Where It All Started

Chapter 23

i got ready to get up when Levi gently grabbed my arm nodding to the dance floor. Shania and Noah were walking up to it together. Cocking my head I slowly sat down, giving them time to speak. Shania had one hand tightly around the mic, the other arm tightly around Noah. Noah had one arm holding the now 1 year old Genevieve to his left side and the other holding Shania tightly to his right.

"So, I am one of the two Maids of Honor, I know traditionally that we don't make toasts so don't think of what I am about to say as a toast. I just have a few things to say that I promise to try not to cry over. First thing's first, one person that I really want to thank for bring me back Noah is Brielle. I remember when she and Levi were first dating and had hit a really rough patch in their relationship but were able to work through that. I was so afraid to see Noah after not talking to him for two years. She said to me, and this is just something I recall from memory, 'I remember someone very wise once said that a love so true shouldn't be given up on but fought for', referring to what I had just said about her and Levi," she smiled softly at me at the memory. "We hadn't known one another for very long but I felt like I'd known her from birth. Brielle, before we met here, I couldn't say I had a friend to come back to town for. You know how scary it can be to go back to the man you love for fear he's moved on, and I, at the time never had a friend. You, you became that friend. I mean, you are honestly one of my best friends and now you're my sister-in-law. I can't wait have many family reunions and plays dates with our kiddos. Levi, hon, I've known you since I was 15, I know that we hadn't talked either for the two years but I am so happy you and Austin as well as your parents are back in my life. You were one of the many people rooting for Noah and I in our earlier years. So to both of you, I wish all the love in the world but I know you won't need it because everyone in this room can already see that you both already have all the love in this world and more."

A tear fell down her cheek as she looked at me smiling softly before looking at Levi then handing Noah the mic for Genevive. Then the host directing took the mic for me as I stood. Levi grabbed my arm again gently cocking an eyebrow at me. "Wait, where you goin'?" he asked softly.

I smiled softly bringing his lips to mine, kising him softly. "To present you with your second wedding gift," i whispered.

I walked around the table counting every step in the grass I took to the middle of the elevated dance floor. Taking the out stretched mic from the host, I took a deep breath before speaking. "I have a speech to give too. So bare with me," I said smiling and that got a chuckle out of a person or two. "Levi and I have known one another since we were six, which you all know courtesy of his beautiful vow during the wedding and that means we've shared many moments together on and off cameras that were in both of our parents hands. At a point in our relationship we'd had a rough moment," I said swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat. "It wasn't only my near death accident but one within our own minds. So to reassure him of my love for him I decided to not only change the venue to a place that meant more to both of us but to put together a highlight reel of a lot of moments shared together, one from each age starting at six. He gave me the idea when he presented me with a picture frame with moments from each of the ages in our lives that we spent together. All sixteen years, up until the moment he proposed. Yeah, people he had a hidden photographer, that surprise even me because it's our special place that he propsed to me at but, I was able to get away with it because of Levi's schedule," I said smirking at Levi who returned my smirk. "So, to my loving husband. Here I have 12 clips of every moment, funny or not that our parents or someone else got on tape then gave to our parents up to the age of 18. Thank god for our parents who recorded incessantly," I joked making everyone laugh.

"As well as those who caught the moments by chance. Um, the projector will be pointed toward the darker part of the tent in front of everyone and just to the left of our bridal table," I said softly, before nodding at the host who was now in the dark part of the tent beside the projector. I saw her nod before bending down to press play.