We walk another ten feet. I can see Spur clearer now.
He's looking at me. His face is doing the thing his face does when he sees me—the soft thing, the thing I've watched for years, but I can't quite stop talking.
"Shiv."
"Yeah?"
"You need to find Mom."
He keeps walking. Doesn't look at me.
"Dak."
"Something isn't right, Shiv. Something hasn't been right for a long time. Pops's face goes funny when I bring her up. Marlena's face goes funny. Uncle Cash's face went funny when I spoke to him a few months ago. They all do the same thing."
He's quiet a for a few moments. "Yeah. They do."
"You need to find her, Shiver. I'm asking you. After today. I'll come help you. But you need to find her."
"After today, sis."
"After today."
"You're walking down an aisle right now, Dak."
"I know I am."
"Then walk."
We're twenty feet from the oak. Spur is twenty feet away.
The crowd is on its feet. Pops is at the arch with his Bible in his hand, and his face is the calmest I've ever seen it.
Shiver squeezes my arm against his side.
"After today, sis. I promise. We'll find out what happened."
"Thank you, Shiv."
"Now go get married."
We close the last twenty feet. Shiver stops me at the arch, kisses my cheek, and hands me to Spur.
Spur takes both my hands. "Hey, baby."
"Hey."
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I am now."
He squeezes my hands and looks at me the way he's been looking at me for years.
Pops opens the Bible.
The ceremony moves the way a ceremony moves when the man officiating it is your father and the man marrying you is the love of your life.
Pops reads from Corinthians.
