All the emotion I kept at bay during our vows spills down my cheeks. “I love that. It’s meant to rejoice in the imperfections, highlighting resilience and the value of repair.”
“Beauty in the broken.” His eyes skim across his brothers and sister and Remy before returning to me. “We all made one.”
That hits as hard as he hoped, as hard as the sight of the entire family gripping the cord that symbolizes our unity.
A lump balls in my throat. “All of you?”
“Yeah,” Jax drawls, choked up himself. “No matter how shattered, we hold each other together. This is family. Your family.”
Rena wraps her arm around my shoulders, her pregnant belly just starting to show. “Ty and everyone else in my crew helped with mine, so it even stretches beyond the Noires.”
They all mutter similar sentiments, but like heavy moments tend to go with the Noires, a boisterous celebration immediately transpires. Maddox extends his final declaration. Axel unties us. Champagne is popped. Toasts are made with French 75. And the party ensues in an elegant white tent, beneath a starry night.
There’s food and dancing and so much fun.
We even break into the Charleston, all of us together, much like we did all those years ago in the great room with their mom. They’ve all been mine ever since.
When Bob Dylan’s “Wedding Song” plays, Ryker scoops Remy up and spins us both around the dance floor, and by the end of the song, our little guy is passed out cold. With my arms wrapped around the two of them, Remy’s hair a blue mop, like Jax’s—for the night—and Ryker so happy, in a kilt worn for me, I am abundantly aware that there is nothing richer in this life to hold.
“I lied.”
“Lied?” Ryker parrots as we sway, though he’s not alarmed by the admission.
“That night with Emma, when she mentioned little Noires running amok. I told you I’d never thought about this, but I had. A lot.” My focus darts around the tent at the gathering of people who show up for us and back to the gifts in my arms. “This, us being a family, was the dream. I was just so afraid.”
His fingers skate up and down my spine. “Me too, baby.”
“My mom told me that the things you find endearing about a partner at the beginning are often the things that annoy youdown the road, and I didn’t want that to be us. I gave you years of material in that department.” I expel a stilted laugh, and he does too.
“I promise you, Merce. Everything I found endearing in the beginning only got sexier over the years.”
I love that he sees me that way. We really have stood the test of time.
“I feel the same about you. Every day I love you more. I get what she was saying now though. She wasn’t being negative. She was encouraging me to commit, even when it was hard, to remember the good when it felt like it was slipping away.”
“I think we’ve mastered that.”
“We have.” I nuzzle my head against his chest before lifting my chin to him. “You have. Not just with me. You created something incredible from rough beginnings. Your mom would be so proud of you, of what you and Axel built. It’s the best thing I’ve ever given Remy.”
Ryker’s chest constricts, revealing how much those words mean to him, but instead of responding verbally, he presses his lips to my hair and squeezes me tighter.
Once the next song ends, Remy sleeping provides a worthy excuse to sneak out, so we discreetly make our way inside.
After we lay Remy in his room, I take Ryker’s hand, ushering him toward the master bedroom, where I got ready. “I have something for you.”
He flashes me a panty-dropping grin. “Is it what’s under that dress?”
“I could ask you the same thing, pretty boy.”
His ebullient laugh fills the hallway. “Touché.”
I spin to face him, walking backward and dragging the side zipper on my gown down. “But I guess we could start there.”
“Good.” He practically growls that, throwing me over his shoulder with my dress half undone. “Because I really need to fuck my wife.”
I love so much about that sentence.
In some sort of birthday/wedding-day miracle, our clothes disintegrate, but while that was lightning fast, what follows is slow and gentle and so unlike our typical feral encounters. Maybe because this feels like we finally have forever.
