Her Fairy-Tale Life

"So, you're quite happy to be marrying a lunatic?" She asked, hearing the lack of worry in his voice which put her at ease.

"I knew you were a lunatic that night you ran out in the rain and made me crash my plane, then climbed in and saved me," he said as if it was obvious. "I love that you're a lunatic, in fact, I love everything about you, now, let me talk to Toby, please."

Maggie gave a small laugh as she handed Toby her phone and walked back into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Anne had stocked it well, and she found a range of salads and some chicken, which she pulled out and began preparing lunch so that everyone could help themselves. She went through the motions of doing what was needed and expected as the others in the apartment fielded phone calls and dealt with what they had to do. Selena arrived and sat with Maggie, who picked at her lunch.

"Kaeden asked why I was here, and I don't think he believed that I didn't know why you asked me to come over," Toby chuckled. "Maybe you should tell me before we do anything else."

"Oh gosh, the gift!" Maggie looked up at Scott, who didn't seem to have it with him.

"It's in the car. I'll get Paul to bring it up," Scott said, immediately going to the hotel phone.

"You bought me a gift?" Toby asked with a grin.

"It's for Kaeden, sorry, I was going to ask you to get it to him before the wedding," Maggie admitted apologetically.

"I can do that," Toby said. "Is it something mushy and romantic that will make him cry?" He asked eagerly. "That would just about make up for not being the best man," he grinned.

"It's meaningful; I don't know about mushy enough to make him cry," Maggie couldn't help but smile at Toby's infectious grin. "It's more likely to make him laugh, I think." She told Toby how she teased Kaeden constantly about being a bad pilot because of how they met, and what she had decided to give him for a combined Valentine's Day and Wedding present.

"That's a pretty perfect gift, romantic and funny," Toby congratulated her. "Scott and Claire need to go help Wade sort out what happened downstairs earlier, so I get to stay and be the chief bridesmaid until Lilly and Rochelle arrive."

"That's because you're so pretty," Claire teased her brother.

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful," Toby chuckled. "She's always been jealous of how cute her little brothers were," he grinned at Maggie.

"Only because they got away with shit that Wade and I never got away with," Claire huffed.

"Curse of being the oldest," he shook his head. "You forged the path, we just followed along."

"Don't you believe him for one second, he and Kaeden were horrible little boys," Claire warned, but Maggie could hear the love in her voice as she spoke. "There was one time when they were about seven or eight that he and Kaeden mounted a covert raid with their GI Joe's and took Lilly's Barbie Dream House and painted it black and hid all her Barbies."

"Joe was tired of being homeless, and Barbie still had her campervan, which was better than Joe's Jeep," Toby protested.

"You're such a girl," she rolled her eyes, making Maggie laugh even harder.

"You wish I were a girl," he rolled his eyes back at her. "You know she used to dress me and Kaeden up as girls when we were babies?" Toby said to Maggie, as if it was the most horrific thing in the world.

"Are there photos?" Maggie asked.

"No, I'm traumatised enough by the memory, God forbid there were photos!" Toby said, disgusted by her question.

"I'll show you the photos later," Claire said flippantly. "I have to go see Wade," she said with an air of superiority meant for her brothers benefit, as Paul arrived in the apartment with the gift for Kaeden.

"Good job, man, she can handle anything now," Scott clasped Toby's hand as he followed Claire toward the elevator. "We'll see you at the chapel," he kissed Maggie's cheek.

"So, there is a chapel?" Maggie asked, being short on details about the ceremony.

"I assume so, if you're getting married," Scott shrugged and left.

"Okay, let's put the very patient Selena out of her misery and get this show on the road so I can head to the chapel early and make Kaeden cry," Toby grinned, scooping the watch box from the table.

The afternoon turned into a happy whirlwind for Maggie, as Toby stayed and kept everyone laughing with funny stories from growing up with Kaeden. Claire had been the oldest and was bossy with her siblings, Wade and Jack came next, then Lilly, and a gap of a few years until Toby and Kaeden arrived to complete the family. Maggie hadn't even considered how much older than him Kaeden's siblings were, but, as the afternoon continued, she realised that Kaeden had been a very naughty little boy with indulgent parents and very protective older siblings. She finally understood Hannah's warning on Friday night when she told Kaeden not to get up to any shenanigans.

*****

Chapter 19.

It was late afternoon, and the sun was starting to dip towards the horizon when the car she travelled in with Selena and Jill, who was explaining that the photographer would meet them at the farmhouse and start taking wedding photos as soon as she arrived, pulled up to the farm. As they pulled into the driveway of her farmhouse, Maggie could see that Bob stood on the front porch in his formal kilt and a dress shirt, making her smile.

"Ah, Lass, you look like a princess. I know I'm not ye Da, but I'd be an honour to walk ye down the aisle," Bob said formally.

"So there's an aisle in this mysterious chapel?" she asked with a laugh.

"Aye, there's an aisle right enough," he said cagily.

"Then you're the only one I can imagine walking me down it," she laughed and hugged him as they posed for photographs in front of the house she had grown up in.

*****

"She loves me," Kaeden whispered, looking up at Toby. The Navitime watch and inscription were so unexpected and romantic that, much to Toby's delight, Kaeden had cried.

"You could be right about that," Toby drawled, "She's about to marry you, after all. She just arrived out the front, so pull yourself together."

"You waited until she arrived to give me this?" Kaeden asked, removing his watch and replacing it with the one Maggie had given him.

"Sure, the timing was perfect, look at you, all teary and emotional," Toby chuckled.

"You're a bastard, you know that, right?" Kaeden shook his head.

"Yep," he stood from where he'd been lounging in a comfortable chair and embraced his brother. "But then I haven't been here very long because I was looking after Maggie and falling a little in love with her myself."

"She's amazing, right?" Kaeden laughed.

"Yes, Kaeden, she is probably better than you deserve," he teased. "You told her if she married you before your birthday you'd get everything." He laughed.

"I didn't lie, I just didn't tell her what everything was exactly," Kaeden looked at his brother. "Did you tell her?"

"What, and ruin the surprise? No way!" Toby laughed heartily. "Every girl wants a lump of raw ore, doesn't she?" When his father had struck it lucky, he had taken a lump of raw copper ore to his mother and promised her everything she'd ever wanted and deserved. That lump was legendary in the family, and in just over an hour's time it would be Kaeden's. He'd wanted it since he was a little boy and asked for it on every birthday. When the bet had been made between Kaeden and Wade, no one believed he would ever marry before he turned thirty, but he would inherit it when the time came now. Toby chuckled about how Maggie would react when she found out she'd been rushed down the aisle for a rock called Everything.

"What is with this shirt?" Toby pulled at the gold and cream sash that ran in a diagonal across Kaeden's chest.

"I'm Prince Charming, apparently, or some version of him," Kaeden straightened the cream silk fitted tunic uncomfortably as Toby stepped back and looked him over properly.

"You're not Prince Charming," Toby snorted. "You're Flynn Rider, a thief and a scoundrel who was lucky enough to save a princess and marry her." He continued to laugh. "It's perfect, just perfect!" he looked around with wide eyes at the lanterns hanging in the trees that lit the space. "I bet Fiona and Anne did this," he laughed harder. "You are so getting a copy of Tangled as a belated wedding present."

"Mum suggested the tunic, to go with the whole fairytale theme," he said, concerned about his brother's laughter.

"And the lanterns, no doubt. Here, take five minutes to watch this and you'll understand," Toby shook his head and handed Kaeden his phone with the second Tangled trailer ready to play.

Kaeden started laughing with his brother as the hero of the Tangled story got clobbered time and again by the princess in the story and the lanterns danced in the sky.

"Looks like it's time," Toby said as the small crowd began to take their seats.

"Wish me luck," Kaeden said as she stood, "she'll either love what I did to her orchard or hate it and refuse to marry me." He went to take his place next to the celebrant.

*****

Maggie took a deep breath as she walked into the house with Bob for a few minutes before the ceremony while the photographer went to set up his equipment. Bob took her hand and stopped her as they entered the kitchen.

"That lad has been down here working every day trying to bring the orchard back to life for you," he watched her face, unsure if she would be upset.

"Mum's orchard?" she frowned. "He brought it back to life in a week?"

"Aye, he did at that, Lass," Bob said. "That lad loves you and listened to you when you talked about it, just remember, he did it to make you happy. So maybe a piece of your Ma and Da were there with you today."

"He does love me, doesn't he?" Maggie said softly, feeling tears prick at her eyes.

"I hope so," Bob chuckled, leading her to the rear door of the farm house. "Let's not keep him waiting," Bob said gently and opened the door. A soft acoustic guitar began to play as she walked over a temporary path made from artificial grass, and she recognised the song from Kaeden's car on date night as Rachel Platten's 'A better place' and smiled.

With each step, she looked in amazement as more of the orchard and the chapel Kaeden had created within it was exposed. She stood for a long moment at the start of the aisle as the photographer moved in front of her and disappeared again. She looked up to see Kaeden smiling with the sunset behind him in its deep oranges and pinks against the indigo sky, and her breath was taken away at just how perfect he had made this ceremony for her.

She loved him, honestly and truly. He had crashed into her life and changed the way she viewed the world around her. The world wasn't the cruel hard place she'd believed it to be over the last decade as she'd struggled to hold onto the only the only thing she believed was hers... This farm. She'd felt alone and lonely, with no one to care for or who cared about her for so long, and this man had shown her life didn't have to be that way.

At this moment her home was filled with people who genuinely cared about her, and the man smiling at her in the wavering light of the lanterns mixed with the sunset, loved her. She knew it without a doubt. She walked slowly up the short aisle and could see friendship, affection and love in the faces of people who looked back at her.

She took Kaeden's hand and turned toward the celebrant, ready to say her vows. She knew that he was her prince charming and had given her a fairytale end to what had been a sad time in her life. At that moment she knew that she could live happily ever after with him.

*****