I smile, but we have to stop talking because the kids come back. They knock on the door and then let themselves in. Susan comes and hugs me. “You okay?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she says. “Better than ever. But can you show me how to do that stuff you did?”

I’ve been working with her for a while, but nothing like the defense moves I used today.

“Of course.” I’ll teach her anything she wants to know.

Logan

We planned to be married at the county courthouse, but Emily’s mother wouldn’t hear of it. She lost her shit when Em told her, and Paul had to get busy and find someone who could marry us in an actual ceremony. I’m happy, though, because we’re doing it at Paul’s apartment. We pushed the furniture to the side and set up a couple of rows of chairs.

We thought it would just be family, but then we made the mistake of inviting Henry. Henry is the doorman at our apartment building, and he’s a sap when it comes to romance. His wife recently died and he loves a good love story, so we couldn’t exclude him. Since he was invited, his granddaughter, Faith, and her new husband, Daniel, came too. We met Daniel a few months ago. He lost his leg in Afghanistan but, when he found Faith, he found something to live for. He’s been in treatment for his PTSD, and he’s no longer jumping at every noise. He gets quiet sometimes, but doesn’t everyone?

Friday came and brought her dorm roommate, Lacey, and Lacey brought her boyfriend, Sean. I had to eat a whole jar of pickles just to get those two together, so I’m kind of glad to see them here.

Hayley is wearing a pretty dress, and Paul keeps picking her up and putting her on his knee. Someone motions for everyone to take a seat, and Paul stands up behind where Em is going to stand. I don’t want to miss a word, so he’s going to translate from behind her. He’s my best man, though, and he always will be. Emily’s mom walks out of my old bedroom, and she wipes tears from her eyes. She goes and sits down, and Em’s dad walks out of the bedroom with her on his arm and makes a big production of presenting her to me. Like he could get her back at this point. It’ll never happen.

She’s wearing a flirty, white dress that her mom picked out, and she has on her cowboy boots with it. She’s so damn cute that I want to jerk her to me and mess her all up. Last week, she put the blue streak back in her hair. I like it. I like it a lot.

Her parents don’t know yet about her being pregnant, and Paul is the only one of my brothers who knows. I suspect that Reagan told Pete, though, because he keeps grinning at me and rubbing his belly. He’s an idiot, but he’s one of my idiots, so I’ll have to keep him. Matt keeps looking at me funny when he sees Pete do it, but I still don’t want to tell anyone else yet.

Emily wants to wait until the three-month mark to start telling people about the baby, just in case something goes wrong. I’m fine with that.

The preacher starts to talk, and I look into Emily’s eyes. I don’t catch anything the preacher said, until she laughs and points behind me to Paul, who is waving like a lunatic. Pay attention, dumbass, he signs to me. I chuckle and start watching him. I’d much rather look into Emily’s eyes than watch his fingers. But I also don’t want to miss anything.

We go through the ceremony and get to the vows. We decided to write our own, and I know writing is hard for Em, so I’m worried about how this is going to go for her. I shouldn’t be. She’s so f**king capable. I wish everyone knew it.

I take out my notes and start to read to her. “I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. It happened at the same time as you decked me and broke my nose.” There’s a rumble of laughter. “That’s what I get for being grabby, but if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I promise to love and cherish you. I promise to take care of you always, and I promise to treat you with care and respect in all things. But most of all, I promise never to choose anyone over you, or let anything come between us. I promise to care for our children the same way I care for you.”

Em’s eyes fill with tears at the last line and I swipe the trails from her cheeks with my thumbs. “You okay?” I ask.

She nods. “Fine.”

She pulls a folded piece of paper from her sleeve, and I wince. I know she struggled with this all week. She used colored paper, because the words are more legible to her that way, and she spaced the words really far apart.

She sniffs and starts to read. “Logan,” she says. “I… pro…mise…” She looks up at me a little frantic, and I want to save her. I want to help her.

Suddenly, she tosses the cards in the air and they fall to the floor like great big pieces of confetti. She smiles at me. “I don’t need cards to tell me how much I love you, Logan.” Another tear rolls down her cheek, and I can feel my eyes getting misty too. “It all started with a tattoo,” she says. “You took my idea of perfect and made it better. You added a key to my guitar. My guitar and my music were my life, and you thought the key would be a superficial addition, but it wasn’t. You were the key, Logan. You were the only thing I needed. If I couldn’t play another note again, I’d still be happy because I have you.” She takes a breath and smiles at me through her tears. “I promise to love you above all else, in the best way I know how. I promise to let you read to our children while I teach them about music, just because we can. I promise to trust you and to be trustworthy.” She bends down and picks up a piece of her vows. She reads it. “I love you, Logan,” she says. “The end.”