Page 129 of Merry Me
He just kept looking at me.
Like I was still the only one in the room.
Like nothing in the world—not wedding vows or falling snow or the slow march of time—could turn his attention away.
My heart thudded wildly, painfully, beating against my ribs like it wanted out. Like it wanted to hurl itself into his hands and trust him to catch it.
Paige’s steps echoed down the aisle, slow and certain. Levi’s smile looked like it might split his face in half. People sniffled. My aunt clutched her husband’s hand. Paige’s veil fluttered slightly behind her like a promise.
And Easton kept watching me.
My breath came shallow. My throat felt tight. My eyes found his again without meaning to.
He still wasn’t smiling—but his eyes weren’t empty.
They were packed. With awe. With hunger. With a kind of aching devotion that settled deep into my bones and made everything that had ever come before it seem dull by comparison.
I was his beginning.
And maybe…maybe. He could be my end.
The thought landed soft and sharp at once, like rose petals on a bruise.
I blinked against the pressure building behind my eyes, willing myself to stay present, to stay steady. For Paige. For the moment. For the version of me that had finally started to believe in more.
But Easton.
Fuck…Easton.
He looked at me like I was the vow. The prayer. The last page in a book he’d been reading in secret for years.
And I’d barely done anything.
I was just standing there, bouquet in hand, pretending my heart wasn’t a kaleidoscope of cracked pieces finally turning toward the light.
Paige reached the front of the room. Levi took her hand, hiseyes glassy, his lips already trembling with whatever vows were about to come pouring out of him.
The officiant welcomed everyone with a calm, pastoral warmth.
I barely heard him.
Easton’s eyes still hadn’t left mine.
Not when Paige handed off her bouquet to me with a soft squeeze.
Not when she turned to Levi, glowing, ready.
This was it—this thing between Easton and me. It was bigger than the room, louder than the violin that had returned with a gentle refrain. It pulsed under my skin, made my knees feel too soft and my heart feel too full.
And still, he didn’t smile.
That’s what undid me.
He didn’t need to.
Because everything I needed was in his eyes.
That he was here. That he’d stayed. That he was holding the space around me like a promise no one else had ever dared to make.
