Marry Me

by Kristin Wallace

  Julia stepped back and made an I-surrender gesture. “Okay, okay. You’re welcome.”

  “There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “Not too bad.”

  “Then my work here is done. I’m off to make myself glamorous.”

  Hours later Annie returned with the bridal party. If she’d been beautiful before, there were no words to describe her now. She looked almost ethereal. This time she was dressed in a sleek column of white silk. A riot of curls fell about her head, with long spirals bouncing around her neck and shoulders. Dainty white baby’s breath had been woven in among the curls. Three young women in wine-colored gowns trailed behind her, and bringing up the rear was Annie’s mother. They all looked like they’d stepped out of a wedding magazine.

  A long length of lattice had been erected behind the rows of chairs to hide the arrival of the bride. Even now Julia could hear the string quartet warming up on the other side of the barrier.

  The only thing they needed now was the bride. Annie smiled as Julia approached. “Everything ready?”

  “Guests. Check. Musicians. Check. Food. Check. One very impatient groom. Check,” Julia said.

  A delighted chuckled escaped, and Annie kissed Julia’s cheek. “This is why I love you. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be a blubbering mess by now.”

  “Oh, I can guarantee you won’t get through this ceremony without major blubbering. It’s that kind of day.”

  Everyone joined in the laughter, and from the looks of things, a few of them were on the verge of tears already.

  Julia took Annie’s hand. “Let’s do this. I think you’ve waited long enough.”

  Mrs. Truman beamed before wrapping her daughter in a hug and then going to take her place down front.

  Annie’s father appeared to walk his little girl down the aisle, while Julia slipped around the lattice wall to cue the quartet to start the processional. The bridesmaids, including Annie’s sister, her college roommate, and a friend from her first day in kindergarten, floated down the aisle.

  Julia sent the maid of honor down the aisle and turned back to Annie. “Okay, Miss Truman, this is it.”

  “Miss Truman?”

  “It’s probably the last time you’re going to hear that. I thought you might appreciate it.”

  Miss Truman immediately started to tear up. “That is so sweet.”

  “Oh, gosh, don’t start that now,” Julia said, waving her hands in panic. “You haven’t even seen Todd yet.”

  “Well, you started it,” Annie complained. “Bad, bad girl.”

  The tears were contagious, and Julia rolled her eyes, mainly to keep from losing it herself. “Come on now, get going.”

  One more cue, and the music began. Annie and her father turned the corner, emerging from behind the lattice wall. Two pairs of eyes met. Todd took a deep breath. Even from where she stood Julia could see his eyes fill.

  Floodgates opened up all around because it was simply that kind of day.

  Seth was officiating the service. He smiled at Annie and Todd, and then turned to address the guests. “Friends, loved ones, we are gathered here to witness more than a union of two people,” he began. “We are gathered here to celebrate the triumph of love over tragedy. We live in a cynical world that doesn’t make it easy to believe in love of any kind. I’m often asked to read 1 Corinthians 13 at weddings, but the sad truth is we have made a mockery of those verses. In our society, love is impatient, and often unkind. It envies and boasts and is filled with unseemly pride. It is rude, selfish, easily angered, and keeps a record of every wrong. It delights in things evil and rejects the truth. It fails to protect, abuses trust, dashes hope, and walks away rather than persevere.”

  Seth’s eyes moved over the crowd, pausing when he reached Julia. For a moment everyone else disappeared. Somehow she knew his words were not meant for Annie and Todd alone.

  He broke the contact and returned to his message. “Forgive me if that seems a bit out of place considering the occasion, but my friends, I’m here to tell you today that Annie and Todd have shown us all that these verses can and do exist beyond the pages of the Bible. They have lived them. Of course, Annie, you have an advantage in that Todd can’t remember most of your wrongs.”

  A startled chuckle rippled through the crowd.

  “The vows say for better or for worse, but you two have already lived worse and come out stronger,” Seth continued. “Now, you get to live for better. Not that there won’t be challenges ahead, but now you know you can handle those lows, and I know you, above anyone else, will praise God for the highs. So now, it is with the greatest pleasure, that I get to ask you, Todd Rodger Baldwin, to repeat after me…”

  Wedding vows had never meant much to Julia before. They were pretty words wrapped up in grandiose promises, which were never kept in her experience.

  Until today. Her heart ached, and she fought to take in a breath as the vows continued. The rest of the ceremony went by in a haze. Her chest tightened, and her mind thrummed with the idea that maybe… just maybe… she was wrong about the whole love thing.

  Shaken, she escaped to the reception area where Betsy was helping to oversee the arrangements. Amy had the day off and was attending the wedding as a guest.

  Betsy paused as she finished arranging flowers around the edge of the wedding cake. “Hey, boss, how’s…” Her voice trailed off. “What’s wrong?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re pale.” The flowers hit the ground as Betsy reached for Julia. “Is something wrong? Has the trellis fallen over? Have we finally killed someone?”

  Her assistant’s panic snapped Julia back to reality. “No falling anything,” she said, patting Betsy’s arm. “Everyone is still hale and hearty. I think I’m tired, what with Sarah and the baby and all.”

  Betsy’s eyes lit up, and she nearly jumped up and down like a five-year-old on Christmas morning. “I went by the hospital yesterday. Mary is so precious, and so tiny. It’s unbelievable.”

  Julia couldn’t help but laugh at Betsy’s enthusiasm. “Yes, she is, and yes it is. Now, what can I do to help?”

  ****

  With his ministerial duties officially over for the day, Seth was able to relax and enjoy the evening. In theory at least. He should have been enjoying the evening. The moment Meredith’s band launched into a medley of love songs, Amy had dragged him onto the dance floor. What was there to complain about when he held a beautiful, sweet, intelligent woman in his arms?

  As Meredith launched into the climax of the song, Seth spun Amy in a circle and dipped her over his arm. She giggled her approval. Amy approved of everything he did. She hung on his every word. Agreed with them, too. If he told her the sky was purple she’d probably nod and tell him how observant he was for noticing.

  Seth had never been the object of such constant attention. It was flattering, of course, but also daunting. Being perfect put a lot of pressure on a guy.

  The last note faded, and Amy pulled back. A little. She never seemed to drift more than a few feet away.

  “Who taught you to dance so well?” she asked.

  “My mother, actually.”

  Amy arranged her bow-shaped mouth into a cute little pout and hummed her sympathy. “She would be so proud of the way you took to her lessons. She’d be proud of everything you’ve accomplished. The way you run the church. How you’re so admired and such a great example for the community.”

  There. Such over-the-top comments made him itch.

  “I’m completely parched,” Amy said, fanning herself with an elegant twist of her wrist.

  “Would you like me to get you a drink?”

  “Oh no, I can get my own.” She smiled and trailed two fingers up his arm. “You just relax and think about me while I’m gone. I’ll be right back.”

  He cricked his neck one way and then the other and tried not to sigh in relief. At least not out loud.

  When had dating become so hard and uncomfortable?

  A fla
sh of red caught his attention, and like a magnet Seth’s head turned. Julia had stopped to speak to the caterer. She gestured toward the tables across the way and laughed at something Devon said. A trill skated down his spine, and he tamped down his instinctive reaction.

  Seth wished he knew how to shut off the electricity she sparked. Mostly, he wished he had never witnessed the tender moment between an innocent baby and a woman who’d made a vow not to care about anyone. Stepping into the NICU had been a big mistake. Touching Julia had been an even bigger one.

  Someone tapped him on the shoulder, jolting him out of his daydream.

  “Wanna’ dance, Rev?” Meredith asked, grinning up at him. “I saw those fancy moves a few minutes ago.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Seth caught Amy watching them like a hawk zoning in on a mouse. Her glare proclaimed silent outrage at seeing him with her sister.

  “Uh… I’m not sure…” he mumbled.

  Meredith followed his trajectory, flashed a hello dear smile at her baby sister and turned back. “Let her stew. She’ll be fine. It’s only one dance.”

  Across the way, a thundercloud passed over Amy’s face. Seth suspected if they hadn’t been in public, Amy would’ve stomped across the grass and ripped the hair from her sister’s head.

  Said sister didn’t act offended by the murderous glance. In fact, she seemed amused by it. “I do love ruffling her feathers,” Meredith said, proving his theory. “She puffs up so beautifully.”

  “You shouldn’t tease her. She admires you a lot.”

  A who are you kidding expression flashed across Meredith’s face. “Since when?”

  “Since always, I think. You’re her older sister. Of course she looks up to you. Besides that you’re so confident and talented. She feels like she can’t measure up so she over compensates.”

  “It sounds like you’ve gotten to know her well.”

  “We’ve spent some time together,” he said, trying to sound vague.

  “I know.” Meredith tilted her head closer. “I hear she showed you the house.”

  Seth stumbled and nicked her toe. “Sorry. What house?”

  “Watch your feet, Rev,” Meredith said, giving him another come-on look. She also wasn’t giving up. “The house on West Magnolia. I heard Amy telling our mother all about your trip down Destiny Lane.”

  Was that a noose tightening around his neck? “Right. That one. Yes, we saw a house. Very nice.”

  “And that didn’t make you the least bit uncomfortable?”

  He twirled her out to the side. “No.”

  “It’s a good thing you became a minister because you’re a terrible liar,” Meredith said as he pulled her back in.

  “Why would I lie about a house?”

  “Maybe because you flinch every time Amy looks at you. Or compliments you. Or touches you.”

  “I do not.”

  “Didn’t I just say you don’t lie well?”

  Fancy dance moves and denial weren’t working so Seth cut to the chase. “Is there a point to your interrogation?”

  “Yes. Mainly the fact that while my sister is clinging to you like a leech, your eyes keep drifting toward someone else.”

  Seth knew better than to duck and dodge again. “I’m trying to do the right thing here, Meredith.”

  “How noble, but are you doing the right thing for you? For Julia? More to the point, are you doing the right thing for Amy?”

  He stopped moving. “What?”

  Meredith stared him down without blinking. “I won’t pretend Amy and I are close, but she is my baby sister, and she’s vulnerable where you’re concerned. If you’re dating her as some sort of experiment or using her to try and ignore what’s going on with Julia I’ll be upset with you.”

  “I don’t plan on hurting Amy.”

  “You won’t have to plan it,” she said. “My sister will have your wedding planned in her head within a month, and my mom will be right there cheering her on.”

  A lead fist slammed into his gut “A wedding?”

  “Mmm hmm… think pink. Everywhere.”

  The noose constricted even more.

  A pale, slim arm clamped around Seth’s elbow. “Meredith, I think the band is trying to get your attention,” Amy said.

  “I have a few more minutes of my break left,” Meredith said.

  Amy’s smile turned ugly. “Still, you should go check in with them. You are working tonight, you know. Annie and Todd paid you to entertain the guests, not dance with them.”

  “Your sister isn’t a slave,” Seth said, shocked by the snide comment and wondered how he’d never seen such darkness in her before. He’d never known Amy to be deliberately cruel.

  Meredith let the rudeness roll off her back, however. In fact, she laughed in her sister’s face. “Okay, Ames, I’ll slink off and leave you to your boyfriend.”

  Meredith backed away a couple steps, rolling her eyes when Amy wedged herself against Seth’s side.

  “Hope you like pink,” Meredith muttered before turning and walking toward the stage.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  As a rule Julia didn’t believe in miracles. Maybe they’d happened back in the Bible days, but she figured the era of seas parting and angels coming to announce a pregnancy had ended a couple millenniums ago.

  That is, until the day Sarah and Eric walked through the door of their apartment with a tiny bundle in a pink blanket.

  The entire family had come over to celebrate the homecoming. Grace and John, Eric’s parents, Seth. Amy had come, too, and the ever-resourceful girl had made a giant “Welcome Home Mary!” banner. She’d also put together a gorgeous flower arrangement festooned with pink carnations, pink roses and a giant pink ribbon. The creation had been topped off with a bunch of balloons.

  Julia had brought a bottle of sparkling grape juice.

  It’s the thought that counts, right?

  Everyone clapped and cheered as Eric opened the door. Sarah’s face lit up when she saw the crowd in her living room.

  “Oh, my goodness!”

  Seth snapped a picture, and the party commenced. Grace began slicing pieces of cake, which Amy had also made, while Julia poured glasses of the juice.

  Sarah brought the baby over to Grace, who had finally ceded to everyone’s command to take a break. Sarah lowered the tiny bundle into her mother’s arms, and sat down. Three generations all together.

  “Ladies, look up here,” Seth called out.

  They glanced up from their adoration of the baby and smiled as Seth took more shots. Grace touched little Mary’s cheek.

  “Have you ever seen anything so incredible?” Sarah asked.

  Grace smoothed a lock of hair behind her daughter’s ear. “Once.”

  The two shared a knowing look that Julia assumed only mothers understood. Sarah put her head on Grace’s shoulder. They might have been posing for a magazine cover.

  A jagged knife sliced through Julia’s ribs and pierced her heart. Her vision blurred, and she turned away before anyone else noticed. Connection. Those three women were connected in a way Julia couldn’t begin to fathom. By blood, by experience, even by their faith. She’d never felt connected to anyone like that. Frankly, it had been years since she’d wanted to be.

  How ironic. Julia finally got around to deciding she might be able to handle being part of a family, and her time in Covington Falls was up. Now that baby Mary was here, Julia would no longer be needed.

  Shaken, Julia escaped to the kitchen.

  A couple hours later the party broke up. Eric’s parents were the first to depart. Seth and Amy left to have dinner with her mother soon after. Then Grace took John home. Eric began cleaning up in kitchen, while Julia and Sarah cooed over the baby in the bedroom. Julia felt guilty about leaving Sarah’s husband to clean up on his own, but not enough to give up her first chance to hold Mary.

  “I think this is the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen,” Julia said.

  Sarah leaned close, as if s
he couldn’t bear to be more than a few inches from her daughter. “How many babies have you seen?”

  “I see them all the time. In malls, grocery stores, in parks.”

  “When was the last time you actually held one?”

  “I might have been ten. Does it matter? Can’t I simply believe she’s the most amazing baby in the world?”

  An unabashed grin lit up Sarah’s face. “No, especially when I agree.”

  Julia gazed down at the slumbering baby. “I think this is the best thing you’ve ever done.”

  A soft hum of agreement floated from the other side of the bed, and Sarah shifted to lounge back against a pillow. “So, things seem to be moving quickly with Amy and Seth.”

  “That’s right,” Julia said, with a wry shake of her head. “Wait till I’m pinned down with a baby in my arms to start grilling me.”

  Sarah tried her patented innocent look, but Julia no longer bought such tactics. Sarah seemed to realize she’d lost the “who me?” advantage and gave up after a second. “It’s your fault. You won’t talk to me otherwise.”

  “Maybe because there’s nothing to talk about.”

  “Amy has plenty to say,” Sarah said, with a low grumble. “Did you know she sat in my living room, lamenting the fact that Mary will be too young to be a flower girl in their wedding?”

  Contemplation of the baby’s perfectly formed lips ceased. “What?”

  Sarah grinned. “Gotcha.”

  Julia swatted the closest part she could reach. “Evil, evil girl. Even Amy isn’t forward enough to start talking about wedding plans. At least outside her own family.”

  “I bet Mrs. Vining has the seating chart for the reception drawn up already,” Sarah said.

  “No doubt.”

  “And that doesn’t bother you?” Sarah asked, bounding off the bed.

  “No,” Julia said with conviction, even as she fought the urge to check her nose to ensure it hadn’t started growing.

  “You’re going to let some other woman steal him out from under you?”