“This is going to be the best-est wedding ever,” Petey said as he paced the room where Annie was putting the finishing touches on Lainey’s veil. He had been able to come in, as soon as Lainey was in her dress, and was now waiting to escort her down the aisle and give her away.
“You think so?” Lainey smiled at her son. He looked so handsome and grown up in his wedding attire.
“Brad is even wearing cowboy boots with his tuxedo.”
Lainey reached out to give his cummerbund and suspenders a playful tug. “So are you.”
Petey grinned proudly. “Aunt Bunny isn’t feeling too well, though,” he said, continuing his recitation of events.
Aunt Bunny was pregnant. And she and Bart couldn’t be happier about the late-in-life pregnancy. Lainey smiled and said reassuringly, “That’ll pass, honey.”
Petey’s eyes widened curiously. “Are you and Brad gonna have more babies, too? ’Cause it would be okay with me if you did. Kurt and Kyle and Teddy, Trevor and Tyler say it’s lots of fun to have brothers…and I’d really like to have a brother. Even a sister would be okay.”
Lainey grinned. She brought her son to her for a hug. “You are one special guy, you know that?”
Petey smiled back as the music started.
“Are you ready to walk me down the aisle and give me away?” Lainey asked.
Petey nodded, held up his arm to her. “Let’s do it.”
As they left the anteroom, she saw Brad’s whole family gathered on the Lazy M lawn. Lainey’s friends from Dallas were there, too. Sybil had even talked them into allowing a photographer from the magazine to take photos.
The sight of everyone close to them filled Lainey with gratitude and peace, but it was Brad, looking so determined and so full of love for her, standing next to the minister at the other end of the aisle, that made her heart race. The joy in his eyes matched her own.
The ceremony itself was a wonderful, happy blur. “…to have and to hold…from this day forward…forevermore…”
When the minister announced, “You may kiss the bride,” Brad grinned and said, “It’s about time!”
The crowd erupted around them and their lips met. Basking in their joy, Lainey and Brad’s life together, as husband and wife, began.