Take This Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

she took in every word.
    “Rachael, will you take Merrick to be your wedded husband, and in the presence of friends and family, do you vow to water and nourish your love so it shall grow stronger from day to day, week to week, year to year? Do you promise to hold him to your heart, forsaking all others, as long as you both shall live?”
    Rachael squeezed my hand tight. She still smiled and radiated happiness, but the first tears trickled from the corners of her eyes. “I do.”
    Hearing those two words from her was a parachute opening, a life raft in a churning sea. This woman would never stop saving me with her love.
    “Merrick, will you take Rachael to be your wedded wife, and in the presence of friends and family, do you vow to honor and protect her, doing your best every day to create a loving, happy, healthy home? Do you promise to hold her to your heart, forsaking all others, as long as you both shall live?”
    I slid my hand up her arm and placed my palm over her heart. “I do.”
    Jan stepped behind the altar. “As a symbol of your unity, we join two individual flames into one. Merrick and Rachael, as you join your eternal flames, you unite yourselves, body and soul, two into one, for life.” Rachael and I stepped forward and each picked up a lit taper. Together we joined them at the wick of the unity candle and watched it spark to life—our new life—before blowing out our individual flames.
    We set our candles aside and Jan nodded to Rachael to begin her vows. We’d already said so much in the key lime grove, I wasn’t sure what was left to say, but knowing Rachael, she would have me sobbing on my knees before she was done.
    “Merrick,” Rachael began, taking my hands, her voice soft but steady, “before I met you, I never believed there was one person for everyone. One true love. It was illogical to think that out of the entire population of the earth, a person was supposed to find this magical love like a needle in a haystack. Then you came along and I realized I’d never known anything about love, because I became one of the lucky ones who knew the truth—there really is only one person for each of us. Knowing this truth, it’s like a door to the great beyond opening, like being given a puzzle piece that not everyone ends up with. I’m not sure how I became one of the fortunate ones to be granted the piece to my puzzle that makes everything fit—the answer to every impossible question—the other half to my soul, but I’m blessed to have you.
    “There are so many years ahead of us, but even if we had a hundred of them, it wouldn’t be enough. My love for you is never ending, so I don’t just promise you today, or for as long as we both shall live. I promise you eternity, Merrick. You’re my one true love for now and always.”
    She turned and took my ring from Maddie. My hands trembled in hers as she slid the gold band on my ring finger. “With this ring, I thee wed,” she said, and I had to close my eyes for a moment and reopen them to assure myself this was real. I was certain it was all a dream. My life didn’t work like this. Everything good always turned out to be a mirage, but there she was, my Rachael, looking down at the ring she’d placed on my finger.
    I pulled her close and breathed in the scent of her hair. Jasmine and ginger. The shampoo she’d first found in my shower here at the hotel, when I was certain my days with her were numbered. Now my days with her were limitless.
    “Rachael,” I said, my voice coming out a bit hoarse around the welt of emotion in my throat, “I could say what many, many men have told the women they love over the centuries: you make me a better man. It’s true, but only scratches the surface, because you simply make
me
. You make me complete. You make me strive every single day to be the best man I can be for you. You make me want to be a father someday even though I have no idea how to be one. I know with you to guide me, I can do anything.