Epilogue Part Two
ADRIAN
Boston
Part of me wanted to freeze time as I watched Isobel walk down the aisle toward me, her arm linked with her father’s. Isobel’s best friend Leilani was standing on the other side of the officiant as maid of honor, next to her sisters—who Isobel had reluctantly included in the ceremony.
Hutch was standing next to me, too busy staring at his date in the third row to pay attention to Isobel, but that fucker could keep his eyes off my wife. Penelope stood at the end of the line on my side, holding onto Finley’s hand.
A small crowd of our friends and family had gathered at a wedding venue in a fourth-floor historic library. Being surrounded by books while I married the love of my life seemed à propos. It also wasn’t far from where I’d originally suggested we get married—Fenway Park. But since it was technically during the season, and the Sox had a home game tomorrow, that idea was quickly dismissed.
I had convinced her to get our engagement photos taken there before the season started instead. She insisted we didn’t need them since this was her second marriage, but I told her they were an opportunity to get family photos taken while Finley was still little. And it was really fuckin’ cool to see my little girl toddling around with a tiny baseball bat on a field I’d briefly had the honor of playing on .
We’d also brought along the rest of my family. Pops got a kick out of sitting in the dugout with his other great-granddaughter while we got our photos taken, and then we had an extended family one taken since we weren’t sure how much longer Pops would hold out before he joined his wife.
He was currently sitting in the front row with Ma and her new boyfriend, having been sprung from the memory care facility to attend the wedding.
“Damn, she looks hot,” Hutch whispered when his attention returned to my wedding and not his much, much younger date. Or whatever she was. I was staying out of their relationship. It was bad enough he’d slept with Finley’s nanny.
“I have no problem punching you in the balls in front of all these people if you disrespect my wife again.”
“She’s already confiscated yours, so I guess at least one of us has balls. And she’s not your wife yet. Plenty of time for her to change her mind.” He paused for a second and I thought he’d drop the teasing. “Do her boobs look bigger?”
I growled, suddenly wanting to prioritize kicking my brother’s ass for making comments about my pregnant fiancée, who was minutes from becoming my wife.
“She’s pregnant again, isn’t she?”
“Just announce it to the entire room,” I hissed, throwing my elbow into his side.
“Is it mine?” he asked in a hushed whisper, trying not to laugh.
The officiant side-eyed us as Penny not so subtly shushed her father.
“No, dickwad. They’re mine.”
“Nice. Super sperm is at it again.” Hutch patted my back as Isobel stepped forward, clasping my outstretched hand with a loaded look between my brother and me.
“Do I even want to know?” she whispered, smiling at me.
“You’re gorgeous,” I replied, hoping to distract her. “Some might even say you look like a blushing bride. ”
“Behave,” she warned before she turned to face the officiant, and my dumbass brother snickered from behind me.
It was hard to pay attention to the ceremony as I was too busy watching Isobel. For years, I thought she was just an unattainable woman that I was destined to admire from afar who hated my guts. While she still wasn’t always happy with my sporadic bouts of foot-in-mouth disease, I knew she loved me—and our growing family—with her whole heart.
And I was honored that I finally got to call her mine in every sense.
“...by the power vested in me from the state of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may—”
“I got it from here,” I interrupted, stepping forward to pull Isobel into my arms. Unable to wait any longer, I captured her lips to the laughter of our family and friends. Even though it took a long time to get here, everything had turned out better than I ever dreamed it could when I’d met her in that copy room almost seven years earlier.
THE END