"It's Sabrina's day," Colby said, tugging at the knot again."She gets the tie.She specifically mentioned the tie when we talked about this."
From somewhere beyond the bedroom, Bree's voice floated in, warm with affection and just a hint of warning."She also gets a husband who can breathe.Don't let him strangle himself, Hank.I need him conscious for the ceremony."
Brian appeared behind Hank, his taller frame crowding the doorway, shoulder brushing the wooden frame as he leaned in to get a look."How's our groom?"he asked, grin already forming."On a scale of one to ten, how close are you to bolting for the tree line?Because I've got money on this with Kara, and I need to know if I should hedge my bets."
Colby tugged the knot one more time, felt it finally settle into something that resembled the shape it was supposed to be, and let his hands fall to his sides."Zero," he said."But thanks for the vote of confidence.Really feeling the support here."
Brian's grin widened."He's fine.He looks like he's about to ride into turn one at race speed, that's all.Very focused.Very intense.Classic Colby."
"That's his resting face," Bree said, stepping into view, her dress hitched up in one hand so she didn't step on the hem.The fabric was a soft shade of coral that complemented the wedding colors, and she moved with the particular grace of someone who had spent years learning to navigate crowds and chaos without losing her footing."Move, you two.I need to see the finished product."
Hank and Brian parted like doors swinging open, letting her through.
She took one long, assessing look at Colby, her artist's eye traveling from his shoes to his hair and back again, cataloging details with the same attention she brought to her paintings.Then she nodded once, decisive."Yeah," she said."That'll work."
"That's it?"he asked, something between amusement and disbelief threading through his voice."'That'll work'?That's your professional assessment?"
"You look exactly like who she picked," Bree said, her expression softening into something that looked almost like pride."That's what matters.You look like Colby, cleaned up but still yourself.She doesn't want a stranger at the end of that aisle.She wants you."
He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding."How is she?"
"Working her way through a small bottle of rescue champagne with Kara while they fix her hair for the third time," Bree said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth."She's fine.Nervous, happy, convinced she's forgotten something critical, and also making lists in her head about things that won't matter until next week.You know.The full Sabrina experience."
"So, normal," Hank said.
"Exactly," Bree said."Perfectly, wonderfully normal."
Colby smoothed his hands down the front of his shirt, feeling the crisp fabric beneath his palms, grounding himself in the sensation.Through the small window behind him, he could see the curve of the field stretching out toward the tree line.The three cabins sat along the path like beads on a string, each one lit up and ready, strung with lights along their porches that would glow like earthbound stars once the sun finished its descent.
Chairs had been arranged on the short stretch of grass between the first and second cabins, all facing the simple wooden arch he and Hank had built together over the course of a long weekend.He could see it from here through the window glass: two sturdy posts and one crossbeam, wrapped now in greenery and soft flowers that Bree had spent hours arranging until they looked like they had grown there naturally.
It was beautiful.All of it.And somehow, impossibly, it was real.
"You all right?"Hank asked quietly, stepping closer, his voice pitched low enough that only Colby could hear.
Colby nodded once."Yeah.I'm good."
Hank's gaze softened, the look of a man who had known him through enough hard years to recognize the difference between bravado and truth."You did good, man.All of this.What you built here.What you're building with her."
Colby thought of the last year.The way it had started, with fire and sirens and a woman falling out of a burning building into his arms.The first time he had really seen Sabrina, standing in the ruins of her old life with her chin up and her eyes blazing, refusing to let grief swallow her whole.
He thought of the nights on his couch, both of them pretending sleep came easy when it didn't, when every creak of the house sounded like crackling flames and every shadow looked like smoke.The headlights of Diaz's patrol car sweeping across the field on the night the arsonist came back.The feel of a man's jacket under his hands as he pinned him to the ground, rage and fear and determination all tangled together in his chest.
Then the other things.The better ones.The first board they had nailed into place, the sound of the hammer ringing out across the empty field like a declaration.The day Sabrina framed their business license and hung it on the wall of the cottage, her hands shaking with something that looked like disbelief.The way she had laughed, startled and bright, when she realized it was actually happening.
The look on her face when he went to one knee in cabin three, when the words he had practiced for days came out rough and imperfect, and she said yes anyway.
"It took all of us," he said finally."You.Brian.Bree.Kara.Diaz.Half this town, honestly.We didn't do this alone."
"True," Brian said from the doorway, his voice uncharacteristically serious."But it doesn't happen without you two choosing it.Every day.Even when it was hard.Especially when it was hard."
Bree pointed a finger at him, her expression shifting to something playfully threatening."Save the profound stuff for your own book."
Brian blinked, confusion flickering across his face."My what?"
"Nothing," Bree said quickly, waving a dismissive hand."Future problem.Not relevant right now.Focus."She turned back to Colby, all business."Ten minutes.That's what you've got.Make sure that tie stays put."
She vanished back out the door before anyone could ask what she meant, leaving a faint trail of floral perfume in her wake.
