Miss Matched [COMPLETED]

Wedding

Aaron adjusts his tie in the mirror and peers over at me. "It was nice of Angus to let you have the wedding here. One of my favorite vacations was coming here to visit you both."

I give him a wry grin and then flick open the curtain to peer out at everyone filing into their seats in the pasture. Angus and I spent hours scooping shit out of there last night. At least all the animals seemed to remember me, and I didn't suffer a head butt to the ass. We both consider Angus's farm as the place that cemented us back together. In the year we spent here we learned a lot about teamwork. Aaron took away a different lesson from his visit.

"I seem to remember the local villagers enjoying your visit as well," I say.

He chuckles. "Fresh meat. Who was I to deny them their piece?"

I'll give him his glib comment. While his first week here was like that, the last two were quite different.

Through the crowd, I catch sight of Abigail's blonde locks. She and Tayla became fast friends when we lived here, and she indulged in Aaron's fresh meat when he visited. Mentioning her seems like a bad idea given how often Aaron slipped her name into conversations after he left. Rare for him to pine after a woman once the affair came to an end. I understand that pain well, and I've got no desire to stir it up in someone else. For whatever reason, some relationships just don't work.

Thankfully, some of those get a second chance.

"Did you hear anything from the realtor yet?" Aaron asks just before Tayla's brother Damon comes in the side door.

"Not yet," I say. "With the time difference, I'm not sure if we'll hear before Tay walks down the aisle."

"Mike was okay with finding a new partner if you two are moving on?" Damon asks, popping a beer and plopping down into one of Angus's antique pieces of furniture.

"He's been great," I admit. Telling him our plans to buy a small acreage outside Grand Rapids and leave the city practice in favor of country living had been Tayla's biggest fear.

"I hope you get the property," Damon says. "More people should live like this." He throws out his arms. "Live off the land. Embrace the sense of openness. The freedom."

Clearly, Damon has never worked on a farm. Tayla has slipped his name into conversations around staff for the farm, and each time I've shut down the suggestion. Employing family can be a disaster, and while Damon is a lot of fun to drink and dream with, the guy hasn't held down the same job for more than a year—probably ever.

"Are you still going to work at the hospital?" Damon asks.

"Part-time," I admit. "At least until I get the lay of the winery business and can ramp up that part of the acreage. The current owners haven't done much with it, and Tayla thinks we can make it thrive. Or I can, I guess, since she'll be busy re-building her vet practice."

Pouring all their savings into buying the property wasn't as scary as realizing Tayla would be largely starting from scratch. With the move outside the city, only her most loyal clients will even consider the drive out.

Someone knocks on the side door, and the officiant pops her head in the door. "Ten minutes, lads."

My heart kicks at the thought of watching Tayla walk down the aisle on her mother's arm, surrounded by all the people who love us most. She kept her dress at her mother's house so there was no chance of me stumbling on it in in our tiny house. After we moved back, the person subletting my apartment took over the lease, and Rex and I moved into Tayla's small house.

Unlike last time, this time when we started looking for a new place for us, we knew exactly what we wanted. The place we've offered on is the first one that's come up in our price range. We've spent a lot of nights mooning over properties we couldn't afford.

Damon tips back the last of his beer and slides the bottle onto the coffee table. Clapping his hands together, he rises. "You ready to tie yourself to my sister for the rest of your life?"

I chuckle. "So ready." In fact, if it had been up to me, we'd have gotten married at City Hall as soon as we returned to America.

Aaron leads the way out into the field, past the rows of guests in neat white chairs to the trellis with a gauzy white material billowing in the wind. While I might have been happy for quick and simple, I understood Tayla's desire for something bigger, a celebration of how far we've come together. When I gaze out at the sea of familiar faces from the front of the crowd, it's humbling to realize they're all there to witness our wedding. A once in a lifetime opportunity.

When the music starts, Rex emerges first from the vet clinic in a doggie tux with a basket from his mouth. On either side of him are my sister's kids, one of them walking well, and the other threatening to tip face first into the grass at any moment. My sister trails behind them, her lavender bridesmaid's dress fluttering around her legs. Every once in a while, she darts forward when it looks like my nephew is going to go ass over tea kettle.

My niece tosses rose petals with wild abandon, and my sister throws her an amused look when some land in her hair. She glances up at me and winks.

Organized chaos. My favorite.

Ruby is next out the door, and anticipation rises in me as I catch a glimpse of white in the open doorway. A lump forms in my throat.

She steps out with her mother, and even from this distance, the smile on her face causes my chest to tighten almost unbearably. How in the world did I get lucky enough to be here, in this moment, with her?

They make their way forward, and except for a brief reply to her mother, her gaze never leaves mine. It really feels like we're consciously heading into our future together. No surprises. No regrets. No indecision.

Her white dress is fitted on top and floats away from her from the hips down. There's a long train, and I'm suddenly very thankful Angus and I spent so many hours painstakingly scooping poop.

Rex comes to a stop at my feet, but I can't tear my gaze away from Tayla. I don't want to. He nudges me with the basket where I'm supposed to remove the rings. Aaron reaches around me and takes them out instead.

"Thanks, man," I whisper.

"Don't mention it," Aaron says. "I hope someday someone looks at me the way you two are looking at each other."

I can't respond because she's finally reached me, and when I take her hand from her mother, our palms sliding together, it's like coming home. She gazes up at me, and I just want to frame her face and kiss her over and over again, pour all the love swelling my chest into her.

The officiant starts her speech, but the only thing I'm focused on is the contented expression on Tayla's face.

We follow the prompts through the vows, gazes locked together, Aaron slipping us the rings at just the right time.

When our vows are done and the rings exchanged, the officiant pronounces us husband and wife and allows us to kiss. She grins at me, and I bask in every ounce of her happiness, our happiness. Few moments are so achingly perfect as hearing her called my wife for the first time.

"I love you, Tay," I whisper. "I'm so excited for the life we're building together."

Tears spring to her eyes and she tugs me into a kiss. When we break apart, she holds my face, our foreheads pressed together. "My husband," she murmurs.

"My wife," I echo.

She kisses me again, and the crowd bursts into a round of applause. Her hand finds mine, and when we turn to the crowd, we raise our joined hands toward the sky. The sun is warm against my cheeks, and a light breeze stirs Tayla's hair. The perfect day. The perfect moment. The perfect person.

We're on the right path, and this is just the beginning.

"Let the next chapter commence," the officiant calls out.

"To the next chapter," the crowd calls back, and bubbles float all around us as we walk through the row and onto the rest of our lives. 

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