Page 151 of When the Stars Rise

Evie rolls her eyes but can’t hide her smile.

My dad snorts with disgust and shakes his head. “Here’s all you need to know about marriage. Always put each other first. Be honest. Don’t keep secrets. And never go to sleep angry. There. Simple.”

“Be faithful to each other and never give your wife a reason to doubt your love and undying devotion to her andonlyher,” Ridge says.

“You have to trust each other,” Evie says with a nod. “Marriage is a leap of faith.”

“But jealousy isn’t a bad thing either,” Ridge adds, smiling at Evie.

“I only get jealous because I’m still crazy for you and I don’t want anyone else looking at you.”

“I know.” Ridge grins. “I love it when you get all possessive. But you know I’m all yours, baby.”

Evie leans against his chest with a content smile on her lips.

“Weather every storm together,” Shiloh says, sharing a smile with my dad who leans down and squeezes her shoulder.

“We’ve been through a lot of storms,” he says, his eyes on hers. “And we always come through the other side.”

“Always.”

“Be by each other’s side no matter what life throws at you,” my mom says. “You’re stronger together than apart.”

“Never give up,” Jude says. “Keep fighting.”

“And just love each other,” Shiloh says.

The others echo her words and Hayley turns to me, putting her hand over my heart. I flatten my hand over hers and kiss her hair, wondering what the point of this conversation was. Hales and I have weathered our fair share of storms, and we’ve come out the other side. We’ve dealt with jealousy, we’ve argued and made up, we’ve lost our faith but found it again in each other’s arms.

But they’re acting like we don’t have the first clue about what it takes to make a relationship work.

“Every marriage is different,” Evie says thoughtfully. “You’ll figure out what works best for you.”

Shiloh nods. “Relationships change over time. They ebb and flow and there are days… sometimes months… when you have to work harder at it.”

The others nod in agreement.

“The more work you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it,” Jude says.

“Communication is the key,” my mom says.

“Mutual respect is the key,” my dad counters.

“Nah,” Ridge says. “You’re all wrong. The key to a happy marriage is keeping your wife happy in the bedroom and making sure you give her plenty of—”

Evie elbows him in the ribs, and he grunts. “I told you I’m done. No more kids. Four is enough.”

“We have a seven-seater. We can still fit one more kid in the car.”

Evie stares at him for a moment and then bursts out laughing. “Your logic is so warped.”

“You love my logic.” He whispers something in her ear that makes her squirm on his lap and yeah, I really don’t want to know.

“I think what we’re trying to say is that we just want you and Hayley to be happy,” my mom says. “And we want to make sure that you know it’s okay to have bad days. Even the best marriages take work. And sometimes you have to compromise or agree to disagree. You won’t always see eye to eye on everything.” Jude reaches for my mom’s hand and clasps it in his. She smiles at him. “But when you marry your best friend, you will be so amazed to find that each day your love grows deeper than the day before.”

Pretty sure Hales and I didn’t need any of this advice. I’ve had a lot of good role models growing up, and I’ve seen firsthand what strong relationships and good marriages look like.

“Do you realize that I’ve been to all of your weddings?” I say, looking from Evie and Ridge to my mom and Jude and my dad and Shiloh. “You all seem to forget that I was there for all of it. I might have been young, but I was always observant. I was there when you were falling in love, falling apart, and finding your way back to each other. I know what a good marriage looks like because you all raised me. And Hayley knows what it looks like too.”