“So,” she said, “before we start planning Beau’s wedding…when’s yours, June? I mean—you’ve got the ring, you’ve got the church…”
I exchanged a look with Silas.
He didn’t smile. He didn’t smirk.
He just lifted my hand off the table and kissed my knuckles, slow and soft.
Which was somehow worse.
Whit narrowed his eyes. “Oh no. What did you do?”
Rhett straightened in his seat. “Wait—did you two?—?”
“We didn’t elope,” I said quickly, even though that wasn’t entirely true.
“We got married,” Silas said, deadpan. “Just…not with all the fanfare. Figured there was enough hubbub with the church openin’ and the drama with the Remnant fellowship…just wanted to do it as fast as possible.”
I saw the gears turn in Rhett’s head, saw it click into place—Silas needed it to happen fast because he hadn’t had the chance to marry Amelia.
When everything had gone down with Abel, Silas had told me he wanted to be married as quickly as possible—and I’d agreed. And that…it wasgood, because it was ours.
I liked having something that was ours. With a family like this…privacy was hard to come by.
“Okay, but—y’all really didn’t want even a little party?” Delilah asked, like she was personally offended.
“We’ll throw one,” I said. “Eventually. You can be in charge. But the actual wedding? That was ours.”
Silas kept his hand in mine, thumb stroking the inside ofmy wrist like he needed the reassurance as much as I did. “Didn’t want a big fuss,” he added. “Just wanted to be hers.”
That shut Delilah up—at least long enough for Whit to lean across the table and ask, “So…you’re really married?”
I held up my left hand and wiggled my fingers. “Legal and binding, baby.”
“I hate how smug that sounded,” Whit muttered.
“I don’t,” Silas said, with a half-smile that went straight to my chest.
Willow laughed and set Hazel upright in her lap. “I love this,” she said. “It’s soyou. No fanfare. No nonsense. Just vows and a signature and the two of you gazing into each other’s eyes.”
“Well, it’s no wexorcism,” Rhett chuckled, “but I guess it’s pretty romantic.”
Willow snorted, and Hazel echoed it with a delighted shriek, banging her tiny fists on the table again. Across from me, Delilah narrowed her eyes at my ring like she was already planning a Pinterest board in her head. Whit sighed dramatically, muttered something about being surrounded by domestic cultists, and stole back his gravy.
Outside, Beau was still crouched by the girl’s car, one hand braced on the bumper, the other pointing something out under the hood. She looked unimpressed. He looked like he’d found religion.
“God help him,” Rhett said under his breath.
I leaned into Silas, my hand still in his. He looked down at me, eyes soft in that way that never failed to make my heart skip a beat.
“Feels real now,” he murmured.
“Itisreal,” I said, squeezing his fingers.
And just like that, it didn’t matter that we hadn’t had a big ceremony. Didn’t matter that there hadn’t been cake ordancing or a bouquet toss. What mattered was this—us, here, together. Family by choice, by love, by name.
Somewhere behind the counter, Mabel rang a bell and yelled, “Two specials and a side of fries!” over the chatter of the crowd.
Outside, the rain had stopped. The clouds were breaking. And for once, it felt like everything had settled just the way it was meant to.
