“Maia and Baird McMillan, your friends and family have gathered before you to witness the renewal of your vows in marriage?—”
“I do,” I cut her off.
Laughter erupted around us and Maia squeezed myhands. I grinned unrepentantly as Anthea chuckled but gave me a mock look of warning.
“Someone’s eager,” she tsked.
I waggled my brows at My. “Always.”
She rolled her eyes, grinning, used to my nonsense.
“Let’s try again.”
This time I let the officiant get through her speech and then it was our turn to say our vows. We’d opted for traditional vows at our first wedding because of how public it was.
“Maia and Baird have chosen to write their own vows.” Anthea looked to Maia. “Maia.”
My wife tightened her grip on my hands, her wide, nervous gaze searching mine and finding the comfort and reassurance she needed. “Baird Gareth McMillan, you are my everything. You are the safest place I’ve ever known.” Her eyes brightened with tears so, of course, I choked up. “You love me for exactly who I am, and you make me feel like I am the best thing to ever happen to you, and that’s saying a lot since you just won the championship.” I grinned as John and a few others whooped from the peanut gallery. Maia’s smile was so big it was fucking blinding. “I vow to spend the rest of my life making you feel the way you make me feel. To support you, to laugh with you, to cry with you, and to never stop being your best friend. I love you more today than I loved you yesterday, and I know I’ll love you more tomorrow. I vow to never stop falling more and more in love with you, Bear.”
I squeezed her hands, blinking back the tears as I cleared my throat. “How am I supposed to follow that?”
Everyone’s laughter relaxed Maia’s tense hold as she leaned into me.
My gaze washed over her face. “Sometimes it feelssurreal to look into your eyes and see how much you love me because I wanted that for so long. When you think the person you love will end up with someone else, you try to make peace with it, but it burns like nothing else could.”
“Bear,” she whispered like she hadn’t meant to say my name.
“But I’m glad in a way that, for a while, I thought you would never be mine because now that you are, I know what I’m facing if I lose you. So, it’s my mission in life, My, to make you so happy, you’ll never want to be anywhere but by my side. Every morning, I wake up and see your face, and I can’t believe that this kind of peace and joy exists. I vow that even on the mornings where life is hard, I will find a way to make you feel that same peace and joy. That I will be the person who reminds you all the bad is worth getting through when you have what we have found together. You’re the kind of beautiful deep down in your soul, Maia, that it can’t help but shine out. I feel lucky that it shines on me every day. I vow to protect that in you. To protect your heart and your goodness with my mind, body, and soul. I love you with everything I am. Forever and always.”
I heard sniffling coming from the guests and was pretty sure at least one of the snifflers was my mum. Maia and I smiled, lost in each other’s eyes. Just fucking lost in each other.
“Well, that was beautiful,” Anthea said quietly, and then her voice rose. “Do you, Maia MacLeod McMillan, promise to uphold your vows to Baird Gareth McMillan, your lawfully wedded husband?”
Maia’s smile could have lit up a Christmas tree. “I do.”
“Baird Gareth McMillan, do you promise to uphold your vows to Maia MacLeod McMillan, your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.” I’d barely gotten the last word out when I pulled Maia into my arms and kissed her like I hadn’t seen her in ten years. Our family and friends clapped and whooped around us as my wife clung to me, swept up in the kiss. I didn’t release her until she was flushed and breathless.
Then I murmured one last vow against her lips, “I’m never letting go. Even after our time here in this life is over, I will find you in the next.”
Maia smiled and her tears spilled over. “You always say the most perfect things, Husband.”
I rested my forehead against hers. “Only ever to you, Wife.”
*****
