The Artist [h.s.]

twenty four

Robin knocked on the open door carefully so that he wouldn't startle her. Carter's smile was bright as her eyes met his in the mirror, but he knew that it wouldn't compare to the one she wore when she walked down the aisle and saw Harry.

"Almost ready?"

Carter ran her hands over the beautiful silk of her dress, her eyes following her hands, "No. I feel like I'm going to go into cardiac arrest and it hasn't even started yet. But, I am more than ready to spend the rest of my life with your son. Does that make sense?"

Robin laughed lightly as she turned around and offered him her arm, "Perfect sense. When I married Anne, I was so afraid that I almost ran out of the building. I wasn't afraid to be married to her, I was just afraid of what I was feeling like because my heart was going crazy and I could hardly breathe. Tell you what though, as soon as she walked through the door, all of that went away and all I felt was the immense love that I have for that beautiful woman."

The sound of light chatter filled her ears as they walked down the hall and the butterflies fluttered in her stomach. In only a few more moments, she would be on display and on her way to to start a new chapter with the man that kept her heart beating.

Her mind was focused on Harry long before the doors even opened, her heart beating at a thousand miles an hour and her lungs pushing themselves to breathe as if they had forgotten.

Robin smiled at her after he'd given the cue for the music to start, "You ready?"

Carter nodded, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip and her cheeks flushing naturally. The second that the massive doors swung open and Carter saw Harry standing at the end of the aisle, she completely understood what Robin had meant when he said everything but love went away.

She'd seen him smile a thousand times, but nothing compared to the smile that he wore when his eyes met hers from across the room and nothing compared to the way that she felt in that moment.

There were no words to describe it, but it was one of the best feelings in the world and she knew that she would hold onto it for the rest of her life. Even though they were supposed to be listening to the priest, Harry and Carter were far too absorbed in one another to pay attention to anything else.

Their vows were beautiful, but the ones behind their eyes said everything that words could never express properly. Harry had hardly waited for the priest to finish the typical "you may now kiss the bride", his arms pulling her close and his lips pressing against hers at the word "kiss".

Carter could hardly tell where she ended and he began and she didn't want to. Her head was spinning and her heart was doing somersaults. She never wanted his kiss to end.

But, it had to and it did after they ran out of oxygen. It didn't matter though because they would remember that kiss every day for the rest of their lives.

. . .

All the attention was almost overwhelming, but Carter didn't mind it at all. After years of ups and downs, she was finally Harry's wife. Carter felt like she was on top of the world and nothing could bring her down.

Harry's friend's band took the stage and introduced themselves briefly before calling the newlyweds out and into the middle of the dance floor for their first dance as a married couple.

Harry pulled Carter along with a smile that encompassed all of his features. He was still overwhelmingly happy to be married to Carter, but there was also an added excitement because he'd been planning a surprise for their first dance since he'd first known that he was going to ask her to marry him.