Page 108 of For Emery

“You look—” we both said, laughing at our sudden awkwardness.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

My cheeks warmed, never immune to the power of his words. “You do too.”

“Well, Sabrina said I look hot,” he teased.

“I’m never living that down,” she mumbled from her chair behind us.

I laughed as I glanced toward her. “Can you stop boosting his already massive ego?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

I looked back to Jordan. “I think you look hot too.”

“Obviously.”

I snickered.

“Should we begin?” Father Hall asked.

I nodded.

“Father, the shorter you make this ceremony,” Jordan said. “The sooner I get to hold my wife.”

My belly rippled at the sound of ‘wife’ rolling off Jordan’s tongue. I was minutes away from being Jordan Grady’s wife. Mrs. Jordan Grady.

Holy. Freaking. Cow.

“We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony,” Father Hall began, his voice a bit shaky with age.

I stared into Jordan’s eyes, remembering every important moment we’d shared. He was my first everything. The first boy I kissed. The first boy I slept with. The first boy I loved—the only boy I loved. Those moments, and so many others, were engrained in my brain and heart forever.

As Father Hall continued with our brief ceremony, Jordan’s blue eyes gazed at me. Someday our children would have the same blue gaze. Because we would have children. And they’d be as outgoing, funny, and loving as Jordan. And hopefully as strong, committed, and passionate as me.

Father Hall’s voiced broke through my thoughts. “Do you, Emery Pruitt, take Jordan Grady to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to be faithful to him in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, and to love and to honor him all the days of your life?”

Jordan’s eyes riveted between mine, as if he didn’t already know my answer.

“I do,” I said, my heartbeat quickening.

Father Hall looked to Jordan. “Do you—”

“I do,” Jordan said.

Everyone laughed.

“You have to let him finish,” I whispered.

His thumbs brushed over the backs of my hands. “Fine.”

Father Hall tried again. “Do you, Jordan Grady, take Emery Pruitt to be your lawfully wedded wife? Do you promise to be faithful to her in good times and bad, in sickness and in health and to love and to honor her all the days of your life?”

“Oh, hell, yes!”

Everyone laughed.

Jordan’s eyes shot to Father Hall. “Sorry, Father.”

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