AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once Peyton got into her seat at the front, I took Aly’s hand and gestured for her to do her thing. To her credit, she was spectacular. A performer through and through. She didn’t just toss her petals. She skipped and twirled and did little leaps, raining petals all over the aisle. Everyone appropriately oohed and aahed over her before she dropped into the seat next to Peyton and waved at her daddy. Isaac waved back from his spot as a groomsman, next to Julian.
I sent the bridesmaids down the aisle, and then it was Annie’s turn. “Whenever you’re ready.”
The audience rose as Canon in D came on. Annie looked to her dad and nodded. She straightened her spine and then walked down the rose-strewn aisle. I stood with Tessi at the back in awe. We gripped each other’s hand and sighed over the beauty of it all. My favorite part. The very best part.
Jordan got the first look of his bride. His jaw fell open at the sight of Annie walking down the aisle toward him. It was a one-of-a-kind look. A perfect, heart-wrenching moment that would be encapsulated in pictures and videos for all time. But right now, that look was just for her.
The rest of the wedding was as stunning as I’d thought it’d be. They had written their own vows, and most of the party was sniffling into tissues by the end of it, Tessi and me included.
But it was the first look by the groom that always did me in. The moment that I knew true love existed and no one could take it away. It was the moment I’d wanted for myself all those years. The one I’d fought for with August for nothing.
True love couldn’t be destroyed.
It couldn’t be buried.
It was effervescent and irrevocable and forever.
Maybe it made me a sap to believe in something that I’d seen fall apart firsthand with my parents. But pain didn’t make love any less beautiful; it made it essential. And no one could ever convince me otherwise.
