Page 58 of Fern's Date with Destiny
Fern sat beside her, letting her palm rest over Tansy’s.
“Speaking of bouquets,” Rose murmured, extending hers into the circle.“Since I got to make it, I made exactly what I wanted.This is us.”
They all leaned closer to look.
Ivy was there in the trailing vines of deep green, glossy and strong.Fern saw herself in the lacey fronds tucked among the roses—delicate but impossible to uproot.Tansy’s bright yellow tansy flowers were a cheerful, unexpected burst against the softer pinks of the roses.
“I remember,” Tansy said, voice low, “when I first came to live with Mom and Dad.They told me if I wanted, I could choose a new name.Something that fit better than the one I’d had.I wanted a flower name, like all of you.”
Fern swallowed around the lump in her throat.She’d been too young for her own memories of the time, but she knew the stories and could picture it.Tansy at twelve.So wary, yet so hungry to belong.
“But I didn’t want something perfect,” Tansy continued.“So I picked a weed.”
“You didn’t pick a weed,” Fern corrected gently.“You picked a flower that grows wherever it damn well pleases.One that brightens up everything around it.”
Tansy’s eyes shimmered.“That’s nice.I’ll pretend you didn’t just call me stubborn.”
“I did,” Fern admitted, smiling.“But it’s true.”
Ivy lifted her cup in a toast.“To all of us.Stronger together.”
Rose reached over to squeeze her hand.“Thank you all for standing with me today.”
Fern’s heart felt too full to speak.She just nodded.
A knock at the door startled them.Walker poked his head in.“Showtime.”
They assembled in the front foyer instead of the garden—no one was brave enough to risk the storm.
Yet the tempest became a part of the ceremony in a unique and beautiful way.Malachi stood to one side of the open double front doors, the rain pouring down outside in a silver curtain.The foyer filled up fast, and the rooms to either side were filled with people who sat or stood to watch.Guests lined one side of the stairs and leaned on the second-story balcony, peering over the railing.
Chance waited by the entrance, mustache and beard neatly trimmed, his hair combed into place, his grin unstoppable.
Cody stood just behind him, wearing his best jacket.His expression caught somewhere between wonder and something else Fern couldn’t quite name.
Then she figured that he was staring at her.
Fern lifted her chin.
Her shoes were slightly damp in the toes.Her hair was curlier than usual in the high humidity.She didn’t care.It wasn’t about how any of them looked right then.Not really.
The love filling the four walls of her home to overflowing was the star of the event.
She crossed the foyer and took her place opposite Cody, her heart hammering.
Malachi cleared his throat, voice warm and steady as he began the vows.“To love, and to care.To hold each other through uncertainty, through every minute of every day.That’s the promise being made today.”
Her father continued, then Chance and Rose spoke.Fern heard them, she did, but she couldn’t drag her gaze off Cody.
His hand twitched at his side.Not the familiar tremor but something different.
Slowly, deliberately, he lifted it.
A small velvet box sat in his palm.
He raised one brow, eyes locked on hers in a question so obvious it made her lungs seize.
Seriously?she mouthed, her heart flipping.
