“‘Bout time you got here,” calls a tall, dark-eyed cowboy wearing Wrangler jeans and boots, approaching us.

He’s awfully good-looking, but nothing compared to my Tavo.

Tavo and I pulled up to the parking area of a ranch in California, north of Santa Barbara. Ever since we rented a car at the airport, we’ve been driving with open windows along the deep blue Pacific Ocean and rolling hills dotted with oak trees.

Smells I’ve never known before. Salty. Sagey. Maybe dusty. And warm and dry.

Once we got to Headlands Ranch, we stopped the car and got out, but were immediately met by a group of people.

“This is my cousin, Will Thrash,” says Tavo.

“Kim de la Guerra,” I say, shaking his hand. Will’s got a baseball cap over curly dark-hair and a baby on his hip. A tattoo peeks out under his T-shirt.

I’ve got a tattoo, too. On my ankle.

“Nice to meet you,” Will says with a drawl, and gives Tavo a bro hug, slapping each other on the back.

Marie, his wife, comes running out. She’s tall and slender, with pink hair.

Like mine.

“So nice to meet you,” she says, holding out her hand and shaking mine. “Look! We’re hair twins!” She picks up a lock of her hair and wiggles it. Then she peers over my shoulder. “Can I meet Sebastian?”

“Absolutely.”

While she’s waiting for me to get our son, she gives Tavo a big hug. I pull our one-year-old out of his car seat, and two vans with more of Tavo’s family come up the dusty drive.

“Good excuse to have a family reunion,” a tall, older cowboy says, pushing Margarita up in her wheelchair. She’s as elegant as María Luisa—Tavo’s mom and her sister. He holds out his hand to me. “Bill Thrash. I’m Will’s dad and Tavo’s uncle.”

Meanwhile, Marie has latched onto Sebastian, who’s waving his hands in the air and all awake. He slept the entire ride up, so now he’s raring to go.

I shake Mr. Thrash’s hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Kim, Tavo’s wife.”

Margarita wheels over to Marie and holds out her hands in a gimme motion. “Let me see my grand nephew.”

“I’m not letting this cutie go,” says Marie, holding Sebastian closer. He tugs on her hair. Marie eventually relents and hands Margarita our son. Margarita gives him a big hug, and he looks at her and drools.

As family spill out of the two vans, I catch snippets of conversations. It’s a jumble of words and noise.

“Are you serious? You have an album now?” Marie squeals. “I’m buying a copy for all of my friends!”

Tavo rubs the back of his neck with his hand. “Yeah. It’s catching on. And those YouTube videos are really starting to get some views.”

“How close are we to the beach?” asks Antonio. He’s bigger now, with more muscles. Even though he spends a lot of time working on farm finances, he still gets in plenty of physical labor.

He’s also got a boyfriend.

“My son Tavo is famous,” says María Luisa, then leans over and gives her sister two kisses on the cheeks. “He has brought the de la Guerra name to millions.”

“Not yet, Madre,” says Tavo. “That’s not true.”

“I’m managing his audio equipment on tour,” says Antonio.

Mari Carmen pulls me aside. “So good to see you! How did the pop-up restaurant go in Portland?”

Guillermo pulls out his phone. “Listen.”

“It was amazing. We did the cuisine of the different regions of Spain. Putting that education to good use.”

“¡Que bien!”

Marie listens for a moment and asks, “So where can I buy it?”

“Everywhere. They even have the vinyl in Target in a special edition.”

Another two cars pull up. The first is a red Subaru, and the curly dark hair of my best friend Maggie pops out as soon as the door opens.

“Kim!” She comes running toward me and gives me a tackle hug that I take with an “oof.” A tall light-haired cutie with a ton of tats gets out of the driver’s seat. “Come meet Court!”

“Where are we going to have the ceremony?” I ask.

“By the barn. We’ll have the reception outside under the stars,” says Marie. “There’s plenty of room in the bunk house for everyone, and Cookie will be serving plenty of tri-tip for us all.”

“Not you,” says Will.

She grins. “I get portobella mushrooms.”

Sonia steps out of a van biting her finger and holding Guillermo’s hand. Thankfully, a year of hard labor taught her some humility, and she’s been working with Guillermo on the farm ever since.

She still has millions of Instagram followers, though, so her first instinct is to get Guillermo to take a picture of her on a gorgeous farm in California. I roll my eyes.

Tavo comes over and puts his arm around my shoulders. “How are you doing, guapa?”

“Never better,” I say. As I stand, surrounded by family and friends on this ranch, holding the hand of my husband and letting everyone meet the next generation of de la Guerras, I know this is where I’m supposed to be.

“Dearly beloved,” Will says, wearing a black cowboy hat and a bolero tie. “We are gathered here to join in matrimony Shane Nichols and Randy Sanchez.”

Randy’s spiky black hair is slicked back. Shane’s got his precise haircut, same as always. They’re both in tuxedos. Once they heard that Tavo’s cousin had a ranch by the beach, they decided they wanted a destination wedding. But their wedding has turned into an excuse for a family reunion of Tavo’s family, so while we are a majority of the people here, almost all of the grooms’ families made it too. Over the past year, Shane and Randy have come visited us in Spain several times, to mend relations and actually see Spain. They ended up making a lot of friends in the family and were eager for all of us to come.

I bounce Sebastian on my lap. My sandals show off my dragonfly tattoo that Tavo designed. I lean over and give Tavo a kiss. And settle in to watch the ceremony.

When we drove here, I asked Tavo if he thought that Shane and Randy would have admitted their feelings for each other if I hadn’t gone to Spain.

He rubbed his jaw and turned the radio down. Our baby slept in the seat behind us. “Amor, you came to España facing the sun like a flower, but pretending you didn’t cast a shadow. A sombra.”

“Yes—”

“These amigos of ours did too. They had a sombra. Everyone does. But they had spent their time pretending their shadow did not exist.”

“True—”

“If you face the sun, though, you will always have a shadow. That’s the way it works. We all cast shadows behind us. Better to take a look and see what’s in there than to be scared of it.”

I inhale. “That’s the way to be a whole person.”

“Exactamente.” He gives me a crooked smile, and I fall for him over again.

“I needed both dark and light. Not just one or the other.”

“Correcto. We all do.” He places his hand on my knee and squeezes. “So with our friends, I am not sure if they would have faced their shadow and learned to love this side of themselves without a push. I do not know them as well as you do. Many people never look there, and as a result they remain miserable.”

I allow my hand to go out of the car, riding on the waves of the warm air. “Right. Dani told me, ‘what we resist persists.’”

He chuckles. “Trent is right. She is a hippie girl. But yes, with Shane and Randy, if they’d never looked at their other side, they would not have found their love for each other, and they would not have been living as their true selves. Like us. Our love blossoms in the dark.” He pauses. “To answer your question, I don’t know, but I am glad you came to Spain, for everyone’s sake.”

And as I watch Shane and Randy exchange their vows with love in their eyes, I can’t help thinking that we all deserve love after all.