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“I’m on it.” He couldn’t resist kissing her lips before he walked back to the barn where his friends were waiting. “It’s time,” he announced. “Your bride is on her way.”
“Let’s do this.” Aiden led their processional out of the barn and over to the ceremony site where Lyric met them under the arbor. It seemed in addition to teaching yoga and running her holistic store, the woman was also ordained to perform weddings.
When he looked out and saw the crowd, Silas’s heart started to thump again. Tess would say yes. He wasalmostpositive. The girls didn’t seem nervous. And maybe he wasn’t as nervous as he was anticipating that moment.
The small string quartet set up to the right of the wooden stage started to play and Morgan and Willow led the way down the aisle, walking slowly and waving and blowing kisses to everyone seated around them while the audience rewarded them with a collectiveaww.
Tess walked down the aisle next, all grace and beauty. He loved her in that pale green curve-hugging dress with her hair pulled loosely back every bit as much as he loved her when she was in her ripped jeans or her ratty old pajamas. It never mattered what Tess wore, Silas couldn’t take his eyes off her.
About halfway to him, her gaze shifted to his, and he felt his knees buckle. Would she say yes to him today? Would she make his life complete? Hope had become his constant companion. She and her girls were everything.
Before taking her place on the other side of the stage, Tess winked at him and then everyone there turned to look for Kyra.
Silas watched Aiden’s face when his bride appeared from behind the barn on Louie’s arm. His friend’s expression was all bewilderment and longing. He imagined he wore a similar expression every time he looked at Tess.
When Kyra had made it all the way down the aisle, the bride and groom embraced and Louie sat down with Minnie.
Lyric greeted everyone and started the ceremony by encouraging Kyra and Aiden to recite their vows. But Silas had a hard time paying attention. His gaze kept wandering to Tess, and his mind to the future.Theirfuture together. The future he’d never imagined he could have.
“Now we will exchange the rings as a symbol of these vows,” Lyric said, giving Silas a look.
Was he missing something? Why was she looking at him like that?
“The ring?” Aiden whispered.
Oh, right. Yes. The ring. He’d almost forgotten. Silas reached into his pocket and took out the ring, holding it flat on his palm.
His friend narrowed his eyes as he studied it. “Uh, that’s not the ringIbought.”
“Huh?” He looked down at his open hand. “Oh no.” How could he have mixed up Tess’s ring with Kyra’s wedding band? He fumbled with the ring in his hand, nearly dropping it on the ground.
Tess gasped.
She’d seen it. Damn it. He’d ruined the surprise. “I have the right ring. I promise.” Heat crept up his neck. He held Tess’s diamond in a tight fist and patted another pocket, his heart racing, the stares of all one hundred people boring into his back. There! He’d stashed the one Aiden had given him earlier in the other pocket. He withdrew the wedding band carefully and held it out. “Sorry. Here it is.”
But Aiden and Kyra only shared a smile. “You can’t put that beautiful diamond back in your pocket now,” Kyra said, nodding toward Tess as she bounced her eyebrows.
He couldn’t proposehere! This wastheirwedding ceremony…
“We’ll give you a minute.” Aiden took the wedding band out of his hand like he didn’t trust him with it anymore and stepped back, his arm around Kyra’s waist.
Now all eyes were on him.
This wasn’t what he’d planned—crashing his best friend’s wedding with a proposal of his own. It was not supposed to happen this way. But when he caught sight of Tess, her eyes so big and bright with anticipation and her chest rising and falling with carefully controlled breaths, he couldn’t put the ring back in his pocket. He couldn’t hold on to it for another second. He had to put that ring on her finger.
“You’re sure?” He addressed the question to Kyra. This was her wedding, after all. She’d planned out every detail over the last several months. Every detail except for this one.
“This will be one of my absolute favorite memories when I look back on this day,” she assured him.
Well, in that case…
“You’re right. I can’t put this ring back in my pocket.” He stepped closer to Tess, but paused there, searching for two very special girls in their chairs in the front row. “Hey, Morgan and Willow.” He waved them up to join them at the front. “It’s time.”
“Now?” Morgan popped out of her seat.
“Yes!” Willow dragged her sister up the step to where he and Tess stood on the simple wooden stage. “I can’t wait anymore!”
Neither could he. Under the watchful eyes of all of their closest friends, he lowered himself to one knee. “Tess and Morgan and Willow…” A few sniffles sounded from the crowd. “You three beautiful girls have changed my life. You all have my heart forever.” He stopped there and stashed Tess’s ring in his pocket—only for a second—so he could find the necklaces he’d bought for the girls. Delicate gold hearts with a diamond in the middle.
