Chapter 16: The Toast

Melinda's POV

The rehearsal dinner was on Friday, in the glass dining room at Sunstone Ridge.

Forty people sat at one long table with the red cliffs going orange behind them.

My mother sat at the middle with a glass of water she hadn't touched.

Shea sat across from her in a white dress that was not quite a wedding dress.

Her phone was propped against the bread basket.

Jared sat at the head of the table, and he kept his eyes on his plate.

He had not looked at me once since the night at the gate.

Lorna sat on my left, and Wyatt sat on my right in a clean shirt.

Under the tablecloth his knee pressed against mine and stayed there.

I let it keep me steady.

"Toasts!" Shea said, and tapped her glass with a fork. "Mel, you first. You're the bride."

She smiled at me, and her phone's red light smiled with her.

I stood.

I had practiced it in the shower, and in Wyatt's truck, and once into the dog's face.

"Thank you all for coming," I said. "Some of you flew a long way, and I know it was a lot to ask."

A few of the school parents smiled back at me.

"I want to toast my sister Shea."

Shea put her hand over her heart.

"Shea has filmed me since I was eleven years old," I said.

"My birthdays, my graduation, my engagement. Nothing in my life has happened without her camera there."

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