Dirks went first. His vows were pure sunshine. He promised her the entire world on a platter, and I knew he’d actually deliver. He held her hands and told her she was his heart, his girl, his partner. That he’d love her through every storm and every sunrise. He promised her babies, a home, and a life full of laughter. All the things I couldn’t yet promise, but he’d wanted them with her.
When it was my turn, I hadn’t planned anything because planning was never my thing. And besides, what the hell was I supposed to say that could compete with that? But when I looked at her—at the girl who’d once left me because the bottle had my throat in its grip, because I was more in love with oblivion than I was with myself—I felt the words burn their way out of me.
“I didn’t think I’d be standing here a year ago. Hell, I didn’t think I deserved to be. When you left for London, I thought I’d lost you forever. And maybe I should have. Because back then, I was already gone. You couldn’t save me from myself, and you shouldn’t have had to try.”
Her eyes shone, tears threatening, but she didn’t look away.
“But when you came back... ” I swallowed because my chest felt tight, and even Dirks was blinking too much beside me. “You didn’t just come back to me. You dragged me back to life with you. You forced me to face myself, to be better. And now—now I don’t care if the world doesn’t understand us. Because it isn’t their love to understand. I swear to you, Luna Pierson, I’m not letting you go again. Not for a bottle, not for fear, not for anything.”
I didn’t promise her babies, or sunrises, or laughter. I promised her something different. Something only I could.
I promised her myself.
We had one ceremony. Two sets of vows. One marriage license with Dirks’s name on it, because one of us had to play by the rules. The truth was that piece of paper didn’t mean shit compared to what we said under those lights. Compared to the way she looked at me when I slipped the crescent moon band onto her finger.
String lights hung in the trees, swaying in the summer night air. Mason jars filled with candles lined the porch railing. The smell of barbecue still lingered from dinner, though the plates were long cleared, the champagne poured. Fireflies sparked lazily above the grass, little reminders that maybe magic wasn’t only in storybooks.
Later, when the music started, Luna dragged us both onto the grass. Our first dance. She didn’t care about traditions, or if people stared, or if the photographers got the right angle. She cared about us—her hands laced with ours, pulling us in until the three of us swayed clumsily and offbeat.
Her cheek brushed against mine before she tilted her head and kissed Dirks. Then she kissed me. Then him again.
“I love you both so fucking much, and all I can think about right now is how badly I want to fuck you.”
Dirks choked on a laugh, loud enough that his sister turned and gave him a look. I groaned, forehead pressing into Luna’s hair, trying not to smile like an idiot while everyone watched. Only Luna would turn ourfirst danceinto foreplay.
Nova shouted something from the porch—”Get a room already!”—and everyone laughed. But the way Luna clung to us, kissing me one second and Dirks the next, made me forget there was a whole crowd around. It was just us. Like it had always been.
Eventually, the guests trickled out. Dirks’s parents hugged him tight, his mom crying into Luna’s shoulder. Austin held Charlie close and told us he was proud. Nova whispered to Lunathat after everything—after being second her whole damn life—she was finally first. To two people. To both of us.
The grass was cool under my back, damp from the night air, and for the first time in a long damn while, I let myself justbreathe.
I turned my head and found Luna’s face inches from mine. She was glowing, even with her lipstick smudged, even with her hair falling out of that messy knot. She looked like everything I thought I’d once lost. I kissed her with everything I had inside me.
When I pulled back, Dirks was there. Sunshine boy, with his easy grin that made me want to punch him and kiss him at the same time. My stomach twisted. My brain screameddon’t. But fuck it—it was our wedding. I leaned over and kissed him, too.
He froze, stiff under me, and when I pulled back, his brows shot up. “Really, Jer?”
“It’s our wedding, deal with it.”
I lay back in the grass, eyes on the black sky. “We started this thing with Luna between us, but somewhere along the way... it changed. I love the shit out of her. But I— I love you, too. In my own fucked-up way.”
Silence stretched. My pulse pounded in my ears.
Then Dirks let out a quiet chuckle. “About damn time, Jer.”
Luna rolled onto her back, laughing so hard she nearly knocked into me. Shelovedwhen I cracked myself open.
“Don’t look so smug,” I grumbled, heat crawling up my neck.
We stayed there for a beat, breathing in the quiet, the three of us tangled up in the grass. And then, because Luna couldn’t just leave a moment alone, she shot up like a firecracker.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She laughed, fumbling with the zipper at the back of her dress. “Getting naked.”
I sat up. “Luna?—”
“Come on.” She was already shimmying out of the white fabric and tossing it to the side. Bare shoulders, bare legs, moonlight catching every curve. “It’s our wedding night. Don’t tell me you two plan on just lying in the grass like grumpy old men.”
