Page 807 of The Tempted

Nodding, she smiles at me and mouths the words that completely undo me and put me back together all the same.

“I believe inyou.”

Words to heal the soul.

Blackie lays a hand on my shoulder and looks between me and Reina then settles his gaze on me and points to his lips.

“He’ll marry you.”

More healing words.

I glance over at the priest and watch as he lowers the oxygen mask from his mouth and speaks. I don’t know what he’s saying, he’s too far away for me to read his lips but I know the words he’s saying are more for Reina than they are for me. There are only two words that need to be said to make this union official.

I stare at Reina, remembering how stunning she looked walking toward me before the mayhem exploded and I can’t spot the difference, even in a hospital gown she’s the most beautiful bride.

Lacey moves across from us and stands at Reina’s bedside, next to the baby monitor where our baby’s heartbeat is singing strong. I don’t need to hear it to know that kid’s a fighter, just look who his parents are.

The priest continues to talk, taking a break for oxygen here and there while Reina hangs on his every word. The doctors I ditched stand close by, once this marriage is official I’ll make them play with my back and these burns some more, but for now they can stand there and wait for me to collapse in pain. Blackie pats my shoulder and I turn to him to see him holding Reina’s ring.

Talk about signs.

That yellow diamond weathered a bomb.

It almost makes me want to be a believer.

I take the ring from his hand and look back at Reina. This isn’t my first rodeo and I vaguely remember the words I’m supposed to say when I slide the ring on her finger. The priest is instructing me on what to say but I don’t even try to read his lips.

Instead, I go with what’s inside. I speak from the heart and give her my solemn vow.

“You.”

I say as I slide the ring onto her finger and stare into the eyes of the woman that saved my soul and my mind. The woman who holds my future. The woman this heart beats for.

“Me,” she replies.

Nothing else matters.

It’s that moment when we become Mr. and Mrs. Jack Parrish and I become property of Sunshine. Deciding I don’t need a priest to give me permission to kiss my wife, I fight through the pain in my back and lean over the rail of the bed to press my lips to hers.

It’s not perfect, nowhere close, but in a Jack and Reina way it is.

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