Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
“Now I’m not going to say what was said to me”—I look down at her—“but if Fiona doesn’t get out there soon, Carl is going to come in and carry her out.”
“Fiona,” Sierra calls over her shoulder, “Carl is done waiting and is about to bring everyone inside to have the wedding here.”
“I’m ready.” She opens the bathroom door and steps out. “How crazy is this, getting married at forty-three?” She holds up her hand. “The question is, how crazy is it being pregnant at forty-three?” She laughs and puts her hand on her stomach.
“I don’t even want to think about how that happened,” Sierra teases, “but I always wanted a brother.”
Fiona looks at her with all the love one can look at another person with. “All this time, we never moved on, and now this. I’m standing here about to marry the man I’ve loved my whole life with our daughter beside me. If someone told me this was going to happen, I would have told them that they were lying.” She wipes the bottom of her eye with her thumb. “Let’s get me married.”
We share a smile, and a couple of minutes later, I’m walking out of the house with my mother and Marian. “She’s coming.”
“Everyone get into place”—Carl claps his hands—“especially you, Joseph.” He looks at Sierra’s dad. “I need you to make all this legal.”
I stand here in the front row, watching Sierra walk down the aisle, first stopping in front of her birth father and giving him a hug. He kisses the top of her head, and when she turns to walk toward me, he stops her. “I want you standing beside me.” He takes her hand and wraps it around his arm. “That’s my wish—to marry your mother with you beside us.”
“Then this is where I will be,” she confirms with her own tears in her eyes as they look down the aisle at her birth mother walking down. The whole thing takes less than ten minutes, with them just wanting to share their vows and nothing else.
He walks her down the makeshift aisle as Sierra comes over to me. “When are you going to make a decent woman out of me?” She puts her hands on her hips, and I just look at her. “You are getting the cow for free.”
“Yeah,” my mother pipes in, “when are you going to do the right thing?”
“You’re asking me this?” I point at myself. “You haven’t even said yes to my proposal.”
“You haven’t even gotten me a ring,” she barks out. I look over at her parents, knowing it was going to come later tonight, but now that she’s all up in a mood, I have to do it now. I reach in my pocket and pull out the black ring box.
“I got you a ring.” I hold it up, and now she shuts up. “Of course, I had this whole plan, but well, you are you, and nothing with you goes to plan.” I get on my knee in front of her, and she puts her hand to her mouth. “Sierra, when I met you, I felt the earth shift underneath me.” I smile at her. “And you ran so far and fast away from me, it was hard for me to keep up with you. But I couldn’t let you go. No matter how many hurdles you made me jump over, I knew you were the one.”
“That’s called stalking,” Theo interjects, walking into the backyard, making everyone laugh, “and I said it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Either way, I had to make you mine,” I tell her when she stops laughing at Theo and looks back at me. “I want to have kids with you, grow old with you, and now, apparently, I want to get a dog with you. Marry me, Sierra.”
“Well, you are getting me a dog”—she rolls her eyes—“so I guess I will.” She walks to me and holds my face in her hands. “I wasn’t running that fast or that far if I let you catch me.” She kisses my lips. “And I’ll let you catch me each time.”