You didn’t give a woman a single flower, Renee had taught him. Or a stupid cellophane-wrapped bouquet from the grocery store. You bought a damn dozen roses from the florist or none at all. But then Lauren had made that comment about prom, and Jack had thought... he’d thought...
“I can’t believe you brought me a rose,” she said. “It’s...”
Too much. Too little. Not right.
“It’s so pretty.” Her eyes sparkled as she held the single bloom against her chest, framed by the soft curves of her breasts. “My corsage.”
She remembered.
Muscles he didn’t know had tensed relaxed. He smiled. “You want to put it in your room? I’ll wait.”
Or you could invite me up to your room. Invite me up.
All the Fletchers were already at the church, the caterers busy in the kitchen. He had a brief, sexual fantasy in which he and Lauren were late to the wedding after all before she shook her head.
“I want to carry it. Is that all right? Or will I look like a flower girl?”
Her face was shining. You’d think no guy had ever brought her flowers before. Next time he would do better, Jack thought. She deserved better.
And didn’t question how easy it was to thinknext time, to imagine a week, a month, a year ahead with her.
“You don’t look like any flower girl I ever saw,” he said. “You can do what you want.”
***
ALARGE EXTENDEDCatholic family had made Jack something of an expert on weddings.
The wedding of former Staff Sergeant Luke Fletcher, USMC, to Katherine Dolan, attorney, was damn near perfect.
The tiny chapel at the Franciscan retreat house was flooded with sunshine, family, friends, and flowers. The Fletchers filled the front pews. Luke’s brother Matt stood with him, shoulder to shoulder. Luke’s eleven-year-old daughter, walking carefully in her high-heeled shoes, preceded Kate down the aisle. The sun, striking through the stained glass windows, fired the bride’s coppery hair to gold. And the look on Luke’s face when he saw Kate walking toward him, a smile on her face and love in her eyes...
“They look perfect together, don’t they?” Lauren whispered, echoing his thought.
You and Renee make the perfect couple, everybody used to say. And on the surface, everybody was right. Same neighborhood, same schools, same job.
Until she missed going out with her friends on a Saturday night and he worked late and forgot to call. Until arguments over paying the bills or who took out the trash scraped all the shiny off their life together.
But watching Luke take Kate’s hand at the front of the church, listening to the strength of his voice and the faith in her responses, Jack was tempted to believe it wouldn’t be like that for them.
“They’ve had some rough times,” he murmured. “Let’s hope they make it work.”
“‘The triumph of hope over experience,’” Lauren said softly.
He slanted a look down at her, warm and round and glowing in her red dress. “What?”
“Samuel Johnson, on second marriages. But it applies to love generally, I think. Love is always a leap of faith. We all have barriers to overcome.”
Shrink talk. College girl talk. But, God, he liked the sound of her voice. He liked the way she looked for the best in everything. In everyone.
She wasn’t one of them. Not a Fletcher, not an islander. A last-minute addition to the guest list. But at the reception at the Pirates’ Rest, she slipped into the gathering like a fish into water.
The Dare Island community was like the sea, all calm and welcoming on the surface, with unexpected depths and currents. It had taken Jack months to navigate with ease. Assimilation was not his thing. He was marked as an outsider before he even opened his mouth.
But Lauren’s warmth, her genuine interest, made her welcome. She circulated like a champ, naturally seeking out and drawing in the outliers.
A tent with a dance floor filled the garden, edged with rosebushes and daylilies. Tables dotted the grass under pink blooming crepe myrtles. The wedding party was announced. The bridal couple danced slowly together to Vince Gill singing “Look at Us.”
From the setup, it was clear that the mother of the bride had a place of honor near the head table, but at the moment, she sat all alone.
