Page 74 of I Always Will

She smiled back at him, her heart pounding, and remembered the slight panic in his eyes when they had been doing this for him, ten months ago. She thought she'd gotten it then, and she had to a degree, but now, she fully understood.

Esme had disappeared off to wrangle Hailey and Alexandria couldn’t wait to see her again when they both turned around, but the reality was that this moment was huge.

For her, the panic and the fear weren’t in not knowing whether she was marrying the right person or doing it the right way, it was in knowing her whole life was about to change. That was scary and exciting and a whole mix of things Alexandria wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before. But she was certain Hailey was her person. Hailey was her love, her life, and the one person she was meant to travel this incredible, hard, amazing road with.

“Ready,” she told Daniel, taking his arm when he offered it.

He was wearing his wedding suit again—red and velvet and soft under her fingers—and Alexandria knew it was as much about that being the night she and Hailey got back together as it was him remembering his own wedding.

They turned and there was Hailey.

All of Alexandria's fear disappeared, replaced with the driving need to be married, the sheer certainty that this was the time and the place and the person. And after, they’d hike back down the hill and get breakfast at their favourite place in the city and they’d bemarried. Finally.

Their therapist had asked them what they both thought this moment would feel like, what they were expecting from it. Alexandria couldn’t quite recall her answer, but, whatever it was, she knew it wasn’t this. She hadn’t been able to imagine this. This was a once-in-a-lifetime, never had before, remember-for-your-whole-life kind of feeling.

They smiled at each other and walked towards one another, both certain and complete and content. And, when they met in the middle of the space between them, Daniel passed her off to Hailey, and Esme passed Hailey to her, and everything felt right in the world.

They held each other tight, changed direction, and walked together over to Farid. He was smiling so widely it might have been his own wedding day. Alexandria could only imagine how blissful she must look grinning back at him, barely able to take her eyes off Hailey.

They took their places before him, the view of Edinburgh stretching out for as far as the eye could see, while Daniel and Esme stood together behind them, holding hands and tearing up and smiling like they couldn’t hold it in.

“Dearest friends,” Farid started, sounding more emotional than Alexandria had heard him in a long time, “we are gathered here to join Hailey Davis and Alexandria Daley together in matrimony. Today—a day unlike any other—we start the next chapter of a story that has been twenty-five years in the making, and I could not be happier to be here to witness it.”

Farid led them through their vows, and a reading each from Daniel and Esme, he talked about the journey they’d taken to get there, the battle it had been, and how he’d never lost faith that they would find their way back to one another. It was private and personal and perfect, and, if there had been any doubt in Alexandria’s mind that they were doing the right thing by eloping with their three favourite people, it would most certainly have been erased as she listened to his words, to Hailey’s honest, open, beautiful vows, and as she promised herself entirely through her own.

“I will always be the person that answers when you call. I will always be the person that listens when you talk. I will always be the one who cheers loudest for your wins. I will always be the safest place for you to fall when things go wrong. I will cherish this love and the story we’ve written. And I will always be in awe of the life we build together,” they promised each other.

And Alexandria knew they would always be that person for each other.

Farid breathed a laugh. “It has been one hell of a life so far, and I know the rest will only be more beautiful and filled with more love and laughter and life than any of us dreamed possible. And, when the hard times come, I know you will face them together because you’ve already been facing them together, whether you knew it or not. And so, it gives me great honour to—at last—pronounce you The Davis-Daleys. You may kiss your wife.”

Alexandria sobbed as Hailey pulled her in, confident and eager and elated, for their first kiss as wives. It was perfect and dizzying and everything Alexandria had ever hoped the first kiss at her wedding would be. And it was Hailey.

A year ago, she’d been looking down the barrel of thirty-five, their marriage contract burning a hole in her heart and her life, and believing it might never happen for her. Now, she was more than happy to admit she’d been waiting for Hailey, always, and would have kept waiting for however long it took.

They pulled apart and Hailey grinned at her, squeezing her waist as she said, “Mrs. Davis-Daley,” her voice filled with awe and wonder. “I told you I’d see you at our wedding.”

“Mrs. Davis-Daley,” Alexandria said back, equally as astounded and barely registering the clicks of Daniel’s camera. She’d hoped but she’d never quite believed. But here she was, seeing Hailey at their wedding, twenty years later.

The others laughed and cheered.

“It’s so you to be Hailey Daley,” Daniel laughed, Farid agreeing readily.

“I’m not,” Hailey said, pulling Alexandria into her side as she turned to look at her newly minted brother-in-law. “I’m HaileyDavis-Daley.”

“Only because Al thinks ‘Hailey Daley’ is too ridiculous, I’m sure.”

“Maybe.” Hailey laughed and planted a kiss on Alexandria’s cheek.

Alexandria had never been so happy in her life, but she understood Daniel’s other point from his wedding now, too. Their wedding day was for them. It was massive and important and the best day of their lives so far. After a twenty-year engagement, they’d known early on that they were ready, that they wanted to get married before they turned thirty-six, they knew what this day was for them. But she also wanted all of the days to come—the busy days, the mundane days, the happy, sad, ecstatic days. All of them. Because they were the days that made a marriage and that was what she wanted: a marriage with Hailey.

“I like the hyphen,” Esme said, happily watching the two of them. “And hey, you both did it. The Daley siblings both got married and hyphenated their names.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Daniel agreed. “I hadn’t even thought about that. I wonder how Mum and Dad feel about it?”

Alexandria breathed a laugh, snuggling closer to Hailey—herwife—and looking at Daniel. “I think Mum’s cool with it, though I’m sure she’ll be ready to bury us alive when she finds out we eloped instead of having a big wedding. Dad… I’m not sure. He called me last week and said he’d joined an online group for parents of queer kids. I don’t know whether that’s going to turn out well or not, but at least he’s trying, I guess.”

The others nodded. It had taken months for Richard to come around and begin any kind of healing or growth, but in the last two months or so, it seemed to be sticking. Daniel and Alexandria were low-contact with him, their parents were getting divorced, slowly picking apart their lives together, and their mum was finally figuring out just who she was and how she wanted to live her life. It was messy and hard, but that was life, and she and Daniel were hopeful for the future.

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