Page 598 of The Winslow Brothers

She shakes her head and just smiles back at me. “It’s okay. In fact, it’s perfect. I’ll remember this forever.”

With a deep breath and a big-ass grin, I toss the rest of my note cards in the air and let them flutter to the floor around us. “I had a bunch more shit on there, but I’m figuring out now, I don’t need it. I don’t need the crutch of literary quotes or love poems to tell you how I feel. All I need is you standing in front of me and our little Emmy looking on. You’re everything, Rachel. And I’m going to spend every ounce of my energy for the rest of my life proving it to you. I can’t wait to taunt and tease and joke our way through this life. I can’t wait for it all, even the hard. Because if it’s with you, it’s worth it.”

Rachel leans toward me and I lean toward her, but evidently, the reverend is finally fed up. Quickly, like an auctioneer, he reads out the rest of his speech before our lips can meet again. “By the power vested in me by New York State, I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may now kiss the bride…again!”

Clutching Rachel to me tightly, I sweep my tongue inside her mouth and kiss her with everything I have. I want to immerse myself in her scent and her taste and her embrace forever.

The crowd whoops and hollers, and without warning, we’re enveloped into the largest bear hug ever. Jude and Flynn and Remy and Wes are all piled on my back, and Rachel’s bridesmaids have done the same to her.

It’s the perfect end to the perfect ceremony.

And it’s just the beginning of the rest of our lives.

Remy

Uncle Brad spins Maria in a circle, her head thrown back in the kind of laughter that makes her throat seem a mile long. At the end of the spin, he pulls her forward, and she tucks her head into his shoulder, her smile still so big that I can see the brilliance of her straight white teeth from my spot at our table.

I tuck our daughter Carmen a little nearer to my chest as Jude streaks by, his son Hawk and my toddler Izzy tucked close, one in each arm.

Winnie and Wes dance while Lexi looks on with a smile, her baby brother Wes Jr. in her now fully capable arms.

Howard stops briefly to check in on her, and then he says something that makes Lexi laugh and nod, before grabbing my mom from the chair next to her and practically dragging her to the dance floor. A fast, smooth-jazz type of song plays, and Wendy covers her eyes with her hand as she tries to bumble along with Howard’s fast-tempo-ed lead.

Flynn and Daisy walk by on their way back from the bathroom, both Ryder’s and Roman’s tiny tuxedo pants askew from where they’ve insisted on pulling them up themselves. Daisy’s curls bounce in the strobing light from the DJ, and Flynn’s loving smile grows in time with the motion as he watches her in action.

After one more spin around the floor, Maria and Uncle Brad stop in front of Aunt Paula’s table. Maria pulls Paula up and out, practically shoving her into Uncle Brad’s arms. The little stumble from them all makes it obvious they’ve been drinking, but the sweet smiles on their faces tell me they haven’t had too much yet.

Maria, especially. Between Izzy and the new baby and her job and loving on me, she’s been superhuman. She lives on coffee and adrenaline half the time, and even with my help, I know the weight of two humans under three can be crushing for even the most brilliant of women.

She deserves this freedom, this fun, this opportunity to let go.

As for me, though, I’m content to sit here with Carmen in my arms forever. Sophie joins Jude, who still has Hawk and Izzy, and Iz’s face lights up. All three of my girls—happy.

I feel a clap on my shoulder and turn slowly to find a beaming bride and groom standing over me. Ty looks content in a way I’ve never seen him—all that wild energy is finally channeled into a healthy avenue. As the guy who changed at least fifty percent of his diapers growing up, cleaned his cut lip after many a fight, and watched him hurl into my toilet after drinking himself into oblivion more than a few times, I can hardly believe he’s turned into this man.

I know I’m just his brother, so it could sound condescending, but I’m so fucking proud of him.

“Enjoying yourself, bro?” he asks, smiling down at my daughter and then winking at me.

“Nowhere I’d rather be,” I answer honestly, tucking Carmen’s now-flopped arm across her chest. This kid likes to spread out as much as humanly possible when she sleeps, and Maria and I are constantly gathering her limbs.

Rachel gives Ty a quick kiss and then pulls away, heading over to her sister Lydia and her wife Lou. The three of them hug and laugh, and when Ty turns back from watching her, his smile is beaming.

“We did pretty good, huh?” Ty asks then, crouching down next to me and surveying our family. I’ve been doing it for the last hour, and to be honest, I haven’t been able to find a single thing I’d change—aside from, of course, being able to have Maria’s sister and mom and brother-in-law here too. I know she misses them, and so do I. The absence of family is hard, but the Winslows have done their best to fill in the gaps.

“We did fucking perfect, Ty. You and me and Jude and Flynn and Win and Mom—we did it together. We built this beautiful life. This…this,” I say, “is how it feels when everything is right.”

Ty claps me on the shoulder again and stands, giving me a squeeze I’ll remember for the rest of my life as he does. “We have you to thank, you know,” he says quietly, his voice weighty with emotion. “If it weren’t for you, none of us would have lived to make it here.” He snorts. “Except maybe Flynn.”

Tears sting my nose, and I have to look away to prevent them from falling. I tried my hardest to be what my family needed in the absence of a father. To hear that I succeeded feels like winning the fucking lottery.

Finding Maria in the crowd again, now dancing with a giggly Izzy and Nathaniel, Rachel’s dad, I think about our lives and allthe events that got us here. They were hard sometimes—brutal, really—but none of the things I love would be the same without them.

“It was an honor, Ty. One I wouldn’t change for anything.”

Ty clenches his hand on the flesh of my shoulder once more and then jumps off the raised step where my table sits to reclaim his wife. Honestly, if it weren’t for the sleeping baby in my arms, I’d probably be doing the same.

Evidently, in the end, all the Winslow brothers are suckers for their women.

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