“So what’s the update on Tori and her family?” Owen asked. “What do they know?”
Joe turned his face away for a moment, working on controlling his temper. Just hit all the soft spots at once, Dad. Geez. And on his wedding day.
“Dad, no matter what Tori knows or when, nothing is going to change with her family,” he said firmly. “Iliterally saved her dad’s life on Saturday, and they still refuse to believe superheroes are real. We’re going to have to keep everyone from letting their powers show when her family is around. I’m sorry, but I don’t know what more I can do.”
Owen rubbed the back of his neck. Hannah sighed and folded her arms.
“Honey, we can’t make them believe,” she said gently.
“I know, but…” Owen shook his head. “Joe, I’ve counseled hundreds of people over the years who are head over heels in love, but have some difficult hurdles they’ll have to jump to make their marriages last. A secret like this is going to make every part of your marriage harder. Every. Part.”
“It’s going to be fine, Dad.” Joe said the words as sincerely as he could mange considering he wasn’t sure he believed them himself.
But what more could he say? He didn’t want to share his private conversations with his fiancée, but maybe it would help to tell his parents a little.
“We’ve talked about secrets, about finding out unexpected things about each other over time. She was wonderful last night, didn’t freak out, didn’t even let on she knew I was hurt.”
“You told her?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah, I told her almost everything, and she took it like a pro.” Joe felt himself feeling proud of her. She was going to make a great wife, period, but eventually she would be a fantastic Paladin’s wife.
“Well, that’s good, right?” Hannah asked his dad.
Owen shuffled his feet around and stared at the ceiling for a moment. “I just don’t know. I don’t know if I should marry you, knowing what I do.”
“Dad…” Joe tried to hide his frustration. “This is my wedding day.”
“It’s not you, son,” Owen said, but he couldn’t meet Joe’s eyes. “This is about me, aboutmy integrity.”
Joe sighed deeply. There was no argument for that. After a moment he said, “So I tell her, try to make her understand something she’s been led her whole life to believe is a lie, try to explain that I’m not nuts,the hour before we’re to get married, and hope she still marries me, or you might decide in the next hour not to go through with this.”
Owen didn’t say anything, just stared at his shoes.
“Be fair, Joe,” his mom said quietly. “Your father has been asking this of you since the day you got engaged. The timing here is on you, son.”
Joe stared hard at her for a moment, arranging his argument in his head. Then he dropped his eyes, turned, and walked out of the room.
His mom was right.
TORI stood in front of the full-length mirror in the bride’s room at church. She smoothed down the folds of her wedding dress as Lexie zipped and buttoned. Hayley stood by the edge of the mirror putting on her makeup. Dixie stood to the side, directing.
Tori smiled at herself in the mirror.
Look at you.A bride. She almost couldn’t believe it.
And she looked so beautiful. Hayley had done her hair, swept up on the top of her head with lovely little curls trailing down. Her mother had added sprigs of real holly and baby’s breath as she attached the veil.
Joe had given her a pair of pale blue sapphire earrings last night before they left the church. They sparkled in the light when she moved her head. She loved them. She loved that Joe gave them to her and didn’t care if they were paste or real. But the way they sparkled, she wondered.
This morning, her mother had surprised her by opening a very old velvet jewelry box and pulling out a dainty chain with a single pearl. As she attached the clasp around Tori’s neck, she said, “My father gave this to my mother when they got married. It was her ‘something new.’ Then she gave it to me when I married”—she cleared her throat—“your father. My ‘something old.’”
She stood back and adjusted the pearl against Tori’s throat. “Now I’m giving it to you as your ‘something old.’ I’d love it if you loaned it to your sisters when they get married as their ‘something borrowed.’” She smiled at Lexie. “If they’d like that.”
Tori hugged her mom tight. She didn’t want to let go. When she sniffled, Lexie and Hayley jumped in with tissues and washcloths dipped in cold water. The cloths were pressed against her face to keep her eyes from getting red and puffy. Tori laughed at the commotion and blew her nose.
“This,” Hayley said, “is why I said I’d do everyone’s makeup at the last minute. Come on, Lex, get in here and get the crying over with.”
Lexie pulled something from her pocket. Tori recognized it immediately.
“Your dress is ‘something new’ so I wanted to loan you my count-your-blessings bracelet for ‘something borrowed.’ It’s one of my most treasured possessions.”
Tori tried to saw, “Aw, thank you,” but it came out as “Aw, sob, sob.”
She remembered the day she bought it. Lexie’s boyfriend-about-to-be-fiancé had declared he wasn’t interested in being a father and had left the week before. Lexie was close to inconsolable.
Tori was at Target, the most expensive store she could afford, buying toilet paper and dish soap and wondering how to make her sister feel better. She walked by the jewelry counter and saw this pretty little charm bracelet for twenty dollars. The thought popped into her head that this could be a way for Lexie to count her blessings, focus on the positive things in her life — which seemed few and far between the last few years.
A few charms lay on a small tray. Two caught her eye — one of two little girls holding hands, one of a baby carriage. They were ten dollars each. Tori stood staring at them, unable to shake the feeling that this simple gift might bring Lexie back from the brink.
Though she hated to ask her parents for help, she didn’t have enough money for the giftand the toilet paper and soap. She put the other things back, told herself it would be better to let go of her pride if it might help her sister, and bought the jewelry.
Lexie had loved the gift. She heard Tori’s unspoken warning that she could lose herself in grief like she had as a teenager, and she forced herself to let go of her heartache and focus on the blessing of her unborn baby. And, Lexie had told her, the blessing of her sister.
With that memory between them, Tori and Lexie held on to each other for a long minute. Tori cried and Lexie tried to keep it in, as was her habit.
Then Lexie fastened the bracelet on Tori’s right wrist, and said, “We’ve both got more blessings than this bracelet can hold, but I’m glad you’re getting another one.”
Her sister couldn’t have said anything more eloquent. For all that they’d tried to protect each other from the havoc and heartache in the world, Lexie wasn’t upset that Tori had found love. Tori felt a few more tears slip out as she hugged her sister again. When she pulled back, she saw Hayley and her mom wiping their eyes, too.
“Okay, are we done now?” Hayley asked. “I’ve got to do our makeup soon.”
Tori laughed and wiped the cool cloth across her face. “Done.” Hayley was as good as Lexie at hiding her emotions. But an entire day of emotional displays was about going to kill them.
Standing in front of the mirror now, Tori could see all three of them fussing over her, trying to help make her day perfect. She felt a sudden sense of peace wash over her. Not just a feeling of being “okay.” But a supernatural strength of purpose that permeated every cell.
It was a feeling she always associated with God’s presence. She took a deep breath and smiled into the mirror. She knew the tears were behind her now, even the happy ones. The strength and peace in her heart were a sign that life was going exactly as it should.
Just like the rhyme, she now had something old and something n
ew, something borrowed and something blue. If there was a “something holy” brides should have on their wedding day, it was this peace.
A knock sounded at the door. Her mom went to answer it.
“Must be a man,” Lexie said as she put finishing touches to Tori’s lip gloss.
All the women could come and go as they pleased, but no men were allowed in the bride’s room. Mostly because all the women dressed in there together, although Tori figured the original idea was to preserve the sense of mystery and surprise.
“Joe, you can’t see her now,” Tori heard her mom saying.
“What does he need?” Tori asked.
“I just need a minute,” Joe called from the hallway.
“Be right back,” she told the girls.
“Tori, he can’t see you before the wedding,” they complained.
As Tori approached the door, Dixie closed it to a crack and said, “Here she comes. Turn your back, at least.”
Tori waved her mother away and Dixie left reluctantly, shaking her head. Tori stood hidden behind the door and spoke into the crack. “Hey, Joe,” she said, keeping her voice quiet enough for his ears only. “How are you?”
Joe sighed. “It’s good to hear your voice.”
He didn’t say anything more. Tori closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of him. “You’re wearing my favorite cologne.”
“I bet you’ll think I look as good as I smell.”
Tori could hear the smile in his voice. “I can’t wait to see you,” she said softly. “But I always think you look good.”
They were both quiet for a moment. “You okay?” she asked.
There was a long pause. “Do you want to know all my secrets? Right now? I’ll tell you every detail about me right now so you can be sure you want to marry me.”
Tori heard the almost desperate worry in his voice. She looked over at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes to eleven. She closed her eyes and felt that enormous blanket of peace inside.
Please, God, help Joe feel your peace.
“Joe?” she said softly. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yes.”
“I am so sure I want to marry you, I’m willing to learn all your secrets over the next sixty years. That’s the way everyone else does it. But if you absolutely have to tell me something, you can tell me tonight, in our hotel room, in bed.” She couldn’t believe she’d just said that! She felt a grin stretch her lips. As much as she looked forward to consummating their marriage, she’d never spoken about it out loud. “I’ll listen to whatever you want to say then. Okay?”
After a pause, Joe chuckled softly. “It’s a deal, almost-wife.”
“All right then,” she said. “Isn’t there somewhere you need to be, almost-husband?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Tori felt a huge grin on her face as she shut the door. She leaned there for a moment thinking,he’s almost my husband! I’m almost his wife!
The women finished their final preparations, then Tori’s dad came to escort her mom to the front of the church.
Dixie gently pulled the long gossamer-thin veil over Tori’s face. “You’re a most beautiful bride,” she said.
Tori smiled widely. “Thank you.”
A minute later, there was another knock on the door. “Everyone decent?” Owen called.
“Come in,” she said. “Are you ready for us?” She was so excited now that the moment was upon her, she almost couldn’t contain herself.
“Bridesmaids and flower girls to the front,” Owen confirmed. “I’ll chat with the bride for a moment.”
Hayley and Lexie blew kisses to her and left. Tori felt her smile widen as she turned back to Joe’s dad.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “My stomach is doing a little dance.”
Owen chuckled with her. Then he asked, “Joe came to talk to you?”
She nodded. “Yes, poor nervous man.”
Owen looked around the empty room. “And he told you…his secret?”
There were moments when Tori equally loved both sets of parents, and also wanted to move far away from them. They all wanted to be just a little too involved.
But the strength of the peace she felt muted her frustrations. She wanted to be generous and loving with them, especially on her wedding day. She took his hand in hers. “We are going to be fine, Owen. Joe and I are going to get through this together.”
Owen half-nodded and half shook his head. “This…meaning…?”
He was making her nervous. Her stomach twitched. Whatever Joe wanted to tell her, he could tell her tonight. Alone. With all the weeks of people trying to stop the wedding, she just wanted to get on with it before her stomach took flight on its own. She smiled up at him and squeezed his hand.
“We are going to be fine. You don’t have to worry about us.” It felt like the energy building in her abdomen escaped with her words. She felt better.
Owen tilted his head at her, frowning. Then he smiled faintly back. “You’re going to be fine. I won’t worry about you two.”
His words sounded stilted, but Tori smiled and squeezed his hand again. “Good. Here’s my dad. Are we ready?”
Owen nodded, looking a little strange with a half-smile, half-frown. Danny led Tori down to the doors at the entrance to the sanctuary while Owen went a back way to come out in front next to Joe and the groomsmen.
Tori heard singing inside the sanctuary. It was beautiful, haunting, and full of emotion. “Who’s that?” she asked her dad.
“Joe’s friend, Mickey,” he said. “Amazing voice, huh?”
The song ended. At the brief silence, Tori knew the pianist had moved to the organ. She smiled up at her dad.
“My little girl is getting married,” he said, a catch in his voice. “You look like sunshine.” He looked down at her and Tori felt enveloped in over two decades of his love.
“I don’t deserve you, Daddy,” she said, “but I’m glad I have you.”
He started to say something, then cleared his throat and wiped at his eyes. He faced forward, patting and rubbing her hand on his arm.
Tori smiled and faced forward. This amazing joyful peace filled her in such a way that she didn’t feel the usual push of tears that strong emotions always brought out. She was such a heart-on-her-sleeve kind of girl. But today she felt stronger and more confident than she’d ever felt in her life.
As the organ music played, Bull led Lexie down the aisle, little Ben the ring-bearer walking in front of them. Then Joe’s oldest brother Carl walked Hayley down the aisle. Two of Joe’s younger nieces followed throwing out flower petals.
And then it was her turn.
Danny led her to the door. The crowd stood. A much bigger crowd than she expected on this snowy December day. At the front, Owen nodded to the man standing next to him.
Joe turned around.
Her Joe.
She smiled at him, feeling like she was indeed a sun burning brightly just for him.
The music played and Danny led her forward. When he put her hand in Joe’s, Tori felt like she was going to burst, her body hardly able to contain all the joy she felt.
She tried to focus on every detail of the service, to memorize it all, to enjoy every moment. But she felt like they moved on a helium cloud, a beautiful gravity-free dance that culminated in the words —
“I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Tori barely registered that Joe’s dad sounded happy. She watched as Joe lifted her veil over her head, his hands shaking. She leaned forward.
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly, sweetly. She raised her face to enjoy all the promises in that kiss, one hand lifted to cover his, the blessings bracelet tinkling near her ear.
Joe pulled back a little and they grinned at each other. He leaned his forehead against hers and whispered, “We did it.”
The joy inside tumbled out in Tori’s laughter. Then Joe leaned back his head and gave a
loud, “Whoop!”
Their friends and family burst into laughing applause.
Joe wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her with passion and abandon, leaning her back over his arm. Tori kissed him until she thought she was going to lose her balance. She began to laugh.
He pulled her up tight to his chest, put one hand on her cheek again, and said, “I’m never gonna let you go.”
The next hour was a whirlwind of hugs and congratulations, a quick parade of pictures with the photographer — in attendance only because Bull had driven across the city to pick him up — and a fairly quick, light lunch that Tori could barely eat.
Joe rarely let go of her hand, and she couldn’t stop grinning at him.
Soon, her bridesmaids were helping her change into her going-away dress. Hannah and Dixie pressed a bag of wrapped sandwiches and other snacks into Joe’s hand for the plane ride. Hugs and kisses and not a few tears later, the two of them pulled on their coats and ran to Joe’s truck.
Someone had already started the engine and turned on the heat. Bless them.
Joe pulled Tori close and fastened the middle seat belt around her waist. “I don’t want you too far away,” he said.
Tori grinned up at him with a mile-wide smile. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He rolled down the windows so they could wave at everyone willing to brave the cold. Then he put the truck in gear. “You ready to start our new adventure together?”
“Yes!” Tori laughed.
Nothing could make her happier.
TWO things always surprised Joe Clarke at Christmas: the weather and the people of Double Bay.
Barely a week ago, there had been no snow to add a Christmas-y touch to the festive season. Today, without the help of friends and family, that freshly fallen snow would have kept him from getting married.
Ah, yes, the wonderful citizens of Double Bay constantly surprised him. They organized calling parties to let the wedding guests know that the wedding was still on. They organized driving parties to pick up those too afraid to brave the snow-covered streets. They even organized a baking party to feed the guests as they arrived at the celebration hours early.
A Very Merry Superhero Wedding (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke) Page 14
