Vindication
Page 33
I glanced at J.D. She was grinning at me. “What?” I asked.
“You look kind of worn out. Did I push you too hard?”
“That’ll never happen, sweetcheeks.”
She grabbed hold of my arm, leaned over, and kissed me on the cheek. “I think you should call Jeff Carpenter.”
“Why? You think I need a doctor?”
“No. About the wedding.”
“What wedding?”
“The one on June 6th.”
“Who’s getting married?”
“We are.”
I stopped abruptly. I must have missed something. “We’re getting married?”
“Yes. On June 6th.”
“And this is the first I’ve heard about it?”
“We don’t have to, you know.”
“I didn’t mean that. Why is this the first I’ve heard about it? June 6th is next week.”
“I’ve just decided to accept your proposal. If you haven’t changed your mind, that is.”
“Never. It still stands. Tell me what’s going on.”
“My wise aunt Esther, who knows a thing or two, told me at the party the night the trial ended that sometimes the right man comes along, and although you know he’s the one, for whatever reason you’re afraid to commit. And so, the day arrives when he just walks away and you spend the rest of your life regretting your indecision, your weakness. She said that you’re my right man.
“She’s right, of course. Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about what she said, and watching you today, breathing a little harder and showing signs of aches and pains you didn’t have a year ago, I realized that you’re getting older, and so am I. That blazing insight reminded me of that poem by Longfellow where he writes that ‘time is fleeting’ and that we should ‘act in the living present.’ I love you, you know, and I’ve decided to act.”
“I’m glad you decided,” I said. “But why the hurry?”
“A long time ago, I read somewhere that June 6th is the most propitious day of the year to get married. The oracles say that it’s a day that ensnares lovers in a marriage that lasts a lifetime. Hopefully, the road ahead of us is fifty years long and I want us to walk every step of it together.”
I stood for a moment on the hot sand, looking at my girl and thinking about life and death and love and the long road ahead. She smiled and my heart did a little jig. I nodded and pulled the sweaty phone from my pocket and called Jeff Carpenter.