Chapter 17 Callum #3
Auri’s voice was barely louder than the breeze when she began.
“I didn’t know what true love was supposed to feel like,” she said, eyes fixed on the paper, then slowly lifting to me.
“Not until it looked like showing up. Like choosing. Like safety when everything else was spinning. It was chaotic and terrifying and real.”
My throat tightened. My knees actually wobbled, just like she wanted.
“I thought I had to earn everything. Prove I was strong enough, fast enough, worth enough. And then you saw me falling apart and said you’d stay anyway.
You—” she stopped, choking on a sob and pressing her fingers to her lips for a moment before continuing.
“You showed up for me when I couldn’t show up for myself, and you never made me feel weak or like I was less than.
You wanted the version of me I didn’t know I was allowed to be. ”
She dabbed at a tear that slid down her cheek. My hand twitched at my side, desperate to reach for her, but she was standing steady on her own. She didn’t need me to catch her right now.
I’d never loved her more.
“I spent so long being at war with myself. My body. My mind. My heart. I thought power meant hiding the cracks, never asking for help. But you…” Her voice wavered again, her French accent thickening and curling around each syllable, chest rising and falling with deep breaths.
“You never looked away. You never tried to fix me. You just held me steady until I could see myself the way you did.”
And there were the butterflies erupting in my stomach.
“Putting you in front of a mirror usually does the trick,” I muttered, winking at her when a flush crept up her neck.
Perfect.
Marco gagged. Kimi groaned. Ivy smacked my arm. Lucy bounced on her toes, visible over Auri’s shoulder as she held two bouquets in her arms.
“You told me I didn’t need to be perfect, that I was already enough and I needed to stay while you loved me through it.
And I’ve never stopped needing that reminder, not once.
You’re not just my safe place, Cal. You’re my home.
You’re the one I’d walk through fire for—and you’re the one who walked through it first to show me I’d survive it too. ”
She swallowed hard, breath hitching. “I’ve hated this body.
Hated the way it fails me sometimes. Hated the pain and the fear and the guilt.
But you’ve kissed every bruise like it was a miracle.
Touched every scar like a promise. You made me believe I was never broken—just human and still worthy of love. ”
“For a long time, I thought my existence was a punishment. Overlooked in every area of my life, uncelebrated, underappreciated, objectified. But you, Callum James Fraser, you were the first person who didn’t try to shrink me.
You didn’t label me as fragile, or difficult, or too much.
You made space for all of me, and called it power.
You never tried to define me by putting me in a box, slapping a label on it, and decided that was all I’d ever be. ”
I ran my hands down my face, fighting to keep myself together and wondering how the hell I was going to get through my vows.
“You were the first person who saw through my mask, who tore down my walls, and who fell in love with all of me. You didn’t just love the fighter; you loved the raw, vulnerable side too.
You made it safe to exist, and I’ll never stop fighting for the softest parts of me, because they’re the parts you loved first. I’ll never stop trusting you to hold them. ”
She smiled through her tears, blinking fast. “And I promise, I’ll never stop showing up. I’ll never stop choosing us. I’ll never stop making space for you in every version of my life, because there isn’t one where you’re not in it. And I’ll never stop loving you.”
The wind tugged at her long veil, whipping it sideways until it curled around my ankles.
It felt like the earth itself was bearing witness, like G and the ancient spirits and mother nature were gracing us with their power.
Colette had told us this land was magical.
I believed her. And so did Auri. We both followed the movement of the veil with our eyes, then looked at each other.
She smiled softly, and I knew we were thinking the exact same thing.
“I will fight for you, for us. I’ll give you the best version I can muster of me every day—even when I’m at my worst—because you taught me that love is what endures.
Devotion is a choice. And I choose you. I choose us.
Every single day. Even when we’re eighty, and we’ve fully retired from racing, and I still beat you at Mario Kart. ”
I laughed, sharp and choked. She reached for me, and I took her hand like it was a lifeline.
“You taught me that sacrifice and compromise are different. You’ve made me feel so safe and secure and loved and accepted, I can say with absolute confidence that I have never been more sure of anything in my life. I love you.”
Auri lifted her chin, then reached forward and slipped her folded vows into my pocket, her hand never leaving mine, silently telling me she didn’t need a script for this next part.
“You are my checkered flag, mon amour. And I will love you through every argument, every heartache, every day that feels like giving up would be easier. Every time our bodies fail us and our minds try to trick us and the world tries to interfere. I choose this life with you, each and every day. This I vow to you.”
God, I was gone.
Colette gave her a nod, and Auri tucked the paper into Ivy’s palm again before turning back to face me, wiping her cheeks with the backs of her fingers. “Okay,” she said softly. “Your turn.”
Fuck.
The vows in my pocket had been burning a hole through the linen since the moment she walked out in that dress. I’d written and rewritten them a hundred times. But none of them felt big enough. None of them felt true enough for what she meant to me.
Still, I reached for the paper with a shaky hand, fingers slipping into my pocket like I was drawing a weapon, because that’s what this felt like. Like an emotional ambush I’d planned myself.
I cleared my throat.
“I, uh.” I huffed out a laugh. “I’ve rewritten these more times than I’ll admit. I tried to be poetic. I tried to be composed. But I think you knew the second I saw you today that I was neither.”
She smiled through her lashes. That was it. That smile. That was my reason for everything.
“When I met you, I knew you were going to ruin my life. In the best way. You were bright, brilliant, terrifyingly determined. You asked hard questions and didn’t flinch when I gave you broken answers. You didn’t just challenge me, Auri. You changed me.”
I felt my chest splinter. She looked at me like she already knew what I was about to say.
“I didn’t know I was waiting for you. I didn’t know I’d been lonely my whole life until I wasn’t anymore. Until you filled every quiet part of me I didn’t know how to listen to. You taught me how to be soft. How to fight for something without running from it.”
“Pretty sure you taught me to stop running, but continue,” she interjected, and everyone burst into laughter.
Once we quieted, I continued, taking a deep breath as I pressed on.
“I thought winning my first championship was the best I’d ever feel.
Standing on that podium with my fists in the air, clawing my way out of a place I was ashamed of now that I had the world’s approval.
But you… you never looked at the things I hated about myself with anything but love, grace, and curiosity.
You never judged. And even when you’ve been angry with me, and yes, running from me, you never stopped choosing me.
Never stopped showing up in your own ways.
Like picking the goddamn locks of my flat. ”
Another round of laughter.
But when my eyes scanned the next part, the words blurred as my eyes filled with tears.
“I love you. I love you more than the version of me I thought I had to be. More than any podium I ever chased and a sport I once used as an emotional crutch. I love you the way I want our future to feel. Loud and peaceful at once. Devoted, messy, unshakable.”
“Fucking pain and poetry, mate,” Marco remarked from behind me.
I ignored him. “You started as my rival. The woman I watched through a screen and knew would change the grid. I’ve known this for more than ten years. Wondered about you, respected you, hoped that one day we’d meet and you’d notice me, even when I couldn’t find the courage to speak.”
Auri smirked, and I paused, glancing up from my vows, the sting of tears fading.
“You did have a problem with that at the start. You’d just… stare.” I blinked at her, and she grinned wickedly. “Ouais, just like that.”
I huffed an amused chuckle. She would say that right now.
“And somehow, with impeccable timing, you prove my next statement. I didn’t know joy until you.
I never laughed like this, or you’re being your usual charming menace who forgets how to speak English halfway through a sentence but remembers every word I’ve ever said. ”
Marco sniffled and stage-whispered, “Le big dick, le big deal is still the best thing she’s ever said.”
“Les twisty-est virages is cinema, thank you very much,” Kimi said.
Ivy hissed, “Stop talking. I’m crying.”
I rolled my eyes, and Auri giggled. I fucking loved that sound.
“I never breathed like this, never lived like this, never hoped like this. You didn’t just give me happiness, Auri. You gave me myself.”
The wind rustled the olive trees, like a hushed applause that was perfectly timed.
“I never knew fear until it meant losing you. When you walked away from me in Italy, I thought that was it. When you showed up at my flat after the crash, furious but still choosing to love me instead of destroy me, I knew I’d never stop fighting for us.
In Silverstone, when you hit that wall, you showed me that my mental health wasn’t something broken inside me.
It was something to understand, tame, and trust.”
She sniffled. I felt the tears slip free before I could stop them.
“But the worst moment was finding you bleeding our life out onto the floor and thinking it made you unlovable. You are not. You never were. Whether or not we ever expand this family, Aurélie Camille, you are my family. You are it for me. And I promise… I promise to keep loving you when it’s easy, and love you harder when it’s not.
When we’re laughing, and when we’re not speaking.
When your hands shake and when mine do. I’ll be there. Every time. No matter what.”
I reached out, brushing her cheek with the back of my knuckles.
“You’re the only thing I’ve ever been absolutely certain of. You’re the start and the end of every sentence I want to write. And if I ever forget to say it out loud, just know this—”
I took a breath.
“Being yours is the only win I’ve ever cared about.”