Page 119 of The Moments You Were Mine
“We are gathered here today…”
I didn’t hear the rest. I was lost in Parker’s gaze and his touch and the warmth of his smile. I was lost in the beating of my heart that echoed the thump of his below my palm.
Without personal vows planned, we simply repeated the ones offered to us, but the look in Parker’s eyes was more special than any words could ever have been. The way he uttered each one told me he meant every single syllable. He was promising me I’d never be alone again.
The ring he slid on my finger was a band of white diamonds with a small, square-cut yellow diamond at its center. It looked like the ones my family had mined on the ranch decades ago, and I had no clue how he’d found it. I hadn’t bought him a ring, but when it was my turn, he handed me a simple platinum band, and I slid it onto his finger with a sense of rightness I hadn’t experienced in months…maybe years.
Parker and I had finally arrived at this moment as if it had been ordained. It had just taken us a while to find our footing on the path guiding us here.
“You may kiss the bride.”
Parker smiled his widest smile. The one that crinkled his eyes and spoke of pure joy. The eighth wonder of the world.
He wrapped an arm around my waist, drew me closer, tipped my chin up, and kissed me. It should have been light and brief with the audience we had, but it wasn’t. He devoured me just as he had been doing since he’d first kissed me in the field. And I pushed my lips back into his, claiming him with the same intensity.
What felt like a lifetime later, Whitney cleared her throat, and we broke apart, faces filled with goofy, happy smiles.
“Wife,” Parker said, and my entire chest melted into nothingness at that single word.
“Frogman,” I said back.
He rolled his eyes and then threw his head back and laughed.
It drew my gaze to the screen behind him. The faces of our friends and loved ones had moved from shock to pleasure. Mom and Sadie wiped their eyes. Jim beamed at us. Only Dad still seemed pissed but also, strangely pleased.
“Maybe you’d like to unmute them?” Whitney suggested.
Parker did and then pulled me close to him again. Theo ran in circles around us while we fielded an array of questions and congratulations.
“Whitney,” Jim’s voice interrupted, “you have some ’splaining to do, my love.”
“You can’t blame her, Jim,” I jumped in. “She tried to slow us down, but we didn’t want to be slowed.”
“Only you, Fallon,” Mom said. Her tone was exasperated, but I also heard love in it. Neither was a surprise. For most of my life, I’d done things my way—ways she didn’t understand.
“We’ll have a reception for them later,” Whitney said. “After everything is resolved at the ranch.”
That set off another round of voices trying to talk over each other in that weird, virtual meeting sort of way.
But Whitney’s words had dimmed the moment some. It brought back the allegations hanging over me and the danger waiting for us. The same danger that would now put Parker and Theo at risk.
Knowing me as well as he did, Parker read the slip in my mood. He squeezed my hip and leaned in to kiss my temple. He whispered in my ear, a low, guttural, “No.”
I looked up at him, lips twitching. “No, what?”
“Don’t think about any of that right now. Not tonight. Not on our wedding day. Only good thoughts today, Wife.”
I laughed and said quietly, “Still not the boss of me, Kermit. Even with your ring on my finger.”
He grinned and chuckled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Chapter Thirty-two
Parker
I SWEAR
Performed by John Michael Montgomery
