All of Me (Inside Out #5.5)(44)

Chris takes it, and my hand. “Easy, baby. We’re almost there.”

I nod and the preacher says, “Repeat after me, Sara. With this ring, I thee wed.”

“With this ring, I thee wed,” I say, and my voice shakes as badly as my hands.

Chris takes my rose-etched band from the preacher and places it on my finger, and he doesn’t wait for instructions. “With this ring, I thee wed.” Then he pulls me to him, leaning down to whisper in my ear, “You are the reason I breathe.” He eases back and cups my face. “Every reason.” He kisses me, deeply, passionately, and I’m clinging to him, this man who has healed my broken pieces.

The preacher clears his throat, and Chris reluctantly tears his mouth from mine, as I do his.

And then we hear the words where everything past and present comes together: “I now pronounce you man and wife.” The preacher steps to us and turns us to the crowd. “Allow me to proudly introduce Mr. and Mrs. Chris Merit.”

? ? ?

Hours later, our magical evening is far from over. Chris and I are finally back in our apartment in San Francisco, and I am naked, sitting on a chair on Chris’s orders. He’s naked, too, gloriously, wonderfully naked, a palette and a paintbrush in his hand as he goes down on one knee in front of me. “I’m going to paint you, Sara.”

“Paint me? As in my skin?”

“That’s right. All of you—because that’s the only thing that will ever be enough.”