This life... by Emily Zimmerman. (online e reader TXT) 📕

this weepy, just happy, and joyful. I finally walked the last step to Kyle, he smiled at me and I smiled back. Taking both of my hands in his, we tore our eyes away from each other to look at the pastor. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to unite these two people in holy matrimony, Kaila Evans Highlander, and Kyle Hope Miller” he said, gesturing with a smile to both of us. “now we will say a few words in his name before we begin the ceremony. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” he spoke, and I wondered what this had to do with marriage, but I kept my thoughts to myself, mom arranged what the pastor would say. As we listened to the pastor, we would look at each other and smile, then quickly look back at the pastor, we did this a couple of times before he stopped speaking “now, Kyle, please repeat after me” he said. Kyle nodded and listened with rapt attention as he said what he would repeat “I Kyle Hope Miller take Kaila Evans Highlander as my lawfully wedded wife, my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.” he repeated perfectly, looking into my eyes. I tried not to cry as I saw the unconditional truth and love in his eyes, he was not just repeating a sentence, he was vowing with his heart to me that he will never give up on me. even though I didn’t cry, my vision was blurred with unshed tears. “Now Kaila, please repeat after me” the pastor said to me. I nodded, not looking away from his eyes. “I Kaila Evans Highlander, take you Kyle Hope Miller to be my lawfully wedded husband, my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live” I repeated, tears flowing freely now, but my voice was steady, thankfully. “do you have the rings?” the pastor asked us. I nodded and Ben came over, smiling a huge smile as he handed us the small heart-shaped pillow “thank you Ben” I said softly. I took the rings from the small pillow and we slid them on each other’s fingers, we looked back at the pastor, waiting patiently. “Kyle Hope Miller, do you take Kaila to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?” he asked Kyle. He looked me in the eyes as he said “I do” the pastor smiled and looked at me “Kaila Evans Highlander, do you take Kyle to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?” he asked me. I hadn’t looked away from Kyle the whole time he spoke, it was an easy question, so I answered with a simple “I do” Kyle’s smile was so bright, it almost blinded me “then by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you, husband and wife, you may kiss the bride” he said. Kyle didn’t hesitate, and neither did I, I jumped into his arms and kissed him hard on the lips. we kissed for a few long seconds and forced ourselves to pull apart, we looked at the crowd, everyone stood up and started cheering, mom had tears in her eyes, like usual, and so did Marianne. Hanna was bawling her eyes out, and so was Tiffany, I hadn’t noticed Jamie, sitting in the back corner until he stood up, clapping along with everyone else, something seemed wrong with him though. As we walked outside the church to the limo that was going to take us to the reception, everyone bombarded us with rice. Jared made sure to throw the entire bowl of rice at me, literally chunk it all at once. I was laughing and out of breath when we got in the car. Kyle carefully brushed rice off my hair and dress; he looked at me with such happiness that I was overwhelmed with it. He kissed me passionately until we got there, of course we had to stop and take a couple of breathers, but then we were back to kissing. It startled me when the driver announced we were there. We pulled apart and got out of the car, everyone had already gotten there, we walked in and everyone cheered again. Jared hugged me, and then mom, then dad, then Marianne, then Laurence; we went through the whole family, hugging me and Kyle. Then me and Kyle finally got to dance “I love you” he said for the 20th time tonight. I smiled and kissed him softly, the flashes of cameras went off. “I love you too” I told him, laying my head on his shoulder. He held me tightly as we slowly danced to Clair De Lune. After the song, dad got to dance with me “you look beautiful tonight sweetheart” he said to me, kissing my forehead. I smiled “thank you dad, you look dashing yourself” I teased. He was in a black suit with a bow tie, it fit his style. “Well, I am happy for you two, you seem very happy together” he said. I nodded, we were more than happy, and there were no words for how happy we were. “Kaila, I have realized something over the past few months of seeing you two together, you two are soul mates, I guess you could say, you are both two halves of one whole, you complete each other, and when your mom made you two separate from each other for a week, I could see the change, you two missed each other like a fish misses water, and that’s what made me connect it. God wanted you two together, and it was by his grace that you two are tied together now” he said to me. I smiled softly and hugged him as the song ended, “thank you dad” I whispered in his ear. His smiled and kissed my cheek, Jared danced with me, it was a kind of fast kind of slow song; it was Yellow, by Coldplay. Jared was cracking me up by dancing like a hick and making me dance like a hick, soon he got everyone into dancing like a hick, to me it was the chicken dance redone; we were walking forward and backward swaying our bodies like chickens. I rolled my eyes at him when the song ended. Jared winked at me and kissed my cheek. Kyle finally got to dance with me; he wrapped his arms around my waist as ‘Penguin’ by ‘Christina Perri’ came on. “You look beautiful Kaila, you really are my angel” he said. I blushed and he stroked my cheek softly “you look pretty dashing yourself. With your fancy suit” I said, tugging on his tie. He laughed; his charming smile showing. I smiled softly; he was tied to me for always, this thought made me happier than I was before. I set my head on his chest and sighed “this has been the most overwhelming day of my life” I said quietly. Kyle chuckled “you and me both, and by the way, welcome to the family, Mrs. Miller” he said, a teasing glint in his eye. I smiled “I’m going to have to get used to that, at least everyone won’t recognize me as the girl who crashed into the gas station anymore” I teased him. He acted hurt “you don’t want to be my wife?” he asked. I touched the tip of his nose with my finger and smiled “if I didn’t want to be your wife, I wouldn’t have married you, I love you with all my heart” I told him truthfully. He chuckled and nodded “I love you too, with all my heart and soul” he said softly. I took that as a challenge “well I love you with all my heart, my soul and my…car!” I said the first thing I could come up with. He looked at me, amused “you win! I can’t beat the car!” he said in fake admission. I laughed and leaned up on my tip toes to kiss his cheek. For a while, we danced, just staring into each other’s eyes, I think his eyes were the first thing about him that I fell in love with, those hypnotizing aqua blue eyes. Jake tapped on Kyle’s shoulder, smiling slightly “I think I need a dance with my sister” he said. Kyle looked at me and I nodded, Kyle went and sat down beside his mom, who immediately took him to dance with her. I started dancing with Jake, it was a faster song, we were spinning around, I hadn’t realized how good a dancer Jake was “Jake, where did you learn to dance like this?” I asked curiously. He smiled “mom used to teach me, she used to dance with me all the time” he said, blushing slightly. I nodded “Jake…I have to ask….why did you start those rumors about me?” I asked hesitantly. Regret shown in Jake’s eyes, I hadn’t seen him being this sweet since we were little “i…I mean Hail and I were sort of…I don’t know how to put it, trying to protect you, the old you was gone after mom and dad left, we thought that, you know, since you used to get all tough and kick our asses when we would mess with you, I thought that would bring out the old you, it made us feel better to see you happy with Kyle, so we backed off on the rumors” he said. I stared at him with a raised eyebrow “I know, it was a stupid idea, but hey, it’s all we had” Jake chuckled. I slapped him lightly on the back of the head and kissed his cheek “that was very sweet and stupid of you” I half scolded half thanked him. He shrugged “sorry?” he asked. I laughed and hugged him as the song ended. Hail had his turn dancing with me, and this time we