All Emily had ever wanted was for her sisters to be happy. Knowing that each of them had found true love meant everything to her. Morgan and Brian had always been meant to be, even if their road to true love had been a little bumpy. Get Paige and Christian dancing together and it was like there was no one else in the world. Rachel, Nicholas, and Charlotte had formed their own perfect little traveling family. And Hanna and Joel only had eyes for each other.

What’s more, each of her sisters had made so much of their professional lives. Hanna was pursuing the film career she’d always dreamed of. Rachel was finally living the adventures she longed for. Paige was choreographing special projects and even dancing on stage. And Morgan’s TV show was drawing in bigger and bigger numbers every week it aired.

Emily looked up at the bright blue sky and thought, I hope I did a good job filling in for you, Mom.

“Why are you crying, Aunt Emily?” Charlotte whispered.

 Emily ran a hand over her niece’s hair as she bent down to whisper back, “Because I’m so happy.”

“Then shouldn’t you be smiling?”

“Sometimes,” Emily told her as she smiled through her tears, “when I’m really happy, I cry and smile all at the same time.”

“We’re here today to celebrate the marriage of Morgan and Brian…”

Everything was absolutely perfect as the bride and groom stood hand-in-hand about to say the vows they’d written for each other.

“Brian,” Morgan said in a clear, sweet voice as she turned to face her groom, “I’ve loved you since we were kids. I let life come between us for far too long, but I never stopped loving you. And coming back to you was the best decision I’ve ever made. However tangled up the garden of my life gets, I’ll always love you. Forever and ever.”

“Morgan…” Brian had to stop when he got choked up, and Emily knew every last one of the wedding guests got choked up right along with him. “I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember.  I’ll never stop loving you, and I’ll never stop telling you how much I love you. Wherever life leads us, I’ll be right here at your side every single step of the way.”

A short while later, after Morgan and Brian slipped platinum wedding bands on each other’s fingers and kissed to seal their vows, Emily applauded with everyone else as the radiantly happy husband and wife walked down the aisle with their arms tight around each other.

Emily smiled at her best friend, Michael Bennet, who was Brian’s best man. Michael was moving toward her to begin their own walk back down the aisle behind the happily wed bride and groom, when she caught his expression…and stumbled in her heels.

Because Michael wasn’t looking at her as if she was simply his friend.

Instead, she was stunned to realize that he was gazing at her in the same way that Brian had been looking at Morgan as she’d walked up the aisle on their father’s arm.

As if she was his forever.

Excerpt from Forever in Love: The Walker Island Series #5, copyright 2016, Lucy Kevin