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Both the brothers looked at each other, clearly missing something.
“And that’s bad because…” Sawyer ventured, and Sandy rolled her eyes with a hand supporting her belly.
“Because no matter how low-key the wedding, it’s probably better not to have the bride’s teeth stained blue.”
“Oh,” Luke and Sawyer said in unison.
Luke straightened his tie after thoroughly dusting his hands of any evidence of his cereal.
“Are we heading down, then?” he asked, and Sandy nodded.
“We can start wrangling the guests, and Sawyer can keep pacing in peace.”
“Gee, thanks,” Sawyer said.
“You’ll be fine,” she said with a gentle smile. “You’ve done much scarier things in your life.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
“Don’t worry, man,” Luke said, wrapping a supportive arm around Sandy’s lower back. “If anything goes wrong then it’s,like, good luck or something. Right? I’m sure there’s probably a superstition about that in some part of the world.”
Sawyer couldn’t help himself and laughed. “Thank you, Luke. That’s really reassuring.”
Luke beamed, taking the praise at face value and gave his brother a thumbs-up. Then he turned to Sandy. “You need some help wandering down there?”
“Please,” she said with a sigh. “If I fall over, I’ll roll all the way to the barn.”
“Don’t wear a hole in the floor,” Luke called over his shoulder as he guided Sandy out of the house and helped her down the steps of the front porch, leaving Sawyer alone. Just him and his sweaty palms watching them walk further away from the house, making him feel like he was the last man on earth.
In little over a year, life had been turned upside down. It had been chaotic and terrifying, and Sawyer had never been happier. He regretted nothing, not one bit.
Coming back so suddenly after fleeing to Houston wasn’t the best start to it all, but he had known that from the moment he got in the car and started driving back to the ranch. Like he had said to Josie, on his knees in the barn, there were more apologies to come, a constant stream of reassurance that he was here to stay, that he meant it, every word. But as they fell into a routine of continuing to repair the place, inside and out, not for it to be sold but for it to be lived in for decades to come, they fell into their natural rhythm, the almost psychic partnership that had them attracted to each other from the start.
Luke and Sandy’s lives were also thrown up in the air, everything seeming to move at the speed of light as soon as Sawyer hadthe ranch’s keys in his possession. They found a house in town, just two blocks from the diner and not long after that, Sandy’s parents officially retired from their roles as owners of the place, leaving Sandy free rein to do whatever she wanted. She’d kind of been doing that anyway, but now it was official and the paperwork was in her name, so they’d still thrown a party and eaten too much food and slept in till noon the next day. Then they’d found out Sandy was pregnant, which had explained her sudden need to nap at random intervals throughout the day, and the chaos continued from there. But it was a happy sort of chaos.
And Luke… He finally started doing what he wanted to do, what made him happy. He not only designed and created meals for the diner, but he’d go in each day and cook them as well, experimenting and coming up with more twists on good old southern comfort food. His shell started cracking inch by inch, and Sawyer was glad that he was in Willow Ridge to see it.
Sawyer’s only worry had been that he would regret leaving the Falcons. But the regret never came. He spent every day with Josie, whether it was making plans for the ranch, renovations, swimming in the creek or just lazing about with her on his lap or in his arms… He didn’t miss the pressure of the football league, not when he had all of this to replace it.
He’d proposed at the creek. It was the place he’d fallen in love with her, so it only seemed right. Even though it was winter by that point and the creek was frozen over, they still went down there often, and it was equally beautiful with their breath coming out in clouds around them. Josie hadn’t exactly said yes because she’d been entirely lost for words and made Sawyer promise to never,evertell anyone she had cried. Especially Luke. But she’d nodded a lot and jumped into his arms to hug him, so that was answer enough. However, Josie, with all herwork on the ranch, was petrified of losing the ring and insisted on wearing it on a chain around her neck. It had stayed there, even at everyone’s insistence that it would be fine, and frankly Sawyer wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Alone in his suit, which now felt foreign when he’d gotten so used to wearing torn-up jeans and old jerseys while working out in the fields, he stared out the kitchen window, the roof of the barn visible in the distance. He was still annoyed that it looked so good painted red. What a cliché. It looked even better today, though… Over the past week they’d set it up with chairs, dried flowers, candles and fairy lights till it became something almost magical. There was a place for the pastor to stand, a place for Josie and Sawyer too, in front of the people that were now trickling in up their driveway and finding their places. They’d thought about looking for venues, but… well, where else on earth was more important than here? Over the past few months, Josie had planted flowers around the perimeter of the building, and today, with the sun bright and the sky blue, there was an explosion of color all around the barn. She’d picked her bouquet from the same plants, tied together with a ribbon, just the night before.
When he’d come back, when he’d promised to stay, Josie had always said how it felt like she was going to close her eyes and he’d vanish, and she’d be left knowing it was all a dream. He knew how she felt now. He was almost scared to blink in case during the brief second his eyelids flickered shut, someone would come and snatch all of this away.
“Ahem,” came a dramatic cough from the kitchen doorway. Sawyer spun around, and there was Josie. He nearly buckled to his knees at the sight of her. Her hair was swept up into a loose knot at the nape of her neck, every freckle on show. She wassmiling bright as the sun as she did a twirl in her dress. It wasn’t even technically meant to be a wedding dress, but she and Sandy had found it on a trip to a vintage store a couple of towns over. Cream satin, the neckline left her shoulders bare and hugged her waist till it flared out in a nineteen-fifties-style skirt, showing off Josie’s legs and the simple, sparkly sandals she’d picked out for the day. With nothing else but a bit of mascara on, she looked absolutely perfect.
Herb, the blue-eyed Australian shepherd that Sawyer had bought as a puppy for Josie’s birthday, followed her in from the hall (because he followed her everywhere at all times), a small bow tie attached to his collar. Even the dog was dressed up for the occasion, looking up adoringly at his mistress.
“I look amazing,” Josie announced with a giggle.
“You look more than amazing,” Sawyer said, unable to take his eyes off of her. “Can I kiss you, or am I going to ruin your makeup?”
“Well, I didn’t wear lipstick for that exact reason, so knock yourself out.”
She giggled again into his mouth as he kissed her. Sawyer couldn’t help himself and let his lips trail down her throat and onto her shoulders, giving each a peck before pulling back so that he could look at her again. Josie obliged with another spin.
“I think we were supposed to do, like, a proper reveal or something, right?” she said.
