Epilogue
SADIE
I didn’t plan anything for today. I just showed up in a white dress and a smile.
The moment I called my mom and told her to get the church ready because Milo and I had waited long enough, Dusty Hollow came together.
Flowers. Cake. Decorations.
They were happy to create something beautiful for us.
“For you,” Sophie says as she slides a piece of paper into my hand.
We’re in one of the small classrooms—the one where I gave Milo my Bible during Sunday school.
I unfold the paper.
Bookworm,
I’ve loved you in classrooms and pews,
on bleachers and back roads,
in silence and in ink.
Today, I get to love you out loud.
I’ll be waiting.
Always,
Hot Shot
“You two are unbearably adorable,” Sophie teases, reading over my shoulder.
“Sadie!” Emma squeals as she enters the room. “You are stunning.”
It’s the perfect dress. The bodice is layered silk, and the sleeves drape softly off my shoulders, my blue butterfly exposed. The silk pools around my feet with a short train of lace. And while most brides might wear a natural pink lip, mine are red.
“Thanks, Emma,” I reply.
“They’re ready for you,” she says as she hands me my bouquet of bluebonnets and pink lilies.
I grin. “I’m ready.”
When I step out of the classroom, two men are waiting for me. It took some serious convincing from my dad, but Joe finally agreed to walk me down the aisle, too. Both men frame me, my dad in his wheelchair and Joe with his walker. Men who raised and prayed for both Milo and me.
We get to the sanctuary, the music changing to something familiar.
Our song.
I pause at the entrance, taking in the sun glistening through the stained glass windows, colors bursting on the simple oak pews and the people who have known me all my life.
When I turn my gaze to the front, to Milo, he’s smiling through his tears, and I’ve never felt more beautiful than in his eyes.
People smile as we make our way down the aisle. Both men give me away after Milo embraces them both. When we’re finally standing together at the front, I notice something.
Milo’s shoe is untied.
“Dearly beloved,” Pastor Jeff begins, but he pauses when I kneel before the only man I’ve ever loved.
My dress billows around me. I take the shoelaces in my hands, repeating the phrase about bunny ears and holes in my head as my fingers carefully tie a bow. I stand, smiling. “There,” I say.
Milo’s grin spreads warm and wide like the sunset, and there’s a knowing look in his blue eyes as if he’s also replaying the moment we met.
We were just kids, but I think God knew.
Knew that forever was in our future, that vows would bind us together.
“Thanks,” he says softly.
And then I choose to hold on tightly to what matters most to me—Milo.
We’ve got the rest of our lives to figure out the extra, and I’m not afraid of that anymore.