“You look beautiful,” he leaned in and whispered as the band finished playing.
I reached up and touched my new necklace, mouthing “thank you” back to him.
He cocked an eyebrow at me and the sexiest smirk tugged at the left side of his lips as he leaned in one more time. “Thank you.”
My face flushed instantly as I realized he was talking about the pictures.
The music stopped playing and our ceremony began.
A small speech from the officiant.
Candle lighting.
Then came time for our vows, and I was hell-bent on not crying my way through them.
Brody went first. He took my hands and stared straight at me with his stunning green eyes. “I, Brody Michael, take you, Kassandra Elizabeth, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.”
Brody nailed it, like he’d been practicing for weeks. He made it look easy.
Our officiant turned toward me, signaling me to start.
My hands shook as I took a deep, cleansing breath. “I, Kassandra Elizabeth, take you, Brody Michael, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.” My voice started cracking as I rushed the last part out.
Brody’s eyes never left mine. In that moment, I felt like we were the only two people in that whole barn, maybe even the whole world. I meant every letter of every word of every sentence in my vows. No matter what came our way, we would conquer it, together.
Time for the rings.
The officiant took a deep breath. “Here’s where we would normally do the ring ceremony,”—my head snapped over to him—“and I promise it’s coming. But first there is one more set of vows to be said.”
Before I had time to be confused about what was going on, Brody released me and took a step to his left, out toward our guests. Lucy and Piper walked up to him and each took one of his hands as he squatted down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mom’s hand fly up to her mouth, and the guests let out a collective, “Awww,” as I tried to breathe past the huge lump in my throat.
Piper peeked up at me and grinned before looking back at Brody.
“Okay, you guys ready? Just like we practiced, okay?” he whispered.
“I, Brody, promise to love you, Lucy and Piper, just as much as I love your mommy. I promise to love you and protect you and always take care of you, no matter what. From this day forward, you will always and forever be my Twinkies. And I Twinkie swear to always kill all the spiders.” He held up his pinky fingers and the girls giggled as they wrapped theirs around his.
Every woman in the barn wiped her eyes as Alexa bumped my elbow to get my attention. I turned to my side and she handed me a wad of tissues. Holy crap, did I need them.
Lucy lifted her hand to Piper’s ear and whispered something to her. They recited in unison, “We love you, Brody, and we’re happy you’re marrying our mommy. Thank you for our castle.” The room erupted in light laughter as Brody’s head fell toward the floor, bouncing with his own laughter. He peeked up at me and grinned. “They wrote their vows all by themselves.”
Brody stood up and turned, taking something from Andy. When he turned back around, he walked behind the girls and placed a necklace, identical to the one he’d given me, around each of their necks before squatting back down and pulling them into a loving hug.
I tried my best to contain my sobs but was losing the battle a little more every second. I had no idea they were going to do that. It was the most amazing surprise ever.
The girls walked back behind me and took their places with Lauren and Alexa as Brody stood before me and took my hands one more time. I couldn’t believe I was expected to carry on with the rest of the ceremony after that. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around the man standing in front of me and never let go.
Never. Ever. Let. Go.
Brody placed my ring on my finger and I placed his ring on his.
The officiant closed his book and a big grin crossed his face. “I hereby pronounce you husband and wife, you may now… pay the toll.”
Once again, my eyes flicked to him and then immediately back to Brody’s, who smirked and winked at me before closing in and softly placing his lips on mine. He slid one hand around my waist while gently gripping the back of my head with the other one and pulled me in tight against him. Our guests cheered and hollered.
It was our first kiss as husband and wife, but easily the most intimate one we’d ever shared.
After the ceremony, everyone had to exit the barn so the staff could move the chairs and set up the tables. I took that opportunity and grabbed Kacie’s hand to steal her away for a few minutes.
I closed the door to my dad’s workshop and pulled the curtain before turning around and grabbing Kacie’s face, planting a firm kiss right on her lips. She opened her mouth, inviting me in and my tongue RSVP’d happily. We stood for a few minutes kissing, hugging, and rocking back and forth.
“We did it.” I was breathless when she finally pulled back. “We’re married.”
“I know.” Her eyes sparkled as she rewarded me with the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face. Her pink lips were swollen from my kiss, but I didn’t care. It was our wedding, we were in love, and we could do what we wanted as much as we wanted. “Seriously, did someone challenge you to see how many times you could surprise me today, or what?”
“No, but I’d gladly take that challenge.” I laughed, kissing her again.
“I was emotional enough with the necklace this morning, but then the vows with Lucy and Piper and the necklaces for them?” She shook her head slowly back and forth. “I don’t even know what to say, Brody. You’ve made this whole day so special.”
I hooked my finger under her chin and raised her face to mine. “It’s the least I could do. You’ve made my life special.”
Her eyes filled with tears again, and she pulled a tissue out of the cleavage of her dress.
“Got anything else in there?” I joked, yanking the front of her dress out just a bit and peeking down it.
A huge smile broke out across her face as she dried her eyes. “I’m thinking you saw what was down my dress earlier with that photo album.”
“What photo album?” I asked.
Her face fell serious. “The black album? I left it here for you earlier, with a note on it?”
I shook my head back and forth. “I didn’t see an album.”
All blood drained from her face as her eyes bulged.
“Kacie, Kacie, I’m just kidding. Relax.” I grabbed on to her shoulders and held tight, just in case she passed out. “Babe?”
“You ass!” Her tiny fist punched my chest as hard as she could. “You nearly gave me a heart attack! A heart attack on my wedding day, of all days.”
“I’m sorry.” I laughed, not really feeling all that sorry. “I just wanted to freak you out.”
“Mission accomplished.” She narrowed her eyes and glared playfully at me.
“You deserved it.”
“For what?” Her tone raised defensively.
“That album. It was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my twenty-eight years on this planet. I sat here and looked at it for about ten minutes, and my dad came in and wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk before the other guys got here. I had to hide behind his workbench for another ten minutes before my hard-on went away.”