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Vera and Maria are pulled from their chairs, fighting to keep their balance.
Drew hurries forward, trying to extract his clicker from his jacket.
Todd holds out his hand, shouting the dogs’ names.
But Tatiana is unflappable. The dogs surround her, jumping and yipping.
She kneels and kisses each one, wrapping the leashes around her wrist. By the time she’s done, all seven dogs are calm again, and they are the ones who end up walking her up to Todd as her father sits next to her mother.
“Told you they wouldn’t stay in the fence,” Tatiana says.
Todd laughs. “I will never doubt you again.”
The priest does not look pleased, but the ceremony goes on. Maria and Vera shrug it off and sit next to me. Tatiana’s mother pats her forehead and neck with a handkerchief, clearly in distress about what just happened.
The dogs are more or less content to sit near Tatiana, even during the extended homily by the priest.
But when he tells Todd to kiss the bride, and the audience begins to clap, that’s it. The dogs are done.
They jump and bark and take Tatiana’s arms in opposite directions. Todd grabs at the leashes.
The wedding coordinator opens the back doors for the bride and groom’s exit, and the smell of food from the reception in the adjoining hall filters in.
The dogs catch one whiff, and they are off, taking the bride and groom with them.
The organist fires up the recessional music, but Todd and Tatiana are already gone. The bridesmaids and groomsmen look at each other, not sure what to do. After a moment, the priest says, “On to the reception!”
Drew stays behind to pick up the scattered roses and stack the fencing. I head over to help.
“Zero chance,” he says.
“Absolutely zero.”
Drew places the broken flowers and petals in a pile on a pew. “They’ll be back in a minute for pictures.”
“Should we wait here?”
“Might as well.”
We watch as the room empties until it’s only us near the altar. Sun streams in through the stained glass.
“It’s lovely here,” I say.
“Do you like church weddings?”
“Mom sure did,” I say. “She felt happy in big beautiful churches like this.”
“Does it sometimes feel like she is here?”
“It does right now.”
He watches me, and our gazes hold. “This is a pretty tight secret,” he says, “but Tatiana is pregnant. That’s why the wedding came so quickly. She’s planning to leave the clinic when the baby arrives.”
“Oh no! You’ll have to start over with an office manager.”
Drew takes my hand. “I know that based on how things started, you decided that us working together was a bad idea while we dated, and by then Tatiana had taken over anyway. I didn’t like you getting stuck at the bank again, but you seemed to like it this time.”
“I do like it. It’s fine. It’s honest work.”
