by Ali Parker
It was romantic and elegant and fierce.
Exactly what I’d requested.
“I love it,” I said to the makeup artist as she began packing up her tools and products. “Thank you so much.”
“You are so very welcome.”
Janie was next in line to have her makeup finished. Her eyes and skin were already done, but she needed her brows filled and her lips painted, too. My mother was completely ready in a copper floor-length dress and black shawl with gold leaves on it. She looked beautiful and her dark brown hair had been curled and pinned back.
I sat up a little straighter as the hairstylist finished the last section of my hair. Once the curls had completely cooled, she gently brushed them out with a wide-toothed comb, pinned the left side back behind my ear with a sparkly clip, and then doused me in a layer of hairspray. I closed my eyes and held my breath, and when she was done, I took another look at myself.
“Hold on,” the stylist said, holding up one finger. “Let me get your veil.”
More butterflies took flight in my stomach.
Janie and my mother were hovering as she slid the veil into my hair and secured it with an invisible clip. It didn’t cover my face. I didn’t want that. I wanted to see every moment unobstructed, and I wanted Wyatt to see me.
It was a soft cream and trimmed in tiny rhinestones that caught the light when I moved. I got to my feet, smoothed out the skirt of my dress, and moved to the full-length mirror propped up in one corner by the windows.
I stood in the sunlight and gazed at myself as my mother and Janie grew teary-eyed behind me.
The woman staring back at me was so much more than just a bride.
She was a fighter.
My dress was not at all what I expected to choose the day Janie and I went wedding dress shopping. In fact, it was quite the opposite, which almost every sales consultant in the bridal gallery told me happened more often than brides realized. They came in with an idea of the dress they wanted, but once they had it on, they realized it didn’t capture their true vision of how they wanted to look on their wedding day.
This dress captured that vision.
It was cut low with a lace bodice covered in translucent sparkly stitching. Tiny pearl sequins made it shimmer beautifully, but it was an understated sparkle, something I did not know could be achieved until I put this dress on. It had dainty straps, trimmed in rhinestones that matched those on my veil, with a sweetheart neckline cut low in the center.
The waist was cinched, pull in dramatically by the corset back, creating a sharp shape I didn’t know I had. It flowed out from there. The skirt was full but not a ballgown. I’d been told it was an A-line dress, just on the fuller side. Lace crept down the skirt—tulle, of all things—for the first quarter before it faded away. The tulle was cream with an underlay of the softest shade of blush. The color added depth and warmth that worked much better on my fair skin tone than white had.
Janie stepped up beside me with my wedding shoes in her hands. “Shall we add the finishing touches?”
My mother had my earrings.
The two of them worked to finish getting me ready. I stepped into the gold sparkly ballet flats and Janie did up the ankle straps while I held up the skirts of my dress for her. My mother put my earrings in and slid the backings on them.
Then completely finished, we looked at my reflection.
A torrent of emotions rolled through me.
It had been a long road to get to this place. And it was a place that I didn’t think I would reach for a long time. All year, pretty much. I’d been resigned to my fate that I would go home alone. That Wyatt would become a memory, someone I longed for but had to let go of.
I never dreamed I would marry him.
And yet, in less than an hour, we would be husband and wife.
Each man, over the course of the year, had taught me something about myself. In their own way, they’d each made me stronger. Fuller. They’d given me purpose. They’d fulfilled parts of me I didn’t know were empty, and they’d challenged me in ways I needed to be challenged in order to grow.
The Casanova Club was by far the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. And for a lot of the process, I’d been convinced I’d made a mistake and that I wasn’t strong enough to see it through to the end.
Now I saw it for what it truly was.
Fate.
Everything had happened exactly as it should. There wasn’t a thing I would change because each decision, each misstep, each shed tear, had led me to this moment.
To Wyatt.
He was worth all the pain. All the anguish. All the self-doubt and the anger and the confusion. If I had to do it all over again to get to him, I knew I would without even blinking.
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I called.
Laurel stepped into the room. Her hair was slicked back in a neat bun today and sparkly studs glistened in her ears. She also wore an earpiece to communicate with all her staff on site, and she had a clipboard in hand, as always. She offered me a warm smile. “You are the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen, Piper.”
“Thank you,” I said softly.
She looked around at me, my mother, and Janie. “Are you three ready to go? Wyatt is waiting for you.”
I looked around at the two most important women in my life. “Ready?”
My mother sniffled and wiped gently at the corners of her eyes. “Absolutely.”
Janie grinned and picked up her bouquet and mine from the dresser. Hers was a cluster of baby’s breath, simple and pretty against the rich plum shade of her dress. Mine was a cascading bouquet of eggplant-colored flowers, rich greenery, and pops of white.
“Let’s get you hitched, Pipes,” Janie said.
We moved through the house together. My dress didn’t have a train and my veil only went down to my waist, so it was easy for me to move in. We hit the first floor, stepped outside, and descended the porch steps to the horse-drawn hay wagon that awaited us. There were bails of hay in the back for us to sit on. Laurel hopped up into the front seat with one of the ranch hands from the Doherty farm, Nicky. We’d met once at their dance party and shared a table. He had dark hair and striking blue eyes, and I caught him checking out Janie as we climbed into the back.
Laurel told him to drive. He called to the horses and the carriage lurched forward.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I whispered.
“What are you most excited for?” Janie asked.
“To see him.” I didn’t even have to think about my answer.
“Are you worried about the other men being there?”
I shook my head. “No. Today is about me and Wyatt. They’ll respect that.”
It was true. I had no worries about the others being there. Sure, in the days leading up to the wedding, I’d been a bit stressed about it, but then I remembered they were all good men. Stand-up, quality, resilient men. They wouldn’t be petty about this. They would find a way to be happy for me, even if they were disappointed things didn’t go how they thought it would.
And if they couldn’t, I wouldn’t let that spoil my day.
The ride to the willow tree was just shy of ten minutes. We rolled to a stop on the grass, and Nicky hopped down to come to the back of the wagon and offer his hand to all of us, helping us step onto the grass.
Janie gave my hair a quick fix, twirling a couple of strands around her fingers to preserve the curls. My mother fanned out my veil. Music from the harpist reached my ears and I realized the ceremony was beginning.
Laurel came up to us. “All right, ladies. This is it. Mrs. James, you’ll go ahead first and find your seat. Janie, you’ll go next and you’ll take your spot at the front of the aisle across from Boone and Dodge. Piper, your father will meet you at the entrance when you step through the willow curtain. And then you know the rest.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Laurel pulled a couple of pieces of tulle forward, filli
ng out my dress for me. “You are most welcome. Now, remember. Don’t walk too fast. Soak in every second. This day will be over faster than you can blink. Take it all in.”
“I will,” I whispered.
My mother gave me a hug. “I’ll see you in there, sweetheart.”
She left with Laurel, leaving me standing with my best friend.
Janie took me by the shoulders. “This is it, Pipes. Any last words?”
I grinned at her. “I love you.”
Her eyes glistened. “I love you too.”
And then, seconds later, I was alone by the wagon. Nicky had gone in to take his seat, and I was left in the cool afternoon breeze with the grass rustling by my feet. It smelled like soil and grass and the flowers of my bouquet. The moment was perfect. Calm. Soft. The vines of the willow tree shifted in the breeze as if calling for me to come to them.
So I did.
The harpist played on the other side, a beautiful swell of music, and I stepped through the curtain of greenery to meet my father on the other side.
He was dressed in a tan suit. It had been tailored to him and he looked sharp with a rich brown tie and patterned pocket square with hints of turquoise in it. He extended his elbow to me and I slipped my arm through it.
“Hi, baby girl,” he said. His words were quiet and low. Not another soul under the willow tree could have heard him.
I searched his eyes. He was the first man I ever loved and the first man who ever loved me. And this moment was everything to me.
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Are you ready to get married?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
And then he stepped aside, and my gaze fell upon my cowboy at the end of the aisle. My everything.
He wore a black dress shirt beneath a black vest with a thin black tie. His pants were also black, and he had on black cowboy boots. My heart skipped a beat when our eyes locked and he smiled at me.
The way he looked at me made me feel like we were the only two people under that tree, like we were the only two people in the world. And as I walked toward him, the storm of nerves in my gut dissipated and I was left with nothing but the steadiness of the truth that my dreams were about to come true.
I was about to become Mrs. Piper Brewer.
Chapter 18
Wyatt
My knees turned to putty when she smiled at me.
That smile had been my undoing in the very beginning. Those lips. Those eyes.
Piper was a vision as she came down the aisle toward me. Each step was small and graceful and it was as if she was simply floating above the rolled-out white carpet, like an angel. My angel. Her dress was soft and romantic. Parts of the bodice winked with every step she took, and the lace on her skirt shifted and dazzled, catching angles where it glimmered like crystals underwater.
And it did feel like I was underwater.
It was hard to breathe in the best possible way.
The sounds of the harpist, of the whispers of our guests who leaned into the person beside them to say how beautiful Piper was, of Janie sniffling and Boone and Dodge muttering behind me about how lucky I was, it all faded away. There was nothing but me and her, and each step she took brought her closer to me.
I still could not comprehend how we’d ended up here.
I’d never considered myself a lucky man. Winning wasn’t in the cards for me. But perhaps my past of losing—of losing battles and family and friendships and love—had all been to prepare me for this, the victory of all victories.
Her.
I reveled in the sight of her as her father walked her down the aisle. I soaked it all in, her purple lips, her bright brown eyes glistening with tears I knew she was fighting to hold at bay, her cheeks, all pinched and high from smiling so big, her dark hair that cascaded down around her like a veil all on its own.
She was like a sunrise.
Wild and free and brighter than anything I’d ever laid eyes on.
And she’d chosen me.
I cleared my throat as it tightened of its own volition. Jackson Lee, who stood slightly behind me and would be marrying us, nudged my arm gently with his own. “She looks beautiful, Wyatt,” he said softly.
He wasn’t looking for an answer and I didn’t give him one. I was momentarily lost for words. How I would get through my vows in one piece, I had no idea. Her beauty was blinding and deafening all at once.
Piper and her father drew to a stop about five feet from me. He pulled her in for a hug, kissed both her cheeks, and then guided her away from him with an outstretched arm. I moved forward and offered her my arm. Piper took it with a glance over her shoulder.
“I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you too, sweetheart,” her father said. He was as teary-eyed as she was, and I suspected his throat was closing in on him like mine as he took the open seat in the front row next to his wife and son. Phillip gave Piper a big grin and two thumbs up, and then she turned toward me, smiling brighter than ever.
“Are you ready?” I asked her.
Piper nodded. “Let’s get this show on the road, cowboy.”
We stepped toward Jackson Lee.
He smiled at the pair of us. “Piper, it’s good to see you.”
“You too,” she said. “For once.”
Jackson laughed. “Fair.”
She smiled and turned to face me. I held both her hands in mine and ran my fingers over her knuckles just to feel her skin beneath mine. She gazed at me, and I gazed back at her, and time passed, and Jackson Lee spoke, and the words that fell from his lips were lost on me as I looked upon the woman who’d changed everything for me in a matter of weeks.
Or days, if I was being honest with myself.
She’d swept into my life like a tidal wave and cleared out all the stuff that didn’t matter. She’d changed how I did things around the ranch and she’d reminded me what it felt like to fall in love with my way of life all over again. A part of me had still been struggling under the weight of losing my parents. But when Piper came along, all that shifted and I realized happiness could still be found in this world, even if the people I loved more than anything were gone.
The woman of my dreams loved the home my father built for us just as much as I did. There was nothing that warmed my heart more than that simple truth. And now, under this tree, I knew we would make promises to each other that we would never break. And in the coming years, we would fulfill my mother’s dream.
We would fill the house with children. We would raise a family of the likes she always wanted but couldn’t build herself. We would fill the rooms with laughter and joy and we would raise them to be good, strong, capable human beings with hearts as warm and kind as their mother’s.
And in the aftermath of it all, when we were old and gray and tired, we would sit back and reflect about the life we built together and how we changed each other’s worlds.
And it would all be more than enough for me.
Jackson was still talking, performing his part of the ceremony like a seasoned pro. He had the attention of everyone beneath the willow except for me and Piper. She squeezed my hands.
“What are you thinking about?” she whispered.
“Everything.”
It was then that Jackson turned toward me. “Now, before we exchange the rings, Piper and Wyatt would like to read their vows. Wyatt, when you’re ready.”
I’d memorized every word I wanted to say to the woman I was going to marry. They were all jumbled up in my brain right now, but I closed my eyes, and Piper squeezed my hands again, and everything that didn’t matter faded to white noise.
I opened my eyes and looked at her. Then I swallowed, found my voice, and gave it to the words I’d hoped I could say for the last nine months.
“Piper, when you came to me in March, I didn’t know I was lost. I thought I was doing all right. Putting one foot in front of the other. Keeping up with this ranch the way my father did. Honoring their memory by pushing forward, expanding, growing, a
nd helping my community. But I was so lost.” I shifted my weight and looked down at her hands. I was acutely aware of all the eyes on me. But they didn’t matter. Her eyes were fixed on me when I looked back up at her. “You walked onto this ranch and you lit a fire in me that hadn’t burned in years. And I knew in my soul that you and I were meant to be more than what we could be in one short month. Something else was waiting for us all along. This was waiting for us.”
Piper’s eyes swam with tears and she blinked fiercely to chase them away. It didn’t work. One spilled free and I reached out, gently wiping it from her cheek before I continued.
“I’ve been trying to make sense of this for the last three weeks. Trying to comprehend how the universe deemed me worthy to be the man who married you. And I can’t figure it out. So, instead of trying to make sense of a miracle, I’m going to make promises.”
Piper smiled. So did I.
I cleared my throat. “I promise to do the chores you hate doing without complaining.”
Laughter rippled through the crowd and fell from Piper’s lips as her cheeks burned.
“And I promise to always put the coffee on if I wake up before you,” I said. “I promise to love your family as fiercely as you do. I promise to believe you, always. I promise to spend every day doing everything in my power to make you smile and to make you laugh. Although that last part is selfish of me because your laugh is my favorite sound on this green earth.”
Piper laughed again and her tears fell freely. Neither of us bothered to wipe them away.
“I promise to fight for you and with you. To always be honest. And to give you shit when you get lazy around the ranch and try to put your feet up before quitting time.”
She laughed again, and this time, it cleared some tears away.
“And lastly, Piper? I promise to love you until I die. And when that time comes, I won’t fear it. I will be a man with no regrets because I built a life with you. It was my father who told me regret was the worst thing a man could bear. And now I will not have to. And for that, I am eternally grateful to you.”
