Eli watches Rue watch the water, an unusual shine to his eyes. “Here?” he asks, at last.

She smiles. Facing straight ahead, she nods. “Here.”

My brother pulls her into him, and they kiss. They kiss and kiss, and it doesn’t—this one moment looks like something that I should not be witnessing. Conor seems to be of the same mind, and we lock eyes.

“I think I get it,” I whisper. “What’s happening.”

His lips twitch. “Yeah?”

“Do you think—”

“So,” Eli says in his loud, hockey team MVP voice. His grin is not his regular one. This might be the happiest I’ve ever seen my brother. “Thank you for coming. Both of you.”

I bite back a smile. “You practically abducted us.”

“Yeah, well. You needed abducting, Maya. Rue and I talked about it, and we decided that you were the only person we couldn’t do this without.”

I blow out an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. I’m going to give you a kidney.”

“And Hark”—he turns to Conor—“you are my best man and my oldest friend.”

A smirk plays on Conor’s lips. “But that’s not why I’m here, is it?”

“Nope.” Eli points at Salvatore, who’s staring at his empty cigarette pack with a desolate expression. “I need you to explain to this government official that he needs to marry Rue and me. Right now. With the fastest ceremony he is capable of.”

2 days before the wedding

The day of the wedding

Chapter 38

They kiss right as the sun emerges from the water.

A truly cinematic moment that would have made for a perfect picture. No one takes any, but it doesn’t matter. Neither Eli, nor Rue, will ever forget.

“We just want to be married,” Eli told us, at once deeply relieved and outrageously happy. “I need to be married to her. Everything else—I’m sure there was a time when I gave a fuck, but that’s so long gone, I can’t even recall it. I’m ready for this woman to be legally mandated to never leave my side—”

“Not how the law works,” Rue murmured, unfazed.

“—until the day we both die in our sleep, surrounded by our immortal dogs and millions of plants.”

Conor and I exchanged a look. Then a smile. Then he said: “Solid choice. I approve. Signor Salvatore?”

I watch Rue’s arms close around Eli’s neck, but the glare of the rising sun turns them into little more than contours, dark shapes against the horizon. Maybe this is what relationships are. How people’s lives unfold. Opaque from the outside, the layers and depths impossible to grasp.

I will never fully understand Rue and Eli’s odd, mismatched love, but they fought for it. They made this happen. This happiness, it didn’t just fall into their lap. They compromised, and—

It all happens at once. Tears streak my cheeks. Conor’s arm draws me into the warmth of his chest. “Hush,” he murmurs against my hair. “It’s all good.”