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“I’ll never regret either.”
“I meant what I said during the ceremony,” he said. “Whatever you want, I will give you. If I can, of course.”
“And I you.”
“Are you worried about later?”
“A little. You?” I asked, knowing he referred to our wedding night. My sisters had gone out earlier and filled the kitchen of our newly cleaned and decorated cottage with food for our first days together. They’d also made up the bed in the room I would now share with my husband. Husband! I still couldn’t quite believe it. James was mine and I was his.
We’d agreed to have our honeymoon next summer, for school would start in a few weeks and Mr. West, teacher of English and history, would be busy preparing. My mother had agreed to help him prepare, reassuring him that all would be well. James’s mother had declined our invitation to move to Colorado, for now, at least. She’d written to tell him that his father was not well and that she could not leave him to die alone. In addition, his sister had eloped with her childhood sweetheart and hadn’t been heard from since. I’d worried the news would send James into a mourning of some kind, but instead, he’d seemed resigned to whatever came. “I can no longer hold on to the belief that my actions can save any of them. It’s a relief to finally accept that fact,” he’d said to me a few days before the wedding.
“Was it strange for you?” I asked him now. “To marry without any of your family here?”
“Not really. I’ve spent all these years without them.” He paused, obviously thinking through what he would say. “My sister’s escaped as well, you know, and this makes me happy. My mother and father have made each other miserable all their married life, but at least she has a chance for a good life.”
“I hope she will be as happy as we are,” I said.
“I can wish for nothing better for her.”
The song changed to a ballad, and he drew me closer and whispered in my ear. “When can we leave? I love your family, but I’m longing to be alone with you.”
“Another hour? I don’t really know, now that you ask. At my siblings’ weddings, I can’t remember ever wanting the party to end, but tonight it’s a different story.”
“It will be the longest hour in the history of man.”
I laughed and rested my cheek against the lapel of his new suit, made in haste by our own Mr. Olofsson. “We have so much to look forward to.” I gazed up at him, wondering what it would feel like to wake up in the morning and see his beautiful eyes staring back at me from across the pillow. “I still can’t quite believe it’s you.”
He brushed his mouth against a spot just below my ear. “I can’t believe you would pick me. Of all the men in the world?”
“You’ve always been the one. My one and only.”
“It wasn’t obvious to me at first, of course, but I am a man and therefore less intelligent than the woman who loves me.”
“Oh, Idolove you, James West.” I wriggled my hand from his to touch the side of his smooth face. “You’re mine for always, which makes me the happiest woman in the entire world.”
He chuckled and brought my hand to his mouth and kissed the palm. “You smell very nice. If you were wondering about that.”
I laughed. “Thank you. You smell nice, too.” Over his shoulder, I saw my mother and father sitting together on the bottom steps of the porch. How many other exchanges had happened there over the years? Many, I suspected, given the largeness of our family.
Tonight, my parents sat side by side. My father had his arm around her shoulders, and her head was resting against him. Instead of looking at each other, they were watching us. A gentle smile on my mother’s face told me of her delight in my happiness, but there was a bittersweet quality, too. I was one of her babies, after all, and this was the end of an era.
My father winked at me and then turned away to whisper something to my mother. She laughed and nodded, then took his hand and they joined us on the lawn to dance.
Along with Fiona and Delphia, my sisters and brothers were there too, all dancing with their spouses. Delphia was in the corner of the yard with the Depaul brothers playing some kind of game with marbles. I’m fairly sure money was exchanging hands. Given her self-satisfied grin, she must have been winning.
I nestled closer to James, knowing I would always remember this moment when my world was absolutely perfectly perfect. Whatever tomorrow brought, I would always have this rose-scented night and the sounds of Fiona’s music in accompaniment to the joyous sounds of my family celebrating that once again love had conquered all. A match that had made no sense to anyone but me had finally come to fruition. I would not ever forget what a miracle it all was or the generosity of my parents. What a thing to be a Barnes, I thought. A glorious, lucky blessed thing.
Now, however, I was also a West. Mrs. James West. I could hardly wait to write it on an envelope, although I’d promised my new husband that I would use Barnes for my pen name. I might be Addie West at home, but the world would know me as Adelaide Barnes, author. Would his prediction come true? Only time would tell. Until then, I was content to be under the stars in the arms of the man I loved with my family all around me.
Nothing could be better than tonight, I thought.This is the best day of my life.
I was wrong, of course. There were many more joyous occasions in our future, ones that topped even this one. But they are stories for another day. Today was today, and I was young and in love. Whatever came, James would be with me. Knowing that, I could face it all without fear. His love gave me the courage I never thought I’d have.
“You’ve made me braver,” I said.
“No, you’ve made me brave. It’s all been you. From the beginning, it was you who was the courageous one, the one who opened my eyes to what my life could be. It’ll always be you, my love—the woman who changed my life.”
We danced for a while longer and then, as lovers do, sneaked away from the crowd and headed for our new home. If anyone noticed our departure, they didn’t come after us. They’d been like us once, I thought as we got out of the car. Time may go on, but lovers will always be the same.
James carried me into our house, both of us giggling until the lights were turned off and my life as a wife began. And what a life it was.
