The wedding ceremony was about to start, so I took my place at the back of the aisle. I looked to the front of the church and saw Bruce, so handsome in his tux, and shifted my gaze over to my father… standing at the altar. I peeked over my shoulder to find Sylvia just beaming gorgeously and looking as beautiful and happy as ever. Dad and she were finally making this thing official.
The music started, and I counted ten Mississippis before starting down the aisle. It wasn’t difficult to keep a smile plastered on my face during my walk, but once I spotted Trip in the pews, I’m sure I looked like a complete doofus with my uncontrollable grin. Then again, he was smiling at me like I was the only person in the room.
Sitting next to him were Lisa, Pickford, and all three kids. The twins were getting ready to start Kindergarten in the fall, and I made Lisa promise me she’d always send them to public school. Where does the time go? I felt like it was only yesterday when we were in school, and now my childhood best friend was getting ready for her kids to start. Before we know it, those two will be in high school, living it up as hard as we did back in the day.
Lisa grabbed the baby’s chubby fist and waved it at me as I walked past. Allison was just as beautiful as her big sister.
And her mother.
I said a quick prayer that all her children would be lucky enough in their lives to find a best friend as amazing as mine.
*
The reception was at the country club one town over. We were blessed with a perfect day—sunny and breezy—affording us the opportunity to take advantage of the outdoor party area.
By the time we made our way inside to the ballroom, we were stuffed from the endless fare of the cocktail hour, and still had a whole sit-down dinner to look forward to.
I grabbed Trip out of his chair and pulled him onto the dance floor, figuring we could work off some of that food before Round Two of the feeding frenzy.
Plus, I just wanted to dance with him.
The floor was packed with the people I loved most in my life. Dad and Sylvia were dancing nearby, and next to them were Mr. and Mrs. DeSanto. Bruce and his new girlfriend were swaying to beat the band, Pickford was twirling Julia around in his arms, and Lisa had partnered with Caleb. Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Conrad decided to join in, and my cousins were there, too, along with a bunch of other family and friends that we didn’t get to see too often.
Aunt Eleanor and I had a pretty big talk one day about my encounter with her sister. Well, I guess I did most of the talking. Aunt El spent most of our conversation with a sad smile glued to her face, tears brimming in her eyes as she squeezed my fingers off. I almost got the impression that she was more relieved to hear about my closure on the situation, rather than revel in the peace I’d hoped to bring her. Between Bruce’s shoulder shrug, my father’s non-reaction, and Aunt Eleanor’s happy tears, I realized I was the only one out of the four of us who hadn’t already let my mother go years before.
The wedding wasn’t the first time my cousins had been back in the same room as Trip. A few months after The Tree, I’d brought him to my dad and Sylvia’s engagement party. I’d given Stephen the heads up, but I was still worried about how the meeting was going to go down. My cousin had practically arrested Trip a few years back, and had expressed some initial concerns when he heard we were back together. We all had a long talk before dinner, and Trip and he had since found a way to make nice. I wanted any lingering awkwardness from that incident to be settled long before the wedding, and mercifully, it had been.
Because there I was, dancing with him once again.
He was spinning me around, crooning along to “Chances Are” as he did so.
He stopped singing to smirk out, “Hey babe? This place is no rooftop, but I guess we can cut one hell of a rug anywhere, huh.”
He pulled my waist in tightly against his side and dipped me backwards over his arm, planting a smiling kiss against my breastbone. I smacked his arm until he straightened us back up and then playfully chastised him. “You smoothy. Still working the moves on me? Don’t you realize you already got me?”
“Oh, I realize. I guess I just still can’t believe it.” He spun me out and back in again as I giggled, watching one his eyebrows raise comically. “Should I have kept my distance that night instead?”
Every moment had led us here. Every second of our lives. Every beat of our hearts. The answer was a big, fat no.
I pursed my lips to keep from smiling. “Hey Trip?”
“Yeah?”
“I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”
He grinned wickedly at that, pulled me in close, and buried his face in my hair. I heard him take a huge inhale before he said, “God, Lay. What is that? Do you have any idea how many random shampoo bottles I’ve sniffed over the years, trying to find this scent? ‘Cause I know what kind of shampoo you use, and that’s not it. I’m beginning to think it’s just you.”
My shoulders started shaking, cracking up at his admission. I’d spent the same years sniffing bars of soap. Even during that first trip out to his California house, I’d come to the same realization that he had: It was just him.
It was always him.