“Oh crap,” Evan said, sending a gasp through the group. Then he smiled widely. “Psych.” He dropped the rings into Frank’s outstretched hand and then took a turn with Holden.

“Not funny,” Frank said to his nephew.

“Yes, it was,” Evan replied with a cheeky grin.

Owen laughed at the exchange. He expected nothing less from his best friend than a joke in the midst of his wedding ceremony. Owen took Laura’s ring from Frank and slid the simple platinum band she’d requested onto her finger. “With this ring, I marry you, Laura McCarthy.”

She followed suit, sliding the same simple platinum band onto his finger. “With this ring, I marry you, Owen Lawry.”

“By the power vested in me by the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, I’m honored to pronounce you husband and wife. Owen, you may kiss my daughter, but keep it clean.”

“Don’t you dare,” Laura said as she leaped into his arms and kissed him passionately right in front of her father, their families and friends.

What else could Owen do but kiss her back?

“That was not clean,” Frank muttered when they finally broke apart, breathless and laughing from the sheer joy of the moment.

“It is one of the greatest honors of my life,” Frank said, “to introduce for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Owen Lawry.”

Their friends and family broke into a rousing round of applause as Owen took Holden from Evan and reached for Laura’s hand to walk toward the steps where they would greet their guests as they went up for the reception at the hotel.

One by one, their friends expressed their congratulations before heading up the stairs: David and Daisy, Jenny, Alex and Paul, Victoria and Shannon, Jared and Lizzie, Tiffany and Blaine, Luke and Sydney, Big Mac and Linda, Mac, Grant, Laura’s Uncle Kevin and his sons, Riley and Finn, who looked a lot like Mac and Adam with their dark hair and mischievous blue eyes.

Owen had met them for the first time the night before, and though they were both still in their twenties, they fit right in with their older cousins and their group of friends. He’d heard Riley asking Janey if she still had a dog named after him, and Janey retorting that the dog had come with the name. To which Riley had barked in response. Finn planned to stick around for the rest of the summer to help Shane with the affordable-housing project he was trying to finish before the cold weather set in.

Riley and Finn hugged Laura and shook hands with Owen. “Thank you for taking her off our hands,” Finn said.

Laura slugged him.

“Ow,” Finn said, rubbing his arm dramatically. “That’s not very bridal of you.”

“She fights dirty,” Owen said to high fives from his wife’s younger cousins.

“I like him,” Riley said.

“Normally, I do, too,” Laura replied.