With that, he left, not even giving me time to reply or react as he held the door open for the makeup lady who stared at me in horror.
“It was all waterproof! What did you do?”
Patting me on the shoulder, Ryan said solemnly, “She experienced what life’s meant to be—beautiful even when you’re in pain.”
I didn’t understand the meaning of those words until twenty-six years later, when we were watching our daughter getting married to her own puzzle piece. But when it hit me, I leaned into Ryan as I reached across him to put my hand over where he held Sam’s, and let them know through that alone that I got it.
“So, I got ordained so I could marry my grandson and his beautiful wife,” Hurst said to all of the people gathered to watch us get married.
Six months ago, Sadie and Elijah had bought the plot of land next door to their house so they could expand the property, and after I’d struggled to find a place I wanted to get married at, they’d offered to hold it at theirs.
It was the perfect location, for the perfect day, for the perfect event.
The arch Hurst was standing under with a captain Elijah knew beside him was only feet away from where the five-foot drop onto their plot of beach was, so the view as we faced where I was standing between my dads with Jackson smiling at me was stunning.
“And I’m damn glad I get to do it all over again for this little snot.” Hurst pointed at Jackson, who I assumed was glaring at him over his shoulder.
His grandad ignored him, though, and sent sympathetic smiles at Sam and Ryan. “Bet you wanna just grab her up and run, don’t you?”
I’d asked both of them to give me away today, and when Ryan had asked to go on my left side because it hurt his heart that he couldn’t feel my hand in his on the other side, I’d almost started crying again. Sam had just shaken his head and grumbled about Ryan always saying the good shit to get what he wanted, though, and that’d taken away the pain from the moment.
“So, I guess I better ask who gives her away, then?” Hurst raised his eyebrow at them.
“We do,” they both answered at the same time, their hands clamped firmly on both of mine.
“Did anyone coerce, threaten, or bribe you to respond in that manner?”
The question out of his grandad made Jackson’s control snap.
“Old man,” he growled warningly as his brothers all covered their mouths with their hands.
“What? It says right here that you need to ask that.” He pointed at a sheet of paper in his hand, not seeing the captain shaking his head and mouthing “bullshit” beside him.
Another hand landing on my shoulder made me jump, but when I turned around, it was to see Ronnie and Wyatt standing there, both tugging gently on my dads’ arms.
“It’s time for you to let her go now. We’ll go and sit over here, and then you can have a beer. Won’t that be nice?” Ronnie suggested in a tone that was perfected through years of motherhood.
“I don’t wanna,” Ryan muttered.
“I wanna punch him in the face,” was Sam’s response.
Throwing my arms around first one and then the other’s necks, I gave them a smacking kiss on the cheek, leaving behind perfect lipstick kiss marks on their skin.
“I love you both.”
With one final tug, Jackson’s parents managed to get my dads moving to their seats, leaving me with the man who’d legally be my husband when all of this was over.
“I’m sorry about this,” Jackson whispered, indicating with a tip of his head that he meant his grandad. “He acted all old and pathetic, so I said yes for an easy life.”
He was lying. He’d gotten drunk with his brothers and agreed to it because they were hilariously evil. They’d even recorded him on the phone to Hurst, begging him to be the one to marry us.
“Let’s get this moving along, shall we?” The captain said, nudging Hurst to move onto the next part.
It didn’t matter where we were in the ceremony, Hurst always had something to say that had everyone laughing.
And then he got to the part about objections.
“Does anyone here have any objections to the marriage of poor, poor, poor Sasha and this shi—” he stopped mid-word as his eyes narrowed at something over my shoulder.
When I turned around to look, it was to see his wife Linda smiling sweetly at me and waving at me with her finger. “Jackson?” Hurst said, finally finishing the question.
Sadie had told me about this part at her wedding, when he’d taken roughly twenty minutes to point at random people to make sure they didn’t object and had told people to take their time. I wasn’t sure I could last that long. The overlay of my dress may be lace, but in the hot Floridian sun, I was dying.