“Yes.”
“Say it.”
“Always and forever. I’m yours.”
And then I clench all around him, and I let go while holding onto what’s important. I hold onto us, and he follows me over the edge.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kyle
Love me anyway
Tall Pines, Texas
Three months later…
Calm. I have never felt calmer in my entire life. Six months ago, I walked into a dive bar off the 805 and it changed my life forever.
The sun is setting on MacKenzie’s family ranch. The sky is glowing in bright pinks and oranges as I stand under an arbor of camellias and magnolias with their family pastor. Seated in front of me in neatly lined up white chairs are all of our friends and family. It’s a beautiful day, perfect even.
But it’s nothing compared to the vision of MacKenzie walking down the aisle toward me on her father’s arm. Her long, slim frame is encased in a white lace dress that hugs her body perfectly to just below her knees. Then it fans out into a small train that floats out behind her.
She’s absolutely beautiful. And I only have eyes for her.
Her niece, Ryan’s oldest daughter, Lacie sits in a chair to the front of the altar and off to the side, strumming a guitar. She has a soft and sweet melodic voice as she sings about searching for a hero and holding out for the very best one. When Mack told me the song she wanted to walk down the aisle to, I almost cried like a baby, standing here now and watching her body slowly move toward me, I feel a tear course down my cheek and I don’t give the first fuck who sees it. I’m so overcome with emotion, my heart bursting with love for the woman who is about to agree to spend the rest of her life with me, side by side.
There’s a soft smile playing about her mouth as she closes the distance between us. It feels like seven hundred years, before she gets to me, but then, there she is.
“Who gives this woman away?” the pastor asks.
“Her mother and I do,” her dad answers proudly.
“Is there anyone who objects to this marriage?” he asks and Sean steps out of his spot next to me with his hands on his hips, challenge ready.
“If there is, I’m going to cut a bitch.” After MacKenzie and I found our way back together, something in him changed toward her. My brother in arms had always liked her, but now he’s her protector and guard dog. He’s as much her friend now as he is mine.
The pastor clears his throat. “A little unconventional, but acceptable,” he says before moving on. “Marriage is not a shelter for the faint of heart. Marriage is a partnership. It is hard work. There will be good days and bad. But you must turn to each other, not away, when times get tough.”
I look over and see tears shimmering in MacKenzie’s eyes. The pastor is not wrong. We’ve seen our fair share of ups and downs in a small period of time. And we’ve learned the hard way not to turn away from each other during the dark times. The slight rounding of MacKenzie’s belly is proof of that. For two people who didn’t think they could ever be successful in a relationship, we seem to be taking it at warp speed.
“Now, MacKenzie and Kyle have chosen to recite their own vows.”
She turns to me and looks in my eyes and smiles. “I thought I knew what love was before I met you, but I was wrong. I was wrong because your love is so much more. You promised that if I trusted you, you would never let me fall. You would protect me and if you couldn’t, you would find me. And I believe that because you’ve already saved me more times than I can count. You saved me from myself, from the lonely life that I had devoted myself to live.
“So I promise to trust you. I vow to love you, to be your shelter from the storm as you have been mine. I’ll be your friend and partner, your lover, and your baby mama for all the days of the rest of my life and I’ll do it with the knowledge that you have blessed me with a beautiful life full of love and laughter.”
“I love you,” I tell her.
“I love you too,” she says before worrying her lip with her teeth. “Did I forget that part?”
“No, honey,” I say for her ears only, taking her hands in mine. “I haven’t had a home since I was a kid. I travelled all over the world and back, but it wasn’t until I found you that I had a home. Whether we're on the east coast or the west, or somewhere in between, it doesn’t matter because home is not a place, it’s you. I love you.”
She smiles the most beautiful smile I have ever seen when she slips the gold band on my finger. But it’s my turn to smile when the pastor says “By the powers vested in me by God and the great state of Texas, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!”
I pull her into my arms and crush my lips to hers. She is finally mine. MacKenzie was always mine, from the time that I walked into the Under Dog and stuck my foot in my mouth and all the days that came after. But now she’s mine in name and on paper and I really fucking like that too.
Someone clears their throat and we split apart with a smile. She tucks her arm in mine and we make our way back down the aisle and to our mutual surprise, Hooter and Cinco, her siblings, Ryan and Amelia, and several other pilots I don’t recognize are standing, facing each other in two rows, with their Mameluke swords raised overhead in an arch.
