Page 175 of A Smile Full of Lies
The promise in his gaze. The weight of everything we’d survived to get to this moment. The ghosts we’d buried. The blood we’d stripped off the walls and floorboards. The love that had been waiting in the ruins.
He walked to me without saying a word. His fingers brushed the side of my neck, curling into my hair.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured. “You always were. But this…”
His mouth ghosted over mine, the kiss a whisper of reverence.
“…you’re mine now.”
“I always was,” I whispered.
His jaw clenched.
“I need to marry you before I lose my goddamn mind.”
I smiled, my heart full to bursting.
“Good. Because Hale and Alyssa just pulled up.”
He groaned softly, resting his forehead against mine.
“We’re really doing this.”
“Yes, we are.”
Alyssa was the first one through the door, dressed in sleek black pants and a tailored jacket, her hair in a braided crown, she looked like the kind of woman who took shit from no one. And also the kind who’d shoot you if you ruined a good love story.
Hale followed, as stiff and tall as ever, in his Sunday best — a navy button-down, slacks, and a tie that looked like it hadn’t been worn in years. He nodded at me respectfully. Nodded at Knox.
Then looked around the entryway like he half-expected it to swallow him.
“Place looks different,” he said.
Knox’s hand slid to my waist.
“It’s ours now.”
Hale’s eyes softened.
“Good.”
We didn’t have an officiant. Didn’t need one.
Knox had already drawn up the paperwork. Alyssa was the notary. Hale was the second witness. The legal part was handled before the vows were even said.
This part?
This was for us.
We stood in front of the fireplace in the front sitting room — empty but for the soft light filtering in through the windows, the faint scent of jasmine from the flowers I’d twisted into my hair, and the steady rhythm of my heart beating in time with his.
There were no guests, only our two witnesses and the ghosts. They stayed quiet. Waiting.
Knox took both my hands in his, and for the first time since this house became his again, he smiled without sadness.
“Rosalind Elizabeth Cooper,” he said, voice low and reverent. “You walked into my life when I was eighteen and ruined every plan I ever had. I’ve loved you since before I knew what that meant. I wanted you when I wasn’t allowed to have you. I protected you when I had no right. And I watched you fall for the wrong man and still hoped — every fucking day — that you’d come home to me.”
Tears filled my eyes.
