He rises to kiss me—brief, fierce, a seal on a promise—and then he's moving behind me, lifting my hair, fastening the pearls around my neck. They're cool against my throat at first, then they warm to my skin, becoming part of me the way he is.
His lips brush the nape of my neck where the clasp rests. A shiver of sensation runs the length of my spine.
He comes back around to face me, and those cerulean eyes I fell into and never found my way out of are filled with emotion now. So tender and open I can hardly breathe.
"Marry me, angel. Right here. Right now."
I can't speak. My breath is locked in my breast. Tears are sliding down my cheeks, and I didn't even feel them start. Thesunset blazes behind him and everything I thought I knew about this day rearranges itself into a shape I never saw coming.
"But the wedding,” I begin. “Everyone is expecting—"
"That wedding is for them." He cups my face in his hands. His thumbs sweep the tears from my cheeks with devastating gentleness. "This one is just for us."
Just for us.
No cameras. No guests. No security details or a single expectation beyond the ones we make together. So this is what he's been planning. The secretive looks. The conversations with Rusty that went quiet when I walked in. TheIcarus, brought here and waiting.
All of it. For this.
"Yes." The word breaks out of me, half-laugh, half-sob. "Yes. Obviously yes. A thousand times yes."
When I turn back, Rusty is already stepping forward.
He knew. Of course he knew. Nick planned everything. The realization washes through me—every detail of the past four days calibrated to lead here. The timing. The setting. The man who's been captaining this boat all afternoon, waiting for his cue.
Rusty's easy-going casualness is still there, but now there's a quiet solemnity beneath it. A weight he's carrying with care.
“Is this for real?” I have to know. “Will it be legal?”
Rusty nods. "I got ordained online a couple years ago when my buddy Dean needed someone for his beach wedding. Been the unofficial Key Largo wedding guy ever since." His eyes crinkle. "Never thought I'd be doing this one, though. I’m honored."
He looks between us. Clears his throat.
"All right. This is simple, because that's what my man wanted." His gaze settles on Nick. "Nick, you can start. Say what you need to say."
Nick takes both my hands. The sunset blazes behind him, gilding his edges in gold, and the sight of him nearly makes me weep on the spot.
"Avery."
Just my name. But the way he says it. Like it's a prayer he's been holding in his mouth all day, waiting for the moment to release it.
"Before you, I didn't know what I was living for. I had money. Power. Control over everything in my world. Or so I thought." His grip on my hands tightens. "And then I found you. I didn’t go about it the way I should’ve, the way you deserved, but somehow, we’ve ended up here. Together. You entered my life and you saw through every wall I'd built. You saw me. The real me. The broken parts and the sharp edges and all the darkness I thought would drive you away."
His voice roughens. The composed mask slipping, revealing the raw underneath.
"But you stayed. You stayed, and you loved me anyway, and you gave me something I never thought I'd have—a future worth wanting. A home that isn't a place, but a person."
He squeezes my hands.
"I can't promise I'll be a perfect husband. But I can promise I'll be yours. Every day. Through every storm and every day in between. Whatever our life brings, I will always choose you. I’ll protect you. I will love you until there's no breath left in my body. And long after that, too."
His thumb traces my knuckles. The same idle, anchoring gesture he's made a thousand times, but today it means something so much deeper.
"You're my forever, Avery. There is no version of my life without you in it. That’s my vow to you today. I am yours."
Rusty glances at me. His eyes aren’t completely dry either. “Avery, your turn.”
I have to swallow twice before I can speak. My tears have spilled over the edges of my eyes to roll down my cheeks and off my chin.
