Satisfied with the knot in his tie, Grey plucked his suit coat from the hanger on the back of the bathroom door and slipped it on. He adjusted his cuffs and studied himself in the mirror. “Pretty damn good, if I don’t say so myself.”

“Do,” Mason corrected him as he blew into the bathroom like a tornado.

“What?”

Mason growled as he frantically dug through the dirty clothes hamper, scattering its contents piece-by-piece over the bathroom floor. “It’s ‘if I do say so myself’, not don’t.”

“Huh?” Grey narrowed his eyes, confusion diluting his irritation as he watched Mason stuff the clothes back into the hamper, then search the shower, closing the glass door so hard he thought it would shatter. “What the hell are you looking for?”

“I can’t find my tie,” he said, flipping all the towels off the rack.

“And you expected to find it in the shower?” Grey chuckled, amused by his brother’s latest spastic breakdown. As Mason searched the linen closet, he leaned against the vanity and watched the entertaining display. He’d heard the whispered wagers over the last few days. They’d all bet on him being the first to lose his shit today. At the rate Mason was going, he was going to win that bet any minute now.

“Did you check the closet?” Matt asked as he rushed in to tie his tie.

“Yes, dammit!” Mason fled the bathroom in a huff.

Grey turned back to the mirror and caught Matt’s gaze, sharing a grin with him before he noticed the tremble in Matt’s fingers.

“What?” Matt asked, pausing when he caught Grey watching him.

“Nothing,” he snickered, leaving Matt to his bottled nerves and crooked tie. Oh, yeah. He had this in the bag.

He paced to his nightstand to retrieve his watch but jerked to a stop when Gabby appeared in the doorway, looking like a timeless Madonna straight out of one of the classic mafia movies his dads liked to watch, Mason’s tie dangling from her fingers.

“Thank God,” Mason sighed. “Wow, you look amazing, sweetheart.”

Amazing? Holy Christ, she stole his breath. Yanked it right out of his chest. He raked his stunned gaze from her thick mahogany hair, swept off her shoulders revealing her slender neck, over the mouthwatering slope of her exposed collarbone, taking in every sculpted curve and dip, each accented to perfection by the platinum, knee-length dress she wore.

Class. Every cell in her body had been crafted from pure class and he wondered, not for the first time, how he and his cowboy brothers had ever convinced a woman like her to take a chance on them so many years ago. Even in his wildest dreams, he’d have never imagined the life they’d shared together, or loving her more than he had in those first days, but he did. He loved and wanted her more with each passing year. Hell, each passing second.

“Hold still,” she instructed Mason as she strung the tie around his neck, her voice drawing Grey’s attention to her glossy lips. He watched with wonder as she expertly knotted the spring green silk. He’d always loved the way her brows dipped with her focused concentration, and he held his breath, waiting for her tongue to dart out and curl over her top lip.

And there it is.

He was a goner, closing the space between them in a fraction of a second.

“Grey, what are you—oh no you don’t.” She twisted out of his grip with a giggle. “I’m serious!” she protested as he stalked her across the room. “It took me forever to get into this dress and it’s not—oh!” She startled when she backed into Matt.

Matt caged her in his arms, placing a tender kiss below her ear. “Damn, darlin’, you smell almost as good as you look.”

“Grey,” she warned as he approached.

As strong as the day he met her, the carnal urge to possess her completely raced through his bloodstream, but the second he touched his lips to hers, he was mesmerized all over again. Awe tempered his assault, and he tenderly cupped her cheeks, deepening their kiss, savoring her familiar taste, time and time again, until he won her surrender and she melted with a whimper between him and Matt.

“I’m all for this idea,” Mason said beside them, “as long as you promise to retie my tie.”

“No!” Gabby stopped him as he pulled at the knot and she twisted away from them again. “We can’t do this now. We don’t have time.” Grey glared at Mason as she lined the three of them up side-by-side and inspected their suits. “I know you’re nervous,” she said to him, smoothing her hands over his shoulders, tugging at his coat sleeves, “but you can do this.”

“I’m not nervous,” Grey insisted.

“Just don’t walk too fast,” she continued. “And remember to pause at the beginning of the aisle and wait for Con and Car to start playing the processional.”

“And don’t try walking Dani past the altar, either,” Matt added with a smirk as she moved to him, straightening his tie. “Papa Joe told me about your kidnapping plan,” he continued when Grey rolled his eyes.

“That was months ago,” Grey insisted. “And I was joking.”

“I have the horse tranqs ready,” Mason warned, “and you know I’m not afraid to use them.”

Grey snorted. “You gonna tranq yourself?” He captured Gabby’s wrists when she reached to straighten his tie again. “My tie is fine, baby,” he insisted. “I’m fine.” He smiled, leaning down to give her a last assuring kiss. “I know you’re worried, but don’t be. I’m ready for this.”

Gabby held his gaze. “Okay,” she said, her apprehensive smile contradicting her agreement.

Grey grinned. That was okay. He’d show them.

“Mom?” Cory knocked lightly on the doorframe. “Gran sent me to get you guys. They’re ready to start.”

As his brothers followed Cory, Grey snagged his watch from the bedside table, pausing to wait for Gabby who’d stopped at her vanity table to check her lipstick.

“You might want to bring that lipstick with you,” he suggested, his gaze glued to her perfectly rounded backside. “As good as you look in that dress, I guarantee it won’t be the last time it gets smudged today.”

She paused, catching his gaze in the mirror, then dropped the lipstick into a small bag that matched her dress. “I hope not,” she teased, giving his ass a playful slap before she took his arm and he escorted her from the room.

He was floating on a cloud as he followed Gabby and his brothers down the stairs. Pryce was waiting for them by the front door, his camera strung around his neck. “Hey, son. Grab a picture of us with our beautiful wife.”

Pryce gave them his usual nervous nod, but as they gathered together in the foyer, his son-in-law’s gaze darted over their heads. When he pointed the camera at the top of the stairs, Grey turned around to see what he was looking at, and that cloud he’d been floating on disappeared.

Evaporated.

Gone.

The room began to spin as he freefell through a lifetime of memories, trying to place the face of the breathtaking woman standing at the top of the stairs, smiling down at him as if he should know her.

“Sweet Jesus.” Matt sank down onto the bench beside the door.

“Oh, Dani, honey,” Gabby gasped, and Grey looked at his wife, bewildered by the tears glistening in her eyes. “You look exquisite.”

Mason’s toothy grin was equally confusing, until he pulled a whiskey flask from the inside pocket of his suit coat, unscrewed the cap, and shamelessly guzzled its contents.

Cheating bastard.

A familiar giggle drew Grey’s gaze back to the top of the stairs, and that’s when he saw her, a vision of his little girl playing dress-up in her mother’s wedding gown. He narrowed his eyes, ready to scold her. His own voice echoed in his memories, ordering her to go back to her room and take off that dress. Before the words could pass his lips, Dani’s voice fluttered through the hazy memory. Only, it wasn’t the voice of his little girl.

“Daddy?”

Grey blinked.

“Daddy? Are you okay?”

The room came back into focus and his gaze fell on his daughter once again, still standing at the top of the stairs, looking like an angel, and all he could think of was the day she was born, so small he could hold her in the palm of one hand.

“Grey?”

“I was so wrong,” he breathed out as Dani descended the steps, realizing too late that he was nowhere near ready for this.

The sound of Pryce’s camera clicked like the second hand on an old clock that had been wound too tightly, far too fast and erratic, matching the rhythm of his heart beating against his eardrums.

“Grey?” Gabby’s harsh whisper caught his attention.

His eyes cut to his wife, and the prodding warning in her eyes. “Um, yeah,” he stammered, and rushed to meet Dani at the bottom of the stairs despite the overwhelming urge to run in the opposite direction. “Baby girl, you look…”

“Stunning,” Mason finished for him, taking her other hand.

Stringing together a complete sentence was pointless, so Grey nodded his agreement instead.

“I told you,” Dani’s friend, Molly, said behind her as she fussed with Dani’s hair, her presence having completely escaped him. “Clay isn’t gonna know what hit him.”

Clay. Only then did he remember there was another man at the center of Dani’s heart. A man who was waiting on her, on them, to hand her over to him. Forever. How was he supposed to do that?

“Dad? You okay?”

Ready to spout whatever lie came to him first to reassure her, Grey followed Dani’s gaze to Matt who still sat on the bench beside the door, his elbows resting on his knees, his chin perched atop his clasped fists.

“I’m just takin’ you all in, darlin’,” Matt said with a dreamy smile. “I can’t believe that’s you.”

“Me either,” Dani gushed, looking down at her dress. “It really is perfect.”

“You’re perfect,” Gabby said, taking her hand from Grey’s. “I love you, honey. And I’m so happy for you.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

Pryce’s camera clicked in the background as Gabby hugged their daughter, then gave them each a quick kiss. “I’ll see you in the front row,” she whispered with a wink and whisked through the front door, leaving Grey staring longingly after her.

How was he supposed to do this without her?

“Oh, I almost forgot! I have something for you.” Dani took a large envelope from Molly and passed it to Grey. “I was going to frame it, but Mom thought I should let you do that, since you’re rearranging all the family pictures anyway.”

Grey looked over at the bare wall along the stairs where dozens of their family photos once covered nearly every square inch. In his obviously failed attempt to prepare himself for this day, he’d taken almost all the pictures down to rearrange them and make room for more recent photos of their ever-expanding family.

He hadn’t the faintest idea what to expect when he opened the flap on the envelope, his fingers trembling as he pulled out the photograph of Dani dressed in her college graduation cap and gown, her diploma in hand.

“I did it.”

“You passed your exams?” Mason asked, shifting around to look at the picture.

“I did!” she squealed with excitement.

“I didn’t even know you’d taken them,” Matt said as he rose from the bench and joined them.

“Congratulations, sweetheart’.” Mason kissed her cheek. “We’re so proud of you.”

Grey stared at the photo in his hands. After Cade’s passing, he’d let go of his wish to see her graduate before she got married. She’d been so sad he hadn’t had the heart to push her, satisfied to see her excited about life again after setting a new wedding date, even if her renewed happiness was rooted in making a new life a thousand miles away from them.

“I finished my degree, Daddy, just like I promised,” she needlessly explained.

He felt adrift as he glanced between the woman standing before him, and one of the photos he’d left hanging on the wall. He’d meant to take it down with the others. He’d tried several times, but every time he reached for it, something stopped him. Now he knew why.

He climbed the bottom two steps and lifted the frame from the hook. With the photos side- by-side, he studied the myriad of differences between her high school graduation portrait and the college graduate in the new photo she’d given him. Old memories and his new reality clicked together like a master puzzle he’d spent his whole life solving, and the tether to the past he’d been holding onto like a lifeline, slipped from his grip.

“I thought you’d be happy,” Dani said, her tone heavy with disappointment.

Grey handed both photos to Molly, then turned to the confident, accomplished woman his little girl had become, cradling her beautiful face between his palms. He blinked away the tears stinging his eyes and tried to ease the tightness building in his throat before he spoke, but he couldn’t stand one more second of the doubt he saw in his daughter’s eyes. “I am so damn proud of you,” he choked out.

“Oh, Daddy, please don’t cry,” she begged, lunging into his arms.

“No-no-no! No crying!” Molly clamored down the stairs and shoved a handful of tissues at Dani. “It took me forever to do her make-up, and—ohhh!” She fanned her own teary eyes. “I can’t wear waterproof mascara.”

The front door opened, and Cory stuck his head inside. “Everyone’s—wow.” He paused when he saw Dani. “You look great, sis.”

“Thanks,” she offered with a sniffle.

Grey scrubbed a palm over his face, pausing when he saw his son’s gaze glued to Molly, who was bent over fiddling with the hem of Dani’s dress.

“Cory,” Matt coughed into his hand.

Caught in the act, Cory snapped back to attention. “Um, yeah, so, everyone’s in place and waiting for you,” he stammered. “I think Clay’s about to have a stroke, and Papa Joe’s threatening to cut the cake for you if we don’t start soon.”

“Tell them to hold their horses, pretty cowboy. We’re on our way.” Molly handed Dani her bouquet. “You got this?” she asked, and Dani gave her a jerky nod. “No more crying,” she ordered as she retrieved her own bouquet and chased Cory out the front door.

“I’m gonna head on out to the barn to get a few shots of you mounting up on Silver, then I’ll race ahead to the alter,” Pryce said.

Dani gave him an appreciative nod.

When he was gone, Dani pushed up onto her tiptoes and kissed Grey’s cheek. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said with a watery smile. “Thank you all for being the best dads ever.” She tugged Matt and Mason in for one last hug, too. “I love you all so much.”

“We love you, too, darlin’.”

More than you’ll ever know, Grey thought as he hugged his daughter one last time.

When she let them go, Dani drew in a steadying breath and hooked her arm around his. “Are you ready?” she asked him, her smiling eyes sparkling with confident anticipation.

“Not even close,” he shamelessly admitted, “but you are, and that’s all that matters.”

Everything from that point forward was like an out-of-body experience. Grey went through the rehearsed motions of helping Dani into Silver’s saddle, then mounted up on his own horse alongside Matt and Mason on theirs. He didn’t remember riding ahead of her to the meadow beside the creek where the ceremony was being held. Then he blinked, and he was there, surrounded by a sea of spring wildflowers and white chairs, all positioned in perfect rows on either side of a long aisle leading to the altar Papa Nate had built. The seats were filled with people he knew, but like a weird dream, their faces were blurred and indistinguishable.

Matt and Mason gave him an encouraging nod as he dismounted, then took his horse with them on their way to the altar as he waited at the head of the aisle like he’d been instructed. Dani arrived a few seconds later, and everything else disappeared again. All he could see was her.

He helped her dismount, kissing her cheek through the wispy veil. Connor and Carson strummed the first notes to the song Dani had asked them to play, and Grey turned them toward the altar. Every breath he managed to draw was stolen by his racing heart as they proceeded down the aisle.

“Daddy, wait.” Dani stiffened beside him, halting him in his tracks, and for one heart-stopping second, he thought she might have changed her mind. His previous escape plan raced through his mind at warp speed. He searched the field and spotted his horse, but before he could think to call him over, he saw Matt out of the corner of his eye, taking his place halfway down the aisle.

“Okay,” she said, and urged him forward again.

The aisle stretched out before them like a never-ending road paved with burlap and lace, but what seemed like one blink later, Matt joined them on Dani’s other side, signaling they were already halfway there. Another blink, and Mason came into his field of vision, waiting at the journey’s end. Grey’s only sense of reality was the wary look on Mason’s face as he took Dani’s hand and guided her to stand beside Clay, then stepped back between them, the three of them forming a unified presence behind her.

He stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his brothers as Minister Farnes began to speak, but the only thing Grey could hear was Gabby’s voice inside his head. Don’t lock your knees. Remember to breathe. I’ll be right behind you in the front row. He glanced over his shoulder to find their wife, but the moment his gaze met hers, he heard the minister’s prompting question.

“Who gives this woman, Dani McLendon, to this man, Clay Sterling, to be his partner in life and love, from this moment forward?”

“We do,” Grey said, the words he’d practiced a thousand times, but still the hardest he’d ever spoken.

Right on cue, Mason stepped forward and reverently lifted her veil. Grey held his breath, thanking his lucky stars he hadn’t drawn that straw when they were deciding who would play which part in the ceremony. His legs were so numb he worried his brothers were going to have to carry him to his seat.

As Grey watched Mason give their daughter a final parting kiss, the tingling in his legs spread to his hands. He flexed his fingers, then clenched his hands into fists. Open—closed—open—closed, but the pins-and-needles feeling worsened. Almost there, he coached himself, determined not to let Dani down. Finally, Mason turned and walked back toward them, their signal to take their seats, when he heard a muted thump beside him and looked over to see Matt sprawled on the ground, flat on his back, passed out cold.

“Dad!” Carson dropped his guitar. A loud squelch blared from the speakers as he and Connor bolted from their place on the altar. “Dad, are you okay?” he asked, frantically patting Matt’s cheek.

“Ohmygosh!” Dani raced to Matt’s side. “Dad! Can you hear me?”

Clay and his brother, Beau, brushed by him and Mason. A fresh shot of adrenaline had flushed the numbness from Grey’s limbs, but worried he’d only do something to make this worse, all he could do was stand there.

“He locked his knees,” Gabby said, kneeling over Matt. “I told him not to lock his knees.”

“All right, backup.” With an air of authority that caught Grey by surprise, Cory shouldered his way into the circle of family, urging some space between them as Matt’s eyes fluttered open.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Gabby gasped.

“He’s fine,” Cory insisted. “He just needs a little breathing room.”

Grey and Mason helped Gabby and Dani to their feet as Cory assessed Matt’s condition.

“Holy shit,” Matt breathed out as he sat up, Cory and Clay helping him stand. Pasty white, his face and ears turned red as he dusted himself off, then turned to Dani and Clay. “Sorry, darlin’. I don’t know what happened.”

The unbearable tension in Grey’s shoulders relaxed when he saw Dani’s sympathetic grin. “It’s okay,” she said, suppressing a giggle. “As long as you are.”

“I’m fine.” Matt gave them all a reassuring wave as he stumbled to his seat. “Just…providin’ a little extra entertainment, I guess.”

“Well hell!” Clay’s dad, Virgil, pushed to his feet in the front row. “If the cake is half as good as the entertainment, this’ll be the best damn weddin’ I’ve ever been to,” he shouted and raised the flask in his hand in a toast to Matt, a flask that looked suspiciously identical to the one Mason had.

“The best cake you’ll ever eat this side of the Rockies,” Papa Joe declared, tipping his Stetson to Chloe’s aunt sitting behind him. “That is, if my sons can keep their act together long enough to get these two hitched already.” His last grumbled remark earned him a jab in the ribs from Gran, and a roar of laughter from everyone else.

With a boisterous chuckle, Minister Farnes called the ceremony back to order, and Grey took his seat beside Gabby—and a much-needed deep breath, feeling weightless with relief, until his mother leaned forward from the seat behind them and squeezed his and Matt’s shoulders.

“Thank you,” she whispered excitedly between them, and kissed Matt’s cheek, then his. “You two just paid for that cast-iron wood stove I’ve been askin’ your fathers for.”

What? Grey twisted in his seat, wondering what in the heck she was talking about, when he saw Papa Nate, Papa Jake, and Papa Daniel all passing her hundred-dollar bills.

“Thanks a lot,” Papa Nate mumbled under his breath, scowling at Matt.

What the—his own dads bet against him?

“Shhh!” Mason scolded them, motioning for Grey to turn back around.

His mom snatched the money from their hands with a prideful grin. “I know my boys,” she whispered, giving Grey a wink as she slipped the bills into her bra.

Unbelievable. Grey twisted around in his seat and took hold of Gabby’s hand, frowning when he felt something pressed into her palm. Curious, he turned her hand over to find a hundred dollars folded neatly in her hand.

Seriously? He arched an incredulous brow.

Not now, Gabby mouthed with a guilty grin, nodding at Dani and Clay.

Grey shook his head as he turned back to the altar. Whatever. She could’ve bet a thousand dollars and he wouldn’t have cared, so long as they couldn’t blame this one on him.

He’d missed what the minister had just asked, but as the ceremony progressed and Clay answered, I do, Grey caught the undeniable look in his eyes. It was the same involuntary, irrevocable, unconditional love he and his brothers still, and forever would, have for Gabby. He drew Gabby’s hand to his chest, holding it firmly against his heart as Dani gazed up at the new center of her universe.

Since the day Clay’d confessed his love for Dani, he’d known he’d lost her. She’d grown up way too fast, and like her first little pair of boots, she’d outgrown him, too. But somewhere between waking up that morning and watching her kiss her new husband, he was surprised to realize he hadn’t lost her completely. There would be times she’d miss and need him, and he’d be there unhesitatingly, but Clay was her new sun now. And, despite the tears in his eyes or the ache in his heart, he’d never been happier for her, or readier to let her go chase her dreams.