Page 251 of Face Off

Daniel lowers his head. His shoulders rise beneath a breath while Knox places one hand on the back of his father’s neck. Ryker looks toward the garden and wipes quickly beneath one eye as though the movement might go unnoticed. Kellen doesn’t attempt to hide his tears. Lyon and Emmitt stand shoulder to shoulder behind them, both staring at Bliss.

Ryan removes a small black box from the bag.

“Tomorrow will be beautiful,” he says. “It will also give you several new Nevers, and none of us wanted Cindy’s absence to arrive like something nobody remembered until it hurt you.”

Bliss covers her mouth.

“We can’t make the Nevers disappear. We can’t pretend enough people loving you will fill the exact place where your mother should be. All we can do is remember her with you.”

Ryan holds the first box toward Briggs.

The huge man accepts it with both hands. His usual restless movement disappears as he crosses the pavilion. His black suit pulls tightly across his shoulders, but every part of him has softened by the time he reaches Bliss.

“This one is for tomorrow morning,” Briggs says. “For the room full of people helping you get ready. Your hair will be done, your makeup will be perfect, and everyone will tell you how beautiful you look.”

“You will be,” Ryan says quietly.

Bliss reaches for him. Briggs catches her hand before she can touch the box and squeezes it between both of his.

“Your mom should be there,” Briggs tells her. “She should be laughing, crying, taking four thousand photographs, and making your hair worse while insisting she knows what she’s doing. When you feel that space tomorrow, we want you to know we remembered she belonged inside it.”

Briggs presses the box into Bliss’s palm, then bends and kisses her forehead.

She opens it with shaking fingers. A metallic rose-gold marble rests inside black velvet, silver threads curling through its center like light caught inside a sunset.

Bliss lifts it between her fingers. “It’s beautiful.”

Briggs’s eyes shine. “She would think you’re more beautiful.”

A sob leaves her, and Briggs wraps both arms around her before she can reach for him. He lifts Bliss off the ground, holding her against his chest while she cries into his shoulder.

“Easy,” Cade warns, though his own voice has thickened. “I need her structurally sound tomorrow.”

Briggs places her carefully beside him. “I’m excellent with delicate objects.”

“You broke three chairs this year,” Easton says.

“They lacked integrity. Bliss is tough as nails.”

Ryan waits for the laughter to soften before removing another box.

“East.”

Easton approaches with the controlled stride he carries onto the ice. His charcoal suit makes him look even more severe, but his jaw works as he takes the box from Ryan.

“This one belongs to the first look,” Easton says. “The moment Cade sees you in your dress and every camera captures what happens to his face.”

“Nothing will happen to my face,” Cade says.

Bliss looks at him through tears. “You cried when I tried on rehearsal shoes.”

“They had bows.”

“They were you, Pip.”

Easton stops in front of Bliss. His fingers tighten around the box before he places it in her open hand.

“Your father will be watching from a distance,” he says. “Your mother will be watching from somewhere none of us can photograph. When Cade looks at you, she’ll see it too.”