“I have to pick up something real quick.”
Only minutes later, Jamie’s standing next to me as I open the front door of my grandparents’ house. “Your favorite grandchild just entered the building!” I announce. I’m their only grandchild, but who’s counting.
I can hear Granny’s laugh before she rounds the corner, her arms already open wide for me to walk into. Only she doesn’t go to me. She goes to Jamie. “Hello, my darling,” she greets, taking Jamie in a soft embrace.
“Bro, what the hell,” I murmur.
“I am not your bro,” Granny says.
“Kids these days,” Grandpa mumbles, bypassing me to kiss Jamie on the cheek.
“Come on,” I huff out. “Do I get no love anymore?”
“She’s nicer to look at,” Grandpa says, ignoring me again to return to the living room.
“That was a nice welcoming,” I call out.
“You live five minutes away and can’t even make the time to visit your grandparents!” he yells jokingly… I think. “Jamie’s checked in on us more times in the months she’s been here than you have in years.”
Jamie sticks her tongue out at me, and I glare back. “That’s because Jamie’s old like you!”
“Who you calling old?” Grandma says, stepping up to me in all her five-foot-nothing.
I bust out a laugh. “Dang, Grandma, them’s some fightin’ words.” She playfully punches my torso, and I feign hurt. “Stop, you’re going to break a rib.”
“Oh, hush!” she says, reaching up to stroke my cheek. “You know I love you.”
“Cool. Pity adoration, just what I want.”
Jamie giggles, and I look down at my grandma. “I just need to grab something from the spare room, okay?”
“Sure thing,” she says, waving a hand in the air. “You kids go ahead.”
I take Jamie’s hand and lead her down the hallway and into the spare bedroom, where three cardboard boxes are stacked in the corner.
“What are you getting?” Jamie asks, standing in the middle of the room.
I motion to the corner. “Look in the boxes.”
She eyes me sideways a moment, before carefully approaching them. When they’d arrived here months ago, I’d opened them to make sure everything that was in there was still intact. On her toes, Jamie lifts the flap of the top one and peers inside. A moment later, her sharp inhale fills the room. “These are Esme’s…” she whispers, turning to me. Her throat moves with her swallow as her eyes widen. “But you said you donated them...”
I shrug. “I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because I could tell they meant something to you, even if you didn’t want to admit it to yourself.” I move over to the closet and open the door, revealing the only thing hanging on the rack.
“Holden, no…” Jamie whispers, and she’s slow on her feet, her hand reaching out to the garment bag before the rest of her can get to it. “You didn’t…” She turns to me. “I can’t believe you did this.”
I press my lips to hers and kiss her once before moving out of the way. Then, I sit on the edge of the bed, watching her slowly, carefully, lower the zipper to reveal the white lace and pearl buttons. “You told my mom something classic, right? Timeless?”
With shaky hands, she shifts the bag over the dress’s shoulders, letting it fall to the floor, and steps back an inch to take it all in. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is,” I agree, but I’m not talking about the dress. I’m talking about her.
Tears well in her eyes as she looks over her shoulder at me. “Do you think Esme would mind if I…”
Shaking my head, I tell her, “Are you kidding, Jamie? She’d be honored.”
“She would be, wouldn’t she?” she murmurs, turning back to the dress. “She did this, you know? Got you and me together again. Even from heaven, she’s cheering us on.”
A heaviness lands in my chest at her words, because she’s right. And I try not to think about all the hurdles we had to jump to get here, exactly where Esme wanted us, and try, instead, to focus on the future. A future with my wife.
Jamie reaches out, and I watch with bated breath as she grasps the hanger, then pauses, hesitating. Please please please, I internally beg, my spine straightening in anticipation. She pulls the dress off the hanger, and my pulse begins to race as she brings it to her front, and then slowly, slowly, she faces me…
I finally release the breath I’d been holding, my smile as wide as my love for the girl in front of me. Because now, I’ve just been gifted the one thing that’s captivated my mind, my heart, my entire existence for months.
I get to see Jamie in a wedding dress.
And she’s going to wear it for me.
EPILOGUE
Jamie
Holden’s truck is sitting idle in the driveway, his headlights off as I make my way over. As soon as I’m seated, he asks, “Ready?” It’s not really a question.
But I answer anyway. “Yes.”
I have no idea where we’re going, but just like that time he took me to the daisy field, it doesn’t really matter. Because I know, in my heart, I’d blindly follow this green-eyed boy to the ends of the earth and back again.
The sun’s just peeking over the horizon when he parks at the spot his grandma took him to as a kid. He helps me out of the seat and onto the bed, where blankets await us. I wait until he’s sitting against the cab, his knees apart, before crawling between them and leaning into his chest. His lips are soft and warm when they meet my neck, and I close my eyes, let the stillness around us comfort me. There’s something so special about this place… about the quiet, the peace that fills my soul whenever I inhale a new breath.
“How was your night?” I ask, shifting slightly before I open my eyes.
He’s already watching me, a slight smile tugging on his lips. “It was good.”
“Define good.”
“Let’s see.” His chest rises with his intake of breath, his gaze moving from me to the ever-changing sky. “Dad and Dean had a drinking contest, and Dean vomited in your flower boxes and fell asleep on your trampoline. Sorry. Joseph left early, Leo passed out on the couch, and I’m pretty sure Zeke was on the roof at one point. Oh, and we can’t find Colton.”
“What?!”
Holden shrugs. “How was your night?”
“Kind of the same,” I murmur.
“Yeah, right. I bet you all fell asleep by nine thirty.”
“Ten thirty,” I correct.
He laughs under his breath.
For minutes, we sit in silence, witnessing a new day break.
“Hey, guess what?” he asks.
“What?”
“We’re getting married today.”
“I know,” I whisper, shifting until I’m sitting sideways on his lap. I can catch the sunrise every day, but I’ll never again see Holden the morning of our wedding. “Are you nervous?”
He’s quick to shake his head, brow dipped as he looks down at me. “No. Are you?”