AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The wayward dog barked, then sat, looking up at her vet with innocent eyes.
Arabella knelt to let Scout take the treat while simultaneously untying the ribbon and sliding the rings into her free hand. She stood, handing the rings to me.
“Shall we continue?” I asked, holding the rings in the palm of my hand.
“Yes, please,” Annie said.
Atticus looked at his dog, shaking his head. “No wet food for you tonight.”
Scout tilted her head and whined before dropping onto her stomach and placing her chin between two paws.
“We will now exchange rings.” I mopped my brow with a tissue I’d stored in my pocket just in case.
In no time at all, the rings were in their appropriate places, on the left hands of the bride and groom. Whatever hadpossessed Scout seemed to have left. Her eyes closed. She’d be asleep in seconds after her exercise.
Annie and Atticus seemed unconcerned with their rambunctious pet. Rafferty’s complexion, on the other hand, was positively green. This hadn’t gone as planned, and he was not happy about it.
I returned to Annie and Atticus. “By the power given to me by the internet, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss each other.” While attending weddings prior to now, I’d thought it sexist that the man was instructed to kiss the woman instead of a mutual kiss. Thus, I’d taken it upon myself to change tradition.
Our bride and groom kissed as the room exploded with clapping and whoops.
“Thank you, Caspian,” Annie whispered. “You did good.”
I smiled back, her joy filling me with hope and optimism. It wasn’t every day a man got to marry his brother and beautiful sister-in-law. This was what life was about. Love, marriage, building a family together. “It was my honor,” I said, choking up.
“Is that it?” Atticus asked, eyes glazed.
“That’s it. Time to party,” I said.
The recessional music began, flooding the space with Keith Urban’s haunting voice singing “Making Memories of Us.”
Annie and Atticus turned to walk back down the aisle but were waylaid when my family all got up from their seats to hug and congratulate them. Time suspended and everything slowed as if I were watching a film. Thad and Soren pounced on Atticus like puppies, hugging and shaking his hand. Mama embraced Annie, exchanging words only they could hear. Pop held out his arms to pull Atticus into an embrace. Rafferty smiled over at me, relief in his eyes now that part of his job was over.
Sammie and Elliot began discreetly moving tables back into a square for the wedding dinner. Finley, who had been takingphotos throughout the vows, continued to snap pictures. Had she gotten ones of the runaway dog? At least it wasn’t a runaway bride. Things could have gone more poorly. Should I share that observation with Rafferty? Maybe later. When he didn’t look as if he were about to either vomit or pass out.
Thad clapped me on the shoulder. “Well done, bro.”
“Thank you. Do you think I have a future?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t quit your day job.”
“Speaking of which, I’m going to check on dinner in the kitchen.”
Thad held me back. “Don’t do it. You’ll get stuck in there.”
He was probably right. Today was not about my kitchen. Today was about family. “Then get me a drink, little brother. Let’s celebrate.”
“That I can do,” Thad said.
10
CASPIAN
There were sixteen of us around the table. Bride and groom, flanked on either side by the sets of parents, sat on the end nearest the fireplace, which had been turned on because of the nasty weather. So much for May being a warm month.
I sat opposite of Annie and Atticus, with Arabella between Rafferty and me. Whoever had put the seating chart together had either been oblivious to their feud or thought it was funny to put them together. I would ask Mama about that later.
Annie’s twin sisters sat to the right of their parents, with Iris and George next to them. On the other side from them were Soren and Thad, with Celeste between them.
