She’s at the starting end of the dock where the string lights gather brightest. Her dress moves with the wind in soft, living motion. The bodice fits her in a way that makes my thoughts, for a very brief moment, stop functioning in any responsible capacity at all.
When her eyes find mine, the entire world collapses down into that one line of sight. She smiles, and I feel my heart suddenly start racing. Behind her, I see her parents. Jessica and Anthony Easton. They begin the walk together, each holding one of her arms. She’s always somehow looked like both of them. Her mother has the same heart-shaped face, but with gentle green eyes. Her father has eyes so achingly familiar. Emma’s eyes. Both of them have lighter brown hair, now contrasting with Emma’s dark brown. She still hasn’t bothered to dye it back since Adela changed it.
Together, they guide her forward down the aisle.
Micah gives me a small, grounding touch on my shoulder, then quietly begins to drift back toward the guests, leaving me standing alone as everyone settles into place in the wooden chairs just off to the side on the dock.
Each step Emma takes down the dock feels like every dream I once had about our future when we were younger. By the time she reaches me, my pulse is still racing. I refrain from pressing my hand against my chest.
“Hi,” she whispers, looking up at me with those beautiful, honey-brown eyes.
“Hi,” I manage, softer than I intend.
For a moment, neither of us moves. Then Emma reaches for my hand, and the second her fingers close around mine, I feel every bit of angst settle. She’s always been the calmest thing in my life.
The officiant speaks somewhere nearby, but the words blur for me.
Emma exhales, a small, shaky breath that she tries to hide and fails beautifully at, and I realize I am doing the exact same thing.
And when it’s my turn to speak, I don’t aim for perfect. I don’t even come close. Because I’m standing in front of the woman I’ve loved since I was seventeen.
“Emma,” I start quietly, my voice rough in a way that surprises even me. “I’ve loved you…and only you…for the past ten years.”
Her fingers tighten around mine.
“Through every version of myself that didn’t deserve you,” I continue, slower now, “through every bad day, every moment I thought I wouldn’t make it to the next morning…your memory was there. Keeping me here.”
Emma’s eyes shine. She looks down, like she’s trying to steady herself, but she doesn’t let go.
“Everyone here knows our story,” I say, and my breath catches slightly on the next words. “How long we were apart. How badly things broke before they ever healed.” A faint exhale slips through me. “But what they might not fully understand is that even when we were separated…we were neveractuallyseparate. Not really. Somehow, we were always…finding our way back. I vow to be the man that I always should have been for you. I love you endlessly, Em.”
Her smile trembles through tears now. And then it’s her turn.
“Jude,” she says, and her voice already sounds like it’s trembling. “I never got over you. Heather can absolutely confirm that,” she adds, flicking a watery smile toward her best friend, who makes a dramatic face through her tears.
A soft laugh breaks through Emma’s emotion before she continues.
“No one ever compared to you. Not your kindness. Not your gentleness. You’ve always loved me in a way that feels…” she pauses, breath catching. “Like it was never going to change. Like, even when we’re old and gray, we’d still find each other the same way we did when we were teenagers. Completely, hopelessly, and wildly in love.”
My throat tightens so hard it hurts.
She swallows, shaking slightly. “Looking at you now, I know you’re my soulmate. Through time, and pain, and everything we survived…our love always found a way back to the light. I love you. I will love you for the rest of my life. Until my very last breath.”
A beat of silence.
And then I say it before I can overthink it. “And even after that.”
It lands between us like a promise neither of us needs explained.
Emma breaks into a teary smile, breath shaking as she laughs softly, and the world around us suddenly feels too distant to matter.
When we finally say yes, it doesn’t feel like an ending. It feels like the most incredible and beautiful beginning as I cup her face in my hands and kiss her with everything I have. This woman owns my heart and soul. Her cheeks are wet, and my thumb lightly caresses her jaw as I’ve always done.
***
Our oceanfront home sits just ahead on our left. A few months ago, we sold Emma’s cottage, and I bought this three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. When we walked through it, her face was bright the entire time. So with a quick stroke of a pen, it was ours. It didn’t even put a dent in the money I’ve accrued over the years. But even with endless money, Emma is still working at the studio because her instinct to help people has never waned.
Emma is still laughing as she kicks off her heels near the heavy wooden door, and I realize somewhere between the sound of her voice and the way Nova barrels past us into the living room that I’ve stopped expecting anything to fall apart. I no longer wake up thinking that some cruel man will tighten his leash around my throat. I feel…free.