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“Walk me down the aisle?”

His eyes go wide. “Uh, I mean, what about Dad? Or Javi?”

“I’d rather someone I care about do it.”

“Damn.” He laughs nervously. “That’s brutal.”

“Please?” I’m too angry with my father for this situation, and I’ve never been that close with my older brother. Having Cruz there, at least until the very last minute, feels right.

“Yeah, uh, sure, of course I’ll do it. Just… you gotta tell Dad.”

“I’ll handle him.” I take a deep breath and blow it out. “Are they ready down there? How many people showed up?”

“I don’t know. Less than a hundred.”

“Small wedding.” I’m not sure why I feel disappointed. “But I guess that’s what happens when the bride…” I trail off and don’t finish it.

Cruz looks at his shoes. “I’m sorry. This really sucks. I know they’re making you.”

“It’s okay, really.”

“It’s not, but we can’t do anything about it, right?” He looks up and for a brief moment, the shy, boyish kid is gone, replaced by what I think will be Cruz in the future. Hard, sharp, intelligent. “I’ll kill him if he hurts you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll kill him first.”

“I mean it, Mari. Nobody else will care, but you can come to me.”

“You’re the second person to offer that today.” I hug my brother tightly. “Come on, let’s go get me married, huh?”

The walk down to the ceremony is short and not as bad as I expected. The heels Lia chose add a couple inches but are manageable. Cruz lets me lean on him and he’s back to being the painfully uncomfortable fifteen-year-old I know and love. When Dad comes to interrupt us, I wave him off with a pointed stare, and make it clear that Cruz isn’t going anywhere.

“You fight me on this and I’ll ruin this stupid wedding,” I threaten quietly. “Understand?”

Dad grimaces and steps away. “Whatever you want. It’s your big day.”

I resist the urge to tell him to fuck off.

Cruz and I gather near the back doors, in the dim gloom of the ranch’s beautiful living room. The ceremony itself is outside in the fantasy back yard with an incredible view of the rolling hills. Chairs are set up in front of a white flower-covered arbor. The priest is in his robes and a piano’s playing, waiting for me.

“Not too late to run,” Cruz says, and I know he’s joking, but it slams into me like a train.

He’s wrong about that. It’s much, much too late, probably by a few years, and I didn’t realize it until right this moment.

I’ll never get on the road. My dream of traveling the States in a car is dead. I once pictured myself bathing in streams, roughing it across national parks, sleeping in parking lots and campsites, wild and free in a way I’d never been before. Sure, life would be hard, but I’d make it work, and I’d do it on my own terms.

That’ll never happen now.

“Come on, let’s go before I ruin my makeup,” I say, dabbing at my eyes.

Cruz looks panicked. “Are you okay? Are you crying? Do you want me to⁠—”

“Let’s walk, okay?”

He shuts up and we step through the sliding glass door.

A few dozen people are gathered. I recognize my side of the family: Don Nardo, Ruben, Inez, tons of other cousins and important members of the Escalante cartel here in Texas, my parents and Javi in the front row, my mother beaming like this is the best day of her life. And across from them, Bass’s family, Lia giving me a little wave, her mother and her brothers at her side, and a bunch of people I’ve never seen before in my life. It’s overwhelming, too much, enough to make me panic⁠—

Until Cruz walks forward and I focus on the man waiting for me at the end of the aisle.