Page 224 of A Matter of Time

I shrugged. “Mr. Reid doesn’t know anything about you, and Dane didn’t invite them to anything but the wedding and the reception, so…I guess they wanted to find out about you.”

“I see.”

“Well, your dad didn’t see, and you can’t really blame him.”

She smiled at me. “It’s not like my dad to get upset about a few innocent inquiries.”

“It was a lot,” I defended her father. “I was uncomfortable too.”

She nodded. “So what happened?”

“It escalated, and Mr. Reid sort of implied that the judge should be worried about what he, Mr. Reid, thought of you, and your dad replied that the only family of Dane’s he was worried about at all was me.” I grinned at her.

“Oh.” She nodded. “Since you and Dane are the only Harcourts in the place.”

“Correct.” I smiled wide, then leaned close and kissed her cheek. “At least until six o’clock.”

She sighed deeply.

“You’ll be the new Harcourt down front in the gown, right?”

In answer, I got arms wrapped around my neck, and she hugged me tight. “What did you do?”

“I went and got my iPod and asked your dad if he still had moves, and if so, might I see some of them.”

I felt her shaking in my arms.

“As you can clearly see, the man’s still got it.”

She clutched me tighter, her head back as the laughter bubbled up out of her.

When I glanced over at her folks, I was rewarded with the warm smile of her mother, who mouthed a thank-you.

I nodded.

It had been tense. Dane’s parents, especially his father, questioning the judge about his daughter… It had started out so benign, just chatting, before quickly deteriorating into an all-out inquisition. They knew nothing about Aja and wanted to know everything. It had been well intended, but had come off as critical, biased, and almost racist.

Dane and Jude had just been walking back from lunch, and I was coming from the opposite direction, having just finished checking on all the equipment in the ballroom for the reception, when we heard the raised voices from all the way out in the hall. We’d interrupted, and Dane had insisted on showing the Reids to his suite upstairs, away from the communal one being used so the wedding party could visit with guests or get something to snack on before the ceremony. He took his parents, as well as his brothers Caleb and Jeremy, and his sister, Gwen, so the judge could recover and collect his thoughts.

The look Dane had given me as he left had been so pained that I’d felt my chest tighten just looking at him. The last thing he wanted to do on his wedding day was upset his future father-in-law with people who were of minimal importance to him. The truth was, he simply liked the judge better than his biological family. I had to fix it. I had to restore the ease the day had begun with. This, then, was what Dane’s look had conveyed on his exit. And I had accomplished it by dancing around the suite like an idiot with Aja’s dad.

“Jory, what would your brother do without you?” Aja asked me, again squeezing me tight.

“I dunno, but we’ll never hafta find out.”

“No.” She shook her head just barely. “We won’t.”

“Jory!” the judge called for me.

I ran back to him, and he showed me that he could still do the bump. I thought Aja’s mother was going to pass out. That everyone was laughing was a very good thing.

Four hours later, the church was filled with a sea of people who all stood as the bride appeared with her father at the end of the aisle. She was breathtakingly beautiful, her Vera Wang dress simple and chic, and the pride on her father’s face made everyone smile. Dane’s parents and siblings sat in the front row on the right, Aja’s mother and grandparents on the left. Her extended family filled the first three pews, and after that were family friends and friends who were like family. Dane and Aja now shared a lot of the same people; those who would be spending their lives with them. The nearest and dearest of all were there with the groom on the stage as they waited for the bride to join them.

Candace Greene stood, regal and stunning, head up as she watched her sister walk toward the man she loved. All Aja’s bridesmaids, from Zora next to Candace, to Janey on the bottom step, were perfection in their strapless pewter mermaid gowns. Long, graceful lines with upswept hair and flawless smooth skin, resembling delicate, graceful swans. They were luminous.

Jude, Dane’s best man, was resplendent in his Armani tuxedo, and stood beside Dane proudly, looking as though he had stepped from the pages of a magazine. I had never seen him look better. I was there, on Jude’s left, and had worried about being included, not wanting to tarnish his moment, being, as I was, without the same height and breadth of shoulder and chest as the rest of the men in his wedding party. Dane hadn’t worried. He was less concerned with the perfect picture and more with having his brother on stage with him. Aja, with the same desire, had drowned my objections. And once we were all out there, I felt better standing with his friends, who had pulled themselves together to stand at his side. They were all crisp and polished, simply gorgeous. We had caused quite a stir when we walked out to take our places on the stairs. Of course, as always, Dane was the one no one could take their eyes off, until Aja walked down the aisle.

Now, as I watched them, Dane and Aja, hands entwined, speaking the words that would join them forever, I was thankful to be there, sharing their moment. It was humbling to be at the beginning of a new life, the one they would share together. I closed my eyes and breathed when the words were spoken: “You may kiss the bride.”