18. Jax
JAX
I pull at my lapels, straightening them out before taking a deep breath. I feel for the box in my pocket and nod to myself. Everything will go according to plan, and by nightfall, Marley will be my wife. But this time the entire town will know it.
A knock on the door has the nerves settling more in my stomach, and I open it to my mom’s smiling face. Her hand flies to her mouth. “Oh my goodness. Look at you.”
I roll my eyes. “Mom, don’t start.”
She sniffles, dabbing her eyes before clutching my father’s arm. “I’m fine, I’m fine.”
He chuckles. “It’s not every day we get to see our son get married.”
“I mean, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone that we’d end up here,” I retort.
My father shrugs. “It was rocky a few years, but we figured y’all would find your way back.”
I smile. “Just have to make sure my bride gets here.”
My mom sniffles again. “She will. Marley may be stubborn, but once her mind is set, there’s no changing it. And she decided to give you guys another chance.”
“Cooper and that fiery wife of his will get her here. I know it,” my dad says.
That’s comforting because it’s true. If there’s anyone who can wrangle her in, it’s her brother. I know Brielle will have Marley dressed to the nines based on her experience as the city princess she used to be.
I nod. “Alright. Let’s go make sure it’s all set up for her.”
When we exit the house, I stop short at the row of signs lined up along the neighbors’ lawns.
Signs with photos of Marley and me since we were kids up until the month before we broke up.
I didn’t even know some of these existed.
It’s a silent tale of our love story, and it brings tears to my eyes as I clear my throat.
“Whose idea was this?” I ask.
My mom rubs ?my shoulder. “Grandma had a whole box of them. Figured this was a better use than a slideshow. A reminder to both of you of how much you have gone through.”
“Knowing Marley, she’ll make herself scarce after the ceremony,” my dad adds.
I smirk. That does sound like something my woman would do, and I’m not against hiding beside her.
It’s a silent walk down the street, but I don’t feel alone with my parents at my back, like they always have been.
They’ve always supported me and Marley, even after they found me in the mess I was in after she broke up with me.
My mom always believed we’d find our way back to each other.
I open the backyard gate, stopping in awe only a few feet in.
Everything I envisioned has come to life with some help from the girls, and it looks even better than I imagined.
Fairy lights are hung up between all the trees, wrapping everything in a soft, honey glow.
Lanterns flicker along the aisle leading from the back porch to a simple wooden arch, transformed into something majestic with an array of roses and white greenery draped across it.
“How’d we do?” Kinsey’s meek voice asks. Her hand rests on her swollen belly, due any day now. She had to stop working at the bar a few weeks back, a perfect cover to help her pack and Cooper convert the house into this paradise.
Water blurs my vision, and I wipe at it before clearing my throat. “It’s amazing. I owe you guys.”
Colt claps my shoulder before moving to Kinsey’s side. “Nah. We’re all family. This is what we do. Seeing Marley happy is worth it.”
Kinsey smiles, staring up at her alpha. “It is. I know beneath that rough exterior is a woman with a heart of gold.”
The only one who doesn’t see that is Marley. She thinks her bark is bigger than it is, at least to me. Marley has always been a little rougher around the edges, but it’s never bothered me. And anyone who didn’t get it, never deserved her.
Colt snorts. “That’s what Cooper says too, and yet, how many of Marley’s tires have been replaced?”
I stifle my own grin and clap his shoulder. “Hey, some of us just know how to wrangle in the feistier beasts.” My tongue presses into my cheek at his dull look back at me. I wouldn’t know the first lick about how to wrangle anything, unlike the group of cowboys loitering in the backyard.
Kinsey breaks into a fit of giggles and pulls her alpha away while he’s grumbling under his breath.
I steady myself, the nerves rolling back now that I’m alone. I take another glance around the space. It’s really happening. I finally get to call the love of my life mine. We just have to make sure she gets here.