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I had expected to feel out of place, but as friends and family of the Kaspers gathered on the back patio behind the resort on Saturday afternoon for Aubrey’s wedding, I actually felt at home. Like I belonged in a way I hadn’t felt at my real home in a long time. I’d had Jake, and we’d been close, but it had been so long since I’d felt the kind of unconditional acceptance offered by Archie’s extended family. My heart ached as I considered that I would certainly lose it. But I couldn’t ruin Aubrey’s wedding day, and in the days leading up to it, that had been my excuse for holding my tongue. I’d tell Archie just before I left, let himdecide how to react without having to involve everyone else. And I knew that was the cowardly answer too, I’d drop a bomb and then leave without having to witness the damage it did or see the disappointment on the faces of those I’d come to admire.
For today, however, I focused on the people around me and the happiness of the occasion, and I reveled in how included I felt.
Maybe it was the way Annalee—who everyone called Monroe—draped her blanket across my lap as she sat beside me, or maybe it was the way Mateo and Lucy, who sat in front of us, kept turning around to propose even sillier ideas about what S2S could mean.
“Sandwich to sandwich,” Mateo shot out, earning a laugh from Travis—who everyone called Sasquatch—at his side.
“Soup to soup. I mean, if we’re going culinary,” Annalee suggested.
“Supper to supper even,” Lucy said. “Didn’t they call dinner supper back in the olden days?”
“Watch who you’re calling old,” her grandfather shot back from her other side. He lived with Lucy and Will down in the staff neighborhood, I’d learned, and the old man was their son Teague’s favorite playmate. That much was clear as we waited for the ceremony to begin and Ernie kept leaning forward to whisper in the ear of the little boy on his lap who burst into hysterical giggles every time his great-grandpa spoke.
Penny and Harrison (aka Brainiac) held their daughter on their lap behind us, and she was slightly less cheerful than Teague.
“GOLDFISH!” she roared, just as the music stopped and the pastor from the little church in town moved to stand beneath the floral arch that had been constructed at the end of the aisle on the patio.
“We’ve got goldfish for later,” I heard Penny whisper to her.
“NOW!” she screeched, hitting a note I expected would be ringing inside my head for a while. Her name was Magnolia, and she had a head of fiery red hair that clearly matched her temper. I turned to glance at her, catching the little girl’s eye. As she held my gaze, her face relaxed a bit, and my nerves followed suit.
“Hi,” I whispered.
“Hi,” she said back.
“Careful,” Harrison said. “This is how she lulls you into a false sense of security. Then she leans in close and explodes your eardrum.”
Penny whacked him as Magnolia and I smiled at each other.
Music started then, and I turned to the back door of the resort, to see Archie step out, Aubrey on his arm in a long-sleeved white dress that hugged her small form. Her belly had vanished, practically overnight, and I hoped if I ever got pregnant, I might bounce back so quickly.
Archie wore a dark suit, and a crisp white collared shirt beneath it. His scruff was clean shaven, revealing the dimples I loved at the sides of his wide smile. He looked devastatingly handsome, and desire raced through me, fighting for prominence with the guilt I still felt over keeping my secret. I couldn’t help thinking of what it would be like to be Aubrey, walking down the aisle toward Archie. I’d never met a man I would consider marrying before, and I tried telling myself it was just the romance of the event, the place we were witnessing it. But that wasn’t it and I knew it.
Wiley stood next to the pastor at the end of the aisle, and his brother Wade, who’d just arrived, stood by his side, holding a tiny bundle of baby in his arms. They looked startlingly similar, both tall and handsome, dark haired and smiling.
I’d met Wade’s wife Veronica just before we’d all been seated, and she was every bit as friendly as the two brothers.
The wedding march began and I stood to watch Aubrey move down the aisle on Archie’s arm. She was gorgeous, her hair piled atop her head with tendrils curling down around her face. Her eyes were one hundred percent focused on Wiley, and I could practically feel the love emanating from them both as they smiled at each other.
Teague and Magnolia each had a basket of rose petals, and while they’d both opted out of actually walking the aisle, they seemed secure in the idea of tossing handfuls of petals at Archie and Aubrey as they passed by. Both kids threw aggressively, overhand, and with the wind coming from one side of the resort, the flower petals flung back into our faces, leading everyone to have to pick petals from their mouths as Aubrey reached the flower arch.
When the ceremony concluded, Aubrey and Wiley kissed, and the gathered group let out a cheer. Finn released a wail at exactly the right time, and Aubrey took him from Wade’s arms, snuggling the baby close as Wiley wrapped his arms around her.
“Let’s get inside where it’s warm,” Wiley called out to us all.
“Party!” Travis shouted, and there were several hoots and hollers from the assembled crowd.
We moved as a group through the back doors and inside the resort, rubbing our arms and huffing out gratitude for the warmth of the interior.
“We’ll be in here,” Wiley called, shooing everyone into the restaurant, which had been set up and decorated for the reception.
“Look at that cake,” Travis commented as he walked by with CeeCee. “Pretty incredible, huh?”
“If you do say so yourself,” she laughed.
“I need lots of affirmation,” he told her just before leaning in to kiss her.
There was so much love and happiness around me, it was infectious. I found myself seeking out Archie as soon as he and the couple were done taking photos at the front of the room, and he pulled me into his arms and kissed me for the first time in front of his friends. Warmth flooded me and I wished everything was in the open, that the exceptional happiness of the event wasn’t tainted by my secret.
