And the crowd went wild.
* * *
Siobhan laughed and backed away as the bouquet toss turned into a melee. The men and a few of the women were howling with laughter, while the rest of them were screeching at the dog who’d saved her from being Steph’s target in this ridiculous wedding tradition.
Maybe because her senses refused to ignore the man, she’d heard Brian’s quietly spoken command to his dog, and as the dog raced around playing keep away with the flowers, she turned to look at him over her shoulder.
“Dogs, am I right?” he mouthed with a shrug, and then he winked.
Then Stella pivoted and for a moment she thought the dog was going to blow everything by returning the prize to her human. But a young female voice rose above the rest. “Stella, wanna treat?”
The dog veered off to Lily, dropping the flowers at her feet in exchange for an unfrosted sugar cookie Brian’s cousin must have snatched off the dessert table. She grabbed the bouquet and raised it over her head. “I win!”
Brianna laughed at her. “You know that means you’re next to get married, right?”
“I don’t think so,” Kevin growled. “She’s nineteen.”
“Ew.” Lily tossed the bouquet to Hannah, who probablywouldbe the next to go down the aisle. “I just wanted to win.”
Siobhan laughed with the others, relieved thatshewasn’t in the spotlight as the next bride-to-be. She trusted Steph to keep her suspicions about Siobhan and Brian to herself as a rule, but that would have been a lot of temptation. And there was champagne in the mix.
There was a short break in the festivities, and Siobhan took Oliver back to their camper. She freshened him upand gave him a few quiet minutes with a book. Then she touched up her light makeup and made sure her hair still looked okay. They’d be doing family photos soon, and she guessed she’d be roped into some of them as part of the bridal party. Most of them she could sit out, but as the maid of honor, she needed to get out there and make sure Steph was touched up—especially since she had her lip gloss in her pocket.
There were so many photos, going well beyond the wedding party. There were family photos in every configuration. Some with all of the cousins together. Some of grandkids. She and Oliver were in several of them because she was the maid of honor.
Then Leo and Mary sat side by side in chairs. Joe, Terry, Mike and Kevin stood spaced out behind them, and then Joey, Danny, Brian, Bobby, Brianna, Steph, Lily and Gage all squeezed in between. Nora stood next to Mary’s chair. There were no spouses in this one. Just, thanks to Nora coming into the family, four generations.
She caught the sad look Mary sent Oliver’s way before Rob called for their attention, and the emotions in the older woman’s eyes hit her hard. In Mary’s heart, there was a great-grandchild missing from the photo and nobody knew what the future held. They might never get this moment back. And asking Siobhan might put her in an awkward spot, so they weren’t going to do it because Brian had asked them not to.
There was a good chance these were her son’s great-grandparents and that already meant something now, but someday a photograph would mean everything.
Siobhan waited, uncertain, while Rob took several shots of the family. Then, when he started to lower hiscamera, she stepped forward. “Maybe one more? You know, just in case.”
Before she could lose her nerve, she walked over and set Oliver on Leo’s lap. She smoothed the boy’s hair the best she could, though there wasn’t much she could do about it. As she started to move away, Leo took her hand and squeezed it for a few seconds, clearing his throat. She smiled at him and then at Mary, who was blinking away the moisture in her eyes, before backing out of the picture.
Because she was standing near Rob, she could hear the shutter go off, so she knew in the first shot, Brian was looking at Oliver, his lips curved into a warm smile. The second time, he was looking at her with warmth and gratitude shining in his eyes. Then he shifted his attention to the camera and Rob fired off a few more shots.
Once Rob announced he’d gotten every shot he could possibly think of, Siobhan started to move, but Brian was already there—lifting Oliver into his arms and talking to his grandparents for a moment. Then they headed for her.
Siobhan’s heart cracked at the sight of the two of them. Oliver looked so much like Brian, and the two of them smiling and talking to each other about something was almost too much for her to bear without crumpling into an emotional heap on the grass.
But Oliver grinned and kicked at Brian to be put down so he could run to his mom. “I said cheese, Mommy.”
“I heard you. You did a great smile, honey.”
“Thank you for that,” Brian said. Then he paused to clear his throat. “It meant…”
“You’re welcome,” she said, because he wasn’t going to get through explaining what it meant to his family without choking up. “If…after, you know, I’d love copies for Oliver’s room.”
“Of course.” He blew out a breath. “The family going back to Maine will start leaving soon, so I should go wander around and make sure I say goodbye to all of them.”
“The ones that are staying to drive the campers back tomorrow,” she said before he could walk away. “Did you find places for all of them to sleep? The dinette in mine breaks down if somebody needs a bed.”
When heat flared in his eyes, she came to the same realization he apparently did in that moment—maybe Oliver could camp out on the dinette, freeing up room in Siobhan’s bed for Brian, and his bed in the house for somebody else—and her body responded in kind. A tangled, sweaty goodbye on their final night together, something deep inside of her seemed to whisper.
His ears turned as pink as her cheeks felt, and then he shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I appreciate that, but we got it sorted. It took a lot of sticky notes and whoever got stuck with the couch is going to feel it tomorrow, but we’re good.”
“It’s time to dance,” Steph yelled over the buzz of conversations around her, and everybody groaned. “Oh, no, we’re dancing. You all nixed my wedding karaoke idea, so you’re going to dance instead.”
