Page 25
The Wedding
Willa
T he sky was the kind of blue you only get once in a lifetime—the soft, dreamy kind that made everything below it feel like magic.
I stood barefoot in the grass behind the arch Tessa and the girls decorated with wildflowers and twinkle lights, my dress swaying in the breeze.
I never wanted anything fancy. But this dress?
It was mine. Simple, soft cream cotton and lace with a neckline Nate wouldn’t be able to stop staring at.
I’d made it myself, with fabric I’d been saving for years—waiting for a reason.
I had one now.
“Ready?” Tessa whispered, adjusting the flower crown on my head.
I nodded, heart thudding.
The music started—soft guitar strings played by Jack (who was allowed to play music as long as he stuck to the approved list). And then… I saw Nate.
He stood under the arch, wearing a navy vest and rolled-up sleeves, hair tousled, hands nervously clenched at his sides. When his eyes found me, they softened, lit up, and then… he smiled.
The kind of smile that made my knees forget how to work.
Grandma Hayes and Mable sat in the front row, whispering something to Nate’s parents, who had just gotten back from a month's cruise. Maggie stood beside me as my maid of honor, because, surprisingly, she’d offered—and even more surprisingly, I said yes.
Pancake trotted down the aisle ahead of me, a basket of flower petals strapped to her back like a furry little parade float. She stopped halfway to chew on some grass, then finally moved along after Tessa clapped from the front row.
I walked toward Nate with my heart in my throat and tears already in my eyes.
When I reached him, he reached for both my hands and held them like they were the answer to every prayer he never thought he deserved.
“You’re breathtaking,” he whispered.
“And you’re stuck with me,” I whispered back.
The ceremony was a blur of laughter and sniffles. The officiant was an old friend of Nate’s—an Army chaplain who read a passage about second chances and soul-deep love that made my heart ache.
When it came time for vows, Nate took a shaky breath and looked at me like I was his beginning and end.
“I’ve seen darkness,” he said, his voice raw.
“I’ve seen fear and doubt and what happens when you don’t believe you’ll make it out.
But I also found something stronger. I found you.
And you brought me back. I promise to be your safe place, to love you in every moment, especially the hard ones.
To never run. To never doubt what we are.
You’re my peace, Willa. You’re my home.”
I wiped a tear from my cheek as I spoke mine.
“You’ve seen me broken. You’ve seen me brave. And somehow, you loved both. I promise to keep loving you fiercely. To make you laugh on your worst days and hold you on your quiet ones. You’re not just the man I love. You’re the life I never dared to dream of.”
The moment the words “You may now kiss the bride” were said, Nate didn’t hesitate. He kissed me like the world had stopped.
And honestly… maybe it had.
The reception was held under string lights and mason jars, with long picnic tables and mismatched chairs. There was dancing, cornbread, fried chicken, and one very determined goat who kept trying to sneak into the dessert table.
Axel and Maggie danced once. Just once. But we all noticed. Especially Grandma. She winked at me like she knew something the rest of us didn’t.
Nate spun me in circles under the stars, holding me close, never letting go.
“I can’t believe you’re mine,” he murmured.
“You always had me,” I said. “Even when you didn’t know it yet.”
He kissed me again. And again. And again.
That night, in the soft glow of candlelight, Nate carried me over the threshold of our little farmhouse and whispered every promise into my skin. We made love like it was the first time—slow, reverent, full of laughter and tenderness.
And in the early hours of the morning, as Pancake scratched at the door and the sunrise painted us in gold, Nate curled around me and whispered—
“Mrs. Hayes… we’ve got a beautiful forever ahead.”
I smiled, kissed him back, and whispered back—
“Forever doesn’t feel long enough.”