Epilogue One
TRISTAN
One Year Later
“Come here,” Harper says with a laugh as she sees me messing with this damn bow tie. “You’re a mess.”
“I’m just…nervous.”
We’re in the back room of the church as I prepare to make Lark my wife. I don’t know why I’m anxious. I love her. She loves me. It’s been great, and we’re happy—nauseatingly so. I’m ready to be her husband, even if that means I run the risk of enduring the possibility of losing her.
Harper smiles, brushing the lapels down. “I would be too. Dad is out there with the Gatlins,” she jokes.
It doesn’t matter that, for the last year, Lark and I have done everything we can to force our families to get along. The best we’ve gotten is a truce.
But my father adores Lark.
I’m pretty sure he’d marry her if he could.
Her mother loves me.
She makes me a huge array of foods when I go over there.
All in all, the Gatlin boys aren’t that bad. I’m not hanging out with them, but we have a mutual respect and love for Lark, which is a start.
“Let’s just focus on something other than Dad,” I urge.
“Fine, fine. What has you nervous?”
Lark wanted to elope. She said she didn’t want a big wedding, no reason to spend a fortune, but Sadie lost her damn mind. She begged us to please have a wedding. In the end, we relented, and Veronica took over the planning.
That was our first mistake.
“Maybe it’s that your sister has gone off the rails and made the last four months a damn nightmare,” I tell her.
“That tracks.”
I chuckle. “I know her intentions were good, but it’s nothing like we asked for. We wanted small, simple, just family, and here we are hosting the entire town. I’m just nervous that Lark isn’t going to be happy. This is her day.”
“It’s yours too,” she says with a brow raised. “You are also a part of this union.”
“I’m just saying I want it to be perfect for Lark.”
Harper smiles and places both hands on my chest. “I think the perfect part for her is that she’s marrying you.”
I sure hope so, because when she sees the inside of the church, she might not feel that way. Not that it isn’t beautiful—it is. Veronica’s vision is just really…elaborate. It’s the complete opposite of the wedding Lark wanted.
“I know that’s the part I care about.”
She taps her hands. “Then man up and go marry the woman you love.”
I chuckle. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
I kiss Harper’s cheek. “You’re a good sister.”
“I know.”
There’s a knock at the door, and Harper goes to open it.
My smile is automatic when I see Sadie. “Hey, Cupcake, you look beautiful!”
Sadie turns in the dress that she and Lark picked out. It’s a purple strapless dress that goes to the floor. “You look very handsome, too, Daddy.”
“I appreciate that. I feel ridiculous.” I’m in a tuxedo, which…feels restraining. I can’t move my damn arms, and these pants don’t fit that well, even though Veronica approved of it and said it was perfect.
I’ll be happy to get this off and be back in my jeans.
“You don’t look it, but I came to tell you it’s time. We have to take our places.”
I squat, taking Sadie’s hands in mine. “I know there’s a lot of change happening. You know that I love you, right?”
“Of course I do, and I’m happy. I love Lark. She’s great, and she listens to me. She and I talk about Mom a lot, and she never makes me feel bad about it.”
Lark and Sadie’s relationship has only grown in the last year.
Eight months ago, when I knew I wanted to marry Lark, I started having a house built for just the three of us.
We picked a spot on the property, and the two of us designed it.
Two weeks ago, it was finally done, and we moved in.
Sadie doesn’t remember a time when we didn’t live with my dad and sisters. I was worried—still am.
“It’s just with the new house, and now I’m getting married.”
Sadie shakes her head. “Relax, Dad. I’m thirteen now. I’m not a little girl anymore.”
Yes, I keep hearing about how she’s a teenager and should have additional freedoms.
Like she wasn’t trying the same crap at twelve.
“All right. Then are you ready?”
“I am ready to be your best woman,” she declares.
Both Lark and I wanted Sadie by our side as we stand up there and recite our vows. Lark wanted to have her be her maid of honor but then suggested that I ask her instead.
Either way, she was going to be with us.
We head out to the front of the church and take our places.
I look around at the pews filled with family and friends. There are large bouquets on each end with different shades of cream and light pink. Along the sides are large bunches of branches with flowers and crystals that throw rainbows when the light strikes them.
Like I said, it’s beautiful, but it’s a lot.
Jimmy is my only other groomsman, and Lark just has Mary Lou as her maid of honor and Suzanne as a bridesmaid. We at least were able to keep the wedding party small.
The two of them walk down, and then I see her.
She’s beautiful. No, stunning. No, breathtaking. Hell, there should be another adjective that supersedes them all. That’s what she is, all of them and more.
With her father by her side, she glides down the aisle. Her smile only widens as she gets closer.
I can’t help the emotion on my face. I love this woman so much.
She was able to take a man who was convinced that love would destroy him and give him hope that it would be his salvation.
And she is that.
She saved me from a life devoid of this opportunity.
Where I wouldn’t get to see this moment, feel her warmth, bask in her love.
It was a sad place.
But no longer.
Her father gives me her hand. “Take care of my little girl, son.”
“I will,” I vow.
Lark looks up at me, laughing slightly.
“What?”
She jerks her head up to where the officiant would be, but instead of the pastor we asked, my father is standing there, next to the pastor who looks completely mystified.
Oh hell no.
“Dad?”
He grins. “Don’t worry, I have it all planned.”
“Go sit down.”
“I’m a minister now, thanks to the online website that Sadie showed me.”
Of all the damn things…
I look to Lark. “I’m so sorry.”
She shakes her head. “This is the best wedding I could’ve asked for. As long as it ends with me being your wife, I don’t care about anything else. Let your dad marry us. It’ll be something we can tell our grandkids.”
I bring her hand to my lips and kiss it. “I hope you feel that way at the end of this.”
“I will, forever.”
And our forever starts now.