Somebody blew a note on a pitch pipe. The performers set up a soft acapella accompaniment.
Myles took a breath and began to sing.
Oh. Oh God.
She couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but stare at him with her heart cracked open wide as he serenaded her with “Take Me As I Am” from Jekyll and Hyde.
His voice floated over the audience, twining around her heart as he sang to her and her alone. Everything in the music, in his eyes told her, You see me. The real me. Here I am. I’m yours. Of all the songs he could’ve chosen, none could have meant more from one black sheep to another. Wasn’t that his biggest appeal? That he saw her, the real her, and accepted her without reservation? Wasn’t that what they brought to each other?
As he reached the end of his verse, her nerves melted away and she took her first measured step toward him, wishing like hell her dress wasn’t laced quite so tight as she launched into what might be the most important performance of her life. The guests faded away, and for the length of that aisle, there was nothing and no one but Myles. She poured out everything she felt. Making the promise that if he’d only look deep enough, he’d see that she loved him. The real him. Her voice gained strength with every step, until she joined voice and hands with him beneath the pergola as they sang vows of love and acceptance, no matter what.
Sliding a hand around her waist, he drew her in, lowering his brow to hers as they softly sang the final line. “Take me as I am.”
The minister’s voice broke the ensuing silence, reminding Piper that they weren’t alone and the wedding wasn’t over. “Well, that almost makes the vows seem superfluous.”
She grinned over at him. “We should probably do them anyway.”
“And so we shall. If there are no further surprises?” Reverend Emmons looked to Myles, then over to Tucker, who made an innocent face. Hearing no other interruptions, he continued. “Dearly beloved—”
Chapter 10
“Not a dry eye in the house!”
Myles flinched as yet another camera flash went off in his periphery. “Zach, do you really have to keep doing that?”
“According to your grandmother, yes. And she’s scarier than you.”
“Of course she is,” he muttered.
Piper chuckled. “You turned our wedding into a musical. This means there must be documentation and that it will be talked about for years to come.”
He scowled. “I didn’t do it for them. I did it for you.”
She lifted her hands to frame his cheeks, pulling him close. “And I love that you did. You took the circus and made it about us. About me. I didn’t really think that was possible. So thank you.”
“You were getting little enough out of this whole deal.”
Her expression as she smiled up at him made Myles’ heart squeeze. “I got you out of it. That’s all I wanted.” Rising to her toes, she closed the last of the distance, pressing a soft kiss to his lips.
He heard the click of the camera again and lifted his head. “Zach, I swear to God... If you don’t let me kiss my wife in peace, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“But this stuff is gold. I’ll have a seriously hard time picking the right shot for the front page of tomorrow’s edition.”
“If there is one word about this wedding in tomorrow’s edition, heads are going to roll,” Myles snarled.
“But people love love! This will boost circulation.”
“I’m not exploiting my personal life in the name of the paper. Now go away before I lose my good mood.”
Zach wisely lowered the camera. “Fine, fine. I’ll go find someone else to bug. But you can’t control what ends up on Facebook and Instagram.”
Eyes narrowed, Myles watched his friend weave his way through the crowded ballroom. “Remind me why we’re still here?”
“Because we promised to play nice and we haven’t discharged our duties as bride and groom.”
“We danced. We ate dinner. We had cake. We even did the damned receiving line. What more do they want from us?”
“To hang out a respectable length of time before the bouquet toss.”