Then Seth reaches for my hands.
His palms are warm and scarred. I lace my fingers through his without thinking.
My heart is loud in my ears, but it is not frantic.
It feels settled.
Like it finally understands where it belongs.
I look up at his face.
The last of the daylight catches along the edge of his jaw and the curve of his cheekbone. His dark hair falls loose across his forehead, slightly wind-tossed. The collar of his black shirt sits open at his throat, the ink along his neck visible above the fabric.
His gray eyes stay locked on mine.
The rest of the world could disappear and he wouldn’t notice.
There is something different in his expression tonight. The usual intensity is still there, that dangerous focus he carries everywhere, but something softer sits underneath it now.
Relief.
Possession.
Love.
His thumb moves slowly across the back of my hand, rough skin against mine.
For a second I just take him in.
This man tore the world apart for me. This man held me together when I was splintering. This man has seen me at my worst and never flinched.
If love is a choice, I’ve made it a thousand times already.
Every scar. Every dark thought. Every terrible choice that somehow led both of us here.
And the strangest part is that nothing about it feels wrong.
If anything, it feels exactly the way it was always supposed to be.
The priest asks if we’re ready to begin.
Seth answers before I can. “Yes.”
The priest nods and gestures to Seth. “You may begin your vows.”
Seth doesn’t look at any notes. He never does anything by script.
He looks at me.
“I don’t say things pretty,” he begins. “You know that. I just tell the truth.”
A quiet breath moves through the small crowd.
“I didn’t grow up believing in forever. I didn’t believe in fate. I didn’t believe in mercy. I believed in surviving and that was it.”
His thumb presses into my knuckle, grounding himself as much as me.
“Then I met you. And everything I thought I knew stopped working.”
