She is the single most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.
I finally stop moving and start breathing again when I see her. The winter sun shines brightly through the window, surrounding her like a halo, and she looks like an angel. She IS an angel. She’s my angel and she keeps me grounded and watches over me, always taking care of me. The last few months have been hard on both of us, but Lucy has never let it show. She doesn’t protest when I want to stay inside the house, away from other people; she just curls up with me on the couch and tells me how much she loves me. She doesn’t get scared or look at me with pity if I have a nightmare and wake her up in the middle of the night; she just wraps me in her arms, talks to me about stuff that happened on the island while I was gone and tells me she missed me.
It’s a strange thing, feeling like you can’t breathe without another person. Physically, I know I’m breathing and my heart is beating when she’s not around, but in my soul, it feels a movie that’s been paused, waiting for someone to come back into the room. When I’m away from her, I feel like my life is on hold and she’s the only one who can restart it.
“Jesus… You are stunning,” I whisper as I take her in from head to toe.
She’s wearing a strapless white dress that hugs every curve of her body and her hair is curled in soft waves all around her face and hangs down her back. I smile, knowing that she was able to win at least one argument with my mother about this wedding. My mother thought she would look best with her hair piled up on top of her head, but Lucy refused, knowing that I love it best when it’s down and natural. Her veil is attached somewhere in her hair and it hangs down her back, trailing on the floor behind her. She grabs onto the fabric of her skirt and sweeps it out of the way as she turns to face me.
I take my time walking across the room so I can enjoy staring at her. When we’re standing toe-to-toe, she looks up at me and smiles.
“Does your mother know you’re in here? I was given strict orders to stay away from you until the ceremony,” she tells me with a laugh.
Wrapping my hands softly around her neck, I rub my thumbs back and forth against the smooth skin of her cheeks. I’m afraid to touch her anywhere else and mess up her hair and make-up, but I can’t be this close to her and not put my hands on her.
“I don’t give a shit what my mother says. I needed to see you.”
Lucy’s face lights up, but then it quickly morphs into concern as she stares into my eyes.
“Hey, are you okay?” she asks softly, bringing her palms up and pressing them against my chest.
I smooth a wayward curl out of her eyes with the tips of my fingers and smile down at her.
“I am now. I just needed to see you,” I reassure her.
She moves into the circle of my arms, sliding her hands down and around my waist before resting her cheek against my chest.
“You’re going to mess up your hair and make-up,” I protest, even though I’m already wrapping my arms around her and pulling her closer.
“It doesn’t matter,” she tells me, squeezing her arms tighter around my waist. “Nothing matters but this, right here. None of those people downstairs matter, none of the elaborate decorations or food matters, nothing is more important than us, right here, right now. I love you, Fisher, and even though we didn’t get our wedding on the beach by the lighthouse, this is still the happiest day of my life.”
Kissing the top of her head while trying to avoid mussing her hair, we stand in each other’s arms and stare out the window at our lighthouse, set amongst the cliffs.
“Someday, down the line, I’m going to marry you by that lighthouse. We’ll just renew our vows or something,” I tell her.
Lucy’s laughter rumbles against my chest and she tilts her head back to look up at me.
“Are we going to invite your mother? Because if we do, she might try to decorate the lighthouse and invite the entire town.”
I chuckle and shrug. “Maybe we can just keep it a secret and invite her five minutes before it begins. Let’s say… the fifteenth anniversary of the day I finally convinced you to date me. I’ll meet you at the lighthouse and you can become my wife again.”
Lucy nods her head, pushing up on her toes to kiss my chin. “It’s a date. I’ll meet you at the lighthouse.”
Just a few minutes holding Lucy and I already feel a thousand times better. I can still hear the faint hum of noise downstairs, but it doesn’t bother me. I hear a door slam and I don’t jump with anxiety. She makes everything better… She makes the world around me disappear until there’s just the two of us and she’s right, that’s all that matters.
I move back and grab her hands, pulling her towards the closet on the far side of the room.
“I have something for you. I snuck it in here this morning before you came up here to get ready,” I tell her as I lead us to the closet. “Close your eyes.”
She complies, standing beside me with a huge smile on her face.
“I thought we said we weren’t going to get each other wedding presents, Fisher. Marrying you is the only gift I need.”
I let go of her hands and open the door, reaching inside for the gift I made her.
“Yeah, well, I lied. Open your eyes.”
She slowly opens her eyes and they immediately fill with tears when she sees what I’m holding.
“I thought we could hang it next to the front door of our house,” I tell her.