RYDER (Slater Brothers 4)(100)

Everyone laughed, even the priest.

“We were hoping you’d say that,” Ryder chuckled as he got to his feet.

“You don’t need to hope anymore.” I took his other hand in mine and said, “I’m ready.”

“Really ready?” he asked.

I nodded, forcing back the tears that gathered when he told me how much I meant to him. “I’ve never been more ready for anythin’ in me entire life. I need to be your wife, honey.”

He leaned his forehead down, and rubbed the tip of his nose against mine. With his voice, and body, trembling he said, “You’re my everything, sweetness.”

“And you’re mine.”

His lip twitched. “Have I surprised you?”

I closed my eyes and breathed him in. I bathed in his scent, touch, and the love he offered me in waves. I re-opened my eyes, and looked up into his shining ones.

“Surprised me?” I repeated. “I don’t think I’ll ever feel like this is real. You have given me everything I didn’t know I wanted in a weddin’. Thank you so much.”

Ryder hugged me tightly before we separated, held hands and looked at the priest.

With a smile he began to read prayers, and I’m sorry to say that it all became background noise because my entire focus was on the man before me. He clouded all of my senses, and I had zero problems with that.

I was pulled from my Ryder clouded thoughts when the priest asked me if I wanted to recite the standard vows to take Ryder as my husband, but I told him I wanted to go with my own. I stuck to the original first line then spoke from my heart.

“I, Branna Fiadh Murphy, take you, Ryder James Slater, to be my husband. I promise to never leave you. I promise to always be there to say good night. I promise to never go to bed angry. I promise to always take care of you, to love you, to cherish you. I promise my heart, body and soul to you—forever. I love you so much, darlin’.”

I held my breath when Ryder began to speak.

“I, Ryder James Slater, take you, Branna Fiadh Murphy, to be my wife.” I beamed when he decided to do the same with his vows to me, and repeat it back to me what I said instead of sticking to the original one.

I looked to my right when my sister stepped up with Georgie and together—with a little more take than give from Georgie—they gave me a beautiful silver band that I slipped onto Ryder’s ring finger, and Kane stepped up and gave him the matching ring that he slipped onto mine.

It was magic.

And if I thought it was a dream before, it most definitely was when Ryder surprised me again. He turned and took a beautiful candle with lace tied around the middle with names engraved on it in gold from Kane.

My parents’ names.

A sob tore from me before Ryder even spoke, and he smiled at me when he saw how touched I was.

“Branna,” he began, “I know that if your parents were here today they would be so proud of the woman you have become. We light this candle today in remembrance of them. In honour of them. They raised the woman who I love more than life itself and I wish so much that they could be sitting with us today.”

My sister joined me in crying tears of love for Ryder, and our dearly missed parents.

Together, we both lit the candle as the priest read the final prayer of the ceremony. We placed the candle on a stand next to us, then took one another’s hands once more.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the priest joyfully announced, his voice echoing around the hall. “You may kiss your bride, Mr Slater.”

“Thank God,” Ryder breathed.

I cried and laughed as he came at me, grabbed hold of my face and covered his mouth with mine. I thought I saw a flash, but I wasn’t sure if I did, or if Ryder was just blowing my mind.

My sister and friends cheered, and my brothers in law whooped and whistled.

We broke apart, hugged everyone, and then had to sign our names onto our marriage license that I had no knowledge of Ryder ever obtaining. I got a fright when a strange man took a picture of us signing the document, and Ryder filled me in that he was a professional wedding photographer.

He had been out of sight when I came into the church, but Ryder said he took pictures from the moment I began to walk down the aisle, he had tripods set up around the hall, too, with cameras recording the wedding at different angles that he would later edit and send to us.

After we signed the official document binding us together as husband and wife, the photographer snapped several pictures of Ryder and me. When he got what he needed of us, he took pictures of just me and my bridesmaids, then Ryder and his groomsmen, the kids with me and Ryder, then all of us together and finally us with Ash, Sally, and Doctor Harris.

By the time picture time was over my cheeks felt like they were about to split in two, but the slight pain was overshadowed by the warmth that filled my heart when I turned and looked up at Ryder.

“You’re me husband,” I whispered in awe.

He smiled with pride. “And you’re my wife.”

Holy. Shite.

“We’re so grown up,” I replied making him laugh.

“We’ve so much to look forward to together,” he beamed.

I nodded. “I know, and I can’t wait to spend every second of me life with you.”

Ryder growled as he lowered his head to mine. “Right now, I’m thinking of a week in a secluded cabin, and you naked day and night in my bed.”