Chapter 4 You Had Me At Cockadoodle Doo #2
“With this ring as a symbol of our love, I shall love, honor, and cherish you, every day of my life and whatever comes after.”
The word “choose” hit me right in the chest. Chris had chosen me even when I wasn’t sure I was the right choice, when I thought I was too weird, too different, too much. He’d chosen me anyway, and he’d shown me every day since that he meant it.
It was a beautiful addition to our vows.
Now it was my turn, and I was going to simply speak what was in my heart instead of something I’d memorized.
I took a shaky breath and looked up at him, this man who had been my friend, my neighbor, my secret crush, my fake boyfriend, and now, finally, my forever.
“Chris,” I started, my voice wobbling. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Chris. I have loved you for so long that I can’t remember what it felt like not to. You were my first friend in Colorado, my first crush, and my first love, even if it took me way too long to admit it.”
A few laughs rippled through the crowd. Chris’s eyes were already glistening.
“You saw me when I felt invisible. You included me when I felt like an outsider. You never once made me feel like I was too much or not enough.” I squeezed his hands. “You taught me that home isn’t a place—it’s a person. And you’ve been my home since I was ten years old.”
I heard my mom sniffle somewhere behind me.
“Today, in front of everyone we love, I choose you too. I choose your big, loud, wonderful family. I choose Sunday dinners and game nights and chicken chaos. I choose the man who learns about veganism for me, who builds me chicken coops and names them Millenihen Falcons, who shows up on my balcony with a ladder because he can’t stand to be apart for one night. ”
Chris let out a teary laugh at that one.
“I choose all of it. The good days and the hard days. The wins and the losses. I choose to be your partner, your biggest fan, and your best friend for the rest of our lives.”
I slid the ring onto his finger.
“With this ring, I give you my heart. It’s been yours for twenty years anyway. I will love, honor, and cherish you, every day of my life and whatever comes after.”
Chris blinked rapidly, and a tear escaped down his cheek. I reached up and wiped it away with my thumb.
“By the power invested in me by the internet and the state of Colorado, I now pronounce you man and wife,” Everett declared, his own voice a little thick. “You may kiss the bride.”
Chris grabbed me and tilted me into a dip before kissing me breathless in front of everyone we knew. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause. The Kingman brothers whooped, and Isak’s loud whistle echoed throughout the barn.
When Chris finally pulled me upright, both of us grinning like idiots, Lulu handed me back my bouquet. Chris took my hand, and we took our first steps together down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. Kingman.
We did a traditional recessional and greeting of the guests and taking what felt like eleventy billion pictures. But before we headed for the reception area, Chris said he had something he wanted to show me before the reception kicked off.
“What are you two up to?” Bridger called as Chris started leading me away from the cocktail hour.
“Wedding stuff,” Chris shouted back.
“That better not be a euphemism!” Declan yelled.
“Mind your business!” Chris called over his shoulder, and Jules cackled somewhere in the crowd.
We stole a few minutes alone together and headed back toward the older barn that had gotten a facelift after the flood, thanks to Chris’s generosity.
Chris had the team from The Gentle Barnyard set up a small petting zoo area for the guests to visit during the cocktail hour, but we had been too busy to see it yet.
“Close your eyes,” Chris said.
“Seriously?”
“Trust me.”
I closed my eyes and let him guide me forward, his hands warm on my shoulders. I could hear the sounds of animals nearby, a soft bleating, the shuffle of hooves.
“Okay,” he said. “Open.”
I opened my eyes.
“I know you said you always wanted one, and we really can’t fit one at the house, so I made sure that Maria would have room for him and a few of his friends here at the sanctuary.”
There, in all its huge, furry, majestic, horned glory, was a Highland cow.
“Christopher Kingman, you got me a coo cow.” I spun to face him. “Is he part of my dowry?”
“No,” Chris laughed. “His name is The Beast, and he was part of a hobby farm whose owners had to move. Now he’ll be living here and living his best life with some girl cows from another rescue situation that will arrive next month.”
I grabbed both his cheeks and kissed him loudly on the mouth.
“I can’t believe you got me a coo,” I said in my best-worst Scottish accent before turning my attention to The Beast himself.
“Look at you, you magnificent creature.” I stroked his fluffy head between his horns. “Aren’t you the prettiest boy?”
“He certainly is huge. Those horns are intimidating as hell,” Chris said, scritching the big guy under his chin.
“Doesn’t your uncle Tanner raise cows? I thought you spent summers there as a kid.”
“Uncle T. runs Angus. They’re huge, but they don’t have giant death pokers like this,” Chris answered.
I leaned over to kiss The Beast on his cute little nose and was startled by the loudest chicken “BA-GOK” I’d ever heard.
I turned to find Luke Skycocker tearing across the field toward us in his tuxedo. He had been let out of his Roostermobile to stretch his legs and looked to be on a warpath.
“Oh no,” Chris muttered.
Flynn and Gryff were chasing after him, dress shoes clearly not designed for sprinting across grass. Isak ran close behind, camera out and filming the whole thing.
“LUKE, NO!” Flynn shouted.
“SOMEONE GRAB THAT CHICKEN!” Gryff added.
Behind them, I could see a crowd gathering at the edge of the cocktail area, guests pointing and laughing, Kingmans hollering encouragement or warnings, I couldn’t tell which. Jules had her hands cupped around her mouth.
“LUKE SKYCOCKER, YOU STOP RIGHT THERE!” she bellowed, but Luke was not taking orders.
“Hey, buddy,” I greeted him as he approached, crouching down, but he zipped right past me, wings flapping, and launched himself onto The Beast’s back.
He immediately attacked the cow’s furry head, like it was a nest of worms, pulling out strands with his beak while fluffing his feathers out as far as they could go, making himself look twice his normal size.
The Beast did not seem to notice. Or care. He just blinked his big cow eyes and continued chewing his cud.
“Is he... is he trying to fight the cow?” Chris asked, incredulous.
“I think he’s trying to establish dominance.”
“Over a cow that weighs literally a thousand pounds?”
“Luke has never let reality get in the way of his ambitions.”
By now, Flynn and Gryff had caught up, both of them doubled over and panting. Isak was still filming.
“This is going on FlipFlop,” Isak announced.
“The hell it is,” I said. “Luke, what are you doing, you crazy bird?”
I scooped him off the cow’s back and tucked him under my arm like a feathery, furious football. He squawked indignantly. I swear he looked over his shoulder and stuck his tongue out at the cow.
“Someday I am going to turn you into coq au vin, you lunatic,” Chris said.
“Chris! You will not. He is our first child.”
Both Chris and Luke stared at me, aghast.
“Absolutely not,” Chris stated.
Luke clucked in agreement.
From the cocktail area, I heard Declan’s voice boom across the field: “IS THE CHICKEN OKAY?”
“THE CHICKEN IS FINE!” Chris yelled back. “THE CHICKEN IS JUST INSANE!”
“We should probably get back,” I said, trying to keep a straight face as Luke continued to glare at The Beast. “Before Luke declares war on any more livestock.”
This could have been a wedding disaster. Chris took my free hand, the one not full of angry rooster, and we walked back toward our wedding reception together.
“So,” he said. “Good wedding so far?”
I looked at him. My husband. My best friend. My home.
“The best,” I said. “Chicken drama and all.”