Chapter 90
CHAPTER NINETY
Ace
Song- I’ll Be Around, Garrett Kato
Ten days. We planned our entire wedding in ten days.
And now I'm standing here, sweating my ass off in a shirt and suit pants with my cowboy hat. The one she picked out all those years ago. A busted arm, but the cuts on my face have healed, and Harper covers hers well with concealer most days.
None of that matters.
Colt, Hunter, and Jett stand beside me. In the front row, we've left three seats empty for Mom, Dad, and Paulie. The rest are filled with everyone we love.
Lola, due any day now, sits with Violet. Wyatt stands at the side with Gary, who is, of course, in his wedding outfit, which consists of a bow tie that he's already tried to eat twice.
We've got Penny, Seven, and Harper's new girl, Sparkle Toes, lined up along the paddock.
Tate, Romeo, and the men who work this land sit together, scrubbed up so well I barely recognize half of them.
And then Harper's family. Her mom is already in tears.
Uncle Bert is already drunk, I can tell by the way he's applauding at nothing.
Her dad is around the back with Harper, waiting to walk her down the aisle lined with yellow flowers.
Yellow. Like her diamond. Like the sundress she wore at sixteen. Like every good thing in my life. Our family. Every crazy one of them is here. And that's all we need. Not a show, just the people who understand our love.
The music starts.
Colten grips my shoulder. "Breathe, big man."
"I am breathin'."
"You're vibrating."
"That's the same thing."
And then she's there.
Harper rounds the corner of the barn on her dad's arm, and the whole world packs up and goes home, because there's nothing else worth lookin' at.
Emma follows behind her in a pastel yellow dress, crying and smiling at the same time. I remember her face from the marriage we will never speak of again, and this time, she looks happy. She looks at Harper and beams.
Harper’s dress is simple. It’s flowing over the bump where our daughter is riding along to her parents' wedding. Her hair is down, the way I love it. There are yellow flowers woven through it. And on her feet, cowboy boots. The old, worn ones. The ones she's had since high school.
She catches me looking at them and grins.
I'm done. Gone. Crying before she's halfway down the aisle, and I don't even try to fight it. Jett is full-on sobbing behind me. Her dad places her hand in mine. "Took you both long enough," he says, and the whole crowd laughs, and he kisses her cheek and goes to sit with his crying wife.
Harper looks up at me from under my hat and whispers, "Hi, Acey."
"Hi, Goldie."
"You're crying," she teases.
"You're beautiful. It's cause and effect, baby."
The ceremony is short because we wrote it ourselves, and neither of us wanted to wait one second longer than we had to. When the officiant asks if anyone objects, Gary bleats loudly, and Wyatt shushes him so seriously that even the officiant breaks.
We say our vows. Hers make me cry harder. Mine make her laugh through her tears, especially the part where I promise to love her through every chase, every escape.
"You may kiss the bride."
I cup her face with my good hand and kiss my wife for the first time, with our daughter pressed between us and our whole family hollering, and Uncle Bert shouting something nobody asks him to repeat.
Harper Sterling.
Finally. The one thing I wanted in this lifetime has finally come true. Even though we spent time apart, my heart has always and will always belong to one woman. My Harper.
* * *
The reception spills across the yard between the old house and the foundations of the new one.
String lights run from the barn to the porch frame.
Long tables are filled with brisket and cornbread and Lola's mom's famous mac and cheese.
Someone's already let Wyatt at the dessert table. Which means we’ve already lost track of Gary.
I assume Hunter is chasing him around somewhere, calling the goat every name under the sun.
Drinks go around. Plates go around. Jett gives a best man speech that starts with Operation Ace Losing His Virginity and has to be physically ended by Colt.
I watch my wife from across the yard. She's laughing with Violet, one hand on her bump, glowing under the string lights, yellow flowers still in her hair. Her boot is tapping to the music.
I set my drink down and move around the back of the crowd, quiet on my feet. I’ve had a few weeks of recovery, and I’m good to go, even if it hurts like hell tomorrow. She doesn't see me coming. Violet does, she says nothing, just keeps Harper talking.
I slide my good arm around my wife's waist from behind and put my lips against her ear.
"Mrs. Sterling. I'm gonna need to borrow you."
She jumps, then melts. "Ace, we have guests—"
"They've got brisket. They won't even notice."
I thread my fingers through hers and tug her away from the lights, around the corner of the barn, into the dark where the music goes soft, and the stars take over.
I keep walking until I see the building for Colt’s animal sanctuary.
Then I back her gently against the wood, tip her chin up, and kiss her like I've been waiting all night.
Because I have. I’ve actually been waiting all my life.
She laughs against my mouth. "We've been married for three hours, and you're already dragging me behind barns."
"Baby." I kiss her jaw. Her neck. That spot below her ear that sends her feral. "I've been dragging you behind barns since we were seventeen. It's tradition now. It's in the vows."
"It was not in the vows."
"It was implied."
She grabs the front of my shirt and pulls me back to her mouth. This time she kisses me, her tongue in my mouth, my hand moves south, under her dress, so I can pinch her nipple.
She yelps against my lips.
"I love you, Ace Sterling," she whispers.
"I love you more, Harper Sterling."
I lean in to kiss her again and pause when I hear a crash inside the barn.
I pull my gun from its holster and flick off the safety. Wedding day or not, after what we've been through, I'm armed at all times.
"Stay behind me, sweetheart," I whisper.
She does. I can feel the heat of her at my back as I approach the door. I push it open just a touch, enough to see inside.
"Fuck. Romeo. Fuck!" Colten's unmistakable voice fills my ears.
I close the door as fast as I opened it. Too late. The image is in my head now. My brother and Romeo, and it ain't ever leaving. Well, I guess that explains why he's been so quiet this week.
He’s fuckin’ the rage out of him with Romeo.
Gun back in the holster, I take her hand and lead her away from the barn at a respectable pace. A brisk pace.
"Did I hear what I think I heard?" she asks.
I chuckle. "Yeah, you did."
She gasps. "Did you know Colten was gay?"
I turn to face her, running my thumb along her bottom lip.
"Colten describes his sexuality as I'll fuck whoever I want. This week, it's Romeo. Next week, it might be a girl from a bar. Week after, both together?" I shrug. "But I didn't know he was mixing business with pleasure. No."
Her eyes go wide. "So Colten is the manwhore brother?"
I can't help but laugh. "Yes, baby."
"It's always the quiet ones," she mutters.
I kiss her. Hard. My brother's kinda killed the mood out here, and the last thing I need is him and Romeo stumbling out of that barn and finding us. Besides, I've got plans for when we get home. Plans that don't involve an audience or a holster.
"What do you say… One more hour of dancing, and then I scoop you up into my arms and carry you home?" I whisper against her lips.
I can carry my girl with one arm, no problem.
She loops her arms around my neck, yellow flowers crooked in her hair, that grin on her face that's been undoing me since the tenth grade.
"Make it half an hour, cowboy."
God, I love my wife.