“You look handsome, Papa Larry.” Bella stood in front of me wearing a dress that would make any Disney princess jealous. It was sparkly and pink and lacy— all of the things Bella loved. She looked perfect, even as her hair was already straying from her updo.

“And you, my sweet fairy princess, look stunning.” I bowed, paying respect to her royal pedigree. I knew she was on the cusp of growing out of this stage and wanted her to enjoy every minute of it she could before hormones and peer pressure stole the joy from her youth.

“My toes sparkle.” She held up her foot, which was sporting an open toed sandal, a pair she’d picked out for the very purpose of showing off her nail polish.

“Why yes, they do.” I lowered my voice into a whisper as if asking her something secret. “Are you, by chance, a real princess?”

“You know I am,” she whispered back, before being taken over by a bout of the giggles. What a glorious sound.

“Are you ready to go up front?” I held out my arm for her, but she shook her head instead of grabbing on.

“I’m nervous. What if I mess it up?”

I held out my arms and she walked into my hug.

“You absolutely will not mess it up, even if you forget every word.” I kissed the top of her head.

“Papa Larry, that’s pretty much what messing up means.” She rolled her eyes, reaffirming my fear that times were about to change for our sweet baby girl.

“Except today, none of that matters.” And it was true. Every last word. “All that matters is that we’re together. As long as you are up there with us, you can’t possibly mess up.”

“You mean that?” she asked hopefully.

“More than you can possibly know.” I held out my arm again. “Ready?”

“Ready.” She grabbed my hand instead, and we began our walk to the front of the tent where the handfasting ceremony was about to take place.

I’d been waiting for this day before the others even knew my heart was headed in that direction, and now that the day had finally arrived, it felt almost like a dream. I was about to be connected to the loves of my life in front of everyone we loved. Life couldn’t get any better than that.

As we made our slow walk to the front where the ceremony would take place, I walked past my staff, our friends, and our family. Charlie sat in the front row with Daniel and Devon on the left. Ryan’s parents, Julian, Ethan’s mother, and Big Dick sat on the right side of the aisle in the same row. Ethan’s friend Diane and her brother Scott sat just behind them. It was go time.

We’d decided to break with tradition—as much as we’d attempted tradition, anyway—and had Ryan walk Ethan down the aisle. As they came into sight, each of them holding one of our beautiful children and the music starting to play, it was all I could do not to run to meet them halfway.

They arrived in the front where Bella and I stood, just as the song ended. Turned out Ryan had been right about us needing a rehearsal the night before.

They handed Emily Rose and James Peter to Charlie and Ma St. John, as I now called her, before forming a semicircle with me in front of Bella. The officiant stood behind her, slightly to the right. She’d been more than willing to go along with our desire to have Bella perform the ceremony with her as an overseer.

“Family and friends.” The officiant spoke a little too loudly for the mic they had set for Bella and it crackled, earning a few groans from the guests. “We are gathered here to celebrate the love of Ryan, Ethan, and Larry. Today they are going to do more than recite vows, they are going to become one in spirit. Assisting them in this journey will be their daughter Bella.”

I half wondered if she was related to Kai, with the spirit comment. We’d invited Kai to the celebration, but he had another birth—this one a scheduled induction—and gave his regrets. I had to give it to him. He kept plugging along with the doula thing even after “assisting” our twins into this world.

“Bella.” The officiant took a step back.

“Dad, Papa Ryan, Papa Larry, do you want to become one?” Bella asked just as she had practiced, not a bit of trepidation in her voice.

“We do.” We recited in unison.

“Do you promise to love each other always?” This one was close to the vow she’d been memorizing, but it held the same meaning, which was all that mattered.

“We do.”

“Do you promise that I will be your daughter for ever and ever?” And that was nowhere in the vows we practiced. Nothing made me prouder than to have her add that in there, to know we wouldn’t let her down and to want that promise from us.

“We do.” We answered without hesitation.

“You should put your rings on now.”

I reached in my pocket and took out the box of rings. I put a ring on Ethan, who put one on Ryan, who put one on me. One by one, we brought each other’s hands up to our lips, sealing the rings with a kiss.

“Perfect.” Bella clapped twice. “Now hold hands like she showed you yesterday.” She pointed to the officiant behind her, who was barely able to contain her laughter.

“Wait, do I have a—” Bella looked for the leather cord, which magically appeared from behind her shoulder, thanks to the officiant. “Thanks,” Bella mumbled as she unwound it, her pink little tongue in the corner of her mouth as she concentrated.

“Now when I tie you this means you can’t go backsies,” she announced with her best mama tone. “You got that, right?”

The guests let out the laughter they had probably been holding half the ceremony.

“Yes, Bella, we got that.” Ethan gave her a wink.

“You are supposed to say we do,” she scolded. Bad us.

“Sorry,” we said in unison. That one we hadn’t practiced the night before.

“Do you promise, no backsies?”

“We do.” That time we got it right, earning us a thumbs-up from our little Princess.

“Better.”

She took the cord, wrapping it around our wrists and tucking the ends between hands. Close enough. I snagged the ends the best I could not wanting to see how precariously our hands were connected.

“Does that work?” she asked the woman behind her who nodded yes.

“It’s perfect, darling. Now tell everyone your dads are one and then tell your dads to kiss.”

“Hey guys, they did it and the knot didn’t even fall out,” She called to the guests behind her. They all clapped and cheered louder than necessary, probably to cover up their giggles.

“The kiss,” the officiant reminded Bella in a whisper yell.

“Ewww no.” She shook her head vehemently and even more of her hair fell from her updo. “That’s yucky.”

Good. Let her keep thinking kissing was eww until she was eighteen. I was fine with that.

Once again, the guests laughed. It was fair to say none of them were going to forget the affair, for Bella made it truly unforgettable.

“Gentlemen, you may kiss. And then alphas, you may officially claim your omega in the time-honored way.” The officiant took over, and kiss we did as our friends and family clapped and cheered. After we shared a three-way kiss, difficult with our hands still bound, the officiant reached forward and released the cord. Ethan held out his wrists for each of us to take one. Ryan and I held each other’s gaze as we each nuzzled the pulse point on the wrist we held, inhaling Ethan’s sweet scent and soaking in the moment before we both bit into his wrists in perfect sync. Not deep enough to draw blood, but enough that it would leave the claiming scar to signify that he was taken.

We spent the next hour taking picture after picture and shaking hand after hand. That was the part of having a formal affair that I’d not been looking forward to. I wanted to get to the celebrating. Eating, dancing, and honeymooning. Not that a night at a local B&B was a honeymoon, but it was perfect for us. It allowed the babies to be close if they went through all of their milk, but also gave us some alone time and possibly three or more hours of uninterrupted sleep. I doubted that would happen, because honeymoon, but it could if we chose to and that was more than we had at home.

Devon and Daniel were staying at the loft with the kids, with Marc as back-up downstairs until at least three am. They were going to be in the best of hands. Or so I tried to convince myself, having never been away from them before.

“You’re thinking too hard.” Daniel’s hand sat on my shoulder. He was right. Somehow standing in line for the bathroom had turned into me worrying about the kids, who were going to be more than fine. I was such a first-time dad.

“I’m done.” And I was.

“Pete would be happy for you,” Daniel said as soon as I left the bathroom. He said it almost as if it were one word. I knew talking about Pete still wasn’t easy for him and that made me appreciate the comment even more.

“He would.” I wrapped my arm around his shoulder as “Cotton Eyed Joe” came on. “So wanna dance?”

“Not with your ugly mug.” He threw my arm off of his shoulder in mock disgust, both of us probably thinking back to the time we attempted the dance back in high school and he fell flat on his ass. To be fair, that dance was not easy when you had two left feet.

“Better dance with Devon soon before that twatwaffle asks him.” I spoke loud enough for only him to hear.

“You really should learn to like Julian, since he is in your life forever.”

He was, as usual right. Julian was Ryan’s best friend and business partner. And technically he’d never done anything to me. He was growing on me. Didn’t mean I was a good person and refrained from razzing on him when the opportunity arose.

“Agreed. I only say those things in front of you.” I hip-checked his ass a little too hard and he spilled a bit of his root beer. “You’re supposed to have my back and be catty with me over it.”

“Wanna dance?” Bella popped in between us out of nowhere, grabbing Daniel’s hand and preventing him from answering me.

“I’d love too,” he lied. They got to the dance floor just as Cotton Eyed Joe ended and the Chicken Dance began. The videographer had better catch that on film.

I walked over to where my mates were dancing, both of them the sexiest chicken dancers ever, and began to dance away. We danced three more songs until even Ryan, the most fit of us, was sweaty and out of breath. It was fabulous.

“As I see it,” Ethan began, “if we cut the cake now, we can be out of here in thirty minutes tops.”

“I’m guessing fifteen.” I took both of their hands and headed in the direction of the cake.

“Don’t we want to savor the moment and all that jazz?” Ryan asked. We stopped short. I was trying to figure out if he was being serious and Ethan was giving him his ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ face.

“I was wanting to savor your knot, but if eating cake slowly is your thing…” I shrugged, his eyes instantly darkening.

“Somebody give me a knife,” he teased as he raced toward the cake with both of us in tow.

Turns out we were all wrong.

It took ten minutes.