Epilogue One
TRISTAN
One Year Later
“Come here,” Harper says with a laugh as she sees me messing with this damn bow tie. “You’re a mess.”
“I’m just…nervous.”
We’re in the back room of the church as I prepare to make Lark my wife. I don’t know why I’m anxious. I love her. She loves me. It’s been great, and we’re happy—nauseatingly so. I’m ready to be her husband, even if that means I run the risk of enduring the possibility of losing her.
Harper smiles, brushing the lapels down. “I would be too. Dad is out there with the Gatlins,” she jokes.
It doesn’t matter that, for the last year, Lark and I have done everything we can to force our families to get along. The best we’ve gotten is a truce.
But my father adores Lark.
I’m pretty sure he’d marry her if he could.
Her mother loves me.
She makes me a huge array of foods when I go over there.
All in all, the Gatlin boys aren’t that bad. I’m not hanging out with them, but we have a mutual respect and love for Lark, which is a start.
“Let’s just focus on something other than Dad,” I urge.
“Fine, fine. What has you nervous?”
Lark wanted to elope. She said she didn’t want a big wedding, no reason to spend a fortune, but Sadie lost her damn mind. She begged us to please have a wedding. In the end, we relented, and Veronica took over the planning.
That was our first mistake.
“Maybe it’s that your sister has gone off the rails and made the last four months a damn nightmare,” I tell her.
“That tracks.”
I chuckle. “I know her intentions were good, but it’s nothing like we asked for. We wanted small, simple, just family, and here we are hosting the entire town. I’m just nervous that Lark isn’t going to be happy. This is her day.”
“It’s yours too,” she says with a brow raised. “You are also a part of this union.”
“I’m just saying I want it to be perfect for Lark.”
Harper smiles and places both hands on my chest. “I think the perfect part for her is that she’s marrying you.”
I sure hope so, because when she sees the inside of the church, she might not feel that way. Not that it isn’t beautiful—it is. Veronica’s vision is just really…elaborate. It’s the complete opposite of the wedding Lark wanted.
“I know that’s the part I care about.”
She taps her hands. “Then man up and go marry the woman you love.”
I chuckle. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
I kiss Harper’s cheek. “You’re a good sister.”
“I know.”
