Page 116 of Her Greatest Adventure

“Ooh, this is so exciting. Did you buy me a car? Or—shit, did someone die?” I suck air through my teeth. “Tell me someone didn’t die.”

Dad barks a laugh. “Nobody is dead.”

I blow out a big breath. “Good. Okay.”

We stop near the kitchen, and the lack of heat at my back has me spinning to look for Cooper, only to not see him. When I face forward again, the look on my dad’s face is one I’ve only seen once before—during Maddox’s wedding when he walked Braxton down the aisle and handed her over to my brother.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask, my chest constricting.

His smile is so soft, so warm. I glance around in search of my family, but it’s still just us. Dad grabs my hands and holds them between us. His palms are sweaty, and I’m positive mine are too.

“Did you know that the day you were born, I drove my truck into a fire hydrant?” he asks, voice barely above a whisper.

I giggle. “What? No.”

“I did. I was in the middle of practice when my coach at the time pulled me aside and told me your mom was in labour. You would think that after going through it twice before, I would have been calmer, but that couldn’t be further from how I felt. I knew long before you came into this world that you were going to change everything for our family. We needed your spunk and attitude. Your sunshine and out-of-this-world humour. So that day, I lost my head to excitement and fear and drove my truck into a fire hydrant.

“I know now that the feelings I had that day were only a sneak peek of the ones I would have every day for the rest of my life. You’re my baby girl. My risk taker and world changer. I’m so unbelievably proud of you and everything you’ve done up to this point and what you have yet to do. The thought of you getting married has always terrified me. You deserve the best this world has to offer, and I think you’ve found that with Cooper. If you agree, then follow me to the backyard. If you don’t, then tell me right now, and I’ll help you get the hell out of here runaway-bride-style.”

I squeeze his hands back far too tightly. My father is an emotional man, but he’s never told me all of this before. Tears collect in the corners of my eyes before I dab them away.

“I love you, Dad,” I croak.

He tugs me toward him and wraps me in a strong, secure hug. The kind that used to settle my mind when I was younger. “I love you too, sweetheart.”

“Did you say runaway bride?” I ask with a rough laugh.

Gently, he wipes a tear from my cheek and nods. “Yes.”

Everything dawns on me then. The lack of people in the house but the substantial number of vehicles on the driveway. Cooper’s disappearance. Dad’s speech. This damn outfit.

“There aren’t many people who would know you well enough to be confident surprising you with a wedding,” he adds.

“No. There aren’t.”

“So, am I walking you out there, or am I helping you run?”

It’s the easiest choice I’ve ever had to make.

I make a show of primping my hair and drying my eyes. “How do I look?”

“Beautiful, Adalyn.”

“Then, shall we?” I ask. He extends his elbow, and I take it.

We walk through the rest of the house, and then Dad pulls the back sliding door open. Soft music drifts toward us, and the smell of flowers fills my nose. Stepping outside, I laugh in disbelief.

It’s a pink hibiscus paradise. They’re everywhere. In baskets, bouquets, weaved through an extravagant wedding arch that Cooper is standing under, watching me with such a love-filled expression that I feel my heart still under the weight of it. The corner of his mouth tugs into a small smile, adoration flickering across his face.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper.

Dad sets his hand over mine and swallows so heavily I hear it. “You deserve this and more.”

“I don’t want more.” I have everything I could ever want already.

A sniffle at the end of the front aisle pulls my eyes from Cooper. It’s my mom, a tissue held to her nose as she weeps. Adam is on her one side, an empty seat on the other. I’m grateful when he rubs Mom’s back soothingly.

Beth is on the opposite side of Scarlett, a similar emotional expression on her face as she watches me walk toward her son. I nearly break out in a sob when she nods at me ever so slightly, an approval I didn’t know could mean so much to me.

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