Chapter 44
Iclear my throat loudly. “If it’s okay, may I please have a moment alone in the garden?”
Looks are exchanged, but everyone hustles back into the main house without a fuss.
“You sure you want to be alone?” Greyson asks.
I look to the cloudless sky, the sun warming my face.
“I’m sure.”
Greyson heads inside, and I don’t relax until the patio door click shut.
“Hi, Charlie. I don’t know if you can hear me, out loud, in my thoughts, or my dreams, but believing you can is what’s gotten me through my toughest times. Just in case they don’t keep time the same where you are, today’s your earthly birthday.”
I pick a single wildflower from Cecelia’s garden and twirl it in my fingers, eyes closed, breathing in the mountain air.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday my Charlie, I love and miss you.”
“I ignored your bumps and nudges those years with him, but you’ve seen all that through my eyes. I trusted every push you gave me since I left, and you led me to Swiftwater. To Greyson. You saved me.
“I can confidently say Greyson would move mountains to keep me and our girls happy, healthy, and safe. You can hand over the reins to my cowboy, Charlie. He’s got it from here.”
A soft breeze dances across my skin, bringing a smile to my face.
“I love you too, Charlie.”
Not a tear is shed, because I know in my soul I’ve made the best decision of my life marrying Greyson.
I turn to the patio doors where he guards me like a sentry, legs spread, and arms crossed.
My soon-to-be husband raises an eyebrow, and I respond with a smile and a nod. His clap resonates from inside the house out to me as if he’s right next to me.
Everyone but Greyson and the girls file back out and takes seats on the patio furniture set up on the garden lawn.
I meet them in the house and close the door.
“Are we getting married?” Everly asks, bubbling over with excitement.
“We’re getting married, little love,” Greyson answers.
“And we get to bring the special bags around our necks to you?” Harper asks, a little less sure.
“Yes, sweetie. Your necklace has your dad’s ring in it for me to hold. Everly’s has my ring in it for your dad to hold. I’m so proud of you for doing this important job.” Harper stands taller and her chin rises, taking her job seriously as the older sister.
We shuffle the little flower-bearers out the door and our family cheers and claps as they dance through the garden to the playlist Livy put on.
“You sure you want to walk alone?” Greyson tucks a stray curl behind my ear.
“My entire life I was told I’d never accomplish anything, become anything, or be valued by anyone. I think walking alone will heal me a little bit.”
“Then that’s what we’re going to do.” He kisses my forehead, and heads out into the garden, his Wrangler ass on full display and I’m not complaining one bit.
There’s no pomp or circumstance. There’s no agenda, photographer, or officiant. In Colorado, you can self-officiate and marry yourselves.
Without further ado, I walk down the patio where I first met the love of my life, through the garden and stand amongst the wildflowers with my husband-to-be.
The ceremony is short and sweet, again, the polar opposite of the circus I endured last time. I wish I could stop comparing the two but today is immeasurably happier and I can’t help but be grateful for where I am in my life.
“Thank y’all for coming today. Not like you had a choice, and more than half of you would’ve been at Lucky Spurs Ranch today anyway,” Greyson says, met with laughter.
“I’m going to keep this short and sweet, because apparently it scares people when I string too many words together.” Another chuckle. The stoic cowboy has jokes.
“Mia, months before you came into my life, I was struggling to find childcare for Harper and had been going through nannies like wildfire. I sat down with the family, had a long talk, and as I accepted my situation, I said to them, ‘Maybe seven will be my lucky number.’.
“Fast forward to the day you changed all our lives for the better, I couldn’t believe my luck. You accepted the job as Harper’s seventh nanny. So I’d like to think luck is on our side. Everly, little love, can I have Mommy’s ring?”
Our lime-green disco ball skips over to her dad and hands him the ring from the bag around her neck. He bends to give her a kiss and shoos her back to sit with her grandparents.
“Mia, I’d find you in every life after this one. There’s no world in which my heart doesn’t belong to you.” Greyson slips the wedding band on with my engagement ring with a wide grin.
I’m just about to start my vows when he startles everyone.
“Wait! I forgot something.” He reaches out to James who comes over to hand him a pile of small papers.
“If you ever have a day where you question my love and devotion to you, I want you to flip through these.” Greyson hands me the stack and my eyes well with tears.
“You kept them?”
“Every last one I could. A few got away but that’s just about all of ‘em,” he says.
The notes I left him. Instructions on how to reheat his lunch. Reminders. Questions I was too afraid to ask in person. The flirtier notes as we began opening up to each other.
They’re all here.
“Thank you.” I can barely speak, holding the notes to my chest. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
Greyson winks at me and holds his hand out to pass the notes back to James.
“How am I supposed to follow that?” I joke through tears.
Walter stands and brings me a handkerchief to dry my eyes, which Greyson thanks him for, and pockets when I’m done.
“My life until now was nothing like a fairy tale, but I always held out hope that goodness existed in the world.” I look to Izzy, who rescued me and Everly from the library lawn.
“That there were families that loved and laughed.” I nod to Cecelia and Walter.
“Hoped I wouldn’t be alone forever.” I smile at Delilah, Izzy, and Livy, my best friends.
“That there was a place my daughter could grow up in a stable and caring environment and hope I might someday find real love.”
My emotions mirror back at me in Greyson’s deep brown eyes.
“Harper, baby, may I please have daddy’s ring?”
She brings it to me and turns to walk back to her seat but spins on her heel and hugs me as tight as she can. I’m going to cry all day at this rate.
“Greyson, you brought me back to life. You saved me from the depths of despair and helped me heal in my own time. Never did I imagine you were falling for me the same way I’d fallen for you.
I’d take that chance again and again if it led me to you.
I love you with everything I am. My heart is yours. ”
I slide Greyson’s wedding band on his work-worn finger, and peace settles inside me.
My husband consumes me in a kiss that rewrites my stars, forever intertwining our fates.
A few signatures and we’re married.
Just like that.