The crowd settled back in their seats and the ceremony began. It felt as though I was watching it all happen through an entirely different lens than I'd imagined. Not rosy. Just clear. This was what love looked like, and I was humbled to be in its presence. Amy and Luke exchanged their vows, and I let myself soak up every good feeling around me. There was so much of it that the entire room glowed in gold. Even with all of the drama, everything had come together. Everything was right. Especially when the minister pronounced them husband and wife, and my sister got to kiss Luke. The knot had been tied. And I couldn't have been happier.
Luke and Amy embarked on their trip down the aisle, and his oldest brother, who was best man, stepped forward and offered his arm. This was exactly as we'd practiced. The trouble was, I didn't want him. I wanted the guy behind him. So I stepped aside and let one of the other bridesmaids go first.
“Making trouble, I see,” Eamon whispered into my ear when he took my arm.
It felt like my cheeks were going to burst as we walked down the aisle together. “I had to have you. I don't know how else to put it.”
He was still laughing a bit as we stepped out into the hall. We were supposed to stop, but there was one more thing to do. I grabbed his hand and kept going.
“Katherine, the receiving line…”
“We'll congratulate them later. I need to do something.” I ducked into the reception hall with Eamon. Everything was set—the tables, the dance floor, the lovely, albeit sparse in the back of the room, flower arrangements. This was as close as I could come to a romantic setting on this cold December day.
“I don't think we're supposed to be in here yet,” he said.
“I’m not worried about rules right now, Eamon.”
I marched him out to the middle of the parquet dance floor and took his other hand. I looked into his eyes, much as I had that first night we met, when I was just as much in awe of him as I was now. Was this really happening? And would it work out the way I wanted it to? I wanted to believe it would. It had to. Nothing else made sense.
I dropped down to one knee. The look of shock on his face was totally worth whatever embarrassment I might suffer if he said no. “I love you, Eamon. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don't ever want to let you go. I want us to get married. If you still want to.”
“Katherine, are you proposing?” He stooped lower and looked me right in the eye. “Do you realize what your sister will do to you if you get your dress dirty before the pictures?”
Was he stalling? Why wasn’t he blurting out an enthusiastic yes? “I don't care about the dress. If it gets dirty, I'll stand behind one of the other bridesmaids. And yes, I'm proposing. I’m asking you to marry me.” The full realization of what I was doing hit me. It stuck in my throat and practically turned sideways. “I asked Fiona's permission. I wanted to know she was okay with it and I knew that would be important to you.”
He shook his head and smiled. “You are unbelievable.”
“Is that a yes or a no? Because right now, this feels a bit like a no. And I need you to know that I understand why you might want to get even with me, but it would really make me feel a lot better if you didn’t.”
He tugged on my hands. “Stand up, so I can kiss you.”
I obliged, mostly because my knee was killing me and as Amy and I had once discussed, no one would turn down a kiss from Eamon. He reined me in with his arms, warm and comforting. Secure. “That was the most romantic thing ever. Thank you.” He pressed a soft but oddly chaste kiss to my lips.
“You already asked me three times. Well, two and a half. That time at my office wasn't really a proposal so much as you were pointing out the solution to a problem. I figured it was my turn.”
“Are you ever going to stop talking?”
“Are you ever going to answer me?” Voices came from the other side of the room. Guests were filtering in and finding their seats. “We're kind of operating on borrowed time here. There's no telling how long it'll be before people start trying to make conversation with us.”
Eamon grinned. “I’d love to make you wait, but I don't have it in me. I will marry you, Katherine. It's all I've wanted. Truly.”
If there was an Olympic event for smiling, I could have not only competed for the gold right then and there, there would have been no beating me. “Perfect.” We fell into the most amazing kiss, the sort of kiss that makes everything else around you go warm and fuzzy. Only Eamon could do that to me. Only he could blur out the rest of the world until all I could see was him.
“Ahem,” a familiar girlish voice said.
We let go of our kiss and Fiona was standing right there, rolling her eyes. “Guys. You're embarrassing me.”
Eamon scooped her into his arms. “Sorry, darling. Katherine and I are going to get married. That's why we were kissing.”
She pushed on his chest until he had no choice but to set her down. “I already knew all about it.”
“And are you happy?” he asked.
“Of course. Nobody reads to me like Katherine and she always has the best snacks around the house, like those cheese crackers I love.” She turned and looked up at me. “Plus, I love her. So that’s good.”
Both Eamon and I got a little choked up at that. We put her in the middle of a hug to mark what felt like the true beginning of our little family.
Amy and I made eye contact and she said something to the person she was speaking to then wound her way through the crowd. “What the heck, Katherine? Two minutes after I get married and you're making out with your boyfriend in the middle of the reception?”
