Flesh and Blood

Epilogue

"Can someone tie this??"

I smiled and went over to Tristan and tied his tie for him. He was nervous. He didn't need to be, but he was and I felt kind of bad for him. He looked up and half smiled

"Thanks."

"Of course. Relax. Everything will be fine. You should be excited."

"Have you seen her?"

"No. I'm just about to head over that way. I have something to give her. Don't worry...she's here and she will show up...it's just a walk in the park. You don't even really have to do anything except talk.  She has to walk in front of everyone so she's probably more nervous than you."

I made my way to the other side of the hotel and knocked on the door to her room. You could hear a ton of commotion and stuff going on. Finally someone opened the door and I walked in with a small box and stood waiting to talk to Cassie. She walked in from the other room and she took my breath away. She smoothed out her dress and looked up and smiled

"Hi"

"Hi. You look beautiful. Tristan is a lucky man."

She blushed and looked down "Please! I'm lucky to have him. Thank you though. So whatcha got there?"

She pointed to the box in my hands. I smiled and walked over and handed it to her

"Not long after you got engaged your mom's ex-husband showed up at a wrestling show where he lives. He was taking your mom's son to the show. Anyway he had heard about you getting engaged...I don't know from where...maybe the newspaper thing you guys did? Well, he brought this box and said that he thought you might like to have it for when you got married."

"What is it?"  she asked with a puzzled look on her face

"Your mom wore them when she got married. He wanted you to have them"

She opened the box and pulled out pearl earrings and necklace. I smiled and helped her put on the necklace as she put on the earrings

"They're perfect. I wish mom was here."

I half smiled and hugged her "I know Cassie, but your mom is watching over you. She's here, just not the way you'd like."

"Thank you for everything dad. I really appreciate all that you've done for me. I don't know what I'd do without you. Finding you was the best thing that could've ever happened to me. I mean it. I love you."

I kissed her cheek and smiled "I love you too Cassie. Really I'm the one that should be thanking you. I never knew I could love this much until you came along. You filled my heart with so much happiness and I'm so glad that you came to find me. I think we needed each other more than we realized."

There was a knock on the door and Richard poked his head in to let us know it was time to line up. Both of us would be walking her down the aisle since she was afraid of hurting both of our feelings....just like her mother in so many ways. She looked so grown up it was crazy to me. It felt like time flew by...one minute I'm holding her in my arms the day she's born and the next minute I'm giving her away to be married. Of course I missed most of the inbetween, but I wouldn't trade any of the small moments I've had with her for anything in the world. Everyone was fussing about something and I could see the anxiety in her face so I pulled her away from the group