One and Only (Wilder Family, #1)

by Karla Sorensen

“She’s fearless,” I said. “Some people are too afraid to love that way, undaunted by whatever might come next, which might look like sweetness to some. But I just see a big, brave heart.”

Truth be told, I’d never spent much time thinking about what kind of bride I’d be. It was one day, and one day did not a marriage make. The thing I imagined was the guy at my side, my partner in life. The person who’d complement my personality, in the same ways that Tim balanced out Mom’s. I always imagined that man would be gregarious and funny and excessively charming. He’d have a big laugh and a wide smile, and we’d be so charming together that it was almost nauseating. The details of how I got down the aisle, what flowers I’d clutch in my hand, what the cut of my dress was—they never crossed my mind.

“G’night, Beckett.” I didn’t answer right away. I simply watched the rise and fall of her frame as she slipped back into a deep slumber. Olive was facing her, their hands only inches away from each other. Intimacy, I thought again. Most people I knew confused the idea of it with sex. With the physical release of one body with another. And maybe that was a big part of it, the willingness and desire to cross those lines too. To let your pleasure loose alongside someone else’s. But to me, intimacy was trust.

All her sounds, every flicker of her eyes, and every smile, I wanted them inked on my skin and threaded through my veins.

“You ready to do this?” he asked me quietly. “Me and Olive and Clarence and all the rest of it?” I turned in his arms, my eyes closed and my heart so full that I could hardly believe it was real. It was the easiest truth I’d ever told in my life. “I’ve always been ready for this. I just hadn’t met you yet.”