Him & I

Yours

I came to life when I first kissed you
The best me has his arms around you
You make me better than I was before
Thank God I'm yours
The worst me is just a long gone memory
You put a new heartbeat inside me
You make me better than I was before
Thank God, I'm yours
——Yours, Russell Dickerson

"I can't believe you took the shoes off," Brennan frowned at Cait as he danced with her under the white lights and the stars.

"Bren, they're great, but I've had them on almost all day," she laughed. "They've been killing me since we cut the cake."

Cait had managed to keep those shoes on through dancing with Grayson again. And then with her father. Grayson had danced with his mother, grumbling about the fact that someone let her choose a Celine Dion song for their dance. And Cait had danced with Will. And Connor, who had surprised her by choosing Unforgettable by Nat King Cole for his dance with her.

She'd been spun to Luke, then Brian, and then Phil. Then the shoes came off when she was dancing with a bunch of Grayson's teammates. After all, she'd needed to keep a close eye on her grandmother and Mrs. Worthington, who were having entirely too much fun dancing with a bunch of twenty-something basketball players.  But now she was ready to find her husband and get to the honeymoon.

For his part, Grayson had ditched the jacket and rolled his sleeves up long ago, tucking those Duke cufflinks in his pocket. When he did, he remembered putting them on just one day more than a year ago. Draft day. What a wild ride it had been since then.

Now he watched Cait laughing at something Brennan had said. Her hair was in a looser updo this time, a French braid along one side of her head, a few tendrils framing her face. Those diamond earrings glittered and sparked, right along with the dress. And her eyes.

"She's glowing again," Margaret said to Grayson, having convinced him to dance with her.

"Yes, she is," he smiled.

"I told you that she looks different when you're around," Margaret nodded. "She's so happy. I honestly never thought she'd be so happy."

Chitana cut in now, having overheard and making Grayson laugh. "She's right," she said firmly, looking him dead in the eye. "Even when she won them medals the first time, she wasn't happy. Not really. Never thought she would be. You see to it she stays that way, you hear me?"

"I hear you, Chitana," Grayson smiled. "Gonna do my very best."

"You'd better," she stared him down. "I like you. But I love her. I'm allowed to give her a hard time. You, not so much. You got me?"

"I got you," he promised.

He'd made similar promises to Granny Morgan and Jennifer Kennard in the last few minutes. And Mrs. K, who had turned out to be a little more scary than he'd thought she could be. He was ready to get out of there. But when his eyes found Cait again, she was dancing with Coach.

Grayson walked over to them and heard Coach lecturing her gently. Telling her that they needed to take care of each other. But he tapped him on the shoulder.

"Do you think I could cut in, Coach?" he asked with a smile.

"As bad a dancer as you are, I suppose you're probably better than they guy with the artificial knees," Coach chuckled. He kissed Cait on the forehead and then hugged Grayson too.

"Thanks, Coach," Grayson said with a smile.

"You two should get out of here before Mickie decides to take more pictures," he told them.