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“Like the most amazing bride in the world,” Cass said. “He is so lucky.”
Sage’s heart and stomach did a synchronized somersault. “He loves me,” she whispered. “I know he loves me.”
“Yes,” Bea said as she linked her arm through Sage’s. “He sure does, so let’s not keep him waiting.”
* * *
Ty stood outside,the morning nearly noonday sun beating down on him. Okay, only kind of. It beat down on the tent he stood under. Sage had wanted to get married in her backyard, on her little beach, and he wasn’t going to tell her no.
He just wanted her to show up and say I do, so they could start the rest of their lives together. He didn’t care when, or where, or how. He’d left all of that to Sage, and when she asked him for help, he gave it. He’d offered his opinion, and sometimes she took it and sometimes she didn’t.
He shifted his feet in the rocky sand, his eyes glued to the back of her house. All of the guests had arrived. Almost every seat in the tent had been taken. The front row on his left held all of his groomsmen—his best friends: Grant, Harry, Blake, Scott, and Oliver.
The row on his right sat empty save his momma and daddy. The five chairs there were for Sage’s Supper Club ladies. They were all walking her down the aisle today, and he twitched again in anticipation of them making their entrance.
He’d already led all three dogs down the aisle behind his groomsmen. He’d kissed his momma and hugged his daddy and passed the canines to Thelma. She sat in the second row with Sage’s children, and it seemed like everyone was looking toward the house now.
His eye caught Grant’s, and his friend’s eyebrows went up. Ty shook his head. Sage was going to come out. He didn’t need Grant to go check on her.
His pulse accelerated until he felt sure it would bust through a vein and skim across the water.
Then the door opened.
Cass stepped out first, and she wore a muted peach-colored dress. She moved to the side to let Bea out, then Joy, then Lauren, and then Bessie. The five of them all looked at the door, and finally, finally, his Sage emerged from her house.
A shade had been set up over the deck, and she had to cross it and go down the steps before she’d enter the tent. She waited, the most radiant smile on her face, as the crowd stood and turned toward her.
Only then did she link her arm with Bessie on the right and Lauren on the left. Then the six of them came forward, one delicate step in high heels at a time. By the time they reached him, and Bea said, “All right, Sage. Go fly with your eagle,” he was ravenous for her.
Her dress had a scalloped bust, with sleeves that went almost to her elbows. The bodice was fitted, with plenty of sequin action happening. The skirt flared at her hips but didn’t get huge like some dresses he’d seen. It fit Sage like a glove and accentuated all the best parts of her.
He took her into his arms, leaned down, and kissed her hello, the way he had many, many times before. How he hoped he’d be able to many, many more times. This was not a quick hello. Not a peck. He didn’t want that in a month, or six months, or a year. He wanted to be as excited and passionate about seeing her then as he was now.
Only when one of his groomsmen cleared his throat did Ty remember he stood in front of a whole host of friends and family. He pulled back, heat squirreling up his neck and settling in his face. “Sorry,” he murmured to her, to the pastor, to everyone.
They turned to the pastor, and he smiled at them. “There’s nothing like being in love, is there?”
“No, sir,” Sage murmured, and he looked at her. She didn’t seem nervous or scared to be standing here, at his side, at an altar. She nudged him, and he turned back to the pastor, who’d started speaking.
Ty wanted to listen; he really did. He simply couldn’t make himself focus, because the woman next to him smelled like peaches and cream, and her hand in his was silk, and he couldn’t wait to be hers and for her to be his.
He perked up when the pastor said, “Sage Marie Grady, do you take this man, Tyler Benton Parker unto yourself, to be his lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” she said in a loud, clear, perfectly angelic voice.
He waited for his turn, his smile made of pure gold. And when he said, “I do,” the first round of cheers went up from his front row of groomsmen. They caused such a ruckus that Ty could barely hear the pastor say, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
But he did hear it, and he heard the cheers and whistles and applause of many others as he dipped closer to Sage and whispered, “I love you.”
“I love you more,” she whispered back, and then he kissed her, this woman who had just become his wife.
* * *
