The music started, causing my heart to beat erratically.
“That’s your cue,” the wedding planner said, gesturing toward the path. She straightened the train of my dress as my father took my arm in his.
“Ready?”
“I’ve been ready,” I said, realizing I’d been waiting for this moment since the day I met Gabe. Even through the devastation and lowest points, I’d secretly waited for it, knowing he was my soulmate and he was still out there. Never knowing he was waiting for me but dreaming he was, that there was a happy ending for us, one that explained why he’d left me.
“Then let’s get you to your husband.”
A current of nerves sparked through me at the word. Gabe would be my husband, and I would be his wife. We’d finally be a family.
My father led me around the edge of the path toward where the guests were seated. Pausing, I took a moment to watch the blossoms from the trees spread through the air like magical beacons. In my periphery, I saw the outline of a man and turned my sight to see Gabe’s father standing in the shadows. Not part of the festivities but still there, present and standing witness to our joyful moment. His eye caught mine, and he gave me a curt nod, which I returned, feeling my father’s grip on me tighten.
“Still not happy about that,” he muttered.
“I’m sure he won’t stay. But he’s here, and that says something.”
I returned to my path toward the aisle, seeing Gabe’s narrowed gaze slip from his father to me. Hazel orbs danced with awe and love, and my heart sputtered. He looked so handsome in his tux, and the smile that filled his face had me quickening my pace.
His three friends from school, including our attorney, stood next to him along with my brother and Reid with his tiny tux, looking just like his father. Cindy, my cousin Anna, Brandi,Shelby, and Liv stood across from him in their pink dresses, ones I insisted I wanted even after Liv complained it wasn’t her color. She looked spectacular, so I really didn’t know what she was talking about.
My eyes stayed on Gabe, every step leading me to him, and when my father handed me to him, I thought my smile would fracture the muscles in my cheeks.
“Mommy looks beautiful,” Reid said, causing everyone to laugh.
“Yes, she does,” Gabe agreed.
As the ceremony progressed, the world faded away so that there was only me and Gabe, locking eyes in the waiting room as he entered that day for training. Confident and sexy.
The vows fell from my lips, following his. The rings slipped onto our fingers, and the day that had never been finally became real.
“You may now kiss the bride.”
Gabe lifted my veil, his eyes moist. He brushed a tear from my cheek and kissed me. The kiss, like all his others, reached far into my depths and awakened his claim on me. And I knew it would always be like this with him. Alive, adventurous, passionate. With him, I had everything and more than I could ever have dreamed. It had taken us years to get to this point—heartache, anguish, pain, and pleasure—but we had made it, and I knew in my heart neither of us would ever sway from the path. We would always be because we always had been. Like the paper flowers we had once made, our love would never fade.
Epilogue
Gabe
Fourteen years, two months, ten days later
Ijuggled the coffee as I kicked the door closed, eyeing the two suitcases next to the door. That there were only two confirmed my suspicion that today would test my patience. After placing the coffee on the kitchen counter, I jogged up the stairs.
“Stay out of my bathroom, Reid!”
“I wasn’t in your bathroom,” came a grumbled reply, muffled behind Reid’s bedroom door.
I opened it to find him buried in blankets, a pillow over his head, his long leg hanging off the bed.
“Why are you still in bed, and what did you do to your sister this time?”
The pillow lifted, and groggy hazel eyes squinted at me. “Because I’m on summer break.”
Rubbing my temples, I waited for the rest.
He gave me a devious grin, his messy curls flopping on his forehead as he lifted his upper body and stretched. The same grin he’d been giving me since he was five, but at nineteen, it meant I had an annoyed pre-teen daughter to contend with.
“I may have reorganized her lip glosses. But to be fair, Dad, she has like twenty of them. Who needs twenty tubes of lip gloss?”
