10. Epilogue, Cece
One Year Later
One year passes in the blink of an eye. I don't look back for a single minute. Ryan and I spend our days with Birdie and our nights wrapped up in each other. It’s a life so sweet I never dared to let myself imagine.
I marry Ryan in a small ceremony at the cabin.
Not inside, but outside on the strip of land between the farm stand and the playhouse.
That strip which has been our land ever since Ryan put the first post in the ground.
Today it has an arch over it made of cedar from the same shed and wildflowers everywhere you look.
Evelyn is my maid of honor. James is Ryan's best man.
New friends from Iron Peak fill the rest of the seats.
Hank officiates because Ryan asked him and Hank said it would be an honor, son, in the specific Hank way that makes Ryan's jaw tighten and his eyes go suspiciously bright.
June from the library is here. Sandra from the diner is here.
The old man from the general store, Earl, is here in a suit that looks like it was last worn in 1982.
This is our chosen family and the sight makes my heart swell.
Best of all, Birdie is our flower girl.
She’s older now and her vocabulary has exploded. She has strong opinions about her dress, which is white and has a sash the color of the canyon at sunset. She’s practiced walking down the aisle approximately forty times this week. In each rehearsal she stopped halfway through to pet Duke.
Now Duke has a pillow with the rings on it tied to his back. Ryan stands under the arch in a dark suit. His hands are folded in front of him and his jaw is locked because he is not going to cry in front of the town. But also, I know this man and he is absolutely going to cry in front of the town.
When Evelyn walks me out of the cabin, Ryan sees me and his face lights up. Mine does too. I walk to him and it feels like coming home. He never stops impressing me. I see myself reflected back in his eyes and know that this man will protect and love me in a way I’ve never experienced.
Birdie walks in front of me, scattering petals with focused intensity. She stops every four steps to check with Ryan that she is doing it right, and every four steps he nods gravely at her. She trusts him with her whole heart and she’s got him wrapped around her tiny finger.
I reach the arch and Ryan takes my hands.
"Hi," I say.
"Hi, baby."
"You're crying."
"I am not.” He dabs at his eyes.
The vows are short because Ryan wrote his on a piece of cedar scrap. He reads them without looking at the paper once. Mine are short too because I wrote them this morning in the farm stand with flour on my hands, but I meant every word.
We promise to be each other's quiet. We promise to be each other's loud. We promise to love Birdie out loud, in front of everyone, because Ryan asked to do it that way and then it’s my turn to cry.
He kisses me under the cedar arch on the land he built for me, in the town that caught me, and in front of the people who have become ours. Birdie holds the hem of my dress and lets out the loudest cheer.
He kisses me again and it’s longer this time. When we come up the sun is dropping behind the west ridge and the light is going gold over the farm stand. Everything in my world turns to gold.
One year ago I drove into this canyon in the dark with fourteen dollars in my wallet and everything I owned in the back of my car. I thought I was looking for a place to land. I had no idea that my entire life was waiting for me to arrive.