Kian approached the red and black flower arch, and another romantic cover song began playing. This time when everyone stood, James and I joined them, rotating to see Hannah and Ben take their place at the start of the aisle. Erin fussed over her daughter’s hair before stepping back. Hannah’s eyes met mine, and before they took their first step, Hannah whispered something in her dad’s ear.Hiseyes met mine then, and he smiled. Leaving Hannah where she stood, Ben rushed down the aisle—and directly to me.
Confused, my brows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Ben offered me a hand. “Hannah wants both of her dads walking her down the aisle.”
Oh, shit. My eyes stung, and my throat tightened.
Yeah. I was going to cry.
Chapter 28
“Me?”I said, convinced that I must be dreaming.
Ben made a show of looking around himself, then shrugged. “I don’t see any other dads of Hannah’s in the room, do you?”
Someone in the audience stood up and rushed toward Kian, who looked ready to faint. Luke.
He put his hands on his little brother’s shoulders and said something only they could hear, and Kian relaxed. Ben offered me a hand again, drawing my attention back to him. I hoped that I could keep it together, but as Ben hauled me up the aisle, there was no hope. Hannah dabbed at her own eyes as I stood to one side of her and Ben to the other.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked, taking her hand.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
The florist, dressed all in black, ran up to us. Hannah accepted the small bundle of red roses, then let Ben hook his hand into her other arm. When she signaled that she was ready, the music grew louder. My attention bounced between Hannah and Kian, nothing but love in their watery eyes. Unlike me, Kian didn’t bother hiding his tears, and Luke squeezed his shoulder with one hand as he handed him a tissue with the other. At theend of the aisle, Hannah shared a private moment with Ben, accepting a kiss to her forehead before she turned to me.
Her arms wrapped around me, and she stamped a kiss to my cheek. “Thank you, Dad—for everything.”
And my knees nearly buckled. If it weren’t for Ben’s hand on my arm, I wouldn’t have been able to walk away. As I took my seat next to James, his thumb scrubbed my cheek. “You’ve got some lip gloss smudged there,” he explained.
I sniffled and blinked away the blurriness in my vision. “Well, she’s already cried all over me—what’s a little makeup?”
“You okay,Dad?” he asked, capturing a stray tear that slid down my cheek.
“Fine.”
Given the surprise of it all, Hannah and Kian both chose to use standard vows for the ceremony. Judging by the amount of coughs and sniffles there wasn’t a dry eye in the house—including mine. I’d given up fighting it, letting happy tears fall as Kian swept Hannah into a kiss, surprising all of us by dropping her into a dip. When they were finished, they walked back up the aisle first, and then James and I followed. All of us ducked to the side before the guests exited the ceremony space, the photographers leading us toward a quiet area with a gorgeous view of the setting sun. James and me first, then group pictures, and we snuck off to join the cocktail hour while Hannah and Kian took some solo shots.
We each took a glass of champagne and were immediately swarmed by our parents and friends from the Hopyard who could make it. My free arm stayed around James’s waist, as if my body couldn’t bear to be a step away from him for even a second. It seemed like the second I reached the bottom of my glass, Raleigh or Angel was pouring more from behind me. Considering that I hadn’t eaten, the champagne went straightto my head. Tipsy, I whirled to tell them to knock it off when someone tapped at my shoulder.
Only, it wasn’t Raleigh… or his husband.
“Shi!” I gasped.
James was equally surprised. “You made it.”
Shi shrugged, shoving their hands in the pockets of their beige slacks. They wore a matching jacket with a white button-up underneath. “I wasn’t going to,” they admitted. “But your daughter’s a hard person to say no to. That double wedding thing, by the way? Genius.”
Like Raleigh, they had their hair tied away from their face—a smart move in the Vegas heat—and their camo-colored eyes sparkled in the dusky twilight. It was then that I noticed that their eyes were pink, and they rubbed at them again.
“Shi,” I started. “Can we?—”
They stopped me with a single raised hand. “We can talk about it, but not today. Today’s about you two, not about us.”
Any further conversation was halted by Angel speeding by, a look in his eyes that I knew all too well: Something was wrong. I may have been risking my life doing so, but I halted him with a hand on his arm. “What’s going on?”
Flustered, he fell into sign. “We’ve got it covered.”
“Angel,” James said, “we’re not going to explode. You’ve handled so much for us, let us help you figure it out.”
