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“Not me. I am so over drama. No more crazy brides! No more forbidden love. From now on, I want a quiet, stress free life.”
Luke pressed his forehead to hers. “I’ll do my best to accommodate you.”
Epilogue
One Year Later
“I can’t breathe. I think my bodice is cinched too tight,” Marley said.
Marley stood in the upstairs bridal salon in the newly renovated saloon. What used to be called Buzzard Gulch was now Sweetheart Meadows. The beautiful historical town opened with the start of the wedding season and had been booked solid every weekend.
Except this one. The minute she’d said yes to Luke, she’d known that this was the place where she wanted to say her vows.
Kelly huffed impatiently as she spread out Marley’s train behind her. “It is not. You’ve just got wedding day jitters. Rylie, give Marley the bag again.”
Rylie held up the brown paper bag and Marley took it gratefully, breathing deeply into it. She shouldn’t be this nervous, but for some reason, she couldn’t seem to chill out unless that stupid bag was covering her face.
Kendall came into the room, her eight-month pregnant belly proceeding her. “Uh oh. She needs the bag again? Should I get the car? Is she going to bolt?”
Marley glared at Kendall’s joke. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you, drama queen?”
Kendall laughed and slowly lowered herself into one of the empty chairs. She was wearing an empire waist bridesmaid dress in a periwinkle blue, while the rest of the bridesmaids were in navy, setting her apart as Marley’s Matron of Honor. Kendall had convinced Brent that Sweetheart would be a wonderful place to raise a family, and since both of their best friends were living there anyway, Brent hadn’t protested.
“Actually, I would not. You and Luke are too good together.”
Marley smiled, silently agreeing with Kendall. Loving Luke was one of the easiest things she’d ever done, even when he was being bossy. Like when she woke up early one June morning, and he was standing in the kitchen with a box of Trix. On the front, he’d put a piece of paper in the corner that read, Will you marry me, Marley? If yes, open the box.
She’d almost ripped the box out of his hands, laughing when she found a velvet ring box sitting on top of the colorful cereal. She’d pulled it out with shaking hands.
He’d kneeled down, and after taking the cereal and the ring box from her, he’d said, “Marley, I love you and want you by my side for the rest of my life. Will you accept this ring and be my wife?”
Of course she’d said yes and launched herself at him, knocking him back into the Trix box that spilled over. They’d ended up making love on the painful balls of grain, but neither of them complained.
Until Butters ate his weight in colorful crunchy balls and they had to rush him to the vet where he passed rainbow-colored poo. Never a dull moment for them.
“You’re ready now,” Kelly said.
As Rylie pulled the old-fashioned mirror down and revealed the beautiful Maggie Sottero dress covering Marley’s slender frame, and the wisps of blonde hair the framed her face under her veil, she dropped the bag. A wide smile split across her face, and she felt a hand take hers. Looking down into her mother’s joyous face, she squeezed.
“I’m ready.”
* * * *
Luke paced in front of the officiant, trying to calm his nerves. He stood at the edge of Sweetheart Meadows, overlooking the river below, where Marley and he had made love for the first time. He kept staring down the white runner covered in brightly colored wildflowers, and the faces of their closest family and friends, impatiently waiting for Marley to get out there so he could make her his wife.
Wife. God, I can’t believe how happy I am.
“Relax, man, it’s going to be great,” Brent said, standing perfectly still at his best man post.
The music changed, and this was it. Luke stopped and waited, watching the door of the saloon. It finally opened and the bridesmaids started down the aisle, all holding large bouquets of yellow, pink, purple, and green.
Kendall, who held a leash in one hand and dropped pellets behind her for Butters, the official ring bearer. He surprisingly didn’t seem to mind the black harness with the white bowtie on the back of his neck. The room laughed as the bunny hopped down the aisle, snacking on the little green logs all the way down to the special crate they’d set up for him. Kendall retrieved the ring, locked him inside and took her bouquet from Rylie, joining the rest of them beneath the arbor.
When the bridal march started and Marley and her mom came down the porch arm in arm, Luke’s heart stopped. Everything and everyone melted away as he stared at his soon-to-be wife and the happiness transfixed across her face. He knew his expression mirrored hers and found himself walking halfway down the aisle to meet her. Cupping her face, he kissed her lips softly, until someone thwacked him on his arm.
Facing his future mother in law, he said, “What was that for?”
“For being impatient.”
