The wedding took place at four on Saturday. Looking handsome in his tux, Carter stood at the altar waiting for Mariel. He winked when he caught my eye, and I gave him a thumbs-up. Mariel looked gorgeous in the Valentino gown, and I don’t think anyone suspected a single stitch had been changed. No wedding rings were lost or swallowed.
Mom cried during the ceremony. Then she said she felt old. I wasn’t sure if she was crying because of the wedding or because she felt old or both. I didn’t ask. I was concentrating on the words my sister and Carter were saying to each other. Words like forever and love and understanding. Words like forgiveness and patience. Words like together and always. I wasn’t envious of her. I was happy for her. I just wished someone would say those words to me.
The weather was a sunny eighty degrees, perfect for an outdoor reception at the club. The tables on the slate patio looked lovely with their white linens, and although I’m sure the orchid arrangements Mariel had chosen would have been spectacular, Ginny Hall had done a nice job on the daisy-sunflower-mum centerpieces. And Mariel had taken the Benadryl.
Tate sat next to me with his plus-one—Amy, the new vet in his practice. He confessed to me he wasn’t sure it was a good idea to mix business with pleasure, but I told him you only live once and wished him luck. I was the last person to be critiquing relationships.
During dinner (I had the Dover sole, by the way, which was excellent), Carter’s best man, Tim Rucci, got up to give a toast, which included a story about how Carter had had to break into Tim’s Jeep one night when they were in college because Tim had locked the keys in the car. I’d never heard that story before and it made me wonder if Carter could have blasted open that elevator door the day I met him.
After dinner, I walked over to Mariel and Carter’s table and set a small box in front of my sister. “It’s not your wedding gift,” I said. “I actually got you that Japanese screen you wanted, but they couldn’t figure out how to wrap it.”
Mariel laughed. Carter looked perplexed.
“An old joke,” I said. I tapped the box. “This reminded me of when we were little.”
She opened it and held up the snow globe with the two horses inside. “I can’t believe it. They look exactly like Crackerjack and Two’s Company. The bay even has the same star Two had,” she said, giving the globe a shake. White flakes swirled, floating over the ponies and the red barn, collecting in a little drift at the bottom. “I love it. I really love it. Thanks, Sara.” She threw her arms around me.
The band began to play “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours,” an old Stevie Wonder song. As I headed back to my seat, I saw someone come through the French doors onto the patio and I stopped. It was David. In a suit and tie.
“David?” I scurried toward him, wondering why he was here. Something bad must have happened, probably something to do with the hand. “What’s going on?”
“Ah, there you are,” he said, looking relieved to see me. “I’m sorry to show up unannounced. I’m not trying to crash your sister’s wedding. It’s just that I’m on my way back to Manhattan and I needed to talk to you.”
I didn’t like his serious tone. In his eyes, things swirled and pitched, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “What’s wrong?”
“I want to apologize for the way I treated you the other night. For what I said, how I said it. I was rude, and I never should have criticized you like that. I had no right to make judgments about you or your sister. I’m sorry.”
That’s what this was about? An apology? “I thought something bad had happened to you. Maybe something with the hand. That you were in trouble.”
He smiled, and I remembered what a lovely smile he had, how it lit up his whole face. “No, I’m not in trouble.”
“David, you don’t need to apologize for anything. You were right about what you said. About my sister and me acting like children. We were acting like children. The two of us have been working at cross-purposes for a while, but I think we’re starting to straighten things out.”
“That’s great, Sara. I’m glad.”
“And you were also right about me and Carter. He belongs with my sister.”
I gazed across the patio. People were talking and dancing. Someone tapped a spoon against a glass and others followed, the ringing prompting Carter and Mariel to kiss. I watched their embrace, a bittersweet feeling in my heart.
A server walked up to us. “May I get you something?”
I shook my head.
“No, thanks,” David said. He watched the server walk away. “You know, I’m not usually so reckless about what I say to people. I just felt you were making a big mistake with Carter. It didn’t seem right for a lot of reasons.”
“You weren’t reckless. You were being honest. Friends should feel they can be honest with one another. That’s what you said, and you were right.” Friends. It wasn’t what I wanted, but at least I had that.
“Yeah, well, you’re an interesting friend to have. You know, I had a crazy couple of weeks here. I can’t believe I did half the stuff I did with you. Tried to fix what I thought was an Alex Lingon sculpture, broke into a house, got arrested, had my mug shot plastered all over town and on the internet. Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah—¡viva la revolución! Almost forgot that. And I learned you set the art room on fire in high school.”
I winced. “Yes, but honestly that was—”
He waved his hand. “I know, an accident.”
“You’re right, though. I guess it’s been a crazy time.”
“I don’t normally do the kinds of things I’ve been doing. But you know what? I wouldn’t trade one minute of the past couple of weeks for anything. I’ve had the most fun ever. I wanted the chance to tell you that.” He seemed to be studying my dress. “And now I get to see what you look like as a bridesmaid.”
“It’s not really my color, but I didn’t—”
“I think it looks nice on you.”
I felt myself blush. “Oh, well, thanks. You look nice too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a suit before.”
“Really?” He glanced at his sleeve as though he’d forgotten what he was wearing. “Well, I couldn’t very well show up here in jeans. Even for a few minutes.”
A few minutes. That’s all the time he had? I wished I could stretch those minutes into hours, into days. But we’d be going our separate ways, and all I could do was be happy for him.
“Well, I’m glad you came,” I said. “And I’m glad you survived the two weeks with me. Maybe you can think of it as boot camp. Now you can go back to New York and look forward to something a little more relaxing. Like Paris.” I pressed a smile onto my face, but it was hard to keep it there.
David looked across the patio, past the tables and chairs, past the dance floor and the band, to where the blue hills dipped and rose again, and the sun sat like a caramel candy low on the horizon. “I’m not going to Paris.”
There was only one thing I could think of that would delay his trip. “Has something come up with your work?”
He continued to stare into the distance. Finally, he turned to me. “I talked to Ana last night. We barely spoke when she was away. We just traded voice mails and texts. I figured she was so busy that…anyway, last night at the gallery, I took her outside and told her everything. About the hand. About what happened to it. About Jeanette. Getting arrested. Everything.”
“You must have been relieved to finally come clean about—”
“And then I told her it was over between us.”
Over. I looked at him and felt the patio shift under me. “What happened?”
His shoulders rose and fell. “I just realized Ana wasn’t what I wanted. That a lifetime with her might not be the right thing for me.”
“But I thought…I mean, you were all set to propose. The words on the dessert plate—”
“I know. I was all set. Until I wasn’t. I realized my heart wasn’t in it. That I was making a mistake. That maybe I needed to be with somebody a little different from Ana.”
They weren’t getting married. He’d broken it off. He needed somebody a little different. The moment hung there like honey dripping from a spoon. On the putting green behind the patio, children were running and laughing; people were taking selfies. At the bar, servers in black suits were mixing up pitchers of something frothy and pink. On the dance floor, Dr. Sherwood was twirling my mother.
“So, yeah, I was giving Ana this big speech,” David went on. “And all of a sudden she stopped me and told me she and Alex had eloped.”
I went numb for a minute. And then, maybe because the whole situation seemed so ridiculous, I started to laugh. “What?” And he’d thought she was traditional?
“They got married in Aspen. Crazy, isn’t it? She realized she didn’t love me; I realized I didn’t love her. Could have been one of your dad’s plays.”
It could have been. I was about to tell him so when Jerome walked by with his Canon and snapped some pictures of us. Then he gave me a little wave and moved on.
“So you’re okay with everything?” I said. “The way it turned out with Ana?”
“Yeah, I am.” He straightened the knot in his tie. “I feel like I got a lucky break. And now I have a clean slate.”
A clean slate. Funny how he said what I was thinking. “I kind of feel the same way, with my sister. And Carter.” I thought I saw something flicker in David’s eyes. Something that made the cinnamon brown even warmer. “Maybe we should get a couple of drinks and toast to clean slates,” I said. I hoped he’d stay a little longer.
Aunt Bootsie wobbled toward me in her pink suit, a silk flower on her lapel, her silver hair brushed back from her face. She grabbed my arm and, with drunken breath, whispered, “Who’s the hunk?” before heading inside.
“I’d like to make that toast,” David said. “But there’s something I want to do first. How about a dance?” He nodded toward the floor, packed with gyrating bodies, Mariel and Carter among them.
He wanted to dance. With me. I felt fizzy and light, as if I’d been transfused with champagne. Everything inside me began to whirl. Or maybe it was the patio that was moving. The band started to play “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and I thought about Dad and how he loved that song, especially when Sinatra sang it. It was another one of his favorites. And now it was one of mine.
“Sure,” I said. “I’d love to.”
David smiled, took my hand, and led me into the crowd.