from him just as the minister allows the grooms to kiss their brides. The entire crowd goes wild as if we were witnessing the most important lip-locks in human history—and in a way we are. These sweet pecks earmark the first day of the rest of their lives as a family. This right here, is the beginning of everything they will ever be as a happily married couple.
The minister nods to the anticipatory crowd. “It is my privilege to introduce to you for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Blake Daniels, and Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt James!”
A thunderous applaud breaks out, and even the warm perfumed breeze kicks in as if lauding their efforts. The happy couples run down the aisle, and I spot Annie’s brothers, Bryson and Holt, up front wiping tears from their eyes. Piper and Cade embrace at their brothers’ shared union, and even they have glistening tracks down their cheeks, and I lose it. I plop my face into my palms and weep for the happy couples. Their joy is almost too much for me to take in.
A warm arm finds itself around my waist, and as much as I’d love for that to be Cassidy or Daisy or even Piper stealing a moment from her familial bliss to comfort me, I know it’s none of the above. I struggle to pull it together and open my eyes to Rex Toberman holding me with the backdrop of the mountain behind him, just a wall of granite dotted with sprays of yellow honeysuckle. His dark hair, those serious eyes demand I pay him attention.
The crowd has all but dispersed, moving out into the clearing where a huge line forms to congratulate the happy couples.
Rex brushes the trail of tears from my cheeks with his thumb and nods to the cliff side. “You want to head to the overlook?”
“Sure.” He helps me make my way over the patchy grass in the suicide heels I thought it was a great idea to don, and we head straight for the altar. It feels like magic stepping underneath the wisteria rainbow above us. “Wow, I almost feel like a bride.” A swell of anticipation rears in me for something I had never imagined I even wanted. “I’ll probably make a hideous bride. I’m pretty sure I’ll wear black on my wedding day, and knowing my hair, the entire nightmare has Halloween written all over it.”
Rex belts out a hearty laugh at the thought of my future bridal disaster.
“You’re going to make a stunning bride no matter what you wear.” His eyes narrow into mine, still squinting with their silent laughter. “You can show up in the nude, and you’d out stun every girl on the planet.”
My mouth opens as if to say something, some sarcastic retort, anything to decry what he just suggested, but quite frankly, I’m too shocked to think he believes this to be true.
“I bet you’d love nothing more than a nude wedding.” I roll my eyes. “Come to think of it, that’s probably your favorite pastime—picturing people in the nude. Is that the first thing they teach you in Football 101? Imagine your opponents in the buff, and you’ll no longer find them intimidating?”
Any trace of a smile drops right off his smug mug, and a sense of satisfaction fills me, because let’s face it, my work is done. “I have never, nor will I ever envision a team of sweaty dudes in the buff.” He looks me in the eye, and that snide smirk of his reprises. “Now the cheerleaders, that’s a different story.”
“Ugh, you’re such a pervert.” Savannah and her long, slender ponytail comes to mind, and for a fleeting moment, she bounces through my mind in the nude, her perky little boobs taking turns swatting her in the eyes. I’d like to give her two black eyes myself. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone annoy me more, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. “And never mind me as a bride. I’m never getting married. Marriage is a joke,” I spit the words out like they were a mouth full of antifreeze.
“Whoa.” He glances over his shoulder. “Keep it down. There’s an entire fleet of cameramen present capturing every nuance of this magical day. It just so happens there are at least four people here who believe in that ‘joke,’” he says the last word in air quotes.
But something in me warmed when he said nuance. A dull