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“She and Alex aren’t alike if that’s what you were thinking about,” Wayne continued.
Can he read my mind?
“Do you think I should leave?” Elise asked. “I feel so strange. Like, I should tell her, shouldn’t I? I don’t want to seem even more dishonest. What if Alex storms up and finds me here...?”
“Naw. Anna doesn’t like Alex that much,” Wayne said. “Alex isn’t the kind of guy who makes friends easily. Maybe you could have guessed that?”
Elise tried to laugh, but the sound her throat made was strained. She glanced back toward the stables and thought about making a run for it.
“And I thought you were the one who should have felt weird at this wedding,” Elise whispered.
“At least we have each other,” Wayne said.
Tracey turned again toward them and delivered a sterling smile. “Guys! It’s time. You don’t want to miss the ceremony, do you?”
Elise glanced back toward Wayne.
“We’ve dug our graves,” Elise said.
“I feel like you dug mine for me,” Wayne said.
As Elise marched back into the fold, Tracey instructed them to stand on either side of an “aisle,” which would allow Anna to walk toward the pastor and her groom. As Tracey directed them, Elise analyzed her differently than she had before.
Tracey. Tracey, as her older sister.
She imagined Tracey doing all the big-sister-duties: pushing her on the swing set, helping her pick out a dress for prom, teaching her how to put on makeup...
She imagined Tracey teasing her but protecting her with incredible force against any and all bullies.
She imagined this other life they might have had.
Now, Tracey looked at her with a friendly smile, an eager wave—
But she didn’t know.
“Places everyone!” Tracey called.
Anna stood toward the far end of the aisle. In her hands, she held a small bouquet of gorgeous flowers: lily of the valley, baby’s breath. She’d placed a little veil over her face, which did very little to hide the tears that had begun to fall.
Had Anna wanted to marry Wayne?
What was Wayne’s deal?
Did Wayne not believe in marriage? Anna seemed beautiful, kind, intelligent, fun. What had gone wrong?
Anna walked the aisle slowly. The only sounds were the birds in the trees, the subtle sweep of the leaves as the wind went through, and the water as it rushed up onto the sand. Anna’s eyes were totally focused on Roger’s.
And for a moment, Elise found herself actually forgetting what a mess she was in.
Elise had gone to a number of weddings over the years: friends she’d grown up with, friends from college—even Mia’s, when she’d decided to leave half-way through the ceremony and take off to Thailand with some guy she’d just met, leaving her fiancé at the altar. Now that had been something to see.
But this wedding? It was something else. Elise blinked back tears as Anna and Roger pledged the rest of their lives together. Occasionally, she glanced toward Tracey, who was full-on crying. Would Tracey have cried at Elise’s wedding to Sean? Would she have said,Elise, come on, you’re practically still a kid? Don’t marry Sean. There will be other men like Sean. There are millions and millions of other men in the world...
There was no way to know.
Elise had already married Sean. Tracey had already lived over forty-five years of her life; it looked like. They hadn’t had one another; maybe they hadn’t needed each other.
Yet here they were, watching this stranger marry.
When Anna and Roger kissed, everyone in the tiny crowd burst into applause and wolf-whistles. Elise turned her face up toward Wayne and caught him, too, wiping away a tear.
“What?” he said. “I’m not sad about Anna. I’m just a little bit of a sucker for weddings, is all.”
Elise belly-laughed at that. This guy? With the tattoos and the clever smile? This guy was a sucker for weddings?
“Me too,” she said instead. “I can’t help but cry.”
