He looked at Dru.
“Dru Connolly, do you take Sebastian Badd as your husband, and do you promise to love him and him alone with everything you’ve got for as long as you live and for whatever comes beyond this life?”
Dru took a deep breath and let it out. “I do. Forever, and beyond.”
Drew looked at Sebastian next. “And Sebastian, do you take this woman—my precious daughter and my only family in this world—to be your wife, and to love her and her alone with everything you’ve got for as long as you live and for whatever comes beyond this life?”
Sebastian nodded. “I do.”
Drew’s gaze went from one to the other. “You have vows to exchange, before I do the honors?”
Dru let out another breath. “Sebastian…sometimes I have trouble accepting that I’m here, that this is real. That you’re real. But you are, and…I love you. So much. And your brothers, all seven of them, they’re all the family I’ve never had, and I’m thankful for you, and for them. I promise to love you with all the crazy I’ve got—which is a lot. All I can say is, I’m so glad I wandered into your bar that night.”
Sebastian laughed. “I’m glad you did, too. I had this whole big speech written out, but the cards I wrote it on are all crumpled now and I can’t make out my own handwriting—” he held up a pair of 3x5 cards covered on both sides with illegible scrawl, then stuffed them back in his tuxedo pants pocket, “so I’m just gonna have to wing it. When you stumbled into my bar four months ago, you were wearing that same wedding dress you’ve got on now, but you were soaking wet, your makeup was running, your hair was a tangled mess, and you were heart-broken and hammered. And, honey, my first thought the moment I laid eyes on you, was that you were an angel. You took my breath away then, and you’ve taken it away every single damn day since. I didn’t know what I was lookin’ for, but I found it in you. So here we are. I love you. And thanks for taking a chance on me.” He glanced at Drew, then. “And Drew, now that I’ve married your daughter, you’ve got eight of us as your family. So on behalf of my brothers and me…welcome to the tribe.”
Drew let out a deep breath, cleared his throat and blinked hard. “Thanks, Sebastian. That means more than I can say. Now, if you two don’t have anything else—” he looked from Dru to Sebastian and back, and they both shook their heads, “then all there is left to say is…by the power vested in me by…what’s it called…the Universal Life Church—and the great World Wide Web…I now pronounce you husband and wife. Kiss her, kid.”
Sebastian wasted no time laying one on Dru and, holy shit…it was a scorcher of a kiss. Made a few people more than a little uncomfortable, but hell, you couldn’t miss the love between them.
Sebastian threaded his fingers in Dru’s, and they held their joined hands up, and the crowd, a mix of Ketchikan locals and tourists, plus the small but rowdy knot of Drew’s cop buddies, all wearing loud Hawaiian tourist shirts and Crocs with socks—they especially howled and clapped like crazy, but nobody made as much noise as us Badd brothers.
Sebastian let it go on for a while, and then leaned into the mic. “Thanks, everybody. Now that the ceremony is done, let’s party! Have fun!”
The twins hopped back up behind their mics and instruments and kicked off a rousing rendition of the Beastie Boys classic, “Fight For Your Right To Party”, and wouldn’t you know those two knuckleheads could even do the back and forth rap?
The party was on then, the drinks flowing and the food line forming.
As soon as Dru and Sebastian left the altar and the mic, Dru stepped in front of me and untied my black bowtie. I shrugged off the coat, took the tie from her and stuffed it into the pocket of the coat, which I then tossed over the back of the chair I’d be sitting in. After I’d rolled my sleeves up to my elbows, I felt a good bit better. Tie off, coat off, sleeves up…I could breathe again.
The crowd was getting wild, which wasn’t doing my anxiety any favors. After countless missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and a few in South America going after drug lords, being around large groups of people wasn’t exactly super awesome. They tended to make me nervous, antsy and uncomfortable. The crazier things got, the more my nerves turned into anxiety, until eventually I’d have to remove myself from the noise and activity and find somewhere quiet so I could breathe again.
None of my brothers knew about my anxiety attacks, because I’d be damned if I’d ever admit weakness to any of them, even though I knew logically they’d never say shit about it except to support me. Still, I couldn’t admit it. No way, no how.