Epilogue

One year later, Eddi stood in front of a full-length mirror and fretted over the short veil atop her head. “It’s crooked!” she snapped and tugged at the ecru-colored mesh with shaking fingers.

“Here, let me help.” Jenny moved to her side just as their mom and Linda stepped into the bedroom—one of six in Dave’s sprawling home. The poster bed was piled with the clothing Eddi, her sisters, and mother had changed out of. The mother of the bride and Eddi’s sisters were all dressed in satin the color of sage. The muted color complemented Eddi’s tea-length bridal gown and created an appealing fashion scheme for a wedding that had been the talk of the summer.

“I promise, I am a nervous wreck,” Mary worried.

A harpist’s mellifluous notes floated from downstairs as Linda swung the door closed.

Mary perched on the edge of a settee covered in striped polished cotton. “I’ve never seen so much finger food in my whole life!” Her fingers twittered with nothing as she rocked back and forth. “And the caterers are refusing to change the groom’s cake to German chocolate. We had German chocolate at Jenny’s wedding. Has spring been so long gone that they forgot our preferences?”

“Calm down, Mom,” Linda said as she jostled her baby, a rosy-cheeked, four-month-old girl who looked exactly like her mother, except for Rick’s brown eyes.

“Dave requested milk chocolate frosting because he hates coconut,” Jenny explained for the sixth time.

Eddi tugged a strip of bangs back into place as Jenny removed the veil’s comb and reinserted it into her hair.

“Whoever heard of a groom who doesn’t like coconut?” Mary stood. She paced to the end of the cherrywood bed, toward the matching dresser, and back again. “If it weren’t for the fact that Dave somehow got those stingy Boswicks to sell us our house, and everything he did for Linda, and that national ministry he has, I would say he was too odd for you to marry, Eddi!” She paused behind her daughter and peered around her into the mirror.

The bride focused on her veil and tried not to let her mother’s nerves get on her nerves. Mary Boswick had yet to completely recover from her first impression of Dave.

“Oh, I almost can’t stand this!” Mary exclaimed. “My third daughter to get married in a year! It’s too much for my poor nerves.”

“There!” Jenny said as she put the final touch to Eddi’s veil. “You’re set now.”

Eddi gazed at her image in the mirror. The lace-trimmed dress and simple pearls made her skin and hair come alive. She hoped Dave appreciated all the work. With a smile, she turned and gazed at herself from a side angle. Upon Dave’s insistent determination to shower her in chocolates and fine dining, she had gained ten pounds in the last year. The last time Eddi fussed over the pounds, Dave proclaimed he liked a size twelve much better than a ten.

Mrs. Boswick rested her hands on Eddi’s shoulders and sniffled. “You look nearly as pretty as Jenny and Linda,” she quivered out.

“Thanks, Mom,” Eddi said with a wry grin.

“I just don’t know how you got so grown up like this,” Mary continued.

In a rare moment of mother-daughter bonding, Eddi wrapped her arms around her mom and held her close. The smell of her Chanel No 5 perfume reminded Eddi of a childhood laced with the same fragrance.

“It’s all going to be okay,” Eddi whispered as the two parted. “The wedding will be over before you know it.”

“I just don’t know how to act. Jenny’s wedding was in a church. Who ever heard of having a wedding way out in the boondocks like this?” Mary complained. She waved her hand as if Dave’s estate were a shack.

Eddi released her mother and was exasperated at having to explain her and Dave’s choice all over again. After their encore performance the play’s first night, Eddi and Dave had become the town’s hot item. Never did Eddi expect the community to take such ownership in their romance. For weeks, everyone from Dina to the corner grocer had insisted upon a wedding invitation. Finally, she and Dave decided to limit the guests to their family and the theater’s cast, along with a few close friends. Otherwise, they would have had five thousand guests with no church in town big enough to hold them.

“Mom,” Eddi said, “Dave and I decided we’d be better off here because everyone would assume it was a small wedding, and we wouldn’t have to invite the whole town.”

“A small wedding!” Mary exclaimed. “There are a hundred people out there!” She pointed toward the door. “I don’t see what it would have hurt to open up a church and add a few more guests to the list.”

Baby Nicole whimpered. Mary turned to Linda, who scrounged through her diaper bag for a bottle with one hand while clutching Nicole with the other. “Oh, are you hungry, baby?” Mary crooned and stroked the infant’s cheeks. “Well, we’re all hungry, and there won’t be any German chocolate for any of us.”

“She’s driving me crazy,” Eddi mumbled under her breath.

“Okay, okay,” Jenny responded. “I’ll take her down so she can drive Dad crazy.”

“Just don’t let her throw any tomatoes at him, okay?” Eddi whispered.

Jenny winked and looped her index finger and thumb into an okay sign. Her one-carat solitaire sparkled on her ring finger. Eddi was certain her mother would proclaim the superiority of Jenny’s engagement and wedding for the rest of her life. Eddi eyed the modest ruby on her own ring finger. The ring had been Dave’s mother’s. When he quietly asked if Eddi would like to wear it for her engagement ring, she had been thrilled. She understood the ring meant far more to Dave than the four-carat rock her mother had suggested.

Mary had detested the ruby from the very first time Eddi showed it to her. She had ungraciously asked, “If he’s so rich, why can’t he buy you something better than that dinky ol’ thing?”

Eddi sighed and glanced at Jenny, who tugged on her mother’s arm. “Mom,” she said, “Eddi’s ready. You and I should go on down and wait in the recreation room with Calvin and Dad and the minister.”

The doorknob rattled and Edward Boswick’s voice floated through a hairline opening. “Is it safe to come in?” he asked.

“Yes, Dad!” Eddi called.

Edward, dressed in a dark suit, stepped inside and glanced around the room. “All the Boswick women together in one place. What a lucky man am I,” he teased and closed the door behind him.

“Oh, stop it!” Mary slapped at his arm.

He ignored her and stepped toward his daughter. Without a word, he pulled Eddi close for a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you,” Edward rumbled, and Eddi thought she detected an unexpected dash of emotion in his voice.

When they parted, Eddi blinked against her stinging eyes. “Oh, Dad,” she said. “Thanks.”

“You’ve chosen a man better for yourself than I ever could have.” He lowered his voice and continued, “If you weren’t my daughter, I’d envy what the two of you have.” Edward touched her veil. “How did you get to be all grown up?” he asked.

Eddi gripped his arm. “Go on with Mom,” she squeaked. “You’re going to make me cry and that won’t do.”

“Okay, okay.” Edward dabbed at his eyes with his handkerchief and raised his voice. “I’ll go with your mother and her nerves. They and I have become such good friends through the years, you know.”

“Oh, stop it!” Mary demanded from the door. “Come on, now. Calvin’s waiting on us!”

After patting Eddi’s back, Edward followed his wife and eldest daughter from the room. Before closing the door, he gave Eddi the thumbs-up sign. She returned the gesture as her mother’s voice seeped back through the doorway. “I believe I love Calvin almost as much as you, Edward. I declare . . .” The closing door cut off the rest of her words.

The favorite son-in-law, Eddi thought. At least Mom’s favorite, she added and recalled the summer trout fishing expedition that had bonded her father and Dave.

Baby Nicole released a shriek that demanded something be done about her empty stomach. “Oh no!” Linda bleated as she tried to convince Nicole to take the bottle. “She won’t have it. I was afraid of this.” She lifted the bottle from the baby’s face. “This is what I get for breast feeding.”

“Here, let me have her,” Eddi offered.

“You can’t help her!” Linda huffed.

“I know, I know,” Eddi agreed and reached for the baby. “But I can keep her occupied while you get ready for her.”

“Okay, thanks.” Linda released her baby to Eddi’s arms and began to wrestle with her dress zipper. “I’m just glad this is happening now and not in thirty minutes—in the middle of your wedding vows.”

Eddi half listened to her sister, who had turned into “mother superior” once Nicole arrived. The whole family had watched in amazement as motherhood blossomed Linda into a level of maturity she hadn’t demonstrated before. Eddi cooed at the baby and ran her index finger across her cheek. For the thousandth time, she thanked God that her soon-to-be-husband had interfered in Linda and Rick’s lives. While Rick wasn’t the perfect husband, he, too, had undergone a metamorphosis once Nicole arrived. The diminutive creature in Eddi’s arms had somehow done what no other female could. She had wrapped Rick Wallace around her tiny fingers, and there he remained tightly affixed. Much to Eddi’s surprise, there were no signs of Rick’s committing adultery or abusing Linda. According to Dave, he had even stopped smoking pot for good and was attending church of his own free will.

A firm knock sounded on the door. “Linda!” Rick’s concerned call mingled with Nicole’s new cry.

Eddi strode to the door, bent, and twisted the knob while holding tight to her bundle. “She’s in here.”

“I was in the hall and heard Nicole cry,” Rick said, his brown eyes full of fatherly concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, she’s just hungry.” Linda stopped struggling with her dress. “Could you help me here?”

“Sure,” he said before reaching for his daughter.

Eddi extended the child to Rick. “Here you are,” she said. “I’m ready to go down anyway. I’ll just leave you two with your problems,” she said through a smile.

“Don’t laugh at me, Eddi,” Linda demanded. “You’ll be doing this sooner than you know.”

“Who’s laughing?” Eddi blew a kiss to Linda. “I think it’s all great.” She reached for her bouquet in the wingback chair beside the door, stepped into the hallway, and clicked the door closed.

When she looked up, Eddi stared straight into the eyes of her fiancé. Compulsively, she raised the bouquet in front of her face and gasped. “What are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to see me before the wedding!”

Dave laughed. “It’s my house, remember? You aren’t supposed to be out here in the hallway.”

Eddi lowered the bouquet and peered at Dave over fresh roses, whose fragrance reminded her of Mrs. DeBloom.

“Did your aunt come?” Eddi asked and glanced toward the stairway. As of last month, Mrs. DeBloom was still praying that Dave would repent and marry Brittney O’Reilly.

“Yep. She’s here,” Dave said with a proud nod. “I told you she’d come around.”

With a sigh, Eddi relaxed. “I’m so glad. I don’t like her disapproving of me.”

“She’s got a heart of gold, really, Eddi,” Dave claimed. “She just doesn’t always show it.”

You got that right! Eddi thought but held her tongue.

“Brittney is here, too,” Dave said, “with her parents. She brought a friend of the masculine variety.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“Oh, good,” Eddi breathed. “I was wondering how I was going to stand her hanging all over my new husband at the reception.”

“I wouldn’t have allowed it,” Dave growled and wrapped his arm around Eddi’s waist. “You’re the only woman I want hanging on to me.”

Eddi’s heart warmed. Dave looked better than ever, all dressed up in his black tuxedo and cream-colored shirt.

“You look so good,” she breathed.

“Hmmm.” Dave adored her with his eyes. “And you look scrumptious, Mrs. Davidson,” he said.

“I’m not a Mrs. yet,” she said over a giggle.

“No, but we’re really close,” Dave purred into her ear. “So close I can almost taste it.” He playfully nipped her ear, and Eddi released a faint squeal.

“Stop it!” She shoved at his chest. “You’re going to mess up my hair and tilt my veil!”

“That’s the whole point,” he teased.

Breathless, Eddi gazed into his eyes as the harpist’s music crescendoed into a classic love ballad.

“You’re so beautiful,” Dave whispered. “I can’t believe you’re almost mine.”

“Oh, Dave,” Eddi complained, “I’m not half as beautiful as some of the women you could have had.”

“Like who?” he challenged. “Name one.”

“Laura Schock.” Eddi pronounced the name without one trace of affection.

“Ah, but my dear,” Dave crooned, “you’ve got something no other woman has ever had—not even Laura Schock.”

“And what might that be?” Eddi asked.

“Me,” he said and pressed his lips against hers in a promise of things to come.