Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“It’s a learning curve,” I muttered.
“You seem to be a quick study.”
“I have a good teacher.”
She smiled again, and fuck me, were those butterflies fluttering in my stomach? What. The. Fuck?
Reminder to self: Rip off said butterflies’ wings.
Friendships didn’t come with stomach issues.
Before I could lose myself in her eyes once again, the arrival of Grandma and PaPa coming around to the backyard interrupted us. I knew they had arrived by the cheers from the crowd.
“Shall we?” I asked as I held my arm out toward Willow, my friend—nothing more and nothing less. She linked her arm with mine as a friend—nothing more and nothing less.
“We shall,” she replied.
Rip off those fucking wings, Theo.
We walked to the backyard, and as I looked out, it was a full sea of color. When my eyes met with Grandma and PaPa, my cold heart skipped a few beats. They looked stunning. PaPa was in his chair, but he seemed so happy wearing his olive suit with a purple tie. Grandma looked as if she had just walked the red carpet in Hollywood.
And the way they looked at each other?
That. Was. Love.
We all headed to the front of the archway I’d made, covered in flowers that Jensen decorated for the ceremony. Willow stood on Grandma’s right as Peter and I stood on PaPa’s left.
Peter’s father was the officiant for the celebration, and when it came time for my grandparents’ vows, I was almost certain there wasn’t a dry eye in all of Westin Lake.
Grandma requested a wooden chair to sit on, so when she spoke her vows, she’d be at eye level with PaPa.
At that moment, they were transported back to their youth. They weren’t facing their current issues. They weren’t worried about tomorrow or what would come. No. They were just two dumb kids falling in love for the first time, promising one another forever.
Grandma reached out and took PaPa’s hands in hers.
Her vows came first. “My Harry, my love, my friend. The past sixty years have not only been the most colorful years of my life but they have also been the most joyful times. Before you, I was convinced I was too much. Too loud. Too wild. Too unpredictable. Too bright. Just too much. Then I met you on the back of my father’s fishing dock, and you said I was just the perfect dose of everything. You never asked me to change; you never requested that I dull my color. You found me wild and still left me free. If I could tell anyone a love story, it would begin and end with you. My life was empty before you stepped into it. And you brought me the greatest days of my life. My heart is always yours to keep. Thank you for keeping it safe. Thank you for loving my wild. And I promise you, no matter how close we come to a goodbye in this realm, I’ll find you again on the other side,” Grandma said before placing a homemade colorful bracelet around PaPa’s wrist, the sign of her renewed vows.
That got me slightly choked up.
Then it was PaPa’s turn. “My favorite artist, my greatest love. Molly Rae Langford, my world was a blank canvas before you spun into it. And spun, you did. If I remember correctly, I was on that dock, saving you from almost falling in. When I caught your arm, you told me you were too busy counting the stars.” At that moment, I understood why Grandma and Willow were friends—they were both obsessed with the night sky, almost injuring themselves from looking up toward the moon and stars. PaPa continued, “Ever since then, you’ve made everything brighter. Before you, my world was black and white. Your presence has enhanced my entire existence. Because of you, I see the world in a different way. I am more in touch with myself because you’ve taught me what it means to be unselfishly oneself. Over these past sixty years, you have been my rainbow. It has been my greatest privilege to be loved by you, and my greatest honor has been to love you back. And even as we get older, just know I still mean what I said on our wedding day many moons ago: Forever, Molly Rae. In this lifetime and the next, forever. I’ll always meet you on the dock.”
I was choking on a sob that I swallowed down from PaPa’s vows. As I looked up, I caught Willow’s eyes on me. Tears streamed down her face because it was my Weeping Willow. The girl who cried over any and everything. She smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. Lately, she’d been dragging those out of me.
Wait, rewind.
What did I think before?
My Weeping Willow?
I meant my friend Weeping Willow.
We were friends.