One Year Later
Devotion
“Don’t you dare make me late on my wedding day!” Grace growled as her brother’s phone clicked to voice mail again. Grace pounded on the kitchen wall, hoping to get an answering knock from her brother whose hallway shared the same wall.
A knock at the front door confused her. She opened the door to find her brother waiting expectantly. “Are you ready yet? Time’s-a-wasting!”
“Why weren’t you answering your phone?” Grace snatched her purse and ran out the door.
“Sorry. Alison’s playing a game on it.”
“Keeping Leah happy is important too, I guess. Course I am a bride today. Maybe we could remember that?” she said pointedly.
Tyler beamed at her. “It’s your turn for it to be all about you.”
Grace paused to hug her brother. After putting in the studio stairs he had so much work that he’d enrolled at the community college as a first step toward becoming a licensed contractor. She couldn’t remember the last time she had worried about what he was doing.
“You look really beautiful,” he said, blushing. “I wish Mom and Dad were here to see you.”
Grace nodded, tears threatening. “You’re not allowed to mess up my makeup,” she said, fanning her face to chase the tears away.
“I’m sorry.” They stood together, the moment turning unexpectedly serious. “I really am sorry.”
She saw before her the boy who had also lost his parents as well as the man he was today. She’d contributed to who he had become, she realized, she and Robyn together. “I know.” She held him tight, knowing how different things would have been without Robyn in their lives. “Now drive, idiot, so Robyn doesn’t think I’ve stood her up.”
* * *
Robyn stood in the entryway of the coast guard station, looking out at the brilliant blue sky. Down by the water, her parents and her brother’s family together with Major Chief Coughlan explored the rescue boats docked beyond the station.
“I can’t believe your whole family made it,” Isabel said, straightening the collar unnecessarily on Robyn’s dress blues, a deep blue skirt and jacket with her row of medals above the left breast and gold chevrons decorating her sleeves.
“It’s the first time I’ve met my nephew. He’s cute, isn’t he?”
“Adorable. Do you think your parents will ever move back to the States?”
“No. They want to be near their grandson.”
“Did your dad go loco when he found out he’s not walking you down the aisle?”
“He understood. It didn’t feel right without Grace’s dad here.”
“Well, you look stunning. Look at you,” she said, turning her around to face the row of pictures, current and past coast guard staff. “Ten years, and it doesn’t look like a day has passed for you. I can’t believe you still fit into this. You look even better in it now.”
Robyn stepped across the hall to study her picture. “I looked good in it back then.”
“Good, yes. Happy, no. Now you look happy. Your Grace better work hard to keep this smile on your face.”
“She does, Isabel. Believe me. She does.”
* * *
Robyn stood holding Grace’s hands as they waited for Jen’s quartet to conclude their processional, overwhelmed by the perfection of the day. A gentle breeze blew in from the Pacific on the cloud-free, blue-skied summer afternoon as the minister offered her words on love and commitment. Robyn knew without doubt that the people who joined them today would be the community of support that the minister emphasized.
Immediate and extended family had traveled great distances. Robyn’s former colleagues and Grace’s current ones, artist friends and barn friends packed the rows, all there to witness the love she felt for the woman in front of her. Isabel and Kristine stood with them as their best ladies. She knew that they would honor the couple’s request to see them through this and many more good days but also be with them to support them through the hard days too.
When the minister called for the rings, Caemon confidently stepped forward to let the brides untie the rings from the pillow. Though they had rehearsed that he would go sit with Gloria for the rest of the ceremony, Caemon insisted that he stay with his friend even when Kristine tried to coax him to stand with her to the side.
Robyn waved her off. Looking into his sparkling blue eyes, she remembered meeting him at the stable and how his joy cut right through her sorrow like the radiant sun that forever has the power to break through clouds to bring warmth and joy.
Reciting the vows they had written together, Grace slipped the platinum band Robyn had been wearing back onto her finger, and Robyn reciprocated with the sparkling gem befitting of her glowing bride. They had eyes only for each other. Robyn felt that although she wore the outfit that had made her father proud, Grace saw the woman she had become after she retired.
Robyn kissed her bride and was surprised when Grace pulled her into an embrace. Her lips hovering just above Robyn’s ear, she said, “I still see my Robyn, but you have to know that you look scrumptious in your uniform.”
When she let Robyn go, her eyes held the promise of where the uniform was headed the second they were alone together.
Strings sang out, setting them into motion, the notes breezing joyously over them and all those gathered. Holding hands, they exited through the center aisle. The majestic cedars in front of the station stretched their arms above them. Her heart full of joy, Robyn raised her arms in jubilation, never having dreamed such happiness as this could be hers.