Page 129 of The New Place

It’s his wedding day. Their wedding day. They’re marrying each other today. By tonight, they’ll be married, and tomorrow too, and the day after and the day after that. He touches the pane of glass and his finger leaves a small mark.

“Cold feet?” the clerk asks when she comes back to find Abbot sitting alone.

Abbot jerks around to look at her.

“I’m kidding. I just saw him in the hall and I got his John Hancock. You can sign here, and then you’re all set.”

The marriage certificate is a thick, long sheet of paper, with the seal of the State of Maine on it, and Ned’s scrawled signature at the bottom. Abbot adds his next to it.

The clerk carefully folds the paper, tucks it into an envelope, and hands it over. “That’s valid for ninety days,” she says. “Once the ceremony is performed, your officiant has seven days to bring it back here.”

“He’ll have it back on Monday,” Abbot says.

“We’ll take care of it then, in that case. And again, congratulations.”

Abbot murmurs a thanks and backs out of the office. The waiting room is empty, but he finds Ned in the hallway outside the women’s bathroom.

“Got it?” Ned asks and Abbot holds up the envelope. “Great.”

“Yes. Great,” Abbot says. It is. They got here in time, and they’ll have this filled out as soon as they make it to Pat, and then⁠—

And then it’ll be done. They’ll be married.

Abbot wants to move toward Ned, meet him in a kiss, ask if he’s really very sure.

But Ned leans toward the bathroom door, listening, then taps on it. “You all set, hon?”

“I can’t reach the soap!” Peggy yells back.

Ned gingerly pushes into the room. There must not be anyone else in there, because he goes in and emerges a minute later with Peggy. “Ready?” Ned asks.

“Yes. Do you need a ride to your car?”

“You don’t have a booster seat,” Ned says. “We’ll walk.”

Abbot could go get their car and bring it here, save them being out in the chill. He could have also gotten a booster seat. Should have. He’s had a year to do it and never even thought to.

He’ll get one soon. This weekend even, or next week. Have it in his car and ready for Peggy, like it ought to have been already. “Ned,” he tries.

I didn’t visit my mother in the hospital, he told Ned, whose answer had been to hold him all night.

How? Abbot still wonders, but it’s Ned. Perhaps, in the end, he shouldn’t have been surprised at all.

“We’re doing this,” Abbot says. It’s less of a question than it might be.

“Sure as hell are,” Ned says.

“You’re certain?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Abbot says and it’s such a simple, easy answer. “You really want to marry me?”

“Hell yeah I do.”

Can Abbot really trust that? Yes. Yes, he can.

“You’re not supposed to swear,” Peggy says but Ned just lifts her up to his hip.