Snow

Chapter Twenty Four

I paced back and forth, the bottom of my dress trailing behind me. "You need to calm down." Laura said, gripping my shoulders and stepping in front of me to look me in the eye.

"You love him and he loves you. He asked you to be his girlfriend and you said yes. He asked you to move in with him and you said yes. He asked you to marry him and you agreed to spend the rest of your life with the fucking guy. Now, you're gonna calm the fuck down and go marry the man of your dreams."

I sucked in a breath of cold air before nodding and turning to the steps leading down to the beach on which I was getting married. "It'll be fine. Of course it'll be fine. Absolutely fine." I said under my breath, trying to ignore Laura's stifled laughter behind me.

Taking a shaky step forwards, I watched as my bridesmaids descended, the music starting up the moment they came into view.

They walked slowly, their pace agonizingly steady as I waited for my cue to follow. When my cue finally came, I linked arms with my dad and allowed him to lead the way, petals being thrown at me by Chels as we went.

My eyes landed on everything but Andy as I walked. I took in the guests who stood around me and the pretty bows tied onto their chairs. I looked at the sand that was falling in between my toes after my having kicked off my shoes moments before landing on the soft, warm sand.

I looked at the beautifully vast ocean only a few feet away, and considered the consequences of running to it at that very moment - it took me only two seconds to come to the conclusion that that probably wasn't the brightest of ideas.

By the time we finally reached the make-do altar, I was sure that I'd looked at everything in my eyeline, other than my husband-to-be.

Finally letting my eyes fall on his back, I smiled at the way he held himself. His posture was perfect as he faced the water ahead of him, hands clasped in front and head held high. The only sign of his nervousness was the telltale tapping of his bare foot on the sand.

When I reached his side, neither of us turned to face each other, instead reaching out to intertwine our fingers. As our hands clasped together, I saw Andy's relieved slump of the shoulders, as though he'd just let out a breath he'd been holding all day.

Just feeling his hand in mine was enough to calm my raging butterflies and keep my fingers from tapping against my thigh. As the registrar cleared his throat, our hands tightened slightly.

When we turned to face each other, both of us closed our eyes as agreed. We'd decided to keep from looking at each other until the moment when we were finally declared husband and wife.

For me, that moment could not come soon enough.

*

We'd finished repeating the traditional non-religious vows and were ready to move onto our personal ones, and I was genuinely excited to hear what Andy had written about me.

Nerves were clear in his voice as he cleared his throat and started to speak; I didn't need to have my eyes open to know that his foot had started tapping again.

"Leighla Parke, soon to be Mrs Leighla Biersack-Parke, the moment I met you I thought, 'Fuck this girl is strong. She pushed a frickin' car to the side of the road and then carried her best friend to my house.'" I laughed at that, hearing the guests laugh alongside me.

"And then you came inside, and I saw that, as well as being twelve times stronger than me, you're also really sweet and caring. You're sarcastic as hell, you don't take shit from anyone. I've loved you from the moment you threw that first snowball at me, I just didn't know it at the time." I could feel my eyes burning with unshed tears, and his smile and tears were both clear in his voice.