Page 49 of Hideaway Whirlwind (Big Boys of Berenson Trucking #4)
Teagan
A little over an hour before sunset, the sky soon to be painted a brilliant orange and indigo, Elliott and I unhurriedly walk the mile and a half away from the cabin with the children linking hands between us, the puppies trotting ahead with Storm in bursts of energy before circling back.
Elliott is already holding back tears and quiet hiccups when, not ten minutes into our journey, Kendall tires and says, “Papa, up.”
My shiny black, pointy-toe cowgirl boots peak out beneath my dramatic, floor-length, all black and lace gown with each step across the dry terrain.
The unseasonably late cold wind attempts to disturb the braided crown of my half-updo come the end of April, and I’m grateful my dress was made with silky-lined long sleeves and that I hadn’t instead opted to have them altered.
I’d found both the boots and my dress in an upscale western boutique in Dallas while shopping with my wedding planners, avoiding all things white and traditionally “bridal”.
After all, there is nothing traditional about Elliott and me.
And while my dress isn’t technically meant to be a wedding gown, I knew from the moment I saw it in the winter clearance section that it was the one .
Though Elliott must be sweating in his all black, three-piece suit, dashing in a pair of new, enormous black cowboy boots, he doesn’t complain.
There is nothing to complain about on one of the most momentous occasions of either of our lives.
Not today. Not yesterday. Nor the three weeks Layla and Violet were able to work their infamous magic to put together our wedding reception.
“We’re here,” my groom says with a gulp, taking the lead as we wind through the narrow gaps of the copse of pine trees to a small clearing.
We stand in a circle, as if we’re about to perform a séance, with Dustin and Sydney holding each of Kendall’s hands.
Our two girls wear matching black velvet dresses with black ribbons tying their hair back, while Dustin proudly stands tall in a suit to match Elliott’s, down to the boots and waistcoat beneath his tailored jacket.
We look more like we’re attending a funeral than a wedding, standing here atop Priscilla’s grave, and truly, I couldn’t have picked a more perfect wedding venue when Elliott takes my hands, rubbing the knuckle of my naked left ring finger.
“Birdie,” he starts in a raspy voice. “You are my greatest longing come to life. It is you who reached into the wounded heart of me to pull me out of the darkest of my days and gave me a reason, a purpose, to be a better, gentler man. It is you who calms the static in my head. The woman I was sent to find, to protect and cherish for the remainder of my life. You are the very essence of warmth and joy in this cold, cruel world. My soulmate. My goddess and the mother of the greatest children I have been blessed to call my own. ”
It surprises me that, when his handwritten, memorized vows continue, his voice grows stronger, as if he needs the entirety of this cruel world to hear every word as he bares his soul.
Tears fall from the corners of my big bear’s blue eyes, trailing down to disappear into the beard he now keeps trimmed just short enough to show off the art inked out on his neck.
“It is my vow to be worthy of your choosing. To help clear the path to your dreams. To fight alongside you any demon that should threaten you, whether in this world or in your dreams. To love you and our children every minute of every day, not just with my words, but through my actions. I vow to always be yours.”
I’m the one who can’t hold back my hiccups, the shaking of my shoulders, and the rapid beating of my heart as I sway toward this man, my love.
When I part my lips to begin my vows, Elliott squeezes my hands, then takes a knee before our children.
“I vow to you three all the same and to be worthy of being your papa. I love you, my spirited Kendall. I love you, my courageous Sydney. I love you, my lion-hearted Dustin.” Like a ritual, with each declaration, he pulls them in to kiss their foreheads.
Next, he places a long kiss high on my stomach, his large hands splayed across my hips.
“I love you, my darling Killian. I can’t wait to see who you will grow up to be.
” Lastly, he stands and takes my hands again.
“I love you, my beautiful, fearsome, and unbreakable Birdie.”
My voice is just as strong as his when I say, “I choose you, Elliott. I vow to always choose you and to be worthy of your choosing, too. You are the very best of mankind, someone so pure of heart that I never could have imagined you existed in this world or in my dreams. You are my peace and everything our children could ever want or need from their papa, and we are the privileged ones to be loved by you. It is my honor to be the one who gets to walk alongside you in this life and whatever may follow next. I vow my protection, my love, my heart and soul to you, my twin flame. I vow to forever be yours. Only ever yours. I already am.”
Elliott lets loose a whimper, and when I press my front to his, I curl my palm around the nape of his neck, and our foreheads meet.
“I vow to hold close your flame and fan it, should anyone or anything try to dampen it. You’ve buried my demons, and I vow to bury yours. I love you, my striking, noble, and formidable Elliott.”
Our tears mix when our lips meet, breathing life and love and hope into each other as we kiss. Our twin flames grow hotter, brighter as we stoke each other’s, willing to burn the world down for one another and our children.
It is right at sunset, when we are supposed to exchange rings, that we finally part. Elliott slips a thick manila envelope from inside his jacket and hands it to me with a radiant smile. “Everything is official.”
“How is that possible?” I ask when I slide some of the documents out and thumb through them.
“I met with some new connections Russell made at the courthouse. The extra docs and information they put into the system may have been fraudulent, but these are legitimate and legally binding,” he says, tapping the stack of new birth certificates and our marriage license, all stamped with official state seals.
Although Elliott’s name hasn’t been added to the father’s section of Dustin and Sydney’s birth certificates, since I was underage when they were born, he has been added to Kendall’s. “Keep going,” he says.
The next stack is of his formal adoption papers of Dustin and Sydney, with the petitions to change their last names to Berenson. And still, there’s more. When I tip the envelope upside down, out falls a bundle of new Social Security cards for everyone and a driver’s license for me.
“This is incredible,” I say, hugging the envelope to my chest. “It must have cost you a fortune.” It being our total and complete freedom from worrying anyone will look too closely at my former, much more amateur forgeries.
He shrugs, though the tips of his ears are burning red with pleasure. “It’s a gift for me as much as it is for you.”
Maybe it’s not wholly appropriate, but now that we’re married, I figure it’s okay to ask, “You have more than just ‘what you need’, don’t you?”
“ We do,” he corrects, sliding a large, blood red stone engagement ring nestled within a white gold double-jacket of six diamonds and a matching wedding band on my ring finger.
“Just how much, exactly?” I ask, my toes curling at how exquisite the rings are. I hadn’t seen them beforehand, and yet ours are the perfect complements to each other’s when it’s my turn to slide an extra-wide, white gold band on his ring finger, inlaid with six smaller, matching red stones.
Elliott pockets the precious manila envelope with a shy grin. “Enough to build our own castle after twenty-two years of frugal living and smart investments.”
“Wow,” I mouth. During our walk to Russell’s property through the woods I now call home, an idea takes root.
“Since neither of us wants to build a castle, I was thinking…” I stall, a bit self-conscious and worried that it will come across the wr ong way if I immediately start talking about spending the money he’s saved up.
“Tell me,” he encourages, carrying Kendall on his arm while he uses a flashlight to guide our way beneath the darkening sky.
“Maybe once I’m out of school…what do you think about starting a business of our own?”
“Russell, Violet, and Dolly have, so I say why not us?” It’s true that Violet started her wedding planning business out of her spare bedroom, and Dolly has opened an in-home day care center, where Kendall was among the first group of children registered.
“Don’t you want to hear my idea before agreeing to it?”
“Sure, not that it’ll change my mind. Hit me.”
I practically swoon at his automatic belief in me, my confidence bolstered while rubbing the underside of my rings with the pad of my thumb like they’re talismans of good fortune.
“I’d like to open a low-cost ultrasound clinic near the women’s shelter in town that Goldie told me about.
We could offer other services, like testing, too.
I mean, I don’t know how profitable it would be, and I don’t know anything about investing, so it might not be a good idea—”
“It’s a great idea,” he says when we step out of the treeline. “Let’s do it.”
“There y’all are!” my new sister-in-law shouts, waving a flashlight, breaking up the kiss that I lay thick on Elliott’s lips.
Wearing a lovely floor-length amethyst gown that shows off her pregnancy, Layla says, “We’ve draped the windows so no one will see y’all ‘til you’re ready. Come on, come on.”