Page 89 of Yours, Now and Always
Tim’s crying before she even reaches the aisle. Colin’s got that look he gets when he’s trying not to. The girls are ahead of her, giggling.
And Amelia. Christ, she’s glowing. But there’s also something else. A dreamy quality to the way she’s moving. Her smile is soft and a little too serene, and when her eyes meet mine, they’re bright. So bright.
She’s still high. Not as high as she was on the floor examining carpet fibers, but definitely not sober. And she’s trying so fucking hard to act normal that it almost kills me not to laugh.
And that’s when it hits me. Fully hits me. This is our family. But more than that, it’s so fucking real it threatens to bring me to my knees.
This beautiful woman doesn’t pretend.
She’s wild. Emotional. Stubborn as hell.
Honest, brave, and so tender it undoes me.
She doesn’t hold back. Not her love. Not her fury. Not her laughter or tears.
She cried her makeup off today. On our wedding day. She didn’t try to stop her tears or her emotions. She just let it happen. No shame. No rush to fix it. She just looked at me like I was her whole world, told me she loved me, and said she’d bury a body for me.
That moment was what love looks like when it’s not trying to be pretty. What trust looks like when it’s built.
Amelia has given me her whole damn heart and trusts me to hold it. In the good moments and the bad ones.Especially the bad ones.
When she’s overwhelmed and lashing out.
When I’ve fucked up and don’t know how to fix it.
When the world’s too loud and neither of us can breathe.
No one’s ever done that for me before. And it means more than she will ever know.
When she reaches the halfway point, her eyes flick toward the front row. I follow her gaze and see her parents. Her mother’s already crying. Her father’s not. And she didn’t get any time with them before the ceremony because they arrived later than they said they would.
I know what that costs her. I know every version of that ache. And I hate it for her.
But then her focus comes back to me and she keeps walking.
Step by step.
Toward me.
Towardus.
When she gets about ten feet away, she mouths something at me that looks like “I’m so floaty” and I can’t suppress my smile.
Fuck, this woman is my everything.
Then she reaches the end of the aisle and Colin and Tim stop beside her. They look at me—one protective, one emotional, both proud—and then they each place one of her hands in mine.
The second her skin touches mine, everything in me settles.
Noise fades. Guests blur.
It’s just her.
Always her.
Her fingers curl around mine and she squeezes. Hard. As if she’s steadying herself. When I glance down at her, shewhispers, “I was on the floor earlier. Examining things. It was very spiritual. Just wanted you to be aware of that.”
I smile again. “I know, Princess. I was there.”
