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Lydia smiled up at him. “But I have to know. How did all of this happen so fast?”
Elise pressed her lips together as she turned her head to look in his direction.
He didn’t miss a beat. “You know what they say, when you know, you know. And we’re lucky because Elise and I don’t need to get to know each other. We know enough, and I guess it’s just that the timing was finally right for us to figure out we were supposed to be together.”
Elise’s heart warmed at his words. Everything he said was true, even if it had a bit of a twist to it. In her heart, she hoped he really did believe they were supposed to be together, just like she always had.
Lydia clapped her hands together. “Well, that’s just the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard.” She reached to wrap her arms around both of them. When she stepped back, she wiped at her eyes again. She looked at Elise, and without speaking the words, Elise knew what she wanted to say because Elise felt the same. Her parents were missing this moment. Her heart pinched in pain at the thought, while at the same moment she was overwhelmed with the thought of an entirely new family.
Mr. Macklin spoke up. “It certainly sounds like we have something to celebrate. How about we get to eating? So we can enjoy that delicious dessert I’ve been smelling all afternoon.”
Everyone cheered again as they moved to fix their plates and take their seats around the table.
Everyone was settled, eating and asking questions and chatting excitedly.
Lydia waited until dessert had been served to ask the question they had been waiting for. “Is it too soon to ask if you’ve thought about a date?”
Elise reached for Garrett’s hand, which was starting to feel more natural. “Actually, we’ve decided we don’t want to have a long engagement, and we really don’t need a big wedding. We just want to be married and start our life together.”
Garrett squeezed her hand. “That’s right. So we’re just going to get our marriage license and have Pastor Judson marry us on Sunday after church.”
Elise braced herself as she looked at the faces around the table. Half of their mouths hung open in disbelief.
“This Sunday?” Katie asked. “That’s in three days!”
“That’s right,” Garrett said.
“But, Elise, you need a dress!” Lydia said. “And flowers, and oh my goodness, so many things.”
Elise smiled and held up her hand. “It will be alright. I’m going to wear my mother’s dress. She was just the same size as me. And I’ll be happy without a bouquet. Garrett has enough suits from his brothers’ weddings to pick one. We’ll just stand at the front of the church and be married.”
Garrett shifted to put his arm around her. “We thought about going to the courthouse and taking care of it today. But we both knew we wanted to make this commitment before God. So Sunday it is. We don’t need a lot of frills.”
“What about a reception?” Lydia asked.
“Or a bridal shower?” Katie added.
“We can do those later if you want to,” Garrett said. “But we’ve made the decision about the wedding, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
In a way, Elise admired the way he said it so confidently. She would have been the one to waffle on the decision, but Garrett wasn’t like that. He had always known what he wanted and didn’t let anyone change his mind.
Everyone seemed to look at Elise to confirm. She smiled, pretending for a moment that all the attention was just part of the happiest day of her life. “Yes,” she said. “We can’t wait to be married in just a few days.”
12
Garrett stood in the choir room of the church he’d grown up attending his entire life. But today wasn’t like any other Sunday. He had sat through church in the back, while Elise sat with her brothers on the second row. Because even though it was a small ceremony, his mother and sisters-in-law still insisted he couldn’t “see the bride.”
He hoped it wasn’t unlucky that he could see the back of her head over the hymnal he held as he sang. Maybe it didn’t count, since she wasn’t wearing her wedding dress yet.
Garrett had thought they could simply stand up front after the church had cleared and say their vows. He had been wrong. Once the females in the Macklin family got ahold of things, they evolved quickly. They insisted that Elise needed time to change and fix her hair. Then out of nowhere, there was a photographer coming. Once everything started falling into place, more and more people heard about the plans. Now Garrett could hear the voices from the full sanctuary of the “close friends of the family” who had asked if they could come.
He didn’t mind really. The plan wasn’t to keep people from seeing, it was just to get married quickly. So as long as he and Elise were married by the afternoon, they could do all the planning they wanted.
This morning, he had managed to do a little planning of his own, and he hoped Elise would be happy with his surprise.
Garrett checked his watch as the door opened, and Lawson walked in.
“Trying to see if there’s still time to run?” Lawson asked.
