"I don't trust myself with you, Em. I know as soon as I get my hands on you that I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and take you somewhere that we can be alone."
She does a little skip toward me and grabs on to my hand, threading our fingers together. "It will probably be the car, because Violet has something planned at her diner for us after this."
"Fu—dge," I say, remembering that I'm in a church.
"So..." she starts.
"So what?" I ask.
"Are you going to take me to get married or what? The sooner we do, the sooner I get to kiss you."
I nod my head, and before she knows it, I have her up in my arms striding through the door into the church where the pastor, Violet, Raymond, and Peter are all waiting. Emma's probably embarrassed. I know this isn't probably what she expects, but now that we're to this point, I'm not letting her out of my sight until she has my ring on her finger. And even then it's a little iffy.
I put her down, right in front of the pastor. "Let's go," I tell him, and then Emma does blush. It's obvious that I'm wound very tight right now and what I plan to do as soon as this is over.
The pastor clears his throat and goes through the vows. When we're getting to the end, where the pastor asks me if I take Emma to be my wife, instead of the easy I do, I tell him, "Yes sir. She's mine."
The small crowd laughs, but I don't think it's funny. I want the whole town of Whiskey Run to know that Emma is now mine.
As soon as the pastor says, “You may kiss the bride,” I don't waste another minute. I pick her up into my arms and stride from the room. The way I plan on kissing her, well, we don't need an audience, and there's no guarantee I can stop with a kiss.
"I love you, Mrs. Emma Barrett."
"I love you, husband," she says right before she kisses me.
She was right: I barely made it to the car, but I made it. Then I showed her just how much she's mine.
Epilogue 2
Violet
I wipe the counter harder as I think about what I’m about to do. I hope I’m not screwing this up. Surely, after all the couples I’ve managed to help get together, I’m not completely wrong on this. They haven’t seen each other in four years, and heck, they really didn’t hang in the same circles then, but I just know these two are meant to be together. Plus, it’s not like I’m going to set them up on a date or anything. Nope, I’m just arranging for them to be here at the same time. If fate takes over, fate takes over. If not, I’ll leave it alone.
“Hey, Vi! I have those books you wanted,” Sierra Jensen says as she walks toward the counter. Sierra is the town librarian, and even though I’m older than her, we have a good friendship with a lot in common - such as our love of books.
“Thank you. I didn’t think I would be able to make it over there today, so I really appreciate you bringing them,” I tell her.
She sets the books down with a smirk at the cover of one of the books I requested. “Look, don’t judge me. You know romance books are my guilty pleasure.”
Sierra laughs. “Oh, I know. That’s actually one of my favorite books.”
We laugh conspiratorially. “So what do I get for bringing you books? A piece of cake, a shake, what are you offering?”
“Whatever you want,” I tell her. That’s one thing I’ve always loved about Sierra. She’s always been confident with her curvy body. Well, I can’t say always. She says that in high school she wasn’t. But who’s confident in high school except for the popular crowd, which the way she tells it, she wasn’t.
She’s staring at the cakes on the counter. “Cinnamon Blaze apple cake. You know I can’t pass it up. And a coffee.”
I grab her a slice and a cup of coffee and set it down in front of her. “So how are things at the library?”
“Quiet,” she deadpans and then starts heartily laughing at her own joke. Her smile, just as her laugh, is contagious, and we’re both giggling to the point I don’t hear the bell go off over the door.
“Hey, Violet.” A man interrupts us, and I sober up quickly.
Sierra’s head turns so fast, I’m almost afraid she’s going to hurt herself. There’s no doubt she recognizes that voice. “Evan McCarthy,” she breathes out low.
When he turns to look at her, she sucks in a breath like she doesn’t realize she said his name out loud.
He shakes his head, his eyes scrunched up. “I’m sorry. Do I know you?” he asks.
Even from here, I can see Sierra’s heart plummet in her chest. She’s no doubt devastated. The man she has pretty much been in love with almost half her life doesn’t even have a clue who she is. “No.” She shakes her head side to side. “Look, I have to get back to work, Violet. I’ll see you soon, okay?”
She leaves her cake and her coffee on the counter and almost runs from the place before I can even pack it up and send it with her.
Evan looks from Sierra running out the door and back at me. “What did I do?” He looks worried, and I start to feel bad. I never should have done this. It definitely didn’t go how I pictured it in my head.
“You didn’t do anything,” I tell him. “So a new security system. Can you help me out?”
He holds his hands up. “Wait. Who was that? She looks familiar, but I
