Page 264 of Unleashed
Harper rounds the corner of the barn on her dad's arm, and the whole world packs up and goes home, because there's nothing else worth lookin' at.
Emma follows behind her in a pastel yellow dress, crying and smiling at the same time. I remember her face from the marriage we will never speak of again, and this time, she looks happy. She looks at Harper and beams.
Harper’s dress is simple. It’s flowing over the bump where our daughter is riding along to her parents' wedding. Her hair is down, the way I love it. There are yellow flowers woven through it. And on her feet, cowboy boots. The old, worn ones. The ones she's had since high school.
She catches me looking at them and grins.
I'm done. Gone. Crying before she's halfway down the aisle, and I don't even try to fight it. Jett is full-on sobbing behind me. Her dad places her hand in mine. "Took you both long enough," he says, and the whole crowd laughs, and he kisses her cheek and goes to sit with his crying wife.
Harper looks up at me from under my hat and whispers, "Hi, Acey."
"Hi, Goldie."
"You're crying," she teases.
"You're beautiful. It's cause and effect, baby."
The ceremony is short because we wrote it ourselves, and neither of us wanted to wait one second longer than we had to. When the officiant asks if anyone objects, Gary bleats loudly, and Wyatt shushes him so seriously that even the officiant breaks.
We say our vows. Hers make me cry harder. Mine make her laugh through her tears, especially the part where I promise to love her through every chase, every escape.
"You may kiss the bride."
I cup her face with my good hand and kiss my wife for the first time, with our daughter pressed between us and our whole family hollering, and Uncle Bert shouting something nobody asks him to repeat.
Harper Sterling.
Finally. The one thing I wanted in this lifetime has finally come true. Even though we spent time apart, my heart has always and will always belong to one woman. My Harper.
* * *
The reception spills across the yard between the old house and the foundations of the new one. String lights run from the barn to the porch frame. Long tables are filled with brisket and cornbread and Lola's mom's famous mac and cheese. Someone's already let Wyatt at the dessert table. Which means we’ve already lost track of Gary. I assume Hunter is chasing him around somewhere, calling the goat every name under the sun.
Drinks go around. Plates go around. Jett gives a best man speech that starts with Operation Ace Losing His Virginity and has to be physically ended by Colt.
I watch my wife from across the yard. She's laughing with Violet, one hand on her bump, glowing under the string lights, yellow flowers still in her hair. Her boot is tapping to the music.
I set my drink down and move around the back of the crowd, quiet on my feet. I’ve had a few weeks of recovery, and I’m good to go, even if it hurts like hell tomorrow. She doesn't see me coming. Violet does, she says nothing, just keeps Harper talking.
I slide my good arm around my wife's waist from behind and put my lips against her ear.
"Mrs. Sterling. I'm gonna need to borrow you."
She jumps, then melts. "Ace, we have guests?—"
"They've got brisket. They won't even notice."
I thread my fingers through hers and tug her away from the lights, around the corner of the barn, into the dark where the music goes soft, and the stars take over. I keep walking until I see the building for Colt’s animal sanctuary. Then I back her gently against the wood, tip her chin up, and kiss her like I've been waiting all night.
Because I have. I’ve actually been waiting all my life.
She laughs against my mouth. "We've been married for three hours, and you're already dragging me behind barns."
"Baby." I kiss her jaw. Her neck. That spot below her ear that sends her feral. "I've been dragging you behind barns since we were seventeen. It's tradition now. It's in the vows."
"It was not in the vows."
"It was implied."
