tightly woven braids. “You look the same as the day we met.”
“You remember that day?” she asks. “I thought you were too busy ignoring me.”
“I was intimidated,” I admit. “You weren’t like the other foster homes they sent me, too. You were...scary.”
She laughs, and I can’t help but join her. “I had to scare you.”
“Was I that bad?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“Nope, you were just worth saving,” she says quietly. There’s no mistaking the look in her eyes or the emotion in her voice. She’s also guarded herself around me, like she’s approaching a wild animal. I can’t blame her.
“I’m sorry I was trouble,” I murmur. “Thank you for not giving up on me. Thanks for always being there.”
“I always will be,” she promises me.
“I know…Mom.” I’ve never said it before. I’ve thought it. I’ve felt it. But something always held me back. For a long time, it was guilt. Because I had a mom, even though she was gone. Then, it was fear. I didn’t want to make her into something she didn’t want to be. But I don’t see the world the same way I did then, not even the same way I did a year ago.
Francie didn’t have to love me. She did it anyway. She didn’t have to stick by me when I fucked up—and I fucked up a lot. She never budged. I didn’t understand—couldn’t understand it. Now, I do. She’s always been my mom, patiently waiting for me to see it, too.
She hugs me with all her strength, which is considerably more than her slight frame suggests. “About damn time.”
When we finally let go, she brushes away tears. “We need to get you married!”
I pull a box out of my pocket and open it to reveal the rings.
“Adair is a lucky woman,” she says with a wink as she helps me tie it to Zeus’s collar.
Zeus, who seems to understand the gravitas of the situation, sits like a statue as we thread Adair’s ring through the ribbon. Adair’s worn a simple diamond engagement ring since I proposed. Mostly, because I’d been too impatient to ask her to wait for the custom ring I’m giving her today.
I’d taken the engagement ring and had it made into a necklace for Ellie, wanting her to feel as much a part of today as possible. Adair’s actual wedding ring features four half carat pear-shaped diamonds set in a cluster. At first glance, it just looks like a huge rock, which wasn’t really my attention, but closer inspection, shows the narrow points of the diamonds meeting in the middle to form a delicate clover. Pavé diamonds halo the larger stones, and two eternity bands of diamonds are joined to serve as the official wedding band. She’s going to fuss over its size, but I don’t care. If it was up to her, she’d be happy with a rubber band. I want everyone to know she’s mine.
We finish getting Zeus ready and Francie hands me the lead of his blue leash.
“Does she know?” she asks.
“Not yet,” I say with a grin.
“You’re up to something,” Francie guesses.
“I’ve had some time to think about this,” I admit. I fell in love with her years ago, but today she’s going to be mine at last.
Adair
Ava steps in so that Poppy can perform her maid of honor duties when it’s time for the ceremony. She lines us up with a grim determination that feels more like she’s sending me out to a firing squad than to get married. I wait to the side as Sutton exits the back door followed by Trish. Poppy gives me one last squeeze, smiling from ear-to-ear, that I’m about to see all her hard work finally achieved.
“Okay, it’s your turn,” Ava orders Ellie, who’s clutching her flower girl basket tightly in her tiny fists. She looks up to me with wide, terrified eyes.
“I want to go with you,” she whispers.
“The flower girl goes before the bride,” Ava tells her, but I step closer as her hand closes over the door knob.
“It’s fine. She can walk with me.”
Ava gives me a look that says I can explain this to Poppy later, but, honestly, it’s better this way. Today, I’m not just marrying Sterling, we’re becoming a family. It’s more than I ever dreamed of and I want her by my side. Outside the music shifts from Canon in D to the Wedding March, and I smile at Ellie.
“You ready, baby?” I hold out my hand.
“One more second,” she