A perfect spring day blanketed the meadow in front of Lindy Turk’s ranch house. A hundred white folding chairs marched toward a newly constructed arbor garlanded with wildflowers gathered from the field. Two tents, one housing food, the other bridesmaids, offered shelter from the still gentle sun.

Peeking through the tent flaps, Quinn spotted Sutton leading Leah toward her.

Quinn breathed out. “Good, he found her.”

“Clean, I hope,” Sage chuckled. “Or clean enough.”

Quinn nodded. “Looks it.”

Sutton marched the toddler up to the tent. Sage pulled the flap back just enough for Leah to enter, but the little girl planted her feet with a stubborn resistance.

Turning to her uncle, Leah held up her fist then carefully opened it.

Seeing pink glitter, he lifted his brows. “What’s that about?”

“Fairy dust,” Quinn answered. “She wants you to make a wish.”

Starting to roll his eyes, he dipped his head and rubbed a thumb against his forehead. When he looked up, he smiled indulgently at the little girl.

“Tell you what, I’ll make an earnest wish if you promise to build a quartz radio with me this weekend.”

“No soldering,” Sage warned.

“Not at this age,” he agreed.

Leah’s head moved back and forth from uncle to aunt to uncle again. Seeing the confusion on the little girl’s face, Sutton touched the piece of raw amethyst hanging from a silver chain around her neck.

“This is a type of quartz,” he explained. “Using smaller pieces, we can pick up sound traveling through the air from hundreds of miles away.”

Mouth forming a loose “O,” Leah held the amethyst up and looked between it and the glitter in her hand.

“My rock is magic, too?”

He snorted before half agreeing with her. “It’s as magic as your fairy dust.”

“Deal,” she grinned, thrusting her hand closer to his face. “Now blow!”

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath that eased the tension sharpening his handsome features. Softly, he exhaled. When he opened his eyes, the glitter was gone.

“Wonder what you wished for,” Siobhan smirked, sweeping past him in her bridesmaid gown to enter the tent.

Leah waved a finger at her uncle. “Don’t tell her, Sutton.”

“I’d sooner tell Betty Rae,” he whispered before planting a kiss on the little girl’s cheek as he handed her over to Sage.

Quinn watched him walk away. The limp was gone, the step surer. Physically, Sutton seemed to have completely healed.

“He’ll come back to us,” Sage said, her voice kept low so that the conversation remained between her and Quinn. “He’s just wondering where he fits after so many changes in his life and in the family.”

Quinn nodded. “He belongs here.”

“Hopefully he’ll figure that out soon,” Sage said. She wrapped her hand around Quinn’s elbow and turned her toward the center of the tent. “Let’s get that veil on you.”

Ten minutes later, the music began. Siobhan was the first bridesmaid to leave the tent, her brother Cassian waiting just beyond the flaps to escort her up the aisle. Sage left next, her hand threading around her husband’s arm.

Bright blue gaze shining with joy, Dotty wrapped her fingers around Jake’s bicep like a grappling hook, clutching and smiling as he carefully walked her up to the arbor and the chair placed in the matron of honor’s spot.

“My turn!”

Leah danced out of the tent, an old hand at scattering rose petals for the recent brides of the Turk family.

“You look beautiful,” Sutton said, taking Quinn’s arm.

She blinked, tears threatening, throat tightening. She hadn’t known how to reach her father for the ceremony. But, even if there was a chance of reviving a relationship that had died so long ago, Quinn wouldn’t want anyone other than Sutton walking her toward her future husband.

“Thank you,” she rasped, then teased with a still scratchy voice. “Make me cry before I get up there and you’re in trouble, mister.”

He shook his head.

Reaching Barrett, Sutton handed Quinn off and took his seat.

Barrett circled an arm around Quinn’s back as his fingers teased one of her hands away from the bouquet. He kissed her palm, Quinn’s entire body shaking.

She had grown up as the girl who wasn’t allowed to have nice things. Now, with Barrett about to make her his wife, she had everything. Part of Quinn still expected a dozen Naomi clones to storm out of the tents and wreak havoc.

But that part of her had become very small, just a few misfiring neurons that hadn’t received the message that life was great all day, every day, because the man standing next to Quinn loved her with his whole heart.

So did his family.

“God never made a more perfect woman,” Barrett whispered, his lips brushing against the soft lace of her veil.

“Or a more perfect man,” she whispered back.

* * *

Listening to the pastor was a harder task than Barrett could have anticipated. The problem was Quinn—beautiful, open, loving, and shaking with every muscle her body possessed.

They just needed to get to the end. He could hold her then, kiss her, prove to her that everything between them was real and lasting.

“I do,” Quinn said, their vows finished.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may—”

“Way ahead of you there, pastor,” Barrett said, lifting the veil and cupping Quinn’s beautiful face as a gentle breeze of laughter flowed around them.

Leaning in, he felt a stillness spreading through her just as he had hoped. His lips touched hers. Quinn reached up and curled her hands atop his shoulders, her chest pressing into his.

He risked a small bite of her full bottom lip, blood racing through his body. Barrett pulled back, the warm air that he and Quinn released like a part of their souls rising up to Heaven.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Laughing, Barrett shook his head, his arms crazy with the need to hold her again.

Walker clapped him on the back. Assisted by Sutton, Aunt Dotty rose from her chair. She folded her hands around Barrett and Quinn’s, the wise old eyes brimming with tears.

Of all the things Barrett was proud he could provide Quinn with, he was most proud of what surrounded her at that moment—the love and comfort of his family.

That love was the one thing that would never change.