"You look beautiful," he says, his voice rough around the edges.
"Thank you. So do you. Handsome, I mean. You look handsome."
God, I'm babbling like a teenager. Like the girl who used to get tongue-tied whenever Sawyer McKenna smiled at her during high school.
"Lisa." His hand tightens around mine. "Are you okay? You seem..."
"Nervous. I am nervous." I take a deep breath, try to center myself. "This is just bigger than I expected. More real."
"It is real." The words come out intense, focused, like he needs me to understand something important. "Maybe it started as a practical arrangement, but Lisa, this is real."
Before I can ask what he means, voices carry from the back of the house. His brothers, gathering for the ceremony. The family that's about to become mine, at least on paper.
"They're here," I say unnecessarily.
"They're excited to welcome you officially." Sawyer releases my hand, moves to get Tommy from the car seat. "Though I think Cade might have some questions about the timing."
"What kind of questions?"
"The kind that come from a man who knows I've had feelings for you since we were kids and wonders why it took me so long to do something about it."
The confession sends a chill down my spine, stopping my breath in my chest. Sawyer continues unbuckling Tommy like he didn't just turn my world upside down, like he didn't just admit to feelings that make everything about this fake marriage infinitely more complicated.
"Sawyer." My voice comes out strangled. "What are you saying?"
He straightens, Tommy secure in his arms, and looks at me with those blue eyes that have always seen too much.
"The truth. This stopped being fake the moment I said yes. I'm saying that I've wanted to marry you for twenty-nine years, and I don't care why it's happening now." He steps closer, close enough that I can see the silver threads in his hair and feel his breath on my skin. "I'm saying that I’m falling for you, Lisa, have been for a while now, and I'm hoping that maybe, after tonight, you might start feeling the same way too."
The words hang between us like a bridge, terrifying and beautiful and completely unexpected. Everything I thought I knew about this arrangement, about Sawyer's motivations, about my own feelings, shifts and realigns around this new truth.
He has real feelings for me.
Sawyer McKenna is falling for me.
"I..." I start to speak, but Tommy makes a sound that draws our attention. He's looking between us with those seriousdark eyes, like he understands that something important is happening.
"We should go," Sawyer says gently. "People are waiting."
I nod, not trusting my voice, and follow him around the side of the house to where the others have gathered. Margaret is there with a book in her hands, looking elegant and official.
Sawyer’s brothers have all shown up as if this is the most natural thing in the world, and not a wedding they found out about yesterday. Luke stands nearby with his daughter Lily, who's wearing a pretty dress and holding a small bouquet of wildflowers. Cade and his wife, Harper, are talking quietly near the edge of the ridge, and Boone has his arm around his wife, Tessa, who's holding their adorable baby, Jackson.
Elias, the second oldest of the McKennas, stands apart from the group, as always, but he nods at me when our eyes meet. A gesture of acceptance, of welcome. And his new wife, Riley, sits in the front row, having a spirited discussion with Finn, Caleb, and Lila about some new celebrity contract.
The McKenna family.My family now, in whatever way this works.
"Miss Lisa!" Lily breaks away from her father and runs toward me, holding out the flowers. "I picked these for you. Daddy said you needed something pretty for your wedding."
I kneel down to accept the bouquet, and the sweet gesture, the pure innocence of it, nearly breaks me.
"They're perfect," I tell her, and mean it. "Thank you."
Margaret steps forward, smiling warmly. "Are you ready?"
I look around at the faces surrounding us, at the family that's about to witness our vows. At Sawyer, who's holding Tommy like he belongs there, like he's always belonged there.
At the sun beginning to sink toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of pink and gold.
