Now that he was standing in the bar, surrounded by his family, Fletcher realized that he never would have been able to imagine getting married without them.
Especially to Jordan.
Shit. He stepped closer to Jordan. He needed to whisper in her ear that they needed to keep their marriage a secret. For tonight at least. Until they could figure out a way to tell them all. Maybe he could propose to her. Again. In front of everyone. Maybe they could do another ceremony here and let everyone think this was the first. That would work. They could—
“Here.”
His grandmother stepped in front of his hand as he reached for Jordan.
“What?”
She held out her hand. In her palm lay a ring.
Fletcher’s eyes flew to hers. “What’s this?”
“This was my mother’s ring,” she said. “We have all kinds of family jewelry, you know. Between me and Leo and Cora we have all kinds of special things. Not all the kids wanted or needed family rings, but I figured you hadn’t gotten one for Jordan and since she has always been a part of the family, it would be appropriate for her to wear an heirloom.”
Fletcher stared at his grandmother, feeling his throat tighten.
So many thoughts spun through his head. The first was this feels perfect. But the first he voiced was, “How did you know?”
“That you married her?” Ellie asked.
Fletcher’s eyes darted around the crowd. “Um…”
Ellie laughed. She was speaking quietly enough, and there was ample commotion around Jordan, that no one would overhear her.
“You were in Vegas with Jordan and she was single for the first time since you’ve been old enough to appreciate more than the way she can bait a hook. If you hadn’t married her, I would have slapped you upside the head and asked what the hell was wrong with you.”
Fletcher shook his head. “Wow.”
Ellie reached out and took his hand, pressing the ring into his palm and curling his fingers around it. “And I’m not an idiot, Fletcher. Put that ring on that girl’s finger and never let her take it off.”
He swallowed hard. “You’re not mad we did this without you all?”
She chuckled. “You only did one tiny part without us.”
“Kind of the biggest part, don’t you think?”
“Not even close,” she said simply. “The ceremony is twenty minutes in a whole lifetime. Now it’s twenty-four-seven, every day, forever. We’re all going to be a part of all of that.”
Fletcher took a deep breath. He loved his grandmother’s practicality. He nodded. “And you’re not upset you didn’t get to see us say our vows?”
Ellie lifted a hand and patted his cheek. “You and Jordan have been saying vows to one another for years and we’ve all witnessed it. Every time one of you needed something and the other was there, we saw it. Every time you two huddled together and told secrets and laughed like there was no one else in the world, we saw it. Every time something hurt or upset one of you and the other got just as angry and hurt and was ready to go to battle, we saw it. And we saw it the day she left Autre for Nashville. And when she was home for the weddings in April and told you about the tour. And last night. We all saw all of that. Those were all vows to be there and love one another and respect and take care of each other.”
Fletcher actually felt his eyes stinging. He’d like to chalk it up to lack of sleep. He’d really like for his brothers not to notice. But yeah, he was choked up.
“So I did the right thing.”
“Marrying her? Sure,” Ellie said.
“It’s all good now. We’re where we need to be?” he pressed. He needed reassurance, he realized, and if anyone could give that to him, it was his grandmother.
“Oh, I didn’t say that,” she told him, dropping her hand.
“Wait. What?”
“This is a very good start,” Ellie said.
“Start?” Fletcher repeated. “Start? We’ve known each other forever. How is this a start?”
For some reason that made his heart kick. Hard.
He was the king of the grand gesture. He was the one who swept in at the last minute and saved the day. He was great at big endings.
Proposing to Jordan and sweeping her off her feet in front of a crowd—including her ex—was definitely his M.O.
Ellie looked puzzled. “Well, you’re married now.”
“Right. Happily ever after. The End are the words that come after that.”
She laughed. Laughed. “Yes, that’s the problem with fairy tales and romance novels and romantic movies. They end after the couple gets together and you don’t get to see the rest.”
“Because the hard part is over. The part where you figure out you belong together.”
She shook her head, still smiling. “Falling in love and into bed is the easy part.”
Then, with that, with no further insight or advice, she turned and ducked into the crowd.
That was a really cruel, not-grandmotherly-at-all thing to do.
Fuck.
The falling in love and into bed was the easy part?
He’d been waiting three years for the first part. And they hadn’t even done the into-bed part yet.
“Jordan!”
Finally Jordan’s girlfriends had made it through the crowd of family. Fletcher watched as Naomi and Charlie and Kennedy all hugged Jordan at once. Of course, some of those girlfriends were now family too.
He felt that annoying tightness in his throat again.
“Jesus, you’ve got it bad.”
He turned to Zander. He swallowed quickly and shook off the urge to sweep Jordan up in his arms and head out the door to start the falling-into-bed part of this whole thing.
She was just so fucking gorgeous when she was happy.
But he was going to get to see that every day for the rest of his life. They were together. Here. At home. And making her happy was what he did best.
“Are you going to cry?” Zander asked him, peering into his face. “Feeling bad for poor Jason Young, left all alone in Las Vegas with only his seventeen thousand adoring fans?”
No, he was getting all sappy again about spending his life with his best friend and the most gorgeous woman he knew. And that was ridiculous. He should be crowing about this. Feeling damn proud and smug, as a matter of fact. He’d gotten the girl. What knight in shining armor didn’t feel pretty fucking cocky at the end of a good quest?
“I’m just tired as hell,” he told his brothers.
“Well, you’ve got a lot of night and partying ahead of you,” Zeke told him, putting his arm around Fletcher’s shoulders and steering him further into the bar.
“Nah, we’re having dinner and heading home.”
“I don’t think so,” Zander said, from his other side.
“What do you me—”
But the answer was as clear as if someone had hung a huge sign with gold glittery letters explaining it to him.
Because they had.
Congratulations, Fletcher and Jordan! We love you! shimmered from the cream-colored banner that hung over the enormous table full of food at the back of the bar.
And if the sign had been even the least bit unclear, the gigantic wedding cake in the middle of the table was an unmistakable indication that Ellie wasn’t the only one who knew about their wedding.