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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“You may now kiss thebride,” the officiant said, then she stepped off to the side.
Tom slinked an arm around my waist, causing me to gasp as he bent me back into a knee-quaking kiss. The guests erupted in applause as he kissed me so long and deep that I finally ran out of air. But I didn’t care.
I had Tom to breathe life back into me.
And he had.
“Attaboy!” Marge yelled from her place beside me where my three widows and my daughter stood.
I laughed against Tom’s mouth, kissing him once more before we turned to the guests, and I lifted our hands together. They applauded again as we walked between them as husband and wife, grinning from ear to ear.
We hurried around the corner, stopping to be alone for a moment and share in more of those earth-shattering kisses before we joined our guests under the huge white tent at the edge of the vineyard. We lifted our glasses for champagne toasts and had a delicious meal with the widows and their spouses sharing the main table with us. It was the first time our partners had met, and I was elated at how well they all seemed to get on. They’d have to now that we’d all be neighbors soon, their loves too inseparable to be apart again.
After dinner, Alice snuck up the stage, standing in front of an elegant white curtain billowing behind her. With several rapid clinks on her champagne glass, she caught the attention of all the guests in the room.
“Thank you for giving me your attention,” she started, “and I promise I’ll be brief. I just wanted to hop up here and call the bride and groom to the dancefloor.”
Tom took my hand and lifted me from my seat, guiding me to the center of the black and white tiled dance floor. He slid his arm around my shoulder and held me tight against him as we waited for Alice to speak.
“When Sylvie first told us about the night she met Tom all those years ago, she spoke of a connection so strong, so intense, that she knew she loved him from the minute she laid eyes on him.”
The guests awwwed, and Tom looked down at me and smiled.
“I am not a big believer in love and fairytales, I’ll admit, but when I saw Tom and Sylvie reconnect after all those years apart, there was no mistaking the unquenchable love still burning between them. It was palpable, as I’m sure you can all attest to, as you see them standing here today as husband and wife. It’s a love so strong it makes a non-believer like me question if it’s truly possible to have a soulmate ... a person you’re destined to be with. Someone you recognize instantly as your other half. There’s no denying that for these two, it was true love at a glance. She knew. He knew. Their love bound them together in an instant.”
Tears started in my eyes.
“When Sylvie talked about that first night they met, and the nostalgia twinkled in her eyes, she said the moment she knew she would marry him was when he held out his hand and said, ‘Dance with me.’ She took his hand, and the sparks flew so brightly, she joked they could have had their own fireworks show.”
I laughed, looking at Tom and mouthing, “It’s true.”
He smiled and mouthed back. “It is.”
“And every time we hear the song on the radio that Tom asked Sylvie to dance to, her whole face lights up with warm memories visible to even us who weren’t there. And tonight, I ask that for their first dance, they take a spin to that song again. The one that they danced to the first night they met.”
