Page 79 of Binding Their Hearts

“I know how to build things.” Her voice held a raw edge, and she swallowed slowly, trying to hear the words in her head over the hammering of her heart. “I know strengths and flaws and breaking points. Metals and plastics. How to design for tolerances measured in widths skinnier than human hair. But I didn’t know anything about how to build a happy life before I met you.”

Henry inhaled sharply. He caressed her with his eyes, comfort and compassion as tangible as the times when he gripped her face in the seconds before he kissed her. I’ve got you, his eyes said, only more like Rest here, sweet girl, and nothing shall harm you, because he was Henry.

“I can’t promise not to be afraid—” She sought out Jay’s eyes and scrunched her nose at him, going off script. “Didn’t throw that one out until the fifth draft, because I’m a stubborn, slow learner.”

He shook his head, grinning at her, mouthing You? Never. as quiet laughter rippled beyond them.

“But I promise to be honest about my fears and bring them to you both instead of running away and trying to cut myself off from love.” She sent a silent apology for all the upheaval she’d caused, dipping her toes only to jump back from the edge instead of diving in. If she’d known the water would be so wonderful, she’d have fought harder to reach the deep end faster. “I promise to let myself feel intensely, to love you without limits, and to trust you to help me overcome my fears. This adventure we’re on is the greatest of my life. I want to spend every moment building our happiness and enjoying it with you forever.”

“Same,” Jay whispered.

“As do I.” Henry stamped his low, bassy seal of approval on her vows, and her giddy, submissive side preened internally. Maybe externally, too, from the amused quirk of his lips. “Shall I endeavor now to match the passion and vulnerability of your commitments to this joining?”

A sassy spark leapt past her tongue. “You can try.”

Jay shot her a side-eye that might have admired her daring. Henry’s unwavering stare promised she’d pay for her sass later in delicious ways.

Settling his shoulders, he left his hands in theirs and shook them gently. “I have cultivated many loves in my lifetime.”

With his hands and his questions, he’d tenderly guided her and Jay toward growth. Was that what he meant?

“A love of beauty.” He studied them, tilting his head left, then right. “A love of the myriad perspectives our senses shape and refine for us.”

As he leaned forward and breathed them in, his chest filled and broadened, pushing his tie into prominence. He’d chosen to wear the one from her birthday celebration last year. And he’d done something to it so the knot looked like none she’d ever seen—but it balanced three sides slipping over and under each other.

“A love of the nature within us all and the currents that sway us this way and that, of the interplay of words and actions that alters the paths we take.” The current took his words faster, his eyes alight and shifting between the two of them with the satisfaction of a man who knew he didn’t have to choose. “My loves were of the mind, and others appended labels I could not contest. Aloof. Reserved. Enigmatic.”

Inscrutable, she’d thought him. Not a machine, easily diagrammed, but a stranger whose heart and mind would remain a mystery. And now she hoarded every piece he showed her, every infinitesimal detail.

“A distant observer, I found much to love about the world.” His grip tightening, Henry stroked her knuckles with his thumb, and Jay’s in his other hand. “But I did not love deeply, passionately, with fear and trembling, until my heart began to beat in time with yours.”

The vows weren’t a competition. But she knew without a glance that for her and Jay, Henry had won them.

“And now I find it will accept no other rhythm, for your names are writ there for eternity.” Henry bowed his head, as if their signatures on his heart would shine through his formalwear. “Yet this love is hidden, not easily spied—gossamer strands weave us together, but only for eyes that will see. And so I needed to take the unseen and make it tangible, an unmistakable claim in all the worlds we walk.”

With a gentle squeeze, he let go of their hands and reached into his jacket. He drew out a thin box—a wooden pencil case? Holding it flat in one palm, he snapped up the lid with its intricate inlay of looping lines and knots.

Three wedding bands lay inside.

On each, the bright sheen of platinum guarded a winding vine of emeralds through a carpet of cognac diamonds in a subtle gradation from the yellow-touched champagne of her hair to the dark chocolate of Jay’s eyes. The channel setting left nothing to catch or snag, Henry protecting them even in this.

The woman inside her who would have insisted, vehemently, that she had zero interest in wearing a ring of ownership—that woman scattered on the wind of the yearning sigh moving through her. “Oh. You—I—Henry. They’re beautiful.”

He raised the one on the right from its satin niche and slid it onto her finger as Jay steadied her trembling hand. “With this ring, we thee wed.”

Her vision blurred, the first tears spilling over her cheeks. Henry raised a second ring, and she clasped Jay’s hand in both of hers as he extended his fingers. “With this ring, we thee wed.”

They wore matching rings now, her hand atop Jay’s, fingers interlacing.

Henry rotated the box toward them, and she and Jay reached for the remaining ring together. They plucked it free, the metal bearing a weightiness that matched its meaning, the unbreakable bond. Henry made the box disappear into his jacket and held his hand out for them.

With delicate holds, they brought the band to Henry’s finger and slowly seated it. “With this ring, we thee wed.”

They were married.

She couldn’t bear to let go, except Santa was saying—

“…may kiss your spouses.”

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