Lillian Henry is seventeen years old when her 20 year-old brother, Adam, and his best friend, Blake Kingston, enroll in the army. And she's eighteen, when they come back, her feelings left unchanged. As for his, they're even stronger than before.
T...
I can't help the tears from coming to my eyes and rolling down my cheeks. She looks so beautiful, just like I had imagined her a thousand times. Walking down the aisle, in her white dress, about to become my wife, the moment is literal perfection. To one detail. To one person that is missing.
She reaches me, her father gives me her hand and I help her up the few steps. She stands in front of me, her glossy eyes unable to leave mine. She chuckles and smiles, and it's all I needed. I can't believe I am about to marry the girl of my dreams, the girl I fell for way before I even knew it. The first girl I ever loved, the only one in fact. The girl who turned back on all the lights in my life, who illuminates every room she walks in, and still gives me butterflies when she smiles at me, even after four years of being engaged.
We waited for her to finish university before getting married. I can still remember her face during graduation, so proud of herself as she walked down the stage towards me to show me her diploma. Then, we had Adam. So, we waited another year, she wanted him to be there for the wedding, and here he was, carrying the rings up to the front, accompanied by Lily's mom, because he just started standing up.
"Do you, Blake Kingston, take Lillian Henry to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto her for as long as you both shall live?"
Her hands in mine, a tear falling down my cheek, I say those two words I've been dying to say to her, "I do."
"Do you Lillian Henry take Blake Kingston to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?" the officiant repeats.
"I do," she lets go, wiping tears away from her face, then from mine with her thumb.
"By the authority vested in me by American Marriage Ministries and the State of North Carolina, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
As our lips meet, reality hits me. We are married. She is forever mine to love, to protect, to make happy. And I am hers. And there is nothing that could make me happier right now. I can't believe this is our first kiss as a married couple.
Adam comes running to us as we pull away from our kiss. Lily looks down at him, picking him up and sitting him on her hips, before locking our fingers together for us to walk out of the church as a married couple, as the happy family we had dreamed of.
Lillian
"Dear Blake," I read to him as we sit on the swing under the porch.
I have just put Adam to bed, and I believe it is time. It is the time that Blake gets his letter.
"Any amount of time is too long without you. But no matter how many days, weeks, months go by, there is no way in Hell that I am forgetting about you. From the way you look at me when you think I am not looking to the comfort of having your arms around me, from your kisses I can't get enough of to the feeling of your skin against mine. Each night I dream of you, of how much I love you, and it keeps me alive, it keeps my faith alive. The faith that you will come back to me, the faith that I will one day, soon I hope, hold you in my arms again. And I will, I know I will, because I am writing these words, and I have the full conviction that you will get to read my stupid emotional thoughts someday, and I can't wait to see where life take us then. There is one thing I am sure of, and it's that I will become your wife. And I have no doubt that it is what I want. The more time we spend away from each other, the more I am excited for the day we won't be apart again, linked together forever. Because being far from you is like getting punched in the stomach, it hurts, not quite literally, not physically, but it weighs on me, it makes me anxious that something might happen to you. And I know we haven't been together for long, but it's exactly it, we haven't been together enough, we aren't done yet. Far from it. Just as far as you are right now, if not more. Plus, you promised. You promised to try and be careful and I'll hold you to that. While I wait for you to come back, while I imagine our reunion a thousand times and make hundreds of possible scenarios, I will keep on praying for you and Adam, for our future, for our happiness. Because you might not be here, but you are always in my heart and in my thoughts, and I love you. And well, if we think about it, those words will be yours only when you come back, so when you'll read them, the only true wish I ever had will have been fulfilled. You'll be back home, in the safety of our love for each other."
He cuddles closer to me, bringing my legs over his so that I am basically sitting in his lap.
"I love you too, baby. Always and forever. It's a promise."
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Yours to love is officially over.
Damn, I'm emotional right now.
I had loved writing Obsessively and Joey and Xander will always be my babies, but it is nothing compare to the love you have shown for Yours to love, and I will forever be grateful for each and every one of you.
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