“Oh, I know. It can’t be here,” Kai said. “We just weren’t sure you’d want to or, you know, be allowed to do it somewhere else.”
I could understand his confusion and reluctance to ask me, but when it came to love and the joining of two people who were so clearly made for one another, I was confident God wouldn’tmind my stepping outside of the church to celebrate that with them.
“I’m fairly booked for the next few weeks, but I have a spot in…a month? On Saturday?”
“You do?” Kai’s eyes became the size of saucers as they sparkled at me, bright as the sun.
“I do.”
“Wait,” Lucien said with a slow grin. “Isn’t that my line?”
Kai let out a joyous laugh and fell back into the crook of his fiancé’s arm, and the sight of Lucien kissing the top of Kai’s head made my heart ache.
They were so beautiful together. So perfectly matched. The sinful and sweet. The steady and the soothed. The light and the dark—like me and Alessio.
I used to think we were perfectly matched until our lives led us down two diametrically opposing paths. Ones that would forever run parallel but never again intertwine.
I quickly penned in their names on the date we’d agreed on and shut my calendar.
“We’ll be in touch with the location and time,” Lucien said as they got to their feet.
I had no doubt wherever they chose to have their ceremony would be beautiful, and I was just happy that I was going to be witness to it.
Of all the Kings, these two had stolen a rather large part of my heart.
I got to my feet and walked with them out of my office and through the quiet interior of the church. As we made our way through the nave toward the front doors, I could hear Kai marveling at the way the sun shone through the stained glass to dapple the wooden pews with the vibrant colors.
It really was a sight to see, one I’d admired on many occasions. God was, truly, the most talented of artists.
“Thank you for taking the time to see us today, father,” Kai said as we stepped outside. “We know how busy you are.”
I placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled down at the young man. “Never too busy for you. Never hesitate to reach out to me, for anything. I’m always here.”
“Thank you.”
Kai headed down the stairs to the gardens that surrounded the church, and Lucien hung back for a second. “You’ve officially made his day, you know that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think he’s just happy because you finally asked him to marry you.”
Lucien let out a low chuckle. I’d been one of the few he confessed his intentions to before he popped the big question, unsure of himself and his worthiness when it came to someone as sweet as Kai. But there’d never been a question in my mind. Lucien was exactly who Kai needed and wanted in his life.
He’d already chosen him—I’d seen the bracelets. But I understood this was different. This was a union to which they could invite their family and friends, and celebrate their forever.
“Yes, well, I thought it was time to make an honest man out of at least one of us.” Lucien winked at me, then turned to look over at where Kai had taken a seat on one of the stone benches in the garden. “I know you don’t usually perform our kind of weddings…”
“Your kind?”
Lucien slipped his hands into his pants pockets. “Gay. I know the church doesn’t permit or look favorably on it, which is a shame, because he would’ve loved to have it in the church. But as long as you’re there…”
“He’ll love it no matter where it’s held. He’d marry you on Mars if you told him that’s where you’d be waiting for him.”
“It’s the same for me.” Lucien turned to face the gardens. “I knew it the second we met. I’d follow him anywhere. No matter the circumstance of the relationship. I just wanted him close.”
A quiet kind of silence fell between us then, and I couldn’t help but think of my relationship with Alessio, the different phases it had gone through and where it stood now. Friends to lovers. Lovers to enemies. Enemies to…whatever strange relationship we had now.
I didn’t even know what I’d call it. We weren’t friends. We weren’t priest and parishioner, and yet he’d still come around looking for me at the most unlikely of times. He’d trusted me with his deepest secrets and entrusted his closest friends to me too.
I wasn’t sure what that meant to him, but I knew what it meant to me.
