Page 49 of Wicked Lies Grow Wildflowers

MAEREN

Xander stands across from me with tears in his eyes and the brightest smile on his face as I smooth out the silk skirt of my dress.

I teeter back and forth in my heels as the court officiant reads off the instructions for our vows.

Once our hands link together I try to listen but I can’t hear a thing, all thoughts and senses tunnel visioned as I stare at Xander. He’s mine . Forever.

When Xander starts his vows tears stream down my face, and I hope the makeup Sage applied this morning sticks as well as glue.

“To my Wildflower. I was never looking for love, I wasn’t even sure I believed in it, I damn sure didn’t believe I was capable of it.

Not until the night I met you. You were a magnet pulling me into your orbit and soon you became the epicenter of my whole world.

I was helpless to stop any of it no matter how hard I tried.

Each glance at you, each touch, each word spoken between us buried me deeper and deeper until I was falling completely, irreversibly, in love with you.

“I loved you before you were mine, after you were mine, and I want to love you as my wife too. You’re mine forever, as I am yours.

I love you, Maeren Marie Morris, always.

” He finishes with a shaky voice and squeezes my hands, and I try not to lose it any more than I already have because I still have to get through my vows.

I heave in a choked breath and will my sobs to ebb.

“Xander, my love, my shadow. You have always called me your Wildflower and at first I didn’t understand why, but now I do.

Like a wildflower I grew in the field on my own, but you nourished me from a distance.

You were the sun, the rain, and the wind.

You helped me bloom. You’re my biggest supporter.

” I take a pause to look over at Sage and send her a wink, she laughs as she dabs her eyes with a tissue.

“Before you I didn’t ever think I’d find someone who could know me so deeply and still love me.

Who could deal with my past and all of the hurdles of my present.

I only ever knew how to push people away because that’s how I protected myself from hurt.

But you were relentless in your pursuit, and nothing ever shook you.

Thank you for loving all of me, for never running even when I tried to make you, thank you for never giving up on me.

Now—” I let out a laugh full of so much emotion and raw love “I really can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. ”

Xander tugs me to his chest for a chaste kiss, never one for patience or tradition.

The officiant clears their throat and we resettle, reciting the scripted words, eyes never straying from the other for even a second.

When we say ‘ I do and are allowed to kiss, Xander tugs me back to him and wraps an arm around my back, dipping me low.

His lips meet mine and taste like a lifetime of love and laughter.

He carefully stands me back up without breaking the kiss and we deepen it until we hear Sage yelling at us to get a room.

I reluctantly pull away but keep my hands clutched on the lapels of his dark tux jacket.

Sage cheers and snaps a bunch of photos, and my heart feels full of love and freedom.

I never thought I’d find that freedom in another person, but Xander’s shown me how to grow, how to spread my wings and fly far, far beyond the constraints that had ruled the first twenty eight years of my life.

I know with absolute certainty that as long as he is by my side, dark days won’t be able to find me and rain clouds won’t be able to hang over my head.

He’d bring down the night and every cloud in the sky if I asked him too.

His soul and mine are tied together, written in the stars, and as I look up into the eyes of eternity I know with absolute certainty that this is only the very beginning of forever.