Epilogue
JAYDEN
FOUR MONTHS LATER
The trees have never looked so full and green as they do with the twinkle lights glittering along the branches of the evergreens surrounding the small clearing in the woods behind our family’s Aspen cabin.
With the sun lowering in the sky, touching on that ethereal golden glow that comes right before nightfall, the air is warm and buzzing with the quiet hum of voices behind me while I pace along the edge of the river.
I’m reading my messy handwriting over and over again. As hard as I’ve tried to memorize the words, I can’t. There’s always more I want to say. But that’s just who we are. There’s always more where Eli, Fin, and I are concerned.
Today, more is taking on a new meaning on every possible level of our lives. Today surpasses every other life-affirming, dream-realizing day of my life.
Winning the Playoffs, lifting the Stanley Cup, and eating the biggest nest of sunshine spaghetti—as Eli calls my pasta now—doesn’t come close to this. Not even the cheesy as fuck Lady and Tramp moment Fin was adamant on snapping for the shits and giggles that ended up on Eli’s socials.
Today will be the best day of my life. I only wish that I had the right words to communicate it as poetically as it deserves. Because not a single word on the creased paper I tuck back into my jacket pocket culminates to the magnitude of what I feel.
“Hey, man,” Matheo greets me with a slap to my shoulder. “I know you and Sylkes are religious with your workouts and shit, but leg day can wait for another day. You don’t want to be all sweaty and stinky on your wedding day. That’s…”
“I’m not sweaty or smelly,” I tell him, giving myself a quick sniff before I correct him. “And this is not a wedding, it’s a commitment ceremony.”
“Isn’t that the definition of a wedding?” Running his fingers through his hair, he rolls his shoulders back and stands taller. “Gotta look sharp, dude. Last thing you want is for your guests to be thinking your best man is smoking your ass.”
“Fuck me, I should’ve asked Dylan.” My quip earns me an elbow to the side as he steps in front of me and gives me a once-over.
“Jokes aside, I’m happy for you. Happy that you’re happy for real.
That you found your forever, you know…” A serious weightiness pulls down on his brows as he rights my forest green velvet bowtie and fusses over the matching pocket square.
“Marriage is a big deal. The paper element doesn’t mean shit without the commitment you make in here. ”
He’s patting my chest when the crunch of dirt and stones behind us grabs his attention. Without a single glance, I know it’s Eli. My insides are pushing and pulling to take me closer to him with every second he hangs back. Watching… as he does.
“My mom says that anyone can be married on paper, but real commitment takes more than the best intentions and—” He pauses with a low chuckle, shaking his head down at the ground before he concludes, “What I’m trying to say is that I’m proud of you for fighting for the three of you, and if I were going to look up to anyone with this stuff, you’re the man. ”
In true Matheo style, he shrugs the serious conversation off with a raspberry.
I know that, in spite of his bravado, he’s nervous about today.
It’s the first time since our Stanley Cup Champions party that he’s seeing her.
And she avoided him the whole time. Today, there’s no avoidance with them both being part of the hand fastening ceremony.
“Anyway…” Matheo croons, turning back to our reflection on the surface of the water and smoothing his hands down his green velvet tux jacket that matches my bowtie.
“I’d better hand you over to Preacher; he’s boring holes into my back with his glare.
See you up there,” he tells me with a pat to my chest before he heads back to the seats where our teammates are all seated, along with Coach and a pregnant Connie.
Twirling a tiny bunch of flowers in one hand, Eli meanders toward me.
The long lengths at the top of his head are coiffed into a neatly disheveled knot at his crown.
With the warm tinge of the sun over it, the blonde strands loose around his face are a deep caramel that brings out the lighter woodsy tones in his eyes when he pauses in front of me.
“Looking good,” he coos, leaning in to pin the buttonhole bouquet on my lapel.
A white iris accented with a sprig of eucalyptus and other fragrant herbs that have the most grounding, earthy scent, balancing the floral sweetness of the lilac wisteria and snowy English roses.
“Smelling damn good, too,” he rasps with a chaste kiss to my cheek.
Some days, I have to pinch myself that this is really my life. Actually, most days I have to make sure that I’m not dreaming. That I am the luckiest bastard in the world to have not one, but two insanely beautiful people to love. Two incredibly wonderful people who love me.
Trailing his lips along the smooth line of my jaw, Eli takes a step flush to me as one of his large hands anchors on my hip while he chuckles at my throaty groan. The friction of his short beard is a sensation that heats my pulse into a frantic thrum when I breathe him in.
“You smell like Bibi…”
“Well, she’s been hugging me all day, telling me how happy she is to finally have a bombshell of a grandson.” Pulling back, he gives me a bitten-lip grin.
“Mhmm...”
“Yup,” Eli sings, popping the P with a waggle of his brows. “Bibi loves me.”
What’s not to love? I chuckle to myself at the same time as the bracelet on my wrist vibrates.
For a brief second, the world falls silent with the subsequent buzz, and the next, and another.
Our simultaneous inhale echoes between us as Eli threads his hand with mine.
“Time to go get our girl, Baby.” With a tug, he guides us around the line of the trees, through the soft gossamer drapes over the long banquet table already set out for dinner.
The same lilac, baby blue, and white blooms from our buttonholes are arranged all the way down the table, draping from the tree branches and wrapped around the thick trunks. More candles and twinkle lights offer the most perfect golden hue.
It doesn’t matter that I’ve walked through the woods already, that I know how beautiful everything looks, because with every step I take with mine and Eli’s hands tethered, it hits differently.
All the emotions I’ve kept under control since I opened my eyes this morning, my limbs tangled up with Eli’s and Fin’s, bubble up to the surface.
I can’t swallow them down fast enough. Every chirp of the birds around us, every wisp of the evening breeze that brushes my skin, every gallop of my heart makes it harder to breathe past all the feelings coursing through me.
Then, we reach the edge of the woods. The path to the cabin is decorated with petals and hanging lanterns wrapped with lilac, green, and light blue ribbons and tulle. Floating candles bob around the surface of the small lake in the backyard. And I’m completely overwhelmed.
Eli’s hand tightens around mine when the back door opens and Bibi files out, followed by Momma, Mom, The Sire, and Dad. Behind them, Taylor and Wendy hold the door open for Christina and Kailey.
They stay behind while our family follows Bibi in procession. It’s one of the Iranian traditions she asked us to include, along with the round table ceremony that fits with the handfasting ritual.
“Hey,” Eli whispers as they near us. “Umm… ash-egh-etam…”
Uncertainty pinches his face while I watch him silently, allowing his remark to settle along with the babbling emotions threatening to burst from me if I open my mouth to speak.
“Shit… shoot… fuck… Did I say it wrong?”
Shaking my head, I swallow down the brine burgeoning behind my eyes. Then, with a shaky breath, I reply, “No. You said it perfectly.”
“Good.” A smile spreads across his lips when I wrap my arm around his waist and pull him into my side. “‘Cause when I asked Bibi to teach me how to say it, she started talking about eating your liver or something, and—”
Silencing him with a kiss, I sink my fingers into his waist, coiling my arm tighter around him. Because if I could, I would find a way of permanently living beneath his and Fin’s skin. I’d find a way of never ever having to be apart from them, not even for one second of the rest of our lives.
“I love you, too, Sweetheart.”
His smile broadens, and when I glance up into his eyes, they’re swimming with the same untamed emotions rushing through me.
“But you don’t want to eat my liver, right?” The wet laugh pulls a snicker from me.
“The liver is the utmost expression of love in Persian culture…”
“Well, not really a meat person, so...”
“Depends on the meat, no?”
“Jayden Sylkes-Morrow, get your head out of the gutter,” he laughs, poking my side so that a stupid giggle bursts from me at the same time.
Motherfucker! “No. No. There will be none of this bullshit today. Keep your fingers to yourself.”
“Are you sure you really want me to do that?” The cock of his brow is loaded with promise.
“Whose head is in the gutter now?” I ask, turning towards the footsteps ahead of us.
“Only because you took it there,” Eli whispers back when Bibi and the rest of the family circle behind us.
Silence settles around us only to be filled with the erratic thrum of my pulse when Kailey takes the bouquet Christina is holding and starts down the porch steps with Blanca prancing at her side with a big tulle bow around her neck.
It’s a miracle she doesn’t jump Eli and me with the excited mewl she lets out when she nudges her way between us, waiting for our girl with the same bubbling excitement wobbling her butt that’s thrumming through my veins.
The sun has disappeared behind the expanse of trees, leaving a thin gradient of gold and purple in its wake. Yet, when Finley steps outside, the world has never been brighter.
“Whoa,” Eli murmurs, knotting his pinky finger around mine, between us.