I clear my throat and then move to stand, buttoning my jacket as I lift my own glass in my hand. “Thank you, Chloe, for speaking the truth about your friend. Now it’s time for mine.”
“Ah, great,” Wes mutters as Shayla starts laughing and kisses him on the cheek.
“If I can survive Chloe’s speech, you can survive whatever Hayes has to say.”
“I’m going to keep this short and sweet actually because I have something else important I have to say.” I take a deep breath and then turn to face my friend. “If there is one person on this planet that I thought deserved love, it was you, my friend. I watched you marry the wrong woman, grieve the death of the man you were closest to, battle alcoholism in the past seven years, and do a lot of other shit way before that while we were young and stupid and thought we knew everything.” I smile as I think back on our lifelong friendship.
“You’ve made amends with your brother, cultivated good from tragedy, and God knew you deserved a second chance. Shayla is your second chance and the only woman you’ll ever need. You complete each other. You make each other whole and you are friends before everything else. Maybe not as good of friends as you and I are, but to quote Chloe, she gets to have sex with you because you and I never will do that together.”
“True story,” Wes replies.
I chuckle and then clear my throat again. “However, having you as one of my best friends has not only been a positive aspect in my life because I know that we can always count on each other, but you just so happened to have a little sister that I’ve grown very fond of too.” My eyes trail over to where Waverly is seated and beaming up at me. “Waverly, can you stand up, please?”
Her eyes widen, and then she stands. “What do you need me for?”
“Just listen.” I hold out my hand to her and wait for her to intercept it. “I never thought I would fall in love with my best friend’s sister, let alone marry her drunkenly in Vegas.” Everyone laughs, but I continue. “But it just so happens that you, me, and a bottle of tequila is one of the best combinations of disaster and serendipity.”
“I beg to differ, Hayes. That hangover was epic,” she jokes.
“True. But the result of our decision that night is one I will never regret… except for maybe not being able to give you the wedding you wanted and deserved.”
“Hayes…” she starts, but I drop to my knee, cutting her off as she inhales sharply.
“Waverly, I know we’re already married, but I never did this the right way, so I’m doing it now. I’m asking you to marry me—in a white dress, in front of our friends and family, and with a ring on your finger that is the one I wish I could have given you in the first place,” I say, extracting the ring from my pocket as I hold it out to her. The round solitaire glistens in the light as I hear murmurs among our friends. “What do you say? Waverly Ann Morgan, will you marry me… again?”
Her eyes glisten with tears as she nods her answer. “Yes, Hayes. I’ll marry you over and over.”
Grinning like a fool, I stand and smash my lips to hers as clapping and cheers ring out in the background from our little group. It wasn’t a grand proposal, but it was intimate and in front of the people that count in our lives.
“You sure you want to marry me again, Beaverly?”
She narrows her eyes at me but fights her smile. “You wanna test that theory by calling me Beaverly, again?”
“It was only fitting. Gotta go back to our roots.”
“Perhaps in our vows this time, you can promise not to call me Beaverly anymore.”
I shake my head slowly, but then an idea sparks to life. “I don’t think I can do that, but I can think of a few more things we can promise each other with more than two witnesses this time.”
Chapter 22
Waverly
Two Months Later
“Do you promise to love, honor, and cherish one another, until death do you part?” Silas asks as he stands between Hayes and me in his parent’s backyard.
Their pristine lawn is filled with white folding chairs containing our friends and family, and an arch decorated in pink and white roses stands tall behind us as we recite our vows the right way this time.
With a delicate lace mermaid-style dress adorning my body and a veil that cascades all the way down to the ground, my father handed me over to Hayes at the end of the aisle. But it wasn’t his black tux, piercing brown eyes, or perfectly styled dark hair that took my breath away—it was the tears in his eyes when he grasped my hand in his and took a trembling breath in preparation to make me his wife once again.
“Yes, I do,” I reply, and then he starts to chuckle, which has me curious about the next vows I’m about to make.
“Now, for the serious part. Do you, Waverly Ann Morgan, promise to always put the squeezer on the toothpaste you share so as not to cause a fight?”
“What?” I turn to face Silas, who’s cracking up behind his hand.
“Just go with it, babe,” Hayes says across from me, pulling my attention back to him.
With a shake of my head, I answer. “Yes, I will always put the toothpaste squeezer on the tube.”
“And do you promise to never forget Hayes’s peppermint mocha creamer at the store?”
“Yes,” I say with a roll of my eyes and a smile on my lips.
“And to kill all the spiders that enter the house, even the ones that turn out to be just
