“Pat, we need you.” Mari emerges from the crowd, grabbing my hand with urgency.
“Is Jo okay? Lindy?”
“They’re fine, necio. Don’t worry your pretty face about it. Right over … here.”
She leads me to the gazebo, where Judge Judie is standing at the top of the steps, back in her official robes. Suddenly, all the lights go out.
There’s a collective groan, whispered questions, and then, a light. It starts with the judge, who has a large candlestick, now lit. She touches the wick of Lynn Louise’s candle to her right, then Kitty’s on her left.
“What’s happening?”
“Shh!” Mari says. “Just watch.”
I couldn’t stop if I tried. The whole town, it seems, has candles and is passing the light from person to person until the whole square is bathed in warm, flickering light. It’s beautiful, but it’s a moment I should be appreciating with Lindy and Jo.
As if reading my thoughts, Mari says, “They’re here. Go on, up you go.”
She gives me a nudge that’s more like a shove toward the gazebo steps. Judge Judie rolls her eyes and waves me up. “Hurry it up, then. We don’t have all night.”
I climb the steps, glancing around as I do so, seeing the faces of just about every person I know and love—and some I know and tolerate—holding up candles. But where are Jo and Lindy?
Judge Judie grabs my arm and wrangles me into place on the step just below her. “Open your eyes, boy.”
She turns my head toward the sidewalk and … OH. There are Lindy and Jo, at the end of the sidewalk, hand in hand. But they’ve both changed, and this is what finally clues me in to what’s happening here.
Lindy is wearing a white dress. A WEDDING dress. Shorter in the front, showing off her legs and cowboy boots, but with a long train in the back. It’s covered in crystal beading, and as they walk toward me, she shimmers in the glowing candlelight, a beautiful, ethereal dream.
I can’t speak. I can’t move. I don’t even breathe until they reach me.
I’m probably supposed to wait, but I can’t. When they’re at the bottom of the steps, I leap down, taking Lindy’s free hand.
“You are so beautiful,” I whisper. “Lindy, what is this?”
“It’s the wedding you wanted,” she says. “Technically, a vow renewal, but whatever. Who has time to worry about technicalities?”
“Not me.”
“I know you said you didn’t need a grand gesture, but I wanted to give one anyway.”
Oh, the irony. She’s got her own grand gesture coming her way at the end of this party, and I love that we’ve both been unknowingly grand gesturing the other. I didn’t need a ceremony, or a big thing. But I absolutely love that Lindy planned this for me.
Judge Judie clears her throat. “Can we get this show on the road? These candles aren’t going to last forever. Who gives this woman to be wed?”
Jo lifts her chin, and I get a glimpse of the strong, brilliant woman she will one day become. “I give my mama to marry my daddy.”
At her words, both Lindy and I suck in a breath. Jo gives us a mischievous grin. “I didn’t check with you about the new names,” she whispers, “but I’ve learned it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.”
She definitely learned that from me, and Lindy will give me an earful later. For now, we’re both still caught on her words.
“It’s official now,” Jo continues. “But even without a piece of paper declaring it, I want to call you what you are—my mom and dad.”