She squeals happily. I wordlessly pass the phone to Rachel.
“Yesenia! You rotten liar!”
I can only hear one half of the conversation, but I still laugh as she argues with my grandmother.
“You told a bold-faced lie!” she yells as she stomps her foot.
Working on lunch while she talks on the phone I can’t wipe the grin off my face.
“He loved it all, but especially the cinnamon muffins.”
Rachel paces the length of the cabin as they talk.
“Of course we decorated. Did you really think I’d let him get away without putting up a tree for our first Christmas together?”
“Yes!” she shouts several minutes later. “I want to see all the pictures. Especially the baby ones!”
She glances at me over the soup pot I’m stirring with a mischievous expression on her face.
“Naked baby butt you say?”
Surprise makes me drop the wooden spoon into the pot. Those don’t exist anymore. I destroyed every copy after she showed them to my friends in high school.
“I burned those!” I yell loud enough for my grandmother to hear.
Rachel shakes her head with a bright grin.
“She kept the roll of film and had more copies made,” she tells me. Then to my abuela she adds, “I’ll stop by after lunch.”
Epilogue
Rachel
Six Months Later
Birds chirp, squirrels chitter, and the mountain comes alive in summer. Bright green grass that looks too bold to be real, pairs beautifully with wild mountain flowers and the bluest sky I’ve ever seen.
It’s the perfect day for our wedding.
Dominic is wearing his best jeans and a light flannel while I wear a white sundress with yellow sunflowers embroidered around the collar and hem. It’s a little short for a windy day but I picked it because it made me feel pretty and I knew Dominic wouldn’t be able to look away from my legs.
There are three dozen guests. Yesenia of course along with the rest of Dominic’s family that flew in for the wedding. Including a bunch of cousins that all call him, Domingo, because he was born on a Sunday. Nigel and his wife, plus the other chefs fromAlpine Peak. The rest are Dominic’s buddies from the fire station and mountain rescue.
If anything goes wrong, I don’t notice or care. I marry the love of my life in a meadow on the same mountain where we fell in love.
“You may kiss the bride.”
Dominic’s kiss is gentle and polite, mindful of our audience, and just a taste of what’s to come.
“I love you,” he whispers to me as our friends and family cheer.
“I love you too,” I whisper back.
Yesenia is first in line to congratulate us.
“Told you so,” she says patting Dominic on his cheek. “Abuela knows best, yes?”
He rolls his eyes at his grandmother, but it doesn’t dent the grin on his face.
