Two weeks later…
Niall’s POV
Annie had been a bit distant since the phone call about the funeral. I tried to comfort her, but obviously there wasn’t much I could do until it was all over. She was dreading the funeral, knowing it would bring back a lot of things she had learned to forget. I hated seeing her like that. It hurt me that I couldn’t do anything to make it better. Today we were flying to Massachusetts to the wedding, and then spending the night at a hotel before the funeral, then we’d fly home the morning after. We hadn't been able to make the rehearsal, and we barely had time to hit the hotel room before hand. I was actually quite surprised when Annie had booked one room for us to share. We had started sharing a bed more often, but she was still pretty reserved about it.
The plane ride was relatively quiet. As much as Annie hated tight spaces, she seemed to get a thrill out of being up so high. I had teased her for listening to our song ‘Clouds’ on replay for over an hour, finally causing a grin to leak to her lips.
I almost passed out at the chaos surrounding the church as we pulled up in our rental car. Paddy, our driver, helped Annie out of the car and then drove away to park somewhere as i straightened m suit coat and offered her my hand. There were pink ribbons on everything from the deck railing to the bushes, and even more on the inside of the large, vaulted auditorium. I was way out of my league, and scared out of my pants when I saw a woman in nothing but a light slip sprinting toward us.
“Annie!” she gushed, pulling my girl into a tight bear hug. Annie seemed a little stunned, but soon reciprocated with an affectionate smile.
“Hey, Kal. This is Niall,” she said, clasping my hand in hers. Kally looked me up and down, shamelessly studying me with her chin in her hand.
“Gosh, Anne, he’s even hotter in person,” she giggled. I felt the heat of a blush creeping up my cheeks before a big dude wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder.
“Kally, we’re getting married today. Don’t run away now!” he complained, grinning like an idiot. He was a pretty good sized guy, a lot bigger than that Eric dude I’d beat the crap out of at the hospital. “Annie, been a while! Last I saw of you was the back of your hand,” he winked at her. I looked questioningly at my girl. She’d hit him?
“You know, I never told Kally about that,” Annie laughed. “Kal, he tried to kiss me in 10th grade and I back-handed him. We never spoke again!”
“Are you serious?! So, Mark, when you couldn’t get my best friend, you settled for me?” I don’t think Kally could have looked any sillier as she feigned shock and hurt.
“Oh, no. I just wanted a shag from her, you I’ll be stuck with here pretty soon,” he joked. Are you kidding me? I could have slugged him right then and there. Talking about my girl like that. How dare he-
My thoughts were interrupted by Annie pressing her lips to my ear.
“Calm down, Ni. He’s a very… verbal individual. Just let it go.” I sighed and nodded, moving my face to catch her next kiss on my lips. Maybe this guy was alright. I mean, I wouldn’t normally dislike him. I guess I just didn’t like himtalking about my girl like that.
She giggled and blushed, glancing at Kally and waggling her eyebrows discreetly. I loved making her blush. “What say we let these two go do their thing?” I suggested, seeing that they were itching to go talk. He released Kally and waved them off. The two of us scanned our girls’ bums as they scurried off, arm in arm, then glanced at each other and laughed.
“I’m Mark,” he said, offering his hand.
“Niall,” I replied, shaking it firmly.
“Get along, you two!” Annie called as they left the room.

Notes

I made cheesecake for Mother's Day and it was amazing, if I do say so myself ;)