Bitter

Epilogue

Wren

6 Months Later

Ellie helps button the last button on the back of my dress, and I let out a harsh breath. She walks around to my front and squeezes my arms. “You doing okay?”

I smile and sigh. “Am I absolutely crazy for doing this?” I ask.

She laughs. “Do you feel crazy?”

I smile shyly at the ground. “No.” My voice is barely audible as I smirk and look back up at Ellie. “I’m more sure about this than I ever was about anyone else. Is that crazy?”

She leans forward and squeezes me into a hug. “No girl, you’re not crazy. You’re in love. Feels good, huh?”

I laugh and then squeal. “Oh my God! I’m fucking getting married!”

“Ahhh!” Ellie screams right back as we hug and spin around giddily. She steps back a moment later. “Oh, c’mon, we don’t want to mess up your hair!”

I shake my hands nervously. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

We head toward the door and down the stairs of the cottage. Reed and I just closed on our house yesterday, but Reed decided on a whim last week that he didn’t want to move in there until I was his wife. We hadn’t really started wedding planning since we weren’t really sure if we wanted to have one.

We were just sitting on the couch watching TV when he turned to me and told me he didn’t want to wait anymore and that we couldn’t move into our new house until we were married. I thought he was joking at first, but then somehow we ended up at city hall the next day getting our marriage licence.

I texted Ellie asking if she could come this weekend to be my witness and maid of honor. Of course, she offered the cottage for us to get married at, and Tim was even already an officiant for another friend’s wedding, so he offered to do ours as well.

Last person we needed was Jason, and it’s not like his plans of drinking and trying to pick up chicks at the bar couldn’t be rescheduled. So here we all are for my wedding. My fucking wedding. Holy shit. I never in a million years would have thought this is where I’d be at this same time last year.

Ellie opens the back slider door, and then she loops her arm with mine as we walk down to the water where Reed, Tim, and Jason are waiting for us. Any last bit of nerves I had leave my body the moment Reed looks my way.

His smile stretches across his face as he leans back and takes a big breath. I can already feel my eyes pricking with tears. I told him I wasn’t going to cry since he’s seen me do enough of that, but here I am already getting emotional. These tears are different from all the ones before though. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as happy as I am in this moment.

I can’t imagine a more perfect way to start forever with him, surrounded by the people that really matter to us. No family drama involved. No worrying about our guests. The only thing that matters is starting our lives together.

Reed breathes out heavily as he stretches his hand out to grab mine. “Wow.” His eyes fall down my body before he smiles at me again. “You ready for this?”

I squeeze his hand and step forward to stand next to him. “Let’s do it.”

The End