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Ayla came with us, staying glued to my side with her hand in my pocket, fingering my shell, linking our past, present, and future.
The sea lapped around my leg and blade, teasing at that phantom awareness that said I could feel the coolness of the salt even though I had no foot to sense it.
“Do you, Aslan Kara, agree to love Nerida Avci until your last breath?” Jedda asked. “Do you promise to protect her, adore her, and forsake all others for as long as you both shall live?”
My hand shook. “I do.”
“Do you, Nerida Avci, agree to love Aslan Kara until your last breath? Do you promise to protect him, adore him, and forsake all others for as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” Neri whispered.
“Then cast your stones and offer your love to the sea. Let your rocks sink with commitment and settle beside one another, content together while life ebbs and flows around you.”
Neri caught my eyes, her blue gaze catching the steel-coloured dusk.
We threw on the same breath, watching the small splashes, hearing the quiet plops.
Only once the ripples had faded did Jedda say, “Now kiss as one because that is what you are.”
I didn’t need telling twice.
Scooping Neri into my arms, Ayla laughed as I planted my mouth on my legally married wife. A girl I’d proposed to countless of times, married twice, and pledged my soul to every fucking day.
I didn’t stop kissing her as we spent a lovely evening sharing a simple barbecue on the beach, shared sticky raspberry and vanilla wedding cake by firelight, then retired to our private tent with its heavy canvas walls, king mattress on the sand, and a thousand pillows in reds, oranges, and golds.
Our daughter bunked with her grandparents.
Our friends knew not to disturb.
And that night, Neri and I didn’t go to sleep.
We consummated our marriage a hundred times, ensuring the world knew that this was it, and we were one, and nothing on earth or in the heavens could ever tear us apart.
*
Eleven months later...
*
POP.
Ayla skidded back as the cork from the replaced champagne bottle went flying.
“That was loud!” She grinned, her dark hair braided down her back with a baseball cap keeping the relentless sun off her beautiful little face. “Again. Do it again!”
I laughed and turned to fill everyone’s glasses. “Have to drink this bottle first, tatlim.”
“Have I told you how much I love hearing you call her sweetheart?” Neri said softly, her eyes alight with love.
“Bana kocam demeni sevdigim kadar degil.” (Not as much as I love hearing you call me your husband). I completely forgot about everyone else. It was a curse. A gift. A compulsion to trip into Neri headfirst with all my being.
She licked her lips.
I instantly hardened.
“Get a room.” Ayla smirked, picking up a line she’d overheard Jack saying. He’d finally called us out on the wicked few weeks Neri and I had enjoyed while they’d been in New Zealand all those years ago. I didn’t know how he found out, but one night last month, when we’d popped round to theirs for homemade pizza night, he’d casually informed us that it was about damn time we bought them a new couch, dining room table, and probably a kitchen sink, considering what we did on them.
Neri had choked on her pizza.
