by Amanda Faye
I shake my head in rebuttal but don't get more noise than an ack sound out before he talks overtop of me.
"It's done. I gave up my lease, submitted my resignation, packed my apartment. I never even gave up my studio here in town. If you'd bothered to look, you'd see all my shit is where I left it two weeks ago. Hell, Lizzy picked me up from the freaking airport, Austen. I went back to New York to settle my affairs there, then came home to you in Denver."
For once in my life, I'm at a total loss for words. All I can do is hiccup and isn't that fucking attractive.
He loosens his grip on my arms, bringing his hands to my face, smoothing my hair off of my tear-stained cheeks.
Mirroring him, I run my fingers over his beard, and take in the changes our time apart have caused him. He looks like shit, or as shitty as Logan has it in him to look. Rough around the edges, at least. With bags under his eyes and his facial hair untrimmed and messy, he seems a hot mess. I know the expression. I see it staring back at me every day in the mirror.
Slowly, as if asking permission, he leans into me, pulling my face down to meet him. When our lips meet this time, it's like coming home. His tongue flicks out, requesting entry, and I open for him, sighing at the pleasure the simple act of kissing him brings me.
Pulling away and resting my forehead against his, I plead, "Really? Did you do all that for me?"
"For all of us. I've never felt so alone as when you aren't by my side. I have it on good authority. You missed me too, Austen."
I vow to contain my tears, but can't help a sniffle or two as my emotions try to overtake me again.
"What about Ellie?"
"What about her? She's already planned out a joint custody arrangement and visitation schedule. Like physically emailed it to me, Em. She's dividing hers and Brandon's time between us and NY the same as if they had divorced parents on different coasts. It 's--well it's insane, but adorable anyway."
"Brandon? What about Brandon?"
"You still don't get it. I love you. I love Brandon. Therefore they love you too. Unconditionally. They don't care that we live here and they live there. As far as they are concerned, they're gaining family, not losing it. Ellie didn't lose me. She gained a brother and guaranteed vacations. It's a win-win in her book."
Logan is running his hands soothingly up and down my back, and it hits me what he's done for me. For us.
I crash my lips onto him, wrapping my hands into his hair and pulling at it until it falls loose from its holder. We're chest to chest, and I feel his heart thundering against my own. I can't get over what this man does to me. Did for me, and once again, tears grace my cheekbones. But now they're tears of the woman who knows you can have it all.
"Take me to bed, Logan."
"I thought you'd never ask."
Epilogue
"Can I get a few minutes by myself, guys? I just need to breathe for a second."
A few smiles and knowing glances pass between my female family and friends, but my mother gives me a worried look.
"Nervous? It's perfectly natural if you are."
I have a thousand different emotions running rampant in my belly right now; excitement, relief, happiness so profound I may float away. However, I can say for sure that I don't feel any nervousness.
"No, Mom, not even a little bit." My smile is wide and genuine, and she gives me a brief kiss on the cheek before she leads the parade of women out of the bedroom and out of the guest house.
After Joe left us, I never imagined that I would get married. Let alone in the backyard of a mansion in the Hamptons.
After we decided to get married in New York, Sami called me and offered to help with the planning, claiming that she knew some contacts. She failed to mention at the time that those contacts came from being a daughter in law of the Mackenzie Foundation. Next thing I knew, we were offered an all-expenses-paid wedding in the 'backyard of a family friend.'
When Logan, Charlotte, Lizzy, and I flew out two weekends ago to see the space, my jaw almost unhinged. Either Logan already knew that this castle estate was the backyard that they had been referring to, or he'd been here so often in the past that it no longer made an impression on him. Me, on the other hand? You can say it made an impact. I'm as plain and simple as they come. Yet here I am, getting ready to be married on the private beach of one of the most beautiful spaces I've ever seen.
I tried to back out, or at least pay for the use of their property, but Mrs. Mackenzie herself showed up to lament the fact that with two sons of her own, this is the first proper wedding she's gotten to throw.
"You'd think with a mother who throws lavish parties for a living, they would want to take advantage of all of my expertise, but no. Both of my sons eloped. So stop your fussing. Planning this has been the most fun I've had in months. The caterers and wait staff are already Mackenzie employees, so there's nothing to pay for anyway."
When Noah's mother showed up to the planning party, already friends with Mrs. Mackenzie from the charity circuit, that as they say, was that.
All that was left for me to do was to choose the food and liquor. At least the moms saved me the only stuff that I had any real interest. Sami already knew the way to my heart. Through my stomach. I have to admit, as far as wedding planning went, this was the way to go.
One more deep breath and I give myself a little twirl in front of the three full-length mirrors that were set up for our use. My dress is beautiful. I can only describe it as ethereal. Sleeveless with a plunging neckline, the two-inch-thick straps gather at my shoulders. Connected with gorgeous silver and crystal clips is a half cape down until the middle of my back. The skirt starts under my bust and flows to just over my toes, which are currently barefoot. I have heels to slip on, just a simple pair of cream-colored pumps, but I still haven't decided if I'm going to wear them. I feel like getting married on a beach sort of allows me to go barefoot.
Off white, the dress is of the same flowy material of the dress I wore to the charity gala the year Logan and I met. I think he'll approve.
There's a knock at the door, and I answer with a smile on my face and butterflies in my belly.
"Come in."
When my brother steps through the door, tingles race out along my fingertips and toes.
"It's time, little sis. You look stunning."
"You look pretty good yourself, big bro." He does too. Logan swore he didn't mind wearing a full medieval getup if that's what I wanted for our wedding. Still, after seeing the peace and tranquility the spot we're saying our vows at radiated, I put the kibosh on anything super fancy. All of my boys are in simple dress shirts and pants. Nothing matchy-matchy, just whatever was clean in their closet this morning. My brother is in a light blue dress shirt that brings the blue out in his eyes, and his best dress shoes polished to a shine. The top two buttons are open on his shirt, and just enough muscle shows through to make the girls swoon until they see the polished ring on his left hand.
"Where're your shoes?"
"I don't think I want to wear them." The look he gives me is pointed, and I have to resist the urge to smack him upside the head. Like I heard one of the other moms telling a group of wrestling kids while things were getting set up this morning, there's no violence on a wedding day.
I can hear the music playing softly up the stairs, increasing in sound as I follow Darcy out of the guest house. My mother was upset when I told them that I'd already asked Darcy to walk me down the aisle, but my daddy just gave me a hug and told me he didn't expect anything different. Darcy and I are a team. We face the world together.
"Dammit. Grab my heels." Darcy rolls his eyes at me but obediently runs back inside and returns with my heels, dropping to a squat to help me slide them onto my feet. Damn Darcy.
There are chairs set up on a floating floor that will turn into a dance floor when the ceremony is done. Tables with tea lights and torches scatter around the ceremony area, close enough to talk to each other but far enough apart to still be comfortable. Ther
e's a bar and a band in the back.
The crowd gathered to see us exchange vows doesn't notice me at first when we turn the corner on the path. I get a moment to enjoy the mingling of our two families. Our separate pasts are becoming our shared present. Instead of bridesmaids and groomsmen, we have the bride's side and the groom's side, with friends of both genders milling about smiling and hugging at the end of the aisle.
Sami and Lizzy are chatting, having become fast friends over the last year and a half. There's something about marrying into wealthy, slightly crazy families that just bonds a girl, I suppose. Charlotte is talking with Zoe. Liam and Noah are talking with Logan and Mandy. Mandy has the honor of performing the ceremony today.
I see her reach over and rub Zoe's belly, almost subconsciously, and it sends another wave of happy tingles through my fingers. It was my honor to suggest that they use Logan as a donor this time around. Their little girl is due the week of Christmas, and I send another happy thought out into the universe for a safe and healthy delivery for their daughter.
Logan looks breathtaking, as always. His hair, still too long to be professional, gracing the tops of his shoulders. He's wearing a white shirt, collar undone like the other guys standing upfront with him. I can tell from here that he's wearing the new cufflinks I got him as a wedding present. Brandon is dressed identical to his stepfather, even down to the four-month-old babies they each hold in their arms. They are the only men here decked out in tuxes, my baby boys, but when Logan saw the little matching suits in the store one day, he said he just had to have them.
It was an easy decision to stop my birth control when Logan moved in with us after he returned to Denver full time. The fact that we got pregnant with twins was less of a surprise to me then it was to him. Our sons, Tristian and Benjamin, were born May 15th, and Sami and Liam still haven't let him live it down.
There's a collective gasp as we reach our spot at the bottom of the white runner laid out, and I see Ellie step forward to grab her god-brother out of Logan's arms. She quickly steps up next to Logan and gives Brandon a little shove over to my side of the walkway, careful to make sure Tristian stays steady in his grip. I can't help the giggle that escapes me at the scene. It looks like ants scattering around the hive.
"Ready?" Darcy looks me in the eye, searching my soul for any lingering doubts.
"I've been ready for ages." With a kiss on my hand, he wraps my arm around his own and leads us down the aisle.
THE END