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Well, I guess he was still my son. “Because you wanted to make her happy. Like a good husband does.”
Hayes’s lips twitched. “Fucking stupid of me.”
Fletcher and I both laughed.
Hayes fiddled with the sleeves of his shirt, adjusting the cuff links. “I knew I wanted her to be my wife on our first date... I thought she’s the one. Scared the hell out of me.”
I smiled. “I thought the same thing about your mom the first day I met her.”
Both Fletcher and Hayes looked at me in surprise. “You did?” Hayes asked.
I nodded. “Of course, it took me four years to stop running from it.” I shook my head. “Turns out you’re a smarter man than me.”
“We already knew that,” Hayes cracked. But there was a hint of his usual playfulness missing from his voice, and he looked down and turned back to the mirror.
Fletcher looked between us and said, “I’m going to make sure everyone knows it’s about time to start.”
He left the room, and Hayes and I were alone with only Chopper for company, lying on my bed like he thought he was king of the house. To be fair, he looked the part in his little black doggy suit.
I walked up to my son in the mirror, looking at him but seeing the little boy his mom and I loved so very much. Maya always had a soft spot for him. Days like today were harder without her, even decades later.
“You know what your mom always said about you?” I asked him.
“That I was a hundred pounds of energy in a fifty-pound suit?”
I chuckled. “In addition to that.”
Hayes smiled slightly. “Tell me.”
“She said, ‘Hayes feels so much because he has so much to give.’”
I paused, taking a shaky breath, and Hayes’s bottom lip quavered to match.
I gripped his shoulder with one hand and his hand with my other as we looked at each other in the mirror. “She knew all those years ago how good you are inside. How great of a friend and brother you would be. How great of a husband.”
Hayes turned to me now, his eyes tortured. “I can’t lose her like we lost Mom. I can’t, Dad, I?—”
I shushed him, pulling him into a hug. “I know.”
Hayes gripped my back while I held the back of his neck in my hand.
Still holding him, I said, “You’re brave, Hayes. To love Della with your whole heart on your sleeve. Even knowing what loss looks like. That’s the man Della’s marrying. The brave, kindhearted man she loves.”
Hayes sniffed and stepped back, wiping at his eyes. “Thank you, Dad. For always seeing me when most people judged.”
Tears threatened again, but I blinked them back. “Always,” I promised.
A knock sounded on the door, and Fletcher called, “It’s time.”
“You ready?” I asked my son.
Hayes grinned at me. “What part of Vegas didn’t you understand?”
Chuckling, I took his hand, and we walked out of the room toward his happily ever after.
After walking him down the aisle, I took my seat in the front row next to my best friend. My Aggie.
She looked gorgeous in a soft blue dress that reached halfway down her calves and strappy silver heels that showed the bright red polish on her toes. She patted my knee, saying, “Don’t worry, I brought tissues.”