“What if I want lifetime commitment?”
“No marriage proposal for at least a year,” I say sternly. “You don’t believe in marriage anyway.”
“I think we’ve been over this: Ibelievemarriage exists. I just have never believed it was a good idea. Before.”
“But now you do.”
Rhys bites back a smile. “If I tell you I do, will it freak you out?”
“Probably.” But I’m grinning.
“Slow-ish,” he says. “We can revisit this question another time, on another day, with more perspective.”
I hug him. Hard. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“And you can be my boyfriend,” I say. “We can be exclusive. And we can keep doingthis.”
I gesture at our boneless, pleasure-soaked selves, still curled together in the bed.
“That sounds good to me.”
“And you should definitely stay. In Rush Creek. I?—”
My voice gets choked. I have to stop. I realize that in all of this, I haven’t said the one thing I’ve been thinking for days, as I pieced the squares of the quilt together, as I laid in the last few stitches through the layers of our time together.
I haven’t said the words that matter most to him. Not yet, not exactly this way:
“I want you to stay.”
55
Rhys
The bride wears white.
With guidance from the staff at Pawsitively Perfect, Rush Creek’s dog-lover’s boutique, Eden attached a ring of white roses flowers to Cressie’s collar.
The groom is dapper in a black-and-white plaid bowtie collar that’s too loose (I was in charge of tightening the collar. I have many skills, but it turns out I’m not great with slider buckles.).
Apparently—go figure—you can become ordained online in minutes, for free. It was not difficult to find a willing officiant in the person of my brother Shane, who has never missed an opportunity to be in the spotlight.
Hanna’s favorite organist cues up for “Here Comes the Bride.”
When Cressie appears at Eden’s side at the end of the aisle in the Hott Springs Eternal wedding barn, Milo, who had been exercising great patience but straining at the end of his leash, slips his bow-tie collar and runs down the entire length of the aisle to lick Cressie all over her face.
“I didn’t say, ‘You may kiss the bride,’” Shane grouses, barely audible over the laughter of the attendees.
We get Milo dressed again and lead both the bride and groom to the altar.
“If anyone objects to this union, speak now or forever hold your peace,” Shane intones.
“I’mstillnot sure this is legal,” I hear Weggers mutter, but everyone, thankfully, ignores him. Well, except for Nan, who mutters something back that luckily I can’t hear.
When it comes time for Milo to say his vows and Shane says, “I, Milo,” Milo barks back at him.
“Did you teach him to do that?”
