Aleks threw his arms around me. “I love you so much, James.”
“I love you, Aleks,” I said as I hugged him. Then I was kissing him and pushing him back against the door.
“Oh man, I don’t need to see this,” Dante muttered, reminding me we had an audience. “Magnus, can you send my best man to our room to help me find something to wear when Vaughn gets his tongue out of his mouth?”
I heard laughter behind us but ignored it and continued to kiss Aleks softly over and over. “We should go check out that bathroom,” I muttered as my body responded to his.
“Yeah,” Aleks said. “It’s upstairs,” he whispered.
Before we could head for the stairs, there was a knock on the door behind us.
“Sorry, guys, that’s Father O,” Magnus said as he held up his phone. I assumed he was showing us a text from Ronan’s men notifying him the man of faith had arrived.
“Fudge,” I said.
“Fiddlesticks,” Aleks said at almost the same time. We both chuckled and then he released me. “I better go check on Dante.” He gave me another quick kiss, then he was gone.
The wedding took place less than ten minutes later andstarted with three little boys, one dressed in Captain America pajamas, throwing cereal all over the hallway floor as they made their way to the living room. Father O was standing in front of the fireplace. Tate and I were waiting off to the side as witnesses. Tate had managed to find the traditional wedding march on his phone and had figured out how to play it through the surround sound system that ran throughout most of the house.
Hawke entered the room after the boys, followed by Aleks. Magnus and Dante walked hand in hand to stand in front of Father O. There was little fanfare in the whole thing, but somehow that just fit for the two men.
Hawke and Aleks each stood off to the side of the grooms. I could see that the band Dante had been wearing on his left ring finger had been moved to his right hand, so I assumed that meant the couple had wedding bands to exchange.
Father O did the traditional introduction as he spoke to the rest of us about the couple in front of us wanting to commit themselves to one another. But when it came time for the vows, he seemed to catch Dante off guard when he asked, “Do either of you wish to speak your own vows?”
“What?” Dante blurted. “Oh shit, I didn’t know that was a thing.” He seemed oblivious that he’d just sworn in front of the reverend. He looked at Magnus and said, “Fuck, Magnus, I’m sorry, I just thought he’d ask us that love, honor, and obey shit and we’d say yes. But I should have thought of something special to tell you so you know how much I fucking love you.”
Magnus and Dante had been holding hands as Father O had spoken, and as Dante’s tirade continued, Magnus drew him closer and closer to himself. “How much, Dante?” he interrupted.
“What?” Dante asked, his entire attention switching to the man in front of him.
“How much do you love me, Dante?” Magnus repeated.
Dante seemed confused. I actually felt sorry for him. But the longer he looked at Magnus, the more he seemed to relax. He looked down at their hands and then took one of Magnus’s in bothof his. He turned his hand over and skimmed his fingers over the open palm.
It was Magnus’s left hand.
I watched in curious silence as Dante took one of his fingers and began outlining shapes on the palm of Magnus’s hand.
And then I realized they weren’t shapes.
They were letters.
He was writing something on Magnus’s hand.
But I had no clue what and Dante didn’t say the letters out loud. When he was finished, he turned to look over his shoulder at his brother and held out his hand. Aleks placed a ring on Dante’s palm. Dante and Aleks shared a smile that said volumes about what they were to one another, then Dante turned around and slid his ring onto Magnus’s finger.
No one stirred or spoke as Magnus did the exact same thing to Dante’s hand. Whatever message he wrote on Dante’s skin had the man nodding and wiping at his eyes. When the ring was in place, the men joined both of their hands again.
Father O was a smart man, for sure, because the second the men joined hands, he said just a few words blessing their union, then he was announcing them as husbands. Dante and Magnus were in each other’s arms before he even finished speaking and we all began clapping even as the kiss went on and on. The men kept it tame considering the children in the room, but the look they shared was proof that Aleks and I probably wouldn’t have access to the upstairs bathroom anytime soon.
When the ceremony officially ended, Aleks came to me and I put my arm around him. Then I watched my new family start their celebration.
As happy as I was to be so warmly welcomed into the fold, I knew there was something I needed to do before I could really enjoy any of it.
I needed to tell my own family I wasn’t coming home.
Epilogue
