That was the thing about Declan. He didn’t talk much. But he listened like it was a competitive sport and he intended to win.
Rose stepped back and handed me my bouquet, white peonies wrapped in a trailing ribbon.
“Ready,” she said.
The bus rolled to a stop.
“Ready,” I agreed, and I was mostly telling myself.
The wedding tent was enormous from the outside and completely translucent, like someone had dropped an oversized snow globe on the side of the mountain and decided to have a wedding in it. A green carpeted path led from the bus to the entrance, lined with white birch and pine trees, and standing at the end of it were my parents.
And Hayes.
And Wiener the Pooh.
I stopped walking did a double-take, lookin back at my dog for a second.
She was wearing a velvet cape in the exact green of Penny’s dress, trimmed at the collar with white fur that matched my own wrap. She was harnessed to a tiny sleigh filled with flowers, her little dachshund legs planted like she was fully aware of the responsibility she was carrying and had committed to the bit entirely.
“Where in the world did you find a dachshund-sized sleigh?” I asked.
“Built it.” Hayes rocked back on his heels with the specific satisfaction of a man who had solved a very niche problem extremely well. “Out of one of our old Tonka trucks. The wheels needed a little engineering but she pulls smooth.” He looked at me and his whole face went soft. “You look beautiful, Kelsey.”
“Thanks, Hayes.” He turned approximately the color of his boutonniere. I loved this man. “So does she.”
Flynn appeared at my elbow out of nowhere, which was a thing Flynn did. He dropped to one knee in front of Pooh and looked her directly in the eye, twin to very small dog. His expression was completely serious.
“Operation Dashing Through the Snow is commencing,” he said. “Just like we practiced. Go find Uncle Gryff. He has the treats.”
Pooh appeared to nod as if she understood that with great cuteness comes great responsibility. Then she turned, sleigh and all, and trotted down the green carpet and disappeared through the entrance into the dark. Behind her, petals dropped from beneath the sleigh, leaving a row of flowers for me to walk down.
Aww, my sweet little Pooh was the best flower girl anyone could ever ask for.
We all watched the space where she had been for a minute until Flynn pressed two fingers to his earpiece and then punched the air. “She made it.”
“You’re going to love everything,” Penny said, already heading after Pooh with Flynn leading her down the aisle. “See you at the altar.”
And then it was just me and my parents. My mom was doing the thing she always did in crowds, which was not being quite all the way there, her attention partially somewhere else, somewhere quieter. But she looked at me with so much love that I forgave her for all of it immediately, as I always did.
“Oh, sweetheart,” she said. “You look like you stepped right out of a Housemark movie.”
“Good thing I know how it ends,” I said, and she laughed.
She hugged me quick and careful the way you hug someone in a dress, and then Hayes extended his elbow to her, and they disappeared through the entrance together.
My dad held out his arm to me.
I took it and held on probably a little harder than strictly necessary. He patted my hand the way he had when I was small and scared and pretending I wasn’t.
“From the first time you brought Declan home to meet us,” he said quietly, “I knew. Not because of who he was. Because of how he looked at you when he thought nobody was watching.” He covered my hand with his. “He sees you, Kelsey. The real you. Trust in that today.”
I pressed my lips together, holding back the tremble.
I had written approximately four zillion songs about love. I had a very detailed working theory of what it felt like, what it meant, how it moved through people. And still my dad managed to reduce me to total wordlessness in under thirty seconds. That was a skill. I should take notes.
“Thanks, Dad,” I managed.
“Don’t cry,” he said. “Your mom will think I said something dumb.”
