Chapter 54: Mountaintop Vows

AVA

After dinner, we drove the rest of the way to the hotel. We got settled in and then started putting on our wedding clothes.

I stationed myself in the bathroom, so as to preserve as much of the magic of the first reveal as possible.

I twirled around, looking in the mirror to check my dress from as many angles as possible, which was hard to do when the mirror above the sink was the only one available.

“How’s it going in there, love?” Cyrus said from the other side of the door.

“I’m almost ready.”

I ran my hands over the skirt of my dress one more time, smoothing out the fabric. The dress had made it through the trip surprisingly well.

It was pretty much wrinkle-free, despite having been folded in a suitcase for a day.

It was a beautiful dress, made out of smooth, white satin. It had a square neckline and long, slightly puffy, cuffed sleeves.

There were small satin-covered buttons along the back and cuff, and I couldn’t fasten the back of my bodice myself. I simply hadn’t thought about that when I bought the dress.

“I might need some help,” I admitted.

I opened the bathroom door ever so slightly, then turned around and lined up the back of my dress with the opening and had Cyrus button it.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s close our eyes and open them on three.”

We shuffled into the room, our eyelids clamped shut. When we were standing there facing each other, Cyrus counted us down.

“One…two…three.”

We opened our eyes and each sucked in a breath when the other one came into view. Cyrus looked incredibly handsome in his linen suit.

His tousled hair looked as if each wave and curl had been hand-placed there with great care, but knowing Cyrus, he had likely just run his hands through it a few times.

His scruffy beard was cleaned up around the edges, giving him a casual yet neat appearance.

He had a boutonniere pinned to his suit jacket, and as my eyes traveled down his body, I noticed he was holding a round box.

“You look incredible,” Cyrus said. “Every time I think you can’t look any prettier, you manage to surpass my expectations.”

“You look so handsome,” I whispered. “I’m so lucky.”

Cyrus cleared his throat. “I got you something.” He handed me the box. “You don’t have to wear it, of course. But it reminded me of you.”

I opened the box slowly. Lying on a bed of velvet was a beautiful flower crown. It was made up of eucalyptus, baby’s breath, and delicate flowers, and it had a ribbon tied in a bow on the back.

I noticed it matched Cyrus’s boutonniere, and it nearly made me tear up.

“I love it.” I carefully placed the crown on my head. “Thank you so much.”

Cyrus grabbed my hands in his. “It suits you well. Now let’s go get married.”

***

CYRUS

We turned a lot of heads as we made our way up to the mountaintop we’d be getting married on.

Even though it was pretty late, we still ran into a few couples, some lone hikers, and even the occasional family.

Everyone we passed either whistled, congratulated us, or made some other type of kind comment.

I’d gotten used to women staring at me over the years—especially after they heard my last name—but men staring at Ava was something I was still adjusting to.

Once again, I couldn’t even blame them. The girl looked like a Disney princess, for crying out loud. But it made the beast inside me stir with jealousy.

I managed to keep myself in check for the most part and just shot them daggers with my eyes.

When we reached the top of the mountain, I watched Ava’s reaction to the little altar I’d had installed. String lights and flowers hung from the wooden archway we’d be getting married under.

Ava gasped and clutched my hand tighter. “Did you know about this?” she asked.

I winked and ushered her toward it.

As we approached, two women got up from a bench off to the side.

I recognized one as Bernadette, our officiant, and the other one was carrying two large cameras, so she must have been Rachel, our photographer.

We introduced ourselves, and then we made our way over to the altar, where we were joined by Bernadette.

She recited a brief version of a traditional ceremony script, but she kept it short and sweet and used some humor to keep everything light.

Then she turned to me. “Cyrus, it’s time for your vows.”

I looked at Ava. She was gazing up at me with those big, beautiful hazel eyes I loved so much. She looked so happy, and her dimples were accentuated by her warm smile.

“Ava, from the first moment I saw you, I needed you in my life. I tried my best not to want you, but there’s simply no fighting a love like ours.

“Life has thrown us some curveballs along the way, and even though our time together hasn’t been the longest, I could not imagine any reality in which we wouldn’t spend the rest of our days together.

“You complete me, you balance me out, you challenge me, and you push me in the right direction. I have become a better man since I met you, and you continue to make me better myself each day.

“I promise you my faith and my love, every single day for the rest of your life and whatever lies beyond.

“I promise to support you in every decision you make and to shift into whatever version of me you need me to be throughout the different stages of life. You have me. I’m yours. Completely. All yours.”

By the time I’d finished, Ava’s small frame was shaking with suppressed sobs.

I wanted to pull her into me and kiss her until she felt better, but I hadn’t gotten the go-ahead from Bernadette yet, so I held myself back and just stroked my thumbs over the backs of her hands instead.

“Ava,” Bernadette said, “your turn.”

Ava took a couple of deep breaths and let go of my hands momentarily to wipe her tears with a tissue Rachel had handed her between pictures.

“Right,” she said and smiled at Bernadette before turning to me.

“Cyrus, I wasn’t looking for men like you when we met. I was trying to avoid them, actually. Marked by my past, I figured I could never allow myself to fall for someone like you.

“But there was no fighting it. Like you said, our love demanded us to come together, again and again. Call it destiny, or fate, or whatever you will, but I’m convinced we needed to find each other.

“Our lives have been braided together into an unbreakable rope. An elastic rope, since every time we tried to pull apart, it just made us snap back together harder.

“We are forged from the same energy. We move in tune and complete each other. We are as different as we are the same, and being with you is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life. We belong together. We always have and always will.

“I will live out the rest of my life loving you, and I promise you I will find you and love you in all lives and eternities that may lie ahead. I am yours and will be so forever. All yours.”

I swallowed hard before taking Ava’s beautiful face in my hands and bending down to bring my lips to hers.

I forgot all about our surroundings as I kissed her, releasing all the tension that had built between us.

We entangled our bodies as we deepened the kiss, and I was vaguely aware of Bernadette’s voice somewhere in the background, sounding amused as she spoke the sentence I had been waiting to hear since that cold winter’s day when I had first laid my eyes on Ava.

“You may kiss your bride.”