Chapter 34
J.T
My nerves are shot.
Absolutely fucking shot.
I’m standing beside the pond waiting for this thing to start and I swear to God my heart is beating so hard it feels like it’s going to crack a rib on the way out.
People keep coming up to me.
Smiling.
Clapping me on the shoulder.
Trying to make conversation.
I answer the same way every time—with a grunt or a nod—because there is no chance in hell I can focus on anything they’re saying.
Not today.
Not right now.
My eyes keep drifting to the path that leads down from the house through the trees.
The place where she’s supposed to appear.
I drag a hand down my tie for the hundredth time.
If she doesn’t get here soon, I might actually have a damn heart attack.
Kelly.
My Honey.
Today she becomes mine.
My wife.
Kelly Lawrence.
Jesus.
Just thinking about it sends this jolt of awareness through my body like a goddamn bullet train. My palms are sweating. My hands won’t stop flexing like I need to grab something just to keep steady.
I’ve told her I love her.
More than once.
Hell, I’d shout it from the roof of the mill if she asked.
But I didn’t expect this.
Didn’t expect my chest to feel so damn full today.
Like my heart is barely fitting inside it.
I’ve never done this before. Marriage.
Never stood up in front of a crowd and promised my life to someone. Never wanted to.
Until her.
Kelly McCrae walked into my life like a quiet storm and somehow managed to turn everything solid inside me upside down.
She’s strong—kind. Fierce in a way people don’t always notice right away.
And when she looks at me with those big blue eyes like I’m the answer instead of the problem?
Hell. I’m done for.
I was born to love this woman.
I know that with a certainty that settles deep in my bones.
She is everything good and steady and beautiful in my world now.
And I swear to God, I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure she never doubts it.
“You good, Dad,” Maddox asks from his seat up front, eyebrows disappearing into his hairline.
“Yeah, why?”
“Might try smiling. You look like you’re waiting for your own executioner,” he says with a laugh.
Little shit.
I don’t answer him because the air shifts.
It’s subtle at first.
A ripple through the crowd.
Conversations quieting.
Chairs creaking softly as people turn.
And then—I swear I smell something. Honey. Wildflowers.
I look up.
And there she is.
Standing at the start of the aisle.
My breath leaves my lungs all at once.
Kelly.
She looks like a goddamn vision.
That vintage gown we picked out together drapes over her curves like it was made for her—and hell, maybe it was. The silk is more ivory than white, soft, and glowing in the afternoon light, with delicate lace tracing along the neckline and sleeves.
Those tiny pearl buttons trail down her body, each one making me think about the slow, patient process of undoing them later tonight.
Her honey-colored hair falls in soft waves around her shoulders.
And those eyes—those big baby blue eyes I can’t get enough of—they lock onto mine.
Everything else fades.
The mountains.
The pond.
The seventy-five people sitting behind me.
All of it. Poof. Gone.
There’s just her walking toward me across the grass with the swans gliding behind her on the water like something straight out of a damn fairy tale.
Kelly is fire.
Soft and strong all at once.
Sexy as hell without even trying.
Confident in that quiet way that sneaks up on you and knocks the wind right out of your chest.
And so damn beautiful it hurts to look at her.
My heart slams harder as she gets closer.
Jesus. I’m the luckiest bastard alive.
Because in about three minutes, that incredible woman is going to be my wife.
Till death do us part, Honey.