Everyone laughed. Casper stood and carried his bone over to the steps and sat at Miles’s feet. He lifted his nose to Miles and wagged his tail, and for the first time in as long as Miles could remember, Casper didn’t seem annoyed with him.
“I’m sorry, Casper, I know you think you’re the star, but we’re here for Lily and Nate.” More laughter. He waited for everyone to settle.
“When you grow up in a small town where everyone knows each other, everyone’s lives weave together until the town becomes one giant family. We work together, grieve together, and celebrate together. So we rejoice when two of our own fall in love. Some of you showed up early to fix flowers or construct wedding arches. Some of you closed your businesses because the only place you wanted to be today was here at Montressa, celebrating the love between our Nate and our Lily.
“Falling in love is a mysterious process. Like many things we don’t fully understand, people often try to make sense of it. There’s love at first sight, fate, kismet, stars aligning. Call it whatever you want. In the end, it’s pretty simple. Our soul realizes there is something about this person that feels different. And that inspires us to make a choice.
“A couple of months ago, something Nate said resonated with me. Hesaid sometimes he thought I woke up one day and decided to be alone. At first, I denied it, but as I thought about it, I understood the truth. It wasn’t the alone part. I know a lot about being alone and being lonely. It was the ‘decided’ part that got me. To truly fall in love requires a choice.”
Miles scanned the crowd. The guests were hanging on his every word. Hayes winked at him; a subtle sign Miles was on the right track.
“One Christmas Eve a couple years ago, Lily and Nate ran into one another at the Portland Jetport, Lily on her way home from France for the holidays and Nate returning from our annual fishing trip in Virgin Gorda. This is the part of my toast where I take credit for their entire relationship because, thanks to me, Nate had unlocked ‘golden-boy mode’. His bleach-blond hair and bronzed skin stood out in Maine in December. That sun-kissed glow gave Nate confidence and Lily goose bumps. His rippled forearms from playing all that hockey didn’t hurt either.
“Lily accepted his offer of a ride home and asked to stop at her favorite donut place. She’d missed a good old-fashioned Maine donut after a year abroad. And there in the Holy Donut, Nate made his move. When Lily couldn’t decide which flavor she had missed most, Nate bought one of every flavor and insisted they do a taste test. According to Lily, they grabbed neighboring donuts and their pinkies brushed. The donuts weren’t the only thing that was glazed. They stared into one another’s glazy eyes and made the same choice.
“Sometimes, love tells us it’s time. We choose to open our hearts and be vulnerable. We choose to say what we mean, even if it’s hard.”
Miles felt a tickle that might lead to fully choking up, so he paused and scanned the reception. Dorothea wiped away a tear. Miles’s father wrapped an arm around her, pulled her close, and planted a kiss on her forehead. Miles cleared his throat to stave off his emotion at seeing his father happy again.
“And if we’re Nate, we decide to take the chance Lily will pledgeher heart to the guy with the sun-kissed glow, the one who tries all the donuts and gives his love freely. Thankfully, she did.
“Lily and Nate, thank you for including us in your big day. I think I speak for all of us. It is an honor to share your love. May you have a long, healthy, and happy life in love together. Cheers!”
After everyone lowered their glasses, they clapped, whistled and whooped. During Lily and Nate’s first dance, Miles leaned into Avery’s ear.
“Ready to dance with me?”
She shook her head. “Oh Miles, I won’t make you do that. I know you don’t dance.”
“What if I told you I learned?” he asked. “For you?”
“You did?” Avery’s jaw dropped to the floor as her hand rose to her heart.
“Hayes and Anna Catherine made me watchHitch.” He smirked. “They were a little disappointed when I identified with the Kevin James character. I do a mean Sprinkler. They intervened and gave me lessons. And I kinda like dancing now.”
He threaded his fingers in hers. “Come on, Pepper. Let’s go have some fun.”
Epilogue
August, a year later
Avery plodded out of the lakefront door of the Red House to join Miles, who sat at the end of the dock, reading in an Adirondack chair. Unlike most nights, she’d brought nothing with her. All she wanted to do was watch the sunset. Miles could keep reading. They didn’t need to talk. After a great but busy week, being next to him was the balm she needed.
The underbelly of each cloud in the sky glowed pale pink, highlighting Miles in a warm glow. Tabasco lay beside him, head up, scanning the lake for anything she might need to bark at. Her tail thumped the dock as Avery approach. Miles reached down, patted Tabasco’s head, and smiled at Avery before turning to the next page of the latest bestseller.
The final week-long session of Camp Luciole’s first summer had ended a day before and the experience had been exhausting andrewarding. Miles and Hayes oversaw everything and while they had a legal pad full of suggestions for next year, their inaugural year had been a resounding success. Every departing family commented on how grateful they were for the opportunity to be away from their daily lives, in a calming place, finding the healing they needed. They’d made friends and found support in the group sessions and lake activities. Avery caught Miles and Hayes tearing up more than once during the goodbyes. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him hug so many people and felt a swelling of pride in her throat.
At the end of the dock, Avery kicked off her Birkenstocks, pulled a lip balm out of her pocket, and slathered the minty freshness on her lips. The clouds reflected on the water’s surface, turning everything rosy pink. This was the prettiest night she’d ever seen on Linden Lake.
In addition to the amazing therapy team Hayes had assembled, their friends and families pitched in too. Miles’s father and Dorothea led daily hikes and kayaking excursions. Avery’s parents had flown up from Virginia for a couple of weeks. Her mother taught yoga and her father, a trusts and estates lawyer, helped grieving widows and widowers with probate questions and referrals for attorneys who could draft new wills given their changed family situations. Nate and Lily popped over from Montressa, sometimes with a couple off-duty staff who wanted to volunteer, and led the evening activities, including Bingo night and s’mores around the campfire. Sam told campfire stories. Anna led a theater class while Avery worked in arts and crafts with the art therapists. And Paulson ran the immensely popular catch-and-release fishing program.
Casper, Tabasco, and Paulson and Victoria’s dog, Snowball, visited everyone who wanted to pet or play with a dog. Somehow the three pups never discovered the two emotional support cats one of the therapists kept in the office building where they held sessions with families.
Avery plopped down in the empty chair next to Miles. This chair had become her chair in the past year, and this was her favorite part oftheir day, sitting on the dock, sometimes way past when the stars came out. Skinny dipping once it got dark enough, sometimes swimming out to the floating dock, and on nights where a light breeze kept the bugs away, laying naked under the stars. There was no place she would rather be than here, with him.
She relaxed back into her chair and checked out her freshly painted nails. She never got manicures, but she and Lily had gone to get pedicures after the camp wrapped up yesterday and Lily insisted they get “the works”. Watercolor paint often dyed Avery’s cuticles and got under her nailbeds. She hoped she could keep her hands looking this nice, at least for a day or two.
“Hey.” Miles looked up from his book. “Did you come down here empty handed?”
