Free A Marriage of True Minds: A Sasha McCandless Novella by Melissa F. Miller

can
start now,” she said to Father Alexander.
    “I thought you
might have changed your mind,” Connelly whispered, placing her hand on his
chest so she could feel his heart thumping wildly under his linen shirt.
    “Never.”
    The hammering of
his heart slowed under her palm as Father Alexander, a smudge of dirt bisecting
his brow, raised his hands, allowed a smile to blossom across his face, and
greeted their wedding guests.
    Sasha ignored
every part of her aching body, the smell of blood drying on her now-trashed
gown, her raging headache, and her bone-deep exhaustion. She lost herself in
Connelly’s cashmere gray eyes.
    “This has
certainly been an eventful evening,” Father Alexander began.
    The assembled
group shared a soft, knowing laugh.
    “But how
appropriate that Sasha and Leo have decided to end the night on a note of hope,
affirmation, and love.” He smiled broadly. “In fact, I’m reminded of
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, which begins ‘ Let me not to the marriage of true
minds admit impediments .’ I’m not certain the Bard had in mind the sort of
impediments that this couple has faced tonight, but these events are a good
metaphor for the high highs and low lows that every married couple encounters
as they walk through life together. Shakespeare goes on, ‘ Love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds,or bends with the remover to remove: O
no! it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken. ’ I
think we can agree that the man and woman standing before us look on tempests
and are never shaken. May the strength they’ve found in dealing with the
extraordinary follow them through to much more mundane struggles during the
course of their marriage. And may the strength that their friends and families
displayed this evening hold them up during life’s ordinary challenges.”
    Mundane
struggles and ordinary challenges sounded positively devine to Sasha.
    She blinked away
tears.
    First Bodhi and
then Hank stood and read by candlelight passages they’d chosen especially for
Sasha and Connelly.
    She’d have to
ask them to give her copies of the readings, because the words, so carefully
selected, had rolled over her in waves of wisdom and meaning that somehow
couldn’t penetrate her brain, which was screaming We’re getting married! over and over, like the world’s most enthusiastic bridesmaid.
    Apparently, the
readings were over, and she was supposed to be doing something because Father
Alexander was smiling at her indulgently.
    “Before Sasha
and Leo exchange the vows they wrote, I’d like to ask them to share something
else with you and one another. I had asked each of them separately to find a
passage from literature, a scene from a movie or television show, or a musical
lyric that best encapsulates the feelings they each have for one another as
they start this adventure together.” He held up an envelope. “They gave me
their choices, but I didn’t share them. So, tonight, I’d like them to share
them with each other. Sasha?”
    Sasha laughed
shakily, and her cheeks burned hot.
    She turned to
her groom and spoke in a low voice, just loud enough for him to hear. “Well, my
choice is more Shakespeare. It’s a passage from Romeo and Juliet , it
goes like this, ‘ My bounty is as boundless as the sea ...”
    She trailed off
and stared in disbelief as Connelly’s shoulders shook with barely suppressed
laughter.
    Seriously? He was laughing at her?
    She tamped down
her rising irritation and continued.
    But before she
could speak, Connelly huskily chimed in, “ My love as deep .”
    She stared at
him in confusion for a second.
    Then they
finished the passage in unison, his voice weaving around hers, the two entwined
like ribbons. “ The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are
infinite. ”
    As the verse
ended, a goopy, idiotic grin spread across Sasha’s face.
    Connelly winked
at her, and then his mouth quirked into the sexy, lopsided grin that made