Page 109 of Mountain Void

“Carmen …”

“What?” Carmen’s eyebrows arched high. “We can’t all wait for a knight in shining armor to sweep us off our feet.”

“So. Can I go tell my husband?” Val asked. She lowered her voice. “Beau actually loves weddings. He cried like a baby at the last one.”

Like a baby?

He didn’t seem the type to Charlie, but you never knew with people.

“Please do,” Lorenz said. “And tell them it’s going to happen soon.”

“Good,” Terry said. “Because I only have a few days before I need to get back. I left Jeff alone with the children, so he’ll be holding on for dear life.”

Charlie looked at Lorenz and held on to the moment. Because this right here—this was a moment she wanted to remember for the rest of her life.

Epilogue

Lorenz

His shoulder throbbed steadily, and every deep breath pulled painfully at his ribs.

That morning, Beau had threatened to physically drag him back to the hospital if he didn’t take his pain medication. It’d taken a while to make Beau understand that Lorenz wasn’t about to take anything that made him woozy. He wanted to remember every instant of today.

“You look terrible,” Ry had cheerfully informed him five minutes earlier.

Lorenz hadn’t argued. He probably did.

But it didn’t matter, because he and Charlie were getting married today.

The official reason for the rush was Terry, who had to fly back to the US the following day, and didn’t want to miss her little sister’s wedding. The unofficial reason? Lorenz didn’t want to wait a single moment to make Charlie his wife.

The small church was warm. Spring was finally in full swing, and the sunlight filtering through the stained glass made the floor glow.

Lorenz looked around the church. Every seat on every pew was occupied by someone he trusted with his life.

His team.

His family.

The colonel sat on the front row with his daughter, Lena, and Tristan. Behind them sat Hugo, who gave Lorenz a discrete thumbs up. His wife, Jo, sat next to him with baby Rébé in her arms.

Beau, Val, and Ren were right behind them. Lorenz knew Ren had been roped into organizing things for the younger children during the brunch they’d be having afterwards.

His eyes moved further back. Everybody was there. Alex, Yvette, Damien, Tess, Jamie, Drake, Isolde, Jens, Sarah, Kat, Luc, Hiro and Trista … even Bastien and Océane had come over from Megève. He knew some of his friends would miss the brunch, as they had to go back on duty, but none of them had wanted to miss the ceremony.

Lorenz struggled to put a word to what he was feeling.

Humbled.

He couldn’t have imagined a better group of people to call his friends and family.

The church doors opened softly at the back, and all conversation immediately stopped.

Lorenz looked up … and forgot to breathe.

Charlie stood beside Terry, both of them framed in sunlight. She wore a pale ivory dress to her ankles, which moved softly around her legs as she started walking. But it was her face that he couldn’t stop staring at. She was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

His eyes found hers, searching, and found no hesitation, no nervousness.