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“No idea,” I say, waving at the man as he stands at the makeshift altar in the large dining room. “They both went on some singles getaway and now they’re getting married. He might be in it for the money. Probably not, though. I think she’s smart enough to know.”
“From what I understand most of her money is going to Willow and River from what she says all the time. Piper works fast though,” Cassie says, grinning wickedly. She bumps my shoulder gently. “I’m just happy for both of them.”
“I am too,” I tell them both.
I mean it too. My mother has been lonely since my father passed. And the spark of happiness that my children have brought her in the last few years will only be lit even further by her new love.
Alastair is a good man and he’s always been loyal to the family. I can’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be the same as a husband to my mother.
“She made a good choice,” Cassie says as she gives River his pacifier. “He’s been here as long as I have, if not more. It’s not like she’s choosing a man off the street or something, Dad. I don’t think you have to worry about Piper.”
“Well, what do you think, River?” Renner asks his grandson, tickling him under the chin. Renner grins at his grandson, caught up in the moment. “Do you think your grandma is happy?”
River makes a joyful noise, blowing bubbles out of his mouth. I look at my son and my daughter across the room and I can only be proud of the life I’ve built for myself with the woman I love.
“See for yourself,” Cassie says, grinning excitedly as my mother shuffles her way down the makeshift aisle in a bright red dress.
“Of course it’s red,” I say, letting out a laugh. “I wouldn’t expect anything else from her.”
“They look happy up there,” Cassie says, resting her head on my shoulder with a sigh.
“We should renew our vows,” I tell her, kissing the top of her soft hair. “I really think so.
“Magnus,” she says, laughing softly as she lands a discreet kiss on my neck. “You’re just feeling sentimental, baby. It hasn’t been that long since we got married.”
“No amount of time will be long enough,” I tell my wife, curling my hand around hers.
I look at Cassie, at the pale hair over her shoulder, and I think of what I imagined my life might turn out to be. I’ve never been what some might call a romantic and had not been one to fantasize about some woman coming into my life and changing everything for the better. It never seemed to happen that way for the people around me and I had seen enough in my world to know that true love probably wasn’t attainable.
I never questioned myself until I met Cassie. I look at, or I once looked at, love and affection the same way I looked at the advanced classes I had dropped my freshman year of college, useless and difficult.
I never planned on meeting Cassie. In my mind, the occasional hookup was tedious at best, I didn’t think I needed a woman in my life. I thought having a woman would make me weak and a weakness was something that I didn’t need in my life.
But then Cassie walked into my life and everything changed.
This is something so beyond the scope of what I thought I was capable of feeling that it’s almost unreal.
What I feel for Cassie is otherworldly, so strange and foreign when it first took up residence in my heart. Now, this love is familiar and I can’t go a day without her touch, without her smile. Cassie is what I’ve always wanted but never thought I could have.
My wife grins at me and it’s as bright and lovely as the dawn of a new day. Years ago, I knew she would be the woman at my side, but I never dreamed of a life as beautiful as this one.
Soft music begins to play through the manor, ringing like bells over the hardwood floors and the stained glass. The sun shines brightly through the domed windows as my mother says her vows, and I think, without an ounce of discontent, my father would be proud of us all.
