Page 41 of Avalanche (Endless Winter #3)

Three months later

Seth

“Are you sure you’re okay on the sand? I brought your crutches, I can go get them…”

“I’m fine.” I give Liam an indulgent smile, only to have him shoot me a suspicious scowl. “I’ll just lean on you if I have trouble.”

The truth is, there is no way I’m walking down the aisle—or down the beach—using crutches. Not when I’ve finally got my cast off.

Technically, I’m still supposed to wear a walking boot, at least when I’m walking around. But sand is soft. And it’s only for a little bit.

“You’re putting your walking boot on the second the ceremony is over,” Liam tells me, as if reading my thoughts. “I don’t want any arguments about it.”

“When the photos are over.”

I don’t want to see that boot in my wedding photos. Don’t want a reminder of what Tom did to me to scream at me every time I look through our wedding album or walk down the hallway of whatever house Eddie buys for us.

Liam’s eyes narrow in evident disapproval. I stare back at him, unmoved.

“Are you sure she’s coming?” Matty presses close to Liam’s other side, his face pale despite the gentle warmth of the afternoon sun. “What if her parents kidnapped her? I don’t think they were very thrilled about the whole marrying-five-guys thing.”

Antoine snorts, reaching out to take Matty’s hand in his while Eddie squints to where a canopy of trees line the beach access. That’s where Lily will come from. Any minute now. Any minute.

A trail of flowers marks a pathway across the sand to where the five of us stand, our backs to the ocean.

The celebrant, one of Lily best friends who got a licence just so he could marry the six of us, stands with his arms crossed on the other side of a bower made of driftwood and decorated with sea shells.

Henry, that’s his name. A broad-shouldered surfer-type who had wrapped Lily up in a hug the moment he’d seen her, then proceeded to glare with suspicion at the five of us. Even after spending yesterday afternoon at his place for a barbecue, I’m still not convinced he approves.

But he wanted to be the celebrant because, as he put it: ‘there’s no one else on this island who is crazy enough to do a quasi-marriage thing for six people.’

“She’ll come,” Eddie replies confidently. “Her parents might not approve, but they’re too scared of doing anything to upset Antoine.”

Antoine makes a choked sound and digs one bare-footed toe into the sand.

“Ethan is with them.” We all turn in surprise at Henry’s gruff voice.

His usual frown has softened, and his eyes are fixed on the beach access with a placid sort of expectation.

“So are Summer and Lani. They’ll make sure Lily gets here.

” He flashes us the briefest of smiles, white teeth against sun-darkened skin, then adds wryly: “They know what Lily’s parents are like, don’t worry. ”

I give him a grateful smile, then turn my attention back to the beach access, trying not to let my gaze linger on the watching crowd.

It’s a small group, really. A handful of people clustered together on a few rows of folding chairs, decorated with ribbons and flowers that dance in the breeze.

But they’re all strangers, except my own parents and my brother and sister.

“My grandparents will love you,” Lily had promised last night when I’d expressed my trepidation of meeting everyone. “Trust me. You’ll probably be their favourite.”

I swallow, straighten my shoulders, then run one hand over my linen button-down shirt.

It’s strange to be wearing just one layer of clothing after so many winter seasons.

Stranger still to feel the sun on my skin, even if it’s only afternoon sun.

I feel pale and out of place here among all these people with sun-kissed hair and tanned skin.

“There she is,” Matty breathes.

I see her at the same moment, my breath punching out of me with relief.

“ Mon dieu ,” Antoine whispers. “ Mais … she is si belle .”

“Fuck,” Eddie agrees, earning a stern grumble of reprimand from Liam.

But I can’t say anything at all.

Her friends walk ahead of her, Lani and Summer and Ethan full of smiles as they trail footprints across the sand for Lily to follow.

Her parents walk on either side of her, looking distinctly uncomfortable as they stare at the five of us: the five men who are going to spend the rest of their life with their daughter.

The five men they’ll have to contend with if they ever try to hurt her again.

Though, to be fair, Antoine is probably the only one they’re really scared of. Which is ironic, considering he’s probably the sweetest of all of us.

Still, there’s something satisfying about seeing them forced to walk at her side.

And then she’s standing in front of us—in front of me—with a dreamy sort of smile dimpling her cheeks and the sunset glowing in her eyes.

Her hair is loose, fluttering around her ears, framing her face.

A lei of tiny white flowers drapes across her neck, strands woven together and filling the air with a heady, tropical scent that reminds me of jasmine, only stronger.

She’s dressed in the simplest of white dresses, a gauzy, thin-strapped thing that dances around her ankles, brushing the top of her bare feet and catching in the sunlight.

She clutches a bouquet of flowers in front of her, holding the ribbon-wrapped stems so tightly the backs of her knuckles are white.

“Hi,” she breathes, turning that bright-eyed look on each of us in turn. When her eyes meet mine, I feel my breath catch, my heart leaping into my throat before picking up a wild rhythm.

“Hi,” I reply, my voice raspy.

“We are gathered here today…” Henry begins, his voice carrying out to the small crowd, mingling with the lapping waves. But I find myself getting lost in Lily’s eyes, in the way her lips part as she looks at the five of us, the way a faint blush dances across her freckled cheeks.

When Lily starts to say her vows, I’m surprised my heart doesn’t stop entirely.

“When I left here five months ago, I never thought I’d fall in love, let alone with five people,” she begins.

There are a few nervous laughs from the audience. Lily’s cheeks darken a little, but she goes on, ignoring everyone but us.

“Seth, Liam, Matty, Antoine and Eddie, you are my everything.”

My breath stutters, lungs tightening almost painfully, especially when she locks her eyes on mine.

“Seth, you are my rock and my champion. You are the one I can whisper my fears to, the one who always has my back—probably even when you shouldn’t—and the one who kisses away all of my worries. Will you spend the rest of your life with me?”

“Yes.”

The word burst out of me, sharp and sudden, drawing a huff of friendly laughter from the guys. I ignore them, reaching out to wrap my hands around hers, closing them over that bouquet of flowers.

I pause, scrambling to remember the vows I’d scratched down on the airplane ride over here. When Lily had explained to the five of us that technically it wasn’t a marriage, since polyamorous marriages are illegal, but a vow ceremony.

Something Henry very vocally reminded us about last night.

I swallow, hands trembling as I hold her own.

“You are a light in the darkness,” I tell her, and for some reason I remember the darkness in the hospital those moments before I opened my eyes.

Liam had been there, his voice echoing through my consciousness, demanding that I wake up. For Lily , he had said. For Lily.

And I did.

I would do anything for her.

“You have been with me through one of the hardest battles I’ve faced. You made me strong, kept me fighting, even when I wanted to give up.”

Her lower lip quivers, tears pooling behind her lashes as she stares up at me.

I know she’s remembering those months of recovery, when I was trapped in the condo, growing more and more irritable each day.

Like a caged lion, desperate to escape walls that seemed to get closer and closer every moment.

Certain that I was a burden on all of them, that they’d be better off without me, that she’d be better off without me.

Surprisingly, it was Matty who suggested therapy. “I’ve been where you are,” he’d said simply. “Trust me. You gotta think of your brain the same way you think of the rest of your body. You wouldn’t try to heal a broken leg on your own, would you?”

But it had been Lily who drove me there. Who listened to me as I cried, who wrapped her slender around me and held me together when I thought I’d fracture into a million pieces.

“I still can’t believe you want to spend the rest of your life with me,” I tell her honestly, “but I’m going to show you every day how valued you are.

How incredible you are...” I pause, my face twisting embarrassingly as I fight the searing pain in my throat, the sting behind my eyes.

“How grateful I am for every second I have with you.”

Because I might not have had this time with her at all.

I’d come close. So close. If Matty and Liam hadn’t found me when they did, if that snowdrift alongside the road had been a little bit smaller…

Lily gives me a watery smile, reaching up to swipe at her eyes with one hand before turning to Liam.

“Liam…”

I listen as she exchanges vows with the rest of the guys.

Liam’s are smooth and practiced, but even he doesn’t manage to hide the hitch in his voice or the rabbiting of his pulse.

Matty’s vows are practically unintelligible, a ramble of sobs and hysterical laughs.

The words of a man too overcome with emotion to speak.

Antoine’s are soft and earnest, words of promise for Lily and for Liam both, which has Liam starting with surprise and Lily and Antoine sharing secret smiles.

And then Eddie. Poor Eddie, whose awkward profession of love I overhead from my permanent spot on the sofa a few months ago. “Yeah. So I love you and shit,” he’d muttered, scrubbing at his face and then running to his room.

There’s no sign of him running now.

He stands with shoulders squared and face flaming, shooting a challenging grin to Lily’s parents before reciting his vows with the confidence of a general leading his troops to battle.

He promises to be by her side, to fight for her and with her, to fuck up anyone who dares to try to bring her down for loving all of us.

He doesn’t need to say I love you, it turns out.

He’s the first to kiss Lily too, practically shoving Liam over before hauling Lily in for a kiss so passionate it has her dropping her bouquet in the sand. Matty picks it up and brushes it off, grumbling some remonstrance that Eddie ignores.

By the time the guys are done kissing her, her lips are swollen and damp, her cheeks pink, her breaths coming in little pants. They turn her to face me, and she stares up at me with a silent question, her lips parted.

“ Are you sure you’re okay with kissing me at the ceremony? ” She’d asked last night, when we’d gone over everything with Henry. “ You don’t have to. ”

I bend to brush my lips against hers, smiling at the floral scent that fills my nostrils, at the warmth of her breath. It’s a sweet, brushing thing. Nothing sensual, like what she shared with the other guys. But it’s special. It’s ours. It’s the sealing of our promise, the binding up of our love.

Not just hers and mine, but all of ours. The six of us. Together.