Sitting Corbin sobbed.
How could he not?
He’d lost this.
He’d lost himself, too.
“Our first date was when I knew. I wanted to marry you then, but I’m glad I waited. What got me through what happened to me, Will, was getting to you. When I had to fight for my life, it was because of you. I had to get back to you.”
Tears slipped down Will’s cheeks, and dead Will placed his hand on sitting Corbin’s shoulder.
To offer him peace, maybe?
To connect them?
But Corbin wasn’t having it. He pulled his arm away, as if that touch burned him.
The wedding continued, unaware that they had an audience.
“Getting to you started my journey back to me, and I’ve been doing it for us. I want to heal, and become whole so I can be a husband and father, one day. I want to be strong again, and be able to be the man you deserve.”
Will was honest.
“You already are.”
Corbin had never had this kind of love before Will, and at that time, he believed he’d fight to keep it, but he knew the struggle it would be.
He knew the burden.
“Because of you, William Barker, I’m whole for the first time in my life. Because of you, I’ve got a future that is so incredibly perfect it hurts to know it’s real. You’re my everything, and over the next fifty years, we’re going to have one hell of an adventure. I’m blessed to have this journey with you, and there’s no one else I would want it with. I swear on my life. You’re the one I’ll love forever.”
Those words echoed through Corbin’s whole body.
“See? I promised. I took a vow before God and our family. I can’t break it. It’s my burden to carry.”
Jesus.
This man was so stubborn.
Will didn’t know how to make him see. He really needed an intervention.
As the wedding continued, Will made him look at him for the next part.
“Until death do us part, Will,” Corbin said, meaning every word of it. “I hope our last breaths are together. That would be the most amazing end to this love story.”
That hung there.
“We didn’t know,” Will said. “You’re free, Corby. Death parted us.”
Immediately, Corbin focused on the wedding, living those last few minutes.
When Will stepped back, he took the other ring off of his right hand, and put it in Corbin’s.
It glinted in the setting sunlight.
Like.
A.
