Jay Crownover - Nash

“I’m fucking great.”

We all chuckled and I gave him a fist bump.

“You are fucking great, and so is she, so this is gonna rule.”

He lifted his pierced eyebrow at the pun and I grinned at him. We were tight for a reason.

“Let’s do this. Let’s get you married.” I was surprised that there was some pretty thick emotion working in my voice.

Rome fiddled with his tie some more. I guess when you had a neck like a fullback, ties weren’t very comfortable.

He looked at Rule and asked, “Did Shaw’s mom show?”

Rule shook his head. “Nope. I called her and told her what I thought about the entire situation and promptly got told to go to hell. Shaw seems okay with it. Her dad is here with a chick that looks like she’s maybe eighteen at the most. He wanted to walk Casper down the aisle, but she told him no. She’s having Dad do it.”

That made sense to me. The Archers had always been Shaw’s real family. Like Rome had told Rule when he was thinking about proposing, giving her his last name was just a formality.

We lingered at the back of the room while Rule took his waiting mom’s arm and made his way to where the ordained officiant waited. Fittingly enough, Brite Walker, Rome’s mentor and an ex-marine, was an ordained minister. He looked like a member of a biker gang, but was one of the most centered, thoughtful men any of us had ever met. He had played a big part in bringing Rome back to the land of the living, and neither Rule nor Shaw could think of a better person to guide them into a life as man and wife. Just like he had offered Rome a new start, their thinking was he was the best person to give them a new start on a life as a married couple.

The girls came out of the elevator and both Rome and I lost our breath. Cora looked like a fairy princess from a Disney cartoon—granted, with a full sleeve of tattoos and a round baby belly. Rome bent down and kissed her until it was almost awkward for the rest of us. Ayden was a knockout even on a bad day. The blue made her dark hair pop and the silly grin on her face made me smile back at her just as goofy.

“Jet is so jealous of me right now.”

She scoffed at me and put her hand in the curve of my elbow.

“It’s good for him. He was out of town all last week. That means he won’t be able to resist me later.”

“Does he ever? Resist you? Because if he does, maybe I need to tell him he’s doing being married wrong.”

She made a face at me and dug her nails into my forearm, which made me laugh. I knew that her and Jet couldn’t keep their hands off each other, so I was only teasing her.

When my gaze landed on Shaw as she came out of the dressing room she had been in, I was surprised at the wealth of sentiment I felt at looking at her. She was beautiful. Like something out of a fantasy or anyone’s vision of “this is the perfect bride.” Her white-blond-and-black hair was twisted all up. Her dress was poufy and long, like a ballerina’s, and tied with a pale blue sash in the middle. She was holding on to the senior Archer’s arm, and Dale looked like any proud papa should. Rome maneuvered around his dad and bent down and gave the beautiful bride to be a kiss on the cheek. It was a good day for all the Archers … and the rest of us as well.

I told her honestly, “You look perfect.”

She blushed prettily and glanced at Rome.

He lifted the eyebrow under his scarred forehead and told her bluntly, “What he said. Rule is a lucky bastard for sure.”

Shaw just giggled and looked impatient.

“Let’s do this.”

We all faced the front, the clock face behind Rule and Brite showing the beautiful Denver skyline and making the most memorable Christmas Eve ever. Jet and his band started to play “Silver Mountains” by the Deadstring Brothers and I don’t think anyone in the room had dry eyes by the end of the song. Jet was in a metal band, could scream his ass off with the best of them, but when he used those pipes to really, really sing, it just did something magical to the people lucky enough to hear it.

We made our way down the aisle. I saw Ayden turn her head so that she could watch Jet. He blew her a kiss that made her sigh, and I shifted my eyes around until I found the storm-colored gaze I was searching for. Saint was watching me. She had her full bottom lip clamped between her teeth, and she had her hands clasped tightly together on her lap. Her eyes were shiny and bright. She had pink in her pale cheeks, and even from this distance I could see her pulse fluttering in her throat. If I didn’t know better, I would say she was looking at me the way Cora was looking at Rome, the way Ayden was looking at Jet. I couldn’t get my head around it, around her, but man, did I want to. She was fascinating. I wondered if I’d ever really know what made the pretty redhead tick.

I didn’t have any more time to ponder it because we reached the front of the aisle. I kissed Ayden on the cheek, did the same to Cora, which earned me a hard look from Rome. Rule and I shared a chuckle, and I took my place next to the Archer brothers. It was a proud place to be.

Jet and the band switched to “Everybody Needs Love,” the Drive-By Truckers version, which was Shaw’s favorite, and she and Dale appeared at the back of the elegantly decorated room. I heard a couple of gasps, saw some jaws drop, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Rule physically jolt.

“Damn.”

The word was barely a breath of sound, and before either Rome or I could react, Rule was walking down the aisle in the direction of his future bride and his dad, who had stopped at his approach. Rome and I exchanged a knowing look and just shrugged when the girls looked at us questioningly.

Rule grabbed Shaw’s face in both of his hands and kissed her like he was supposed to do at the end of the ceremony. Dale stepped out of the way and Margot, the Archer matriarch, called her son’s name in frustration. It was totally a Rule thing to do. He was impulsive, a little wild, but there was nothing in the world that would keep him from that girl, so of course he was the one who walked her down the aisle and to their spot in front of Brite. I couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot, and the one time I caught sight of Saint, I was happy to see she was smiling as well. That kind of love was hard not to appreciate.

Brite was grinning as well, his smile barely visible through his long, gray beard. Looking like a jolly, friendly Hell’s Angel, Brite proceeded to marry my best friend to the girl of his dreams. It was awesome, touching, everything it was supposed to be, and so were their vows.

Shaw vowed to love Rule just as he was, to never ask him to be anything other than the man he was. She promised to wait out his bad temper and the hissy fits that he was prone to and to never question what color his hair was for the week. She vowed to love him like she had since the first time she had seen him, and vowed that he would always be her one and only. She told him that he was everything she had ever wanted. It was all true and it made me happy to hear her promise that for an eternity to my very difficult and complicated friend.

Rule was choked up, so it took him a minute to recite his vows, but when he did I knew the impact of his heartfelt words stunned all of us. He wasn’t a dude that was good with emotion on the best day, even though Shaw had helped him with that, but today he was putting his heart out there for everyone to see.

He told her that he never thought anyone would be able to fill the void in his life that Remy had left when he died, but somehow she had gotten inside of him and there was no more room for anything else. She just filled his heart and his life so full there were no more empty spots and he knew that ultimately Remy would be thrilled for them. That, of course, had everyone misty-eyed and clearing their throats.