Brady swallowed and repeated the words next.

“Brady, do you take Liz to be your wife?”

“I do,” he said.

“Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only unto her forevermore?”

“I do.”

“And do you, Liz, take Brady to be your husband?”

She hiccuped. “I do.”

“And do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect him, forsaking all others and holding unto him forevermore?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

Brady and Liz squeezed their hands together. Chris presented the rings next, and they sealed their love together with the binding of the unbroken circle of love. Liz slid a wedding ring onto Brady’s ring finger, and tears brimmed in her eyes. Chris passed Brady Liz’s wedding ring, and then he slipped it onto her finger.

The minister smiled. “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

Brady chuckled. “Finally.”

Liz gasped. Then, he pulled her toward him and passionately kissed her in front of the hundreds of people in the audience. Everyone applauded. People rose to their feet. Clay was even sure that he’d heard someone whistle.

Brady finally released Liz. Her cheeks were pink with excitement and embarrassment and joy.

“I would like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Brady Maxwell III.”

Everyone else leaped to their feet, cheering and applauding. The string quartet picked up again, playing “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz. Brady and Liz took two steps down the aisle before he scooped Liz up into his arms and marched her down the aisle, as if she weighed nothing. Her train dragged behind them, but all Clay could see was Liz’s elated face staring up at Brady, as if he were her world.

Clay was dimly aware of taking Savannah’s arm and following them down the aisle and past all of their friends and family. He caught one glimpse of Andrea with tears in her eyes. She looked both happy and terribly sad, and he swore that he’d figure out how to fix it.

As soon as they were past the rest of the audience, the wedding planner ushered them away from the party and to a secluded area. Brady and Liz were in a daze, gazing up at each other, as if it were the first time they’d ever seen the other. It was contagious. Clay couldn’t stop smiling.

“Will you help pull aside all the family that we need for the pictures?” the wedding planner asked Clay and Savannah when she caught up with them.

“More pictures?” Clay asked.

“Just with the families, and then we’ll head over to the reception. I wanted to give them a moment though,” she said.

“Good idea,” Savannah said. “We’ll cover it.”

They spent the next twenty minutes herding together all of their family and trying to figure out who belonged to Liz’s family out of the nearly eight hundred people in attendance. They were almost done when Savannah nudged Clay.

“What?” he asked

She nodded her head off in the distance, and he saw what she was getting at.

He smiled. “Thanks, Savi.”

“Well…I owe you for the beach,” she said quietly. “Thanks, by the way.”

“That’s what big brothers are for.”

He wandered away from Savannah and went directly to Andrea, who was speaking animatedly to Bad Suit. She was waving her arms around a lot, and that normally meant bad news.

“Mind if I cut in?” Clay asked, as if this were a dance.

Andrea immediately dropped her arms and turned to face him. “Clay…”

“Why don’t you just turn around and walk away like you did last time?” Asher said.

Clay raised his eyebrows. He was not going to get into a fight at Brady’s wedding. He was not going to punch this douche bag in the face. He was not going to do it. Even if the guy deserved it.

So, instead, he just smiled neutrally, letting the cocky attitude return with ease. “You think so?”

“What are you talking about, Asher?” Andrea asked, whirling on him.

Clay realized what was going on and almost laughed. “You saw me there. That’s why you did it.”

“Did what?” Andrea asked.

“He saw me at the gallery. That’s why he picked you up and twirled you around. Why he acted like your boyfriend. Isn’t that right?”

“You were at the gallery?” Andrea asked, confused. “What is he talking about, Asher?”

Asher shrugged. “So maybe I saw you there. She wouldn’t have reacted that way if she wasn’t interested in me.”

Clay laughed. “You did it so that she wouldn’t show you how interested she still was in me, right?”

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?”

“I came to your gallery opening. Brady and Liz were there. They can corroborate my story. I came to invite you to the Cooper and Nielson gala, but when I showed up, he picked you up and twirled you around. You looked so happy, so I walked out and never invited you.”

Andrea’s mouth dropped open. “You were there? I swore, I saw you, but…I just thought I’d been seeing things.”

“And he did it, hoping I’d walk.”

“Just like you did,” Asher said with a sneer.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you saw him after I swore to you that I saw him that day. You made me feel like a total crazy person, as if I were the one chasing ghosts.”

Asher shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. “I just knew Clay was no good for you. If you’d just give me a chance, you’d see how right we are.”

“You had no right to do that,” Andrea snapped. “As I was so eloquently saying before Clay showed up, we’re not together. Stop trying to act like we’re together. I invited you to this as a friend. Clearly, you don’t know the meaning of that…so you can leave.” She twirled her fingers at him in a dismissive manner.

“Andrea—” Asher said.

“No. Good-bye.”

Asher opened his mouth, like he wanted to say more, but Clay got between him and Andrea. “As much as I’d love to hear what you have to say…oh, wait, no, I don’t. I have to take Andrea for pictures anyway.”

“Pictures?” she asked in surprise.

“Family pictures.”