Everyone stands as Isla begins to walk down the aisle, every step feeling too slow.
Halfway down, with everyone admiring her beauty, she stops. But I don’t stress. Nora is reaching her arms out for me and squeaking “Dada,” which earns anawwfrom the guests. Isla laughs then decides to set Nora down who immediately starts her speeding crawl following the ribboned cloth and heading straight to me.
She steals the show, and I kneel down to pick her up.
Then we continue on with the wedding schedule.
When Isla reaches me, we can’t break away from our smiles.
“Should we hand her to someone in the front row?” Isla asks, with her eyes going wide.
I turn to my future brother-in-law. “This is going to be quick, right? We requested the speedy version.”
“Relax, I listened,” Briggs assures us.
“Then she stays with us,” I confirm.
And that’s how we do it. We get married holding our daughter. The fastest ten-minute service of our lives, which is good, as storm clouds are rolling in.
I have no choice but to hand Nora to my brother because when Briggs tells me I can kiss the bride, I do just that. I tip Isla back and kiss the hell out of her. We’re not going to start our life as husband and wife with a chaste kiss, uh-uh, not in my book.
The guests clap and cheer as sprinkles of rain begin to fall. Thunder in the distance breaks our kiss.
“It’s going to storm,” I tell my wife.
She wraps her arms around my neck. “Storms are my favorite when they’re with you,” she hums.
“I’m aware, which is why I paid someone up there to arrange it, assuming it makes our wedding night even better,” I joke.
Isla giggles right before I pick her up and twirl her around.
“Set me down, Husband. How am I going to get inside?”
I dip my mouth down while she’s in my arms and kiss her real quick. “I’ll carry you, I always will.”
We take a second to soak in this moment between us, with her lips gently tugging into a sentimental smile right before I carry her back down the aisle.
* * *
Toasts were done,first dance complete, cake cut, bouquet thrown, and our daughter crashed from a sugar rush since we let her have two spoonfuls of cake.
Declan, Connor, and my brother are sitting outside on the terrace while they drink their whiskey. Luckily, the storm went to the south. I join them since Isla is with Hadley and Violet freshening up, which means she’ll be a solid twenty minutes.
Someone offers me a glass of champagne, as they have an entire bottle sitting on the side table.
Connor tips his glass up. “A toast.”
Declan reaches into his blazer’s inner pocket to pull out some cigars and passes one to each of us before we all hold up our glasses.
“To locking down your wife in the most unconventional story that will be awkward as fuck to explain to your daughter one day.”Okay, so that’s Connor’s speech.
It causes all of us to glance at one another.
“Listen, kid, you accidentally got married in Vegas,” Declan points out to Connor. “And you really want to call Vaughn’s road to marriage unconventional?”
“Says the guy who used the Dizzy Duck Inn for his secret escapades with my aunt before my dad found out,” Connor counters.
Christ, we’re going down a rabbit hole.
