Like she fuckin’ knew I was standing there shaking. So torn and messed up and unsure if what I was doing was right. If I was only making things a thousand times worse. Dragging them into my sordid world for even a minute when they’d been trying to get free from the debased and corrupt.
The girls joined the kids and Theo on the bench, then I was getting squeezes on my shoulders by the rest of my brothers as they moved to join them.
You know, since this was supposed to be a casual thing.
No biggie.
No wedding party or fanfare.
Just our family there as witnesses.
“This is a good thing, Cash,” Kane muttered low.
“Try not to pass out, brother.” That from Otto, the punk.
“You’ve got this, man,” River said with a clap to my back.
Did I?
Could I fucking handle this?
Because I was feeling my entire world splinter apart when the door slowly opened again.
Reticence curled through the air.
Thick and tacky.
Like she was as hesitant as me.
Before Daisy finally stepped all the way through.
Took everything I had not to drop to my knees.
The sight of her a punch to the gut.
Seeing her was like looking at heaven and seeing its beauty, but knowing you’d never fully get to experience it for yourself.
Wearing that dress that I impulsively picked out this morning, wishing some facet of this was true. Wanting her to feel beautiful and treasured the way she deserved to be.
The way she was destined to be.
Body hugged by that ivory material, every lush inch of her accentuated by the cut. High heels on her feet, making her appear a foot taller than her petite form.
Her cinnamon hair was done up in a pretty twist with a bunch of flowers tucked into the locks.
Makeup done in a way that she didn’t normally wear it.
Eyes rimmed in black and her lips glossy and pink.
Like my gorgeous Wallflower had stepped out into a spotlight.
But that was the way I’d always seen her. Like she was the sun. A beam of blinding light.
Those cornflower eyes pinned me to the spot as she stalled out just inside the door, holding a bouquet that undoubtedly had come from Moonflower. My family coming together to make her feel welcome and right.
But that’s what she was.
Right.
