“Bryn, we’re ready to go whenever you are. Just say the word.” Maria, the event planner, nods toward the closed doors.
“Great. Let’s do it.”
Maria hands me the bouquet of tropical flowers as I stand and thank her. I breathe in the heady aroma of the beautiful blooms, centering myself in this moment.
I am about to marry the man I love most.
My what-if guy who isn’t a what-if, but an only-and-forever.
“Let’s do this.” I press a quick kiss to Amelia’s soft hair, and Maria says a few words into her headset as the music starts to play.
The doors open, and Amelia focuses on the aisle ahead like a true professional. But just before she takes a step, she spins, runs to my side, and plasters her tiny arms around my waist, her basket of flowers gently tapping my thighs.
“I love you,” she whispers.
She loves me.
My ovaries melt into a thousand tiny love puddles.
“I love you too,” I whisper, and she gives me another squeeze, then pulls away, faces the guests, and scatters petals as she walks toward them.
Tears prick my eyes, and I blink them back, focusing on the orchids in my bouquet, then look up again to see a pair of deep, sensual eyes staring at me from underneath that floral arch. Logan lights up my body even from a distance, and a shiver runs through me.
Butterflies flit in my stomach, but not from nerves. They’re gliding on wings of excitement. I cannot wait to do this—to walk down the aisle and marry the man I love. In fact, I want this so badly I could run.
The sand is soft between my toes as I move quickly past our friends and family. Fitz with his arm wrapped around Dean. Summer with her fingers twined tightly with Oliver’s. And Ransom and Teagan, his arm around her waist, holding her close.
I pass my bouquet to Teagan in the front row and rush to my fiancé’s side, and because he is so darn kissable, I press my lips to his. He slinks his arms around my waist, kissing me back like nobody’s watching.
“You look amazing,” he whispers before dotting one last kiss onto my cheek.
Heat flushes my neck. “Thank you. You look amazing too.”
What would he look like holding a newborn baby in his arms? And not in five or ten years, when we’re a little older, a little more tired—what would he look like if we had one right now?
I already know the answer.
He’d look like the perfect man he already is—the perfect man for me.
“Are you two ready?” the officiant asks in a low voice, her gaze darting between us.
“So ready,” Logan says, and I open my mouth to agree.
But I can’t.
Not just yet. Not with these thoughts of babies and family swimming in my brain, making it hard to focus on the moment.
We’re a team in everything we do, and I want to start my marriage the way I intend to live it—with complete transparency. Not mentioning details has gotten us into trouble before, and I won’t let it hinder things again.
I take a deep breath. Can I really do this? Can I really delay my own wedding and tell this man I want it all, and I want it now?
I hold up my pointer finger to the celebrant. “Can you please give us one minute?”
26
Logan
Universal truth: no man ever wants his wedding delayed.
But since the woman who’s just held up her hand to slow the proceedings is the most important one in the world to me, I don’t say a word, even when the officiant widens her eyes, even when I hear a low whistle from someone in the crowd.
Bryn pulls me over to the shade of a nearby palm, and I cup her cheek and pull her close, a bemused smile twisting my lips. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes.” She shakes her head, an adorable wrinkle creasing her brow. “No. Amelia’s question this morning about babies, and then Summer and Oliver thinking we’re pregnant, and—”
“They think we’re pregnant?”
“Not anymore. But all those things had me thinking, and I want to marry you today, and I absolutely want to do it regardless, but I need to know something first.” She searches my eyes, so honest, so beautiful. “When it comes to having another baby, do you still think it’s something we should look at in a few years’ time? Because I did, but I don’t want to wait anymore. I really want this now.”
Wow.
I hadn’t expected that.
Just when I thought it was impossible to fall any more in love with her, I do.
In fact, it’s all I can do not to wrap her in my arms, throw her over my shoulder, and take her up to our hotel room, caveman-style, to get started on her proposition right away.
“Bryn, my heart is so full when I’m with you.” I graze my thumb over the soft skin of her cheek. “And I would love to start growing our family whenever you feel ready, whether that’s in two years, two months, or two hours. I want to do it all with you, Bryn. Everything.”
