Chapter Thirty-one – Amazed #2
One look at Parker and my heart stumbled to a stop.
He’d slicked his dark hair back, making his square jaw even more prominent.
The scruff he’d boasted all day was gone, leaving his skin smooth and silky.
A black tuxedo was molded to his broad chest and shoulders, and he’d, somehow, found a vest that almost perfectly matched my pale-aqua dress.
His eyes widened as he took me in, using that slow, head-to-toe scan that always set my insides ablaze.
Lust. Yearning. Love. And I did love him.
More than I could ever express. He was the only person who I’d ever let see the real mess inside me.
Not even Maisey had seen my cruelest, darkest thoughts.
Parker knew them and still liked me, still wanted me.
“Wow,” he breathed out before closing the distance, lifting my hand to his mouth and kissing the knuckles.
The old-time, gentlemanly move set my pulse racing and kicked my stuttering heart into overdrive.
“You’re stunning, Fallon. A goddamn star bursting into existence.
A phenomenon I’m somehow lucky enough to have at my side. ”
Whitney sighed behind me, but I couldn’t break my gaze from Parker’s. I was locked in an embrace with him that had nothing to do with our bodies and everything to do with our souls.
“Even cussing, it’s clear you got some charm from your father, after all,” his mom said.
“Fallon is a princess!” Theo exclaimed, and finally, my eyes tore themselves away from Parker to look down at Theo. His tux was an adorable matching mini of Parker’s. He held out a tiny gift bag for me. “We couldn’t find a fairy godmother, but Parker says it still has magic to protect you.”
My chest swelled with emotion as I took in the two beautiful humans who, after today, I’d forever be able to claim as mine. When I couldn’t respond over the lump in my throat, Theo shoved the bag at me again. I slowly took it, pulling the tissue paper out and unwrapping the tiny object within.
The bracelet was nothing like the one Whitney had let me borrow. This one was two leather bands woven together with beads. On the beads were letters—an F, P, T, and B and ones that spelled out The Steele Family . It took one too many heartbeats for me to realize the B was for the baby.
I knelt and pulled Theo to me, kissing his cheek. “It’s the best gift anyone has ever given me, Theo. I’m so honored to be a part of your family.”
The kid flushed and patted my cheek before tucking himself back up against Parker’s leg.
When I stood up, Parker’s smile was so wide, so happy, so calm, most of my nerves disappeared. I was here with him. We were getting married. He truly wanted me. That was all that mattered. Everything else was just unnecessary static.
Parker held his arm out for me and said, “You ready, Ducky?”
I nodded, smiling at him as I slid my palm onto his jacket sleeve.
Whitney held a hand out to Theo and said, “Walk me down the aisle, best man.”
He giggled and did just that, almost running to get to the altar at the end.
I’d been so caught up in Theo and Parker, in the magnificence that was us becoming a family, I hadn’t even looked past the chapel’s entrance.
What I saw brought a fresh round of tears to my eyes.
Wildflowers were scattered everywhere. Bouquets of bluebells, yarrow, and goldfields were mixed with cattails and ferns and tied together with bright-teal bows.
Somehow, impossibly, Parker had brought the ranch to me.
He’d known what I’d needed without me saying a word.
But it wasn’t the flowers that caused the tears to finally crest. It was the body at the end of the aisle, waiting next to the officiant.
Maisey.
My best friend was there.
I swallowed hard and wiped at the tears with the knuckle of my free hand as Parker said, “Don’t cry, Ducky. Please don’t cry.”
I looked up at him, meeting gray eyes awash with love, and the last of my remaining doubts went sailing to the sky.
I’d always belonged to Parker, and he’d always belonged to me.
That wasn’t going to change, no matter if we said “I do” now or later or never.
I cleared the thickness from my throat and said, “They’re happy tears, Parker. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“I didn’t do it just for you. I did it for both of us. So we wouldn’t remember today as some secretive, rushed event, but as something we chose. Something we both wanted and celebrated with people we love at our sides.”
“Keep it up, and I’ll never stop crying.”
Before he could respond, we’d made it to the officiant and Maisey. She handed me a bouquet of wildflowers and gave me a saucy smile. “You didn’t think you’d actually get married without me, did you?”
She wore a simple summer dress of creamy yellow, and her brown hair was up in a messy bun, but she looked happy and beautiful. I pulled away from Parker to hug her.
“Stop, you’re going to crush yourself,” she said, but her voice sounded as achy and raw as I felt.
I let her go and turned back to Parker to see he was messing with his phone.
“One more thing before we get started,” he said.
Parker swiped some more, and suddenly, the two large screens hanging on the walls on either side of the altar came alive.
“What are you doing?” I asked Parker.
“Hold on,” he said while his fingers moved. The large screens came to life, revealing a virtual conference software program, and my confusion grew. Parker logged in as the meeting’s host, and the image showed the chapel with me standing next to him.
I started to ask again what he was doing until, one by one, other attendees joined the meeting.
My pulse jumped as Dad and Sadie appeared, squished together on a screen.
My father’s brows were furrowed together as tightly as Jim’s were when he emerged in the next square.
Mom looked puzzled in her room at the rehabilitation center, but at least her eyes were clear of any drugs.
Then, more people joined the meeting—Parker’s teammates, Kurt, Teddy, Andie, Kevin, and even Rae.
My heart had already felt like it was full to the top, but it swelled impossibly more as I realized what he’d done. Parker had gotten our family here. For us… For me… Just like he’d gotten the wildflowers and Maisey. He’d made sure we did this with the people we loved watching on.
I swallowed hard and grabbed his free hand.
When his eyes met mine, I saw in them the one thing I needed most. I saw love.
It hadn’t been just an offhanded throw-out comment earlier, and it wasn’t the platonic love of a long-time friendship.
It was the forever kind of love he’d once said only a rare couple was lucky to have.
And we were one of them.
“What the hell is going on?” Dad demanded, his voice ringing down from the screens.
“Parker sends us some cryptic message insisting we sign into this meeting immediately, and instead of seeing you at the ranch, dealing with the shit there, I see you in the goddamn chapel at The Fortress. With. Fallon.”
Dad’s voice cracked as if he’d already answered his own questions. He knew, just as everyone else did, what was happening.
Parker slid his phone into his pants pocket and then grabbed both my hands, turning me to face him. He didn’t talk to the screens or the dozen or so people watching. Instead, he spoke directly to me.
“The other day, I almost lost the most precious thing in my life, the one person I was supposed to spend forever with, and I realized I’d already lost more minutes than I could count with her. Minutes I could never get back. But from this day forward, I pledge to never lose another.”
“Parker…” My voice trailed away. I didn’t know what to say.
He kept his gaze locked on me as he said, “While I wasn’t willing to wait another minute to marry her and ensure we’d claimed each other as our own, it was important to both of us that we have the people we love at our sides as we took this step.
This was the best compromise I could come up with.
So thank you for joining us as we say our I dos . ”
A cacophony of voices tried to talk over each other, but Dad’s voice won out with a loud, “Damnit.”
Parker chuckled. “And with that, I’m putting you all on mute. ”
He pulled his phone out, tapped a button, and put it away again.
He turned to the officiant and nodded. Parker tangled our fingers together and brought our joined hands to his chest. The heat of his body comforted me.
The strong and masculine and earthy scent of him brought me home. This was where I belonged. With him.
“We are gathered here today…”
I didn’t hear the rest. I was lost in Parker’s gaze and his touch and the warmth of his smile. I was lost in the beating of my heart that echoed the thump of his below my palm.
Without personal vows planned, we simply repeated the ones offered to us, but the look in Parker’s eyes was more special than any words could ever have been. The way he uttered each one told me he meant every single syllable. He was promising me I’d never be alone again.
The ring he slid on my finger was a band of white diamonds with a small, square-cut yellow diamond at its center.
It looked like the ones my family had mined on the ranch decades ago, and I had no clue how he’d found it.
I hadn’t bought him a ring, but when it was my turn, he handed me a simple platinum band, and I slid it onto his finger with a sense of rightness I hadn’t experienced in months… maybe years.
Parker and I had finally arrived at this moment as if it had been ordained. It had just taken us a while to find our footing on the path guiding us here.
“You may kiss the bride.”
Parker smiled his widest smile. The one that crinkled his eyes and spoke of pure joy. The eighth wonder of the world.
He wrapped an arm around my waist, drew me closer, tipped my chin up, and kissed me.
It should have been light and brief with the audience we had, but it wasn’t.
He devoured me just as he had been doing since he’d first kissed me in the field.
And I pushed my lips back into his, claiming him with the same intensity.
What felt like a lifetime later, Whitney cleared her throat, and we broke apart, faces filled with goofy, happy smiles.
“Wife,” Parker said, and my entire chest melted into nothingness at that single word.
“Frogman,” I said back .
He rolled his eyes and then threw his head back and laughed.
It drew my gaze to the screen behind him. The faces of our friends and loved ones had moved from shock to pleasure. Mom and Sadie wiped their eyes. Jim beamed at us. Only Dad still seemed pissed but also, strangely pleased.
“Maybe you’d like to unmute them?” Whitney suggested.
Parker did and then pulled me close to him again. Theo ran in circles around us while we fielded an array of questions and congratulations.
“Whitney,” Jim’s voice interrupted, “you have some ’splaining to do, my love.”
“You can’t blame her, Jim,” I jumped in. “She tried to slow us down, but we didn’t want to be slowed.”
“Only you, Fallon,” Mom said. Her tone was exasperated, but I also heard love in it. Neither was a surprise. For most of my life, I’d done things my way—ways she didn’t understand.
“We’ll have a reception for them later,” Whitney said. “After everything is resolved at the ranch.”
That set off another round of voices trying to talk over each other in that weird, virtual meeting sort of way.
But Whitney’s words had dimmed the moment some. It brought back the allegations hanging over me and the danger waiting for us. The same danger that would now put Parker and Theo at risk.
Knowing me as well as he did, Parker read the slip in my mood. He squeezed my hip and leaned in to kiss my temple. He whispered in my ear, a low, guttural, “No.”
I looked up at him, lips twitching. “No, what?”
“Don’t think about any of that right now. Not tonight. Not on our wedding day. Only good thoughts today, Wife.”
I laughed and said quietly, “Still not the boss of me, Kermit. Even with your ring on my finger.”
He grinned and chuckled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”