Laughter, warm and knowing.
“You didn’t ask me to need you. You showed up and were so consistently, stubbornly, relentlessly yourself that I ran out of reasons to keep my guard up.” She squeezed his hands. “You say I feel like home, but the truth is you’re my home. The reason home feels the way it does. Like mine. Like ours.”
She looked at him the way she had in that hospital room. The way she had at the pillar. The way she always looked at him when she was done pretending she wasn’t fully, completely in this.
“I used to be afraid of a love like this. Big and certain and not asking permission. And now I can’t imagine being afraid of anything you’re part of.” Her voice dropped. “You are the best thing that found me. And I promise to stop running. To show up the way you show up. To build with you and fight for you and choose you every single day, especially on the days it’s hard, because you chose me on the hard days first.” She smiled at him, full and unguarded. “I love you, Rolani. More than I thought I was capable of. And I have so much more to give.”
He was crying. He wasn’t hiding it.
The officiant prompted them to say I do. Rolani slid the ring onto her finger, and she slid one onto his. When the officiant said he could kiss his bride, Rolani didn’t wait for the sentence to finish before he pulled her close and smothered her lips with his.
The ranch erupted.
Robin had two fingers in his mouth, whistling. Monroe was on her feet. Shadow was crying. Spirit was trying not to. Giovanni had his arm around Paige and was grinning. Mama Walters had RJ on her lap, dabbing her eyes with one hand and holding him steady with the other while he kicked his legs and clapped like everyone around him.
Rolani pulled back from the kiss and pressed his forehead to Kennedi’s, both of them breathing.
“Mrs. Pracher,” he said quietly.
She smiled against his mouth. “That’s me.”
“Yeah.” He kissed her again, brief and certain. “It is. Officially. You’ve always been that.”
They turned to face their people, and the celebration swallowed them whole — hugs and tears and Robin pullingRolani into what started as a headlock and ended as an embrace, Monroe attaching herself to Kennedi’s side, holding on.
They finally made it through the congratulations and hugs and into the hallway, where she pulled him into the nearest room. The door barely closed before she was looking up at him in the dark, fingers already at his belt.
“Ken.” His voice was low. Warning and wanting at the same time.
“You said forever first.” She tilted her head. “I…we did that, Mr. Pracher.”
He didn’t argue. There was no version of himself that was going to stop her, and they both knew it.
She carefully unhooked his belt and freed his dick.
She pressed her lips to the tip, a tease, and felt him pull in a sharp breath above her.
“I need to beat my record,” she said.
“Ken.” The word came out strained. “Don’t be on that shit.”
“What?” She looked up at him, all innocence. “You don’t want the people to hear you sing my name?”
She wrapped her lips around his dick and took him deep, gagging on purpose, and felt his whole body shudder. His hand came down and gathered the lace of her veil in his fist — soft, careful, even now — and she felt him try to hold himself together.
He was not going to hold himself together.
“Fuck, Ken.” His head dropped back.
She worked him slowly, then not so slowly, deliberate the whole way through, listening to every sound he made and adjusting her approach accordingly. She knew this man. Her man. She knew exactly where his composure resided and how to take it from him. It was her favorite thing to do.
“Kennedi, baby.” His grip tightened in her veil. “Slow down. Shit.”
She did not slow down.
A few seconds later, he was shaking, saying her name in pieces, his whole body giving her what she came for. She stayed with him through all of it, steady, until he stilled.
She sat back on her heels and smiled up at her husband.
