“Always,” Jules replied. “Trixie, Chris wants you to check your cell phone before it starts.”
“Ladies, line up like we practiced. Jules, you and the demon chicken right before the bride.” Ciara reached up to her earpiece and announced, “We are go for father of the bride.”
I walked over to the table that held the antique purse Nana Kingman had given me from her own wedding, my something old, and took out my cell phone.
Chris
I’m adding a little something to my vows, hope you love it. Can’t wait to see you up there.
I know I will because I love you.
I didn’t know if he would see that before the wedding, but I was curious what he wanted to add to the vows we had written together.
“You ready, kiddo?”
I looked up to find my dad standing there in his suit, eyes already suspiciously shiny. He’d been crying on and off since breakfast. My dad was a secret softie, always had been.
“You look beautiful, Beatrix,” he said, his voice a little rough.
“Thanks, Daddy.” I took his arm and squeezed. “Don’t you dare make me cry before I get down the aisle.”
“No promises.”
As we got closer to the new barn, I could hear the string quartet playing the processional music for the bridesmaids, and my stomach exploded into nervous flutters. This was really happening. After almost twenty years of friendship. After a summer of pretending we were just fake dating. After all the time we’d wasted being scared to admit our real feelings to each other, or even ourselves.
This was really, finally happening.
Pink, purple, and blue flowers were everywhere, draped over the barn entrance, lining the aisle, bursting from arrangements on every surface. It was exactly as Ciara had described it to me. I was pretty sure it was witchcraft.
The music changed to “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys, which we had chosen because it had been his parents’ wedding song. The song, along with a bouquet of deep pink April Love roses in the empty chair next to Bridger, had been our way of honoring the wonderful woman who should have been here today.
I couldn’t possibly have known when we were ten, that I would only have a few more years with April Kingman. That one day I would marry her son, and she wouldn’t be there to see it. That I would love her whole family like my own, and miss her like a second mother.
I gripped my dad’s arm tighter and turned the last corner.
The crowd rose to their feet, a sea of smiling faces turning toward me. I caught glimpses of people I loved, Nana Kingman dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, Coach beaming beside her. My mom in the front row, hand pressed to her heart. Sara Jayne and Mac, who had been like family to the Kingmans for as long as I could remember.
But I only had eyes for him.
Chris stood at the altar with a smile so bright he could have lit the stadium for the Big Bowl game. His brothers flanked him in a row of broad shoulders and matching suits. Hayes stood right beside him, then Declan, Everett in his officiant position, and the twins and Isak filling out the line. A wall of Kingman men, all of them watching me with varying degrees of emotion. Flynn was already crying. Gryff was pretending he wasn’t.
I floated down the aisle toward Chris, my dad’s steady arm the only thing keeping me grounded. Every step felt like a dream. The music swelled around us, and I could see Chris’s chest rising and falling like he was trying to keep it together.
At the end of the aisle, my father stopped. He lifted my hand and placed it gently into Chris’s, then leaned in close.
“Take care of my little girl,” he said.
“Always,” Chris replied, with so much sincerity that I felt tears prick my eyes. “I promise, sir.”
My dad nodded, satisfied, and stepped back to take his seat beside my mom. I saw him reach for her hand immediately.
“Chickadee,” Chris whispered, squeezing my fingers. “If you start crying, so will I, so let’s save those for later.”
“Too late,” I whispered back. “Flynn’s already a mess.”
“Flynn cries at insurance commercials.”
I laughed, and some of the nervous tension melted away. This was Chris. My Chris. My best friend. I could do this.
