A few people laughed quietly, but Lev never looked away from me. “Turned out God was introducing me to my wife.”
The first tear slipped free before I could stop it.
“You spent a long time thinking losing your leg changed who you were,” he said. “It didn’t. It changed how you had to move through this world, but it never touched the woman you are. You still the strongest woman I know, still the prettiest woman I know, still stubborn as hell.”
That got a louder laugh from the guests, and I gave him a look through my tears.
He grinned. “And starting today, you officially my headache for the rest of my life.”
“What a beautiful vow,” I whispered dabbing my eyes trying not to ruin my mascara.
He lifted my hand and pressed his lips against my fingers, just above where my wedding band would soon rest. The gesture was simple, but it carried everything he didn’t know how to make sound pretty.
The officiant turned toward me. “Navy?”
I looked at Lev and realized the speech I had practiced in the mirror no longer fit the moment either. It had been polished and careful, full of lines I thought I was supposed to say. Standing there with him, I didn’t want polished, I wanted honest. “I had a whole speech too,” I admitted.
“I know that you’ve been practicing when you thought I was asleep.”
My mouth fell open. “You heard me?”
“Every word.”
“Then why you let me keep embarrassing myself?”
“Because it was cute.”
The guests laughed again, and I shook my head before tightening my fingers around his. “The best thing that ever happened to me came into my life completely uninvited,” I began. “I wasn’t looking for you. I definitely wasn’t praying for anybody like you.”
Lev nodded. “That part I believe.”
“But every time I tried to push you away, you stayed and not in a way that made me feel trapped. You stayed close enough for me to know I wasn’t alone, but far enough to let me decide when I was ready.” I looked down at our hands, remembering all the versions of myself he had stood beside without asking me to hurry and become somebody easier to love after my trauma. “When I hated what I saw in the mirror, you loved me enough for both of us until I figured out how to love myself again. You never asked me to become the woman I was before everything happened. You never treated me like the best parts of me had been left in that parking lot.”
Lev’s expression changed, and I knew he was fighting his emotions again.
“You simply loved the woman standing in front of you,” I said. “So today, I promise to love you with that same patience. I promise to stand beside you when life gets ugly and remind you that you don’t have to carry everything by yourself either. And I promise to spend the rest of my life making sure you never regret choosing me.”
For a moment, the room was completely still and then the officiant smiled and moved us through the exchange of rings. Lev slid mine onto my finger slowly as his eyes dropped to watch the band beside my engagement ring. When it was my turn, I had to guide his ring over the last knuckle because he kept watching me instead of his own hand.
“By the authority vested in me,” the officiant began, his voice carrying across the ballroom, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Lev’s hand was already moving toward my waist before the officiant finished.
“You may kiss your bride.”
He pulled me into him with one arm secure around my back while his other hand cradled my face. The kiss wasn’t rushed or performed for the room. It felt like every promise we had made before reaching that altar, the ones spoken in hospital rooms and parked cars and quiet bedrooms when neither of us knew what came next. He kissed me with the certainty of a man who had already decided forever long before anybody gave him permission.
Applause burst through the ballroom. Someone tossed petals into the air. BJ cried openly without bothering to hide it, while Lulu wrapped both arms around Monica so tightly they nearly stumbled into the row behind them. Mike’s voice rose over everybody else.
“My dawg finally did it!”
Lev smiled against my mouth before resting his forehead against mine. His eyes lowered to the wedding band on my finger before finding mine again. The smile that spread across his face was proud, and so full of love that it made my chest ache.
“Mhm,” he said, pulling me a little closer. “I’m just your husband now.”
I flashed my ring proudly. “For life,” I cooed.
EPILOGUE
