Page 88 of Yours, Now and Always
My parents.
They’re sitting together, stiff and careful. My mother’s eyes are already wet. My father’s aren’t. He’s not a man who ever shows emotion.
For a second, the ache inside me flares. That old familiar wish that they’d been different. Softer. Safer.More. But then Luna giggles. Sarah whispers something to her. Tim makes astrangled sound that is probably the beginning of him sobbing for the rest of the night. Colin squeezes my hand again. And at the end of the aisle, Gage is still there. Waiting.
And I realize I’m okay.
Maybe they’ll never be the parents I needed.
Maybe that’s not the point anymore.
Maybe I’ve stopped needing them to be anything more than they are.
I’ve got my brothers.
I’ve got my girls.
I’ve got this wild, beautiful man who built me a home out of devotion and something that looks a lot like obsession.
And I have his family too. All of them, loud and loving and already mine.
The ache softens into something that almost feels like peace.
I take the final step with Colin and Tim beside me, Luna and Sarah skipping ahead, and every heartbeat in my body answers the same truth when my eyes find Gage again.
He’s my forever.
CHAPTER 28
GAGE
The first note hits and I forget how to breathe.
This isn’t the song I was expecting. The one we chose for her to walk down the aisle to. And I know without her having to tell me that this is a song she wrote for me. It’s got her fingerprints all over it.
The strings come in first. Low and slow. Not delicate or soft. Just...aching. Like a memory pulled itself into sound. Then the piano follows. It’s quiet and raw. A little hurt in every note, as if she poured all the parts of us into it and let them find their way back together.
It starts fragile, and I know it’s her remembering what we survived. Then it builds—more instruments, more breath—until it feels alive. Fierce and certain.
It’s her, and it’s us. The storm, and the love we built from it.
Amelia never needed lyrics to say what she feels. I can hear it in every goddamn note.
Every second of this woman’s love feels like something she’s composed just for me.
My heart misfires when she walks through the doors. She’s so fucking beautiful it ruins me. Every damn time.
I don’t look away. Not once.
I already saw the dress earlier, for five seconds, maybe. Enough to know it’s beautiful.
But I don’t give a fuck about the dress.
It’s her face. Her eyes. The way her heart shows up in all of it. That’s what affects me.
Every muscle in my body goes tight. I can feel my pulse in my throat, my jaw, my hands.
I have to wait here, but every instinct in me is pulling forward. I want to meet her halfway. Instead, I hold my ground. Barely.
