Chapter 26 #2
“You’re fucking stunning.” Callum closes his hand around mine and doesn’t let go.
My dad finds his seat next to my mom.
The officiant opens the ceremony. “We gather here, where everything the continent offers joins, to witness a promise as old as the land and the water that shaped it.”
He pauses long enough for the next wave to break and recede. “The Irish tradition doesn’t call a wedding the beginning of love. It calls it the decision to become love’s keeper. To stand before your friends and family and declare: ‘This is the one I choose.’ Today and every day that follows.”
He lowers his chin to us and continues the ceremony with a blessing. It’s special to Callum. It’s the same one Callum said at his uncle’s funeral, even though I don’t remember it.
“May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and the rains fall soft on the fields ahead. And until we meet again, may God hold you both in the hollow of his hand.”
He glances at Quinn, signaling that it’s time for me to give her my bouquet. I hand it off and then turn back to Callum. The ceremony settles into its formal center.
The officiant steps forward, and the handfasting begins. “Step toward each other until there is barely any air left between you.”
Callum closes the remaining distance first, then I close mine. Our gazes remain connected.
Callum turns his palm up. My trembling hand settles over his, and we weave our fingers together before the ritual requires it.
His grip isn’t gentle. Neither is mine. We hold each other the way people hold when they can’t live without each other.
An attendant steps forward with the ribbon.
Black silk.
The strands are long, worked through with Celtic braid work, stitched in deep silver threading.
Intricate knots twist through the fabric, locked into each other like ancestry sewn into the material itself.
There’s nothing decorative about it. It’s a promise made in secret centuries ago finally being kept.
The officiant lifts the ribbon and begins the binding. My emotions bubble to the surface.
I mouth to Callum, “I’m going to cry.”
“Do whatever you need.”
The officiant wraps it once, for the love we never stopped carrying through every version of our past. He wraps it again for every wound we’ve given each other and survived.
The silk tightens with every pass until our wrists are bound together. Not enough to hurt, but enough that separation now requires a decision.
Callum stares deep into my eyes throughout the entire binding. His expression is wrecked, devoted, and lit from inside in a way I have no words for.
The officiant releases the vow loose into the wind. “These hands will hold each other through storm and shadow. Through grief and glory. Through the breaking and the rebuilding.”
The first tears fall before I can stop them, and the ocean air turns cold against my cheeks where they’ve already tracked down.
The officiant addresses us both, his gaze steady between our tied hands and our faces. “Pull gently against the binding. Not to escape it, but to feel it and to understand the meaning.”
Callum tugs first, but he doesn’t pull away from me. He releases my fingers, his palm shifting until it cups mine, turning himself toward me rather than against the ribbon. I follow his lead and take in the sentiment of this moment.
I laugh, barely able to breathe. Through every tear already on my face, I laugh.
Callum’s lips curl up, and his words are meant only for me. “There you are.”
My tears keep coming. “I’m a mess, but I’m trying.”
The officiant waits for the moment to pass through us and settle. “What has been bound by heart and hand shall not unravel beneath the weight of the world. Speak now the vows that will carry the weight of this knot.”
Callum lifts our tied hands to his mouth and presses his lips to my knuckles. He takes his time.
The crowd and the ocean fade into nothing. It’s just me and the man I love standing before me with ruined blue eyes.
Callum clears his throat. “Lily, since the day we first met, I knew we would be here. Maybe not the exact place or time, but I knew in my soul, you and I were meant to be. And I’ve loved you every day forward.”
He swallows and licks his lips again. “You’ve been loved by me day in and day out.
It was always you who kept me going. We went through some time apart, but we found our way back to each other.
I promise to treasure you always. I promise to take care of you and our family.
Take this as my vow to you from now through eternity. ”
The officiant turns to me. “Livianna.”
“Callum, I was fourteen when we met, fifteen when we started dating, and now we’re here in front of our friends and family to declare our love for each other. I may have gaps I can’t fill, but I know I’m standing exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
I blink to dry my tears. “You’re my rock, my constant love, and I can’t express how much I love you.
I promise to give you my all and to have your back, no matter what.
Trust, I come to you with my heart tied to yours, just as the ribbon symbolizes.
You’re mine forever. And thank you for loving me through all my darkness and reminding me I have light inside me, too. ”
He closes his eyes for a moment, seemingly taking in my pledge. Ocean waves tumble against the sand, and all that can be heard is the crash coming from the building behind us.
Callum opens his eyes, and we both turn toward the commotion. “Fucking hell, I thought I took care of him.”