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At his uncertain look, I hop in the bulldozer and fill the pit. Would be nice to do it with a minicig between my lips, but those days are over.New start,I tell myself, and I think of our baby starting his or her life with nothing but fresh, mountain air to breathe.
Later that night, it’s my absolute pleasure to bind each of my brothers and myself to Cora, who looks like an angel before the campfire in a pure-white dress with a lacy train and her hair piled up on her head with a stylish twist of ribbons and pearls. Encircling her head is a silver crown with spoon-shaped trinkets dangling from it. The crown, according to Shep, is a Norwegian tradition. Personally, I like how the silver decorations tinkle when Cora moves.
As I give each of my brothers a turn to speak their vows to her, I have only one regret: that Jud can’t see how beautiful she looks tonight, not just because of the dress, the hair, and the makeup she rarely wears. But because of the love in her gaze as she watches him speak from his heart.
“All of us here are survivors,” he says as his hands swallow up Cora’s smaller ones. “All of us are warriors. We know what it’s like to be wounded, to be beaten down and brought low.” He clears his throat. “But the people who harm us do not define us. The things we suffer do not destroy us. Because we’re bound together by love.” His thumbs rub over Cora’s knuckles, and she’s transfixed by a rare show of emotion from the Judge.
We’re all transfixed.
“We’re devoted,” he says. “As brothers. As husbands of the same woman. As a team. We have a reason to pull through every challenge. That reason is each other. Each one of us would face death to save another. Some of us have.” He pauses and turns to me, and I see my reflection in his sunglasses.
In that moment, I realize the meaning of the vision I had before we left for Texas. My Gift showed me Jud standing separate from the rest of us, face in shadow. I thought the Working was warning me that our leader was struggling with sharing Cora. But it wasn’t warning me about that. It was preparing me for this. For his blindness, for the dark journey he had to go through to arrive at this point of acceptance and, ultimately, renewed strength.
“And still, we’re together,” he says, oblivious to my proud smile. “Bound. Seven men and one Heart. And soon, our settlement will grow. Always with love at the center. With survival as the goal. As a team. A family. Forever.”
“Here, here!” Grim says from his place a few steps behind the others.
“Forever,” Doc agrees.
The others give their vocal approval, and I spread my arms wide to encompass my family. “I pronounce us all, Husbands and Wife.”
Whoops and cheers fill the clearing with joy.
“And now,” I say, “it’s time to party!”
Chapter30
Jud
Honeymoon
Two years ago,when I was baking from fever in a jail cell with the Virus ravaging my body and no escape in sight, I wanted to die. Death permeated the air all around me, but, somehow, I recovered. I wondered,Why me?
When I discovered I had a Gift for leading men and for passing judgments to stamp out wickedness, I wondered,Why me?
Not long ago, I wanted to die again. I was starving to death, sightless and hopeless. I thought my Gift was gone. I thought my value was gone.
I should have known better.
Cora did know better. My brothers knew better.
Now, tonight, I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life. And I’m wondering once again,Why me?
And as I slow dance with Cora to some Ed Sheeran song she chose, I know the answer.
It’s her.
The reason I survived the Virus was so I could live for her.
The reason I was given a Gift was so I could protect her.
The reason I was tortured and starved and held captive was so I could understand not just the terrible physical abuse she went through but the soul-shearing scars that come part and parcel with surviving.
The reason for everything is her.
She has always been the point. She was destined to need me, and my whole life has prepared me to rise up and become the man she needs. And it has prepared me to need her.
For the second time in my life, I’m a married man. But this time, it feels different. This time, I’m focusednoton political maneuvering, club business, petty jealousies, or old scores that need to be settled. This time, I’m focused on my bride.
