Mark grabbed his glass and began lightly tapping it with a fork, raising a brow, Ryan looked at his friend.

"What? Is this the part where you give the best man’s speech? I’ve already told you Mark, there’s no need for such things. This is a very casual affair," Shaking his head, his best friend laughed softly.

"Actually, no, I was not thinking about a speech, I was actually going to share a memory that I remember about the first time the two of us ever came to the beach. Do you remember it?"

Staring at his friend, Ryan’s eyes widened. The first time that he had gone to the beach with Mark, the two of them had been eight years old and...oh no.

"Wait, I forbid you from sharing that story, Mark," All of a sudden, the other occupants of the table who had all been silent had an opinion,

"Please tell us," Vivian chimed from next to him, and Ryan looked at her, utterly betrayed.

"Wife, are you already choosing another man over me?" Not looking remorseful in the least, Vivian nodded. "He has some juicy childhood tales to share, of course I’m choosing him," Leaning forward. She clasped her hands together and batted her eyelashes at Mark.

"Please, if you tell the story, I promise to send you a birthday card covered in glitter," Traitor that he was, Mark instantly caved without even trying to negotiate the colour of the glitter.

"We were eight, and the two of us had overheard my parents arguing," His friend’s face fell slightly at that, and Ryan winced in sympathy. Mark’s parents had never had an easy relationship.

"Anyway, while they were hurling insults at each other, my mother happened to yell out that she hoped my father got crabs," The rest of the table’s occupants looked horrified, clearly trying to figure out what about this whole thing was funny. But then Mark continued.

"Being eight, and believing that we were wise in the ways of the world, we snuck away from our nannies in search for crabs to shove down our pants so that we would know what it was like to have crabs," Next to Mark, Amy began to shake with barely suppressed laughter. "Please tell me you didn’t find any,"

Mark shook his head, "Unfortunately, we did, and things went bad really fast,"

Next to Ryan Vivian was wheezing, her face red as she tried to control herself.

"Did you manage to get them down your pants?" She asked in between laughs,

Chuckling, Mark shook his head, "Fortunately, we did not. We did learn the importance of holding crabs the proper way though. Both of us nearly lost fingers that day. And Ryan actually had a crab clinging to his butt. I had never seen anyone move so fast before,"

The whole table lost it at that, and Ryan merely rolled his eyes as he grabbed a glass of wine and took a sip.

"At least my butt was not too worse off after. If I remember correctly, your pinky finger was bleeding really badly, do you still have the scar?"

Mark showed the tiny scar from where the crab had grabbed him to Amy and the woman leaned in and kissed it, before blowing lightly on him.

Watching Mark being treated like a hero, Ryan wanted to ask Vivian to kiss his battle scar too. But then he remembered where the crab had grabbed him and opted to just eat his food.

Latching on to Mark’s idea, Amy shared some things about Vivian. Revealing that Ryan’s wife had once won a pea eating contest and had celebrated her win with a night in the toilet. His grandfather shared the time when Ryan wanted to dye his skin blue and go looking for aliens. He learned that his Vivian had kicked their baseball coach in the nuts trying to slide on the field... a lot of stories were shared, and at some point Ryan just settled for holding Vivian’s hand the two of them happy to let their guests speak.

***

When the soft music that had been playing in the background suddenly changed into something with an upbeat tempo, conversation stalled as they all listened. Vivian, clearly loving the change began bobbing her head to the beat.

Knowing just what was needed, Ryan stood and offered her his hand.

"May I have this dance Mrs Terrell," Laughing, Vivian slid her hand into his and the two of them hit the dance floor. And that was how they ended up doing the two person conga as their official wedding dance instead of all the traditional boring stuff that they would have done had they had a society wedding.

***

As was to be expected, Mark and Amy had joined them on the dance floor at some point, and the four of them had done some crazy moves.

Now though, Ryan had stepped back, and was watching the trio dance as he stood next to his grandfather.

"Are you certain that you do not need me to escort you, grandfather?" Ryan asked, and the old man shook his head, "No, you young people stay here and enjoy your time. I just need to step out for a bit, I will be right back,"

His grandfather was acting strange. When he had stood up, Ryan had been sure that the old man was too tired to continue with the festivities despite the sun having not even set. But his grandfather had just assured him that he was simply going to get something and come back.

What that ’something’ was, the old man would not say.

Before he turned to leave, he suddenly stopped, reaching out, he gently patted Ryan on the cheek.

"Never have I been more proud of you, Ryan, and as someone who has been with you through many of your achievements in life, I do not say that lightly. That woman over there-" His grandfather gestured towards Vivian, and they both took a moment to watch as Vivian and Amy spun each other before falling over laughing.

"She is a catch, and the fact that you’ve managed to make her your wife is absolutely amazing. Take care of her, keep her safe, and everything else in life will fall into place for you,"

Too overcome with emotion to even speak, Ryan simply nodded.

He walked his grandfather to the door, then he returned to the dancing trio, quickly finding a place for himself next to Vivian, losing himself in the fun and laughter even as a part of him wondered what his grandfather had gone to get.

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