He smiled gently and squeezed her hands.
“You, Aggie. You’re the piece that holds me together. The missing piece that made me whole. You, Aggie.”
She sucked her trembling lips between her teeth.
“I’ll probably never understand what you saw in me. What kept you from giving up when I fought so hard to push you away.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
“Thank you for being so strong and stubborn. So harsh and tender. Thank you for being you. For never giving up on me.”
Never, she mouthed.
“I only make one promise to you today, wife,” he said.
When he called her wife, she felt the power behind the word because he’d so clearly showed her what it meant to him just the day before. “I promise to love you with all of my pieces forever. I just don’t know how to love you any less.” He lifted her hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles, staring deeply into her eyes with that look of reverence on his face again. She could definitely get used to seeing it.
Someone in the pews began to clap. The enthusiasm for Jace’s words spread through the entire room until everyone was cheering. Jace turned his head slowly, as if surprised they weren’t alone. And maybe that was how he’d opened up to her the way he had. By pretending they weren’t surrounded by a hundred riveted spectators. He blushed and lowered her hands, peeking up at her sheepishly.
“That was beautiful,” she said. “Perfect.”
The priest raised a hand and eventually their guests quieted.
“Not sure how I’m supposed to follow that,” Aggie said. “I knew I should have gone first.”
Jace bit his lip, his eyes trained on her cleavage. She tucked a finger under his chin and forced his gaze up. She could only imagine how hard it had been for him to pour his heart out to her like that, but he was going to have to fight off his inherent shyness for a few more minutes, because she had things to say that he needed to hear.
“We make an interesting pair,” she said. “A cold-hearted bitch and a selfless, misunderstood man.”
Jace opened his mouth to protest, but she covered his lips with her finger.
“My turn to talk.”
He inclined his head ever so slightly in agreement.
“I eat men like you for breakfast and pick my teeth with their bones,” Aggie said.
A few people chuckled.
“At least, I did. Until I discovered who you really are. You weren’t what I expected. You brought out something in me I thought I’d lost.” She closed a fist over her chest and pressed it against her breastbone, crushing her father’s heart-shaped pendant into her skin. “My heart. I didn’t think I needed it. It only ever caused me pain. Got in the way of my ambitions. I did a really good job of pretending it didn’t exist anymore. That I didn’t need a heart. Or love. And then you happened. I still don’t know how you managed to not only remind me how to love, but how to need love. To want it. How to need you and want you. I should be pissed off that you took my life by storm and made yourself the center of my universe. I had plans, aspirations, goals, and none of them involved a man.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and then he grinned. “Actually, I’m not.”
“You shouldn’t be sorry,” she said, her voice softening. “I’ve never been happier to have been so wrong about what is most important to me. It’s you and the love we share. It can get me through anything.” She stroked the stubble on his jaw, delighting in its rough texture against her fingertips. “You only made one vow to me today, but I have dozens to make to you.”
His eyebrows drew together.
“I promise never to make you buy me tampons.”
He laughed.
“I promise I will not choke you in your sleep for leaving the toilet seat up. I promise to hug you hard when you need it and even harder when you think you don’t. I promise to tell you exactly what’s on my mind and wait patiently for you to tell me what’s exactly on yours. I promise to support you in your career and allow you to support me in mine. I will be your partner and your wife for the rest of my life, but I promise to love you forever.”
She glanced at the priest expectantly. He twitched, as if she’d cracked her whip at him, and then he cleared his throat.
“Do you Jason Michael Seymour take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, with God as your witness?”
“I do,” he said without hesitation.
“Do you Agatha Christine Martin take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, with God as your witness?”
“Hell yeah, I do,” she said, wanting to make Jace smile. It worked.
The priest again cleared his throat. “The rings.”
Eric produced the rings from inside his pocket and handed them to the priest. He said some words that Aggie didn’t pay much attention to. She was too lost in Jace’s brown eyes to be fully cognizant of anything but him.
Jace took the smaller of the gold wedding bands and slipped it onto Aggie’s left ring finger. “With this ring I thee wed,” he said.
Aggie reached for Jace’s ring with trembling fingers and slipped it over the knuckle on his left ring finger. She stroked the band, rubbing it into his flesh to solidify the physical evidence of their lifelong bond. She was surprised by how emotional the simple gesture of putting a ring on his finger made her.
“With this ring I know Jace Seymour belongs to me, and I thee wed.”
Jace’s grin of happiness made Aggie’s heart soar.
“By the power vested in me,” the priest said. “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”