“I know we should be heading to the main house soon because they want to board up the cabins,” said Ben, “but it’s so incredible to watch the storm.”

The view from the Black Walnut cabin of Hurricane Camilla blowing in to Matthew’s Island was unsurpassed, but the storm was growing more violent. Though they missed him, Ben and Lisa were glad Max was safe visiting Ben’s parents for the weekend far inland.

“I know I should be getting over there to see if Maggie needs any help,” said Lisa. “But it is kind of hard to look away. Once we go over to the main house, if the storm gets too bad we don’t know when we’ll be able to make it back over here.” They had packed an overnight bag of essentials.

The sky was dark, and the fire in their fireplace was cozy. The sound of the wind whistling outside was broken once in a while by the sound of a breaking branch.

One whole wall of the cottage was made of windows facing the Talbot River. It was far too stormy to stand on the screened porch facing the bay. Lisa and Ben each had a glass of wine and were sitting on the couch in front of the fire. They were reluctant to leave their cozy island sanctuary for the hustle and bustle of the scene in the main inn.

Ben turned to face her. “I guess we better go get our fine wedding outfits on,” he said. Placing his wine glass down, he took her face in his hands. “But first…”

He gently kissed her.

She returned the kiss. Outside, the thunder rolled. The only light besides their fire was the occasional lightning strike. Lisa lit candles for their coffee table—the power was already flickering in and out and they had been warned about power outages on the island.

“I don’t really even know if it’s safe for us to walk over to the main house,” Lisa said playfully, with a smile.

“You know what?” said Ben. “You’re right. These are the early stages of a hurricane. Maybe we should stay here for safety’s sake. We can’t take any chances. Hurricane Camilla is a dangerous storm. We should seek shelter.”

He stood, taking her hand. She stood in turn, following him to the bedroom. They didn’t have much time, but the setting was so romantic—the howling wind, the crashing thunder, and the bursts of lightning in the sky.

She paused, gesturing toward the bathroom. She hadn’t been prepared for this and did not have her diaphragm in. He knew why she stopped, but he pulled her toward him, wrapping her into his arms with a deep, searching kiss as the rain pounded the window beside them.

“This could be the end of the world,” Ben said to Lisa. “Don’t you think we should try to do our part in continuing the species?” He smiled at her, once again revealing the dimple that had been the very reason she’d fallen in love with him the first day he walked into her bakery to become the graphic designer for her new logo.

Lisa looked at him. This was serious territory. He knew she’d wanted a baby more than anything, for years. Hadn’t been able to get pregnant with her first husband and had a miscarriage when she finally did. She wanted more than anything to be a mother. But her first thought was Max. He read her mind.

“Don’t you think he’d be a great big brother?” Ben asked.

“Of course I do,” said Lisa, kissing him, fighting back the emotion she felt swell to her heart.

He used his fingertips to graze across her breastbone and over her small, firm breasts. She wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him closer, trying to fight off thoughts of being late for Maggie’s wedding. Maggie will understand, she thought, smiling to herself.

Ben and Lisa made love with the great symphony of a storm as the backdrop. Their bodies met one another in time with the rhythms of the waves and the winds and the rain and the thunder, with the lighting of the changing gray skies and the great white lightning bolts.

As they lay together, holding one another, the driving rain pounding against the window, they made each other feel safe from the storm. Ben reached over to the small bedside table and took a small object from the drawer.

“I’ve loved you from the first moment I laid eyes on you,” Ben told her, slipping a breathtaking, emerald-cut, platinum-set diamond onto her left ring finger, just as a huge bolt of lightning struck outside over the river, lighting up their room. She looked at him, his face lit with happiness. “Marry me.”

“Oh, Ben. I will love you forever,” said Lisa. “Nothing would make me happier than to be your wife. You have made me so happy already. Yes. Yes!”

“You’re going to be an amazing mother,” said Ben.

“I can’t wait,” said Lisa. “For our little family.”

 

 

Hurricane Camilla raged on in full force. Most of the wedding guests were trapped on the other side of the island at Matthew’s Island Inn, unable to take the shuttle to Sharps Island Inn because the winds and the rains were too severe to even drive the three short miles across the island. Some had been evacuated. The road was flooded, and you couldn’t see out a car window to make the short trip anyway.

The ceremony was supposed to have been outside on the lawn, with the reception in an enormous tent. The tent company had never made it anywhere near the island, turning back when the weather had become too bad. Maggie counted her blessings. The people closest to her, her husband-to-be (and former husband, if you were keeping track), her daughters, and best friends were all with her under this one roof. Yes, there were many others—distant relatives, business associates, and other friends from town who hadn’t even made it through the storm far enough to get to the island and she prayed for their safety as well, but her world was here with her and it was all that mattered.

The guests had gathered in the sunroom of Sharps Island Inn, watching the lightning tear across the sky, the trees practically bent in half from the howling wind, and the waves crash over the tops of the high coastline. Dave and Maggie, Lisa and Ben were there, and Wes and Alfie, Eva and Nathan, Zarina and Stanley, and Jo and Kevin, who was more or less serving as Jo’s date and had also volunteered to be the photographer since the original photographer hadn’t been able to make it to the island.

They’d been spending their time in a nearby safer inside room, but knew this would be their last chance to see outside for a while.

“Enjoy your view for a few more minutes!” said Ron. “Nature is gorgeous when she’s pissed but we can’t let Camilla blow out the forty-six windows in this room.” Ron and Dale helped as several of their staff prepared to board up the glass windows.

“Wait,” said Dale. “Is there something we’d like to do first?” Having many years earlier become a reverend in order to perform ceremonies at the inn, Dale proposed that a brief wedding ceremony now be performed.

“I love the idea,” said Maggie. “Let’s get married in the middle of a hurricane, before it all goes to hell!”

“Why not?!” Dave agreed.

“Can you give me five minutes to change?” Maggie asked Ron.

“Well, that certainly will be a bridal record!” said Ron. “OK—off you go!”

Maggie and her daughters, Lilith and Erica, dashed up to the Patricia Bridal Suite (it was the inn’s largest, with a sitting room where she could watch the bay if someone hadn’t boarded up the windows already). Lilith and Erica changed in moments into the plain silk blush-colored dresses, chosen together at Maggie’s shop, that had once been bridesmaids dresses from a wedding from a decade before. The dresses had only needed minor alterations, were inexpensive, and didn’t look out of style.

The young women quickly helped their mother into her dress.

“Mom, you look gorgeous,” said Erica, zipping the vintage thirties gown, seeing her mother’s reflection in the vintage standing oval mirror.

“Thank you, honey,” said Maggie.

“Oh, Mom, this is so exciting,” said Lilith. “We’re so happy for you and Dad.”

“We have something for you,” said Erica. She motioned to her sister, who handed her a ring box.

“We had them restored,” said Lilith, handing the box to Maggie. “We thought you might like to have them back.”

Maggie opened the jeweler’s box. Inside were her original wedding rings, the 18k gold half-carat round diamond and plain gold band. They’d been soldered into one ring and appeared as new as the day she’d received them, nearly thirty years before.

The rings brought back so many memories and emotions for Maggie, who struggled not to cry in front of her grown daughters. She took the rings, now one, from the box, and placed them on her right hand. She wore her new Tiffany diamond on her left hand and would receive its match at the ceremony today, but now she had the keepsake of all the memories from their years together raising their girls. This simpler piece of jewelry was a beautiful reminder of their family’s early years together. She hugged her girls.

“Thank you, girls,” said Maggie. “You both make me so proud and I love you both so much. I’m happy to wear this ring as a reminder of all the wonderful years raising you.”

She wiped away the tears that had brimmed at the corners of her eyes.

“Now you’re going to have to get me downstairs to this wedding before Hurricane Camilla rips this place apart,” said Maggie.

“We love you too, Mom,” said Erica.

“Glad you like the ring, Mom,” said Lilith. “Now we have to get this vintage fascinator on your head. Sit down for a sec!”

“I will fix up her makeup,” said Erica, “while you do the bobby pins. We have a few minutes before we need to get down there.”

“Nobody is going to start without the bride!” said Lilith.

“Well, you got that right!” said Maggie.

Downstairs, Ron tried to arrange the guests in anticipation of the bride’s arrival.

“Let’s all gather around the happy couple and make it quick!” said Ron, a bit worried about the safety of the guests in the glass room. “Thank heavens the dining room doesn’t have very many windows, and also that we have a gas stove—so Chef Herman and his staff are in there right now making a fantastic feast for us to eat after this!”

Dave stood at the front of the room, next to Dale, who stood at a small podium and would perform the brief ceremony.

“The Lord will protect us here,” said Dale, “and give us his blessings in this storm.”

As the words left his mouth, the power suddenly went out. The island lost power even in a regular rainstorm, so Ron and Dale were ready with candles and soon the large windowsill around the perimeter of the room was aglow with light, enhanced by regular bolts of lightning from the storm outside.

“Very dramatic,” said Eva. She ran a hand along the edge of her belly, ignoring the pains she swore she was feeling there. She’d been having contractions on and off all day but she’d had false labor pains for a week. This was no time for a trip to the hospital. Besides, she’d been to the doctor three days before and he’d told her she was zero percent dilated. She was nearly two weeks from her due date. She’d just been standing too long, that was all.

“I’ll say it’s dramatic,” said Jo. “Are you feeling OK, Eva? You look a little tired. Do you want to sit?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” said Eva, smiling. “The baby is just a little heavy, that’s all.” Nathan stood behind her so she could lean against him.

Thunder rolled outside and a large branch could be heard cracking and falling from a tree. Lisa and Ben looked at each other, concerned.

“Oh, found it!” Ron declared. “I never thought I would.” He turned on a battery-powered CD player, and miraculously was able to play the opening strains of the wedding march.

Lilith and Erica had entered the room, each carrying a single rose. Maggie had insisted on very few flowers. She came down the steps of the Victorian inn carrying six blush-colored roses tied loosely with a vintage ribbon. The flowers didn’t take away from her elaborately beaded 1930s headpiece set against her red curls, and her beautifully simple ivory flapper wedding gown. Smiling, she handed her flowers to the beaming Wes and took Dave’s hand. Their daughters joined them on either side. Dale invited the other guests to have a seat in the comfortable chairs around the room.

Dale read from his vintage minister’s book, used for dozens of weddings at the inn.

“Love is patient and kind; Love is not jealous or boastful;

Love is not arrogant or rude; Love does not insist on its own way;

Love does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices with the right.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.”

Dale then read, “Learning to love one other and to live together in harmony is one of the greatest challenges of marriage, but you have shown that you can do that in the past and now you will do that once again, and through the end of time. Dave and Maggie, I charge you both as you stand in the presence of your loved ones and family and the Almighty Spirit to remember that love alone is the foundation of a happy and enduring marriage, and from this day forward your lives together will be full of joy and peace.”

“Please join hands and look into each other’s eyes,” continued Dale. “Do you, Dave, promise to live together with Maggie in marriage; to be her one true love, to comfort her and encourage her, to laugh with her and dream with her, and to care for her and grow old with her until the end of your days?”

“I do,” said Dave.

“And do you, Maggie,” asked Dale, “promise to live together with Dave in marriage; to be his one true love, to comfort him and encourage him, to laugh with him and dream with him, and to care for him and grow old with him until the end of your days?

“I do,” said Maggie.

“Are there rings?” asked Dale.

Lilith and Erica each opened a ring box and presented the boxes to Dale.

“May these rings before us,” said Dale, “always bring you love and happiness. These rings are symbols of eternity and the unbroken circle of love. Love freely given has no beginning and no end. Today you have chosen to exchange rings as a sign of your love for each other, and as a seal of the promises you make this day. We ask the almighty to bless these rings and the union of your souls.”

Dale continued, “Dave and Maggie, as you place these rings on one another, so does your love encircle your hearts. May these rings forever symbolize your growing love for one another. Repeat after me to one another at the same time: ‘With this ring, I give you my heart. From now through forever, your heart is my home, and you will never walk alone.’”

Dave and Maggie looked into each other eyes and declared, “With this ring, I give you my heart. From now through forever, your heart is my home, and you will never walk alone.”

Dave leaned down to kiss Maggie as everyone began to clap.

“Well, I was going to say that you may now kiss the…” Dale jokingly began.

“Aaahhhh!” screamed Eva.

She doubled over in pain. Her water had broken. She panted heavily as the contraction passed.

“I’m so sorry, Maggie,” said Eva. “I tried to wait until the—”

“Oh my God, Eva, you don’t need to apologize for having a baby during my wedding,” said Maggie, “especially during a hurricane on Labor Day!”

“Holy shit,” said Nathan, whose face had lost all color. “We need to get you to the hosp…”

“We can’t get anywhere,” said Ron. “Our road is out.”

“Your road?” asked Lisa. “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t say anything about it because I didn’t want to upset anyone earlier, but in storms like this…” Ron began.

“We can’t leave the inn,” Dale completed his sentence.

“We have to get her out of here!” yelled Nathan.