But she wasn’t surprised to know that she wasn’t the only one awake at the Sheridan house. After all, it was the central heartbeat of so much family. There, on the counter, sat a full pot of piping hot coffee. And through the window that opened out onto the porch, she spotted the grey outline of one Wes Sheridan, who assuredly stood to watch the first of the morning waves roll in from the Sound. Susan exhaled somberly. It was somehow strange to feel this way at forty-five. She felt as though she had to say goodbye to her childhood home all over again, although she would really only be next door.
The screen door screeched as she entered the porch with her own mug of coffee. When Wes shifted his weight toward her, she spotted a funny sight in his arms. He was cradling a sleeping Max, who wore a light blue sleep jumpsuit. His eyelashes were so long and delicate, splayed across his cheeks, and his lips looked on the verge of dropping his pacifier.
“He was crying upstairs, so I managed to get to him just as Audrey got up,” Wes explained. “I told her to go back to sleep. She needs it, I think. As much as she pretends she’s all right, she’s still just as exhausted as any new mom.”
Susan placed a hand on her father’s shoulder. “I know you mean the world to Audrey. And this little guy already loves you so much. Look at how peaceful he is.”
Wes beamed, even as his eyes grew shadowed. The silence enveloped them for a moment until Wes cleared his throat and murmured, “I didn’t want to say this as much last night, but I have an addendum to my speech.”
Susan’s throat constricted as his eyes connected with hers. She didn’t dare speak.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around,” Wes said finally.
Susan furrowed her brow. This wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have. Not now. Not ever.
But still — she wanted to be the type of daughter to allow Wes to say such things if he needed to. She couldn’t refute that. She had felt the potential pain of dying only last year, as cancer had attempted to swallow her whole. She had wanted to say such things to Amanda, but she’d held back as she’d fought harder. Dementia wasn’t really something you could fight; it came after you little by little. It was like the story of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise always won in the end — as did time.
“I know that’s difficult for you to hear. But it’s not as difficult for me to say it,” Wes said. “I feel that God gave me a tremendous gift in bringing you girls back home to me. I have to come to terms with the fact that the Sheridan line will continue to grow and change and mold. It will grow stronger, even in my absence. I just want to soak in the last of it all that I can. And dammit, I can’t believe I can finally walk one of my girls down the aisle.”
Susan’s eyes welled with tears. She dropped her head upon her father’s chest, to the right of Baby Max. His firm arm wrapped around her shoulder as the first of what would probably be many sobs over the course of the day escaped her. There was no escaping this inevitability. They could only live in their gratefulness.
CHRISTINE HAD SET ASIDE one of the more beautiful rooms of the Harbor View Hotel for the girls’ pre-wedding preparation. The wedding was set to begin at four-thirty, with cocktails immediately after, before another incredible meal and hours and hours of dancing. They had selected a number of Vineyard-based bands to perform before a local DJ planned to take over around ten-thirty. Already, the space outside was decorated immaculately with nearly three hundred chairs on either side of the aisle, glorious white lilies opening their wide arms toward the sky, and a beautiful, wooden-carved arc, beneath which Scott and Susan would say their vows. Charlotte had really outdone herself.
“But she always outdoes herself,” Lola said then as she leaned toward the mirror and smeared a bit of eyeliner over the top of her right eyelid. “If you told her to chill out once, she would probably lose her mind.”
“That’s the same with all of us, isn’t it?” Christine said as she stepped into her lavender dress. There, with her stomach exposed, you could make out the slightest of baby bumps. When she buttoned the delicate pearl buttons on the back of the dress, however, the baby bump disappeared without a trace beneath the flowing satin.
Audrey appeared in the room after that. She’d already donned her own lavender dress; her hair flowed beautifully, but her lips were coated with what looked to be donut icing.
“Where have you been, Missy?” Lola asked as she reached for a wet wipe — an essential tool at any wedding.
Audrey shrugged. “Jennifer Conrad from the Frosted Delights just arrived with a ton of donuts for the bridal party.”
“What!” Amanda jumped up from the corner, then placed her hand over her stomach. “On second thought, I don’t want to be bloated for the pictures.”
“Oh, come on. You can have a donut. It’s a celebration,” Christine said as she hustled toward the door. “I’ll grab enough for all of us.”
Susan remained seated. She’d only just slipped on the antique wedding dress, the same one worn by a film star of the ‘40s, and she feasted on her reflection, knowing that all too soon, this moment would slip away. It was a funny thing about getting older; looks mattered less and less, it was true — but you were also more aware of what you needed to appreciate. If only she could go back in time and tell her teenage self not to worry so much about having “washboard abs,” which she’d tried for, tearing through the pages of Seventeen magazine for “top tips.” What a waste it had all been. She was already beautiful.
Amanda appeared behind her. She touched at some of the delicate curls along her mother’s shoulder and said, “You look really beautiful, you know.” The words were so tender that they nearly broke Susan’s heart.
“It’s strange. I don’t remember feeling like this when I married your father,” Susan said. “I suppose I was just worried about you and Jake at the time. You were both so young and wild. I wanted everything in your lives to be perfect, but now, you and Jake are grown. Jake has a whole family of his own. So now, this decision is all about me, my life and about my own happiness.”
Amanda nodded. “And you think you’re making the right choice?”
“Absolutely. It is both imperfect and perfect at the same time. As all wonderful things are,” Susan said.
Just before four-thirty, Susan, Amanda, Audrey, Lola, and Christine gathered near the side entrance of the hotel, where double-wide doors would lead them out toward the massive Vineyard crowd, which had gathered for the wedding of the Vineyard famous Susan Sheridan. Throughout the previous year, everyone had pulled for them in all things as they had watched as Susan had powered through cancer, as Scott had fixed up the Inn, as their love had grown into something so strong that it even shocked them.
It had been rather difficult to decide who to invite. Thusly, they’d gone with almost everyone. And nearly everyone had RSVPed “yes.”
Wes appeared in the hallway wearing a beautiful tux, and his hair had been styled wonderfully, with a part off to the side. It was remarkable how little hair he’d lost over the years; it was remarkable that his smile seemed just as youthful as ever before. As he took in the view of Susan in her wedding gown, his eyes filled with tears.
“It’s better than I ever imagined,” he said. “You look so much like your mother right now. It’s uncanny. But you also look like yourself, my unique and beautiful Susan Sheridan.” He knelt and gave her a delicate kiss on the cheek, just as the string quintet outside started. It was time for the girls to begin their steady walk down the aisle. It was time for Susan to finally, after so many years, to become a Frampton.
Audrey led the charge, a traditional Aries girl. She soaked up the first of the attention and led Lola, then Christine, then Amanda, who was, naturally, Susan’s maid of honor. As Susan walked down the aisle, she made eye contact with several islanders she adored — her cousin, Claire and husband Russell; her twins, Abby and Gail; Camilla Jenkins, who worked at the hospital; Chelsea, Olivia Hesson’s daughter, who worked at the diner; Nancy Remington, Neal Remin
gton’s widow, whom Susan had gotten to know over the previous year. Her heart surged with love for all of them.
But soon, her eyes had room only for Scott.
Scott and Kellan had opted for near-matching tuxedos. Kellan stood alongside his father proudly, with his chest puffed out. Scott shifted his weight, proof of his nervousness, but maintained heavy eye contact with Susan. With every step she took, her mind purred with ideas of her luck. He was the most handsome, kindest man she’d ever known and he would be with her forever. Why did she deserve this? She supposed she would never truly know.
Scott extended his hands to allow Susan to drop hers over them. There seemed to be lightning between their skin. The pastor they’d hired to perform the ceremony, a man called Randall, stepped closer to them as the string quintet died down off to the side.
“Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to a most auspicious occasion. We here on the island of Martha’s Vineyard know and love Susan Sheridan and Scott Frampton. We know them to be honorable, hard-working, kind, considerate and prosperous people and today, we have been given the privilege to watch them marry. Lucky us.”
The crowd chuckled. Scott’s eyes filled with tears. Susan told herself to hold off on hers — to stay in the moment as long as she could.
But the moment Scott began his vows, which he had written himself, she knew she was a goner.
“Susan. From the moment I laid eyes on you, thirty years ago, I knew my life wouldn’t be the same without you. We were just teenagers, but already, you taught me new ways to think, to feel, and I had this sense that I needed to always be better and work harder if only to be good enough for you.
“Our paths to here were a long winding road that finally connected once again. I know that the woman I see before me today has mountains of history; I have my own history, too. But that history has made us who we are today — two people with even more love than we had beforehand, who’ve overcome countless obstacles to unite once more. Susan Sheridan, I love you more than I can possibly describe. And I thank my lucky stars every day that you want to be my wife and join me and Kellan on our life journeys.”
Susan felt the waterworks. She brushed aside a tear before it threatened to roll all the way down her cheek and muss her makeup. When she spoke, her voice wavered; she wasn’t sure she could trust herself to get to the end.
“Scott. One afternoon, when I was sixteen years old, you appeared at the dock beneath my house in a boat and said, ‘Come with me.’ You refused to tell me where we were going. I was hesitant, of course, but so glad that I took that chance and went along with you. That day allowed me to learn that you were the type of boy that I wanted to fall in love with, the type of man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And my sisters reminded me of that every single day for a very long time.”
The crowd chuckled. It seemed clear that not a single member of the audience hadn’t given over to tears yet.
“You took me beneath the cliffs and you held my hands in yours and you said, ‘Susan, I’m going to marry you one day.’ And I remember what I said. I said — only if you have a five-year plan.”
Scott laughed outright as everyone else joined in.
“You were totally shocked. You’d wanted it to be this romantic afternoon, but I had given you a dose of reality. At least, I had thought I’d given you that. For, what I know now is this. You can make up as many five-year plans as you want, but you never really know what will happen next. You have to take each day as it is. And you have to love as hard as you can along the way. Right now, I’m a cancer survivor. I’m a divorcee. I’m a mother and a lawyer. I’m a sister, a daughter and a friend. And I can’t wait to be your wife as we wade through the rest of our life together. I love you, Scott Frampton.”
Moments later, the pastor pronounced them man and wife, and they kissed with the zealous energy of their teenage selves, despite living out their lives separately until in their forties. The quintet began to play again as they rushed back down the aisle. Both were out of breath, gasping, as they finished up near the drink area and grabbed two glasses of champagne. They clinked their glasses together as they made heavy eye contact.
“Here’s to the rest of our lives,” Susan said.
“And to one of the greatest parties this island will ever see,” Scott said mischievously.
Chapter Twenty-Four
And it was—one of the greatest parties, that is. The island of Martha’s Vineyard spun with light and love as anyone who was anyone rushed the drink table, shimmied across the dance floor, gossiped and laughed and took chances and risks that would be often talked about for the rest of the summer and into the fall. Susan tried her best to take it all in.
There, off to the right, Lola and Tommy danced with vibrant smiles as Tommy’s broad hand stretched out on her lower back. Susan wondered if Tommy would ever take the plunge and actually ask beautiful Lola to marry him. Perhaps neither were really the type to settle down, no matter how much Susan wanted them to smack a label on it. Then, off to the left, Zach and Christine laughed and bantered together as Christine drank sparkling water with a slice of lemon. Throughout Christine’s life, Susan had watched as her drinking had lightened up — until now, of course, when she had to fully abstain from it. “I don’t miss it at all,” Christine had told Susan the previous week. “All my life, it seemed like alcohol would be a constant. Now, I look around and I feel the immensity of all of your love. And I don’t need it. It’s a funny thing. But it makes me want to cry for previous versions of myself, who thought that alcohol was the only way to feel comfortable.”
Amanda and Sam palled around together throughout the reception. Amanda was rosy-cheeked and lovely, and she looked far more energetic than her normally reserved, Type-A personality allowed. Sam was handsome and cracking jokes that made Amanda double over with laughter. When Susan passed by, she said, “Are you okay? You look like you’re in pain.” To this, Amanda replied, “I just can’t stop laughing.”
Audrey had passed Max off on a babysitter within the hotel, and now, she’d made up her mind to dance the night away with Noah. The pair was incredibly handsome together, bright lights of youthfulness. Once Noah lifted Audrey off the ground like some kind of Dirty Dancing trick; everyone oohed and ahhed as Audrey squealed with delight.
“They’re trying to steal our show,” Scott pointed out with a laugh.
“You want to try doing that with me?” Susan asked.
“If you want tonight to end at the hospital, we can give it a shot,” Scott said, flashing her a playful grin.
Naturally, the food was spectacular. It had all been arranged by Zach, who’d ultimately recommended another, high-caliber chef, who’d arrived from Boston early that morning to get started on everything. “He’s the best of the best, besides me, of course,” he’d said, before adding, “I really would have done this wedding for you, Susan, but Christine says she doesn’t want all the stress of, well, my stress.”
Susan was mesmerized at Zach’s ability to actually listen for a change. He and Christine had been through a great deal over the previous months. He’d left for a time after Baby Max’s illness, as the entire situation had reminded him so much of his daughter’s death. Therapy and time had helped. Love would be the answer, as it always had been before.
Around eleven, the crowd gathered at the edge of one of the docks nearest the hotels as Scott carried Susan over the top of his speedboat. He placed her delicately back to the ground and dotted a kiss on her lips as the crowd roared. Lola and Christine had even decorated the back of the boat with a large banner that read: JUST MARRIED. Susan, who had drank a few glasses of wine, grinned sheepishly at the massive crowd and waved like an excited bride.
“Thank you all!” she cried as Scott revved up the engine. “We love you so much!”
Scott sped them out beyond the lighthouse before motoring westward, back toward Oak Bluffs. Susan told him to go slowly, as she wanted to lean back and enjoy the amazing splay of stars above. They seem
ed so dense above them, so many that it was impossible to count. They twinkled down, lending their blessing.
It no longer scared Susan to be out on a boat at night. She’d once feared it after the death of her mother. But the death had been an accident and she trusted Scott with her whole being. He would never do anything to put her in danger.
Scott pulled the boat up to the newly built dock beneath what had once been the Jacobson house. It was a funny thing to park here — just about a hundred feet from where the Sheridan dock rested. Susan told her heart, “This is your new home,” as she watched Scott tie up the rope and lead her up onto the dock.
The Jacobson house was decorated with what seemed to be hundreds of glowing lights. The pathway up from the dock was lined with them, as was the porch that overlooked the water. The porch itself flickered with candlelight — proof that Scott had hired someone to come decorate the place and prepare it for their first night as husband and wife.
As they walked from the porch, a line of rose petals led them through the fully-renovated kitchen, past the newly constructed fireplace, toward the staircase. With each step, Susan could feel the immensity of their future together. She could see them huddled by the fire in conversation. She could see them cooking together, dreaming together. She could see them in swimsuits, even as they aged, gardening around the sides of the house and making one another mojitos. She could feel it all.
And it hadn’t even happened yet. She would be allowed the entire ride.
Upstairs, Scott had positioned a large bed at the center of the bedroom. There wasn’t a single other piece of furniture, only this. And as she turned toward him to kiss him for the first time in their new house, he said, “Well, hello, Mrs. Frampton. I have been waiting for this moment for thirty years.”
A Vineyard Wedding Page 14
