Chapter 23: The Lake

We got married on the last Saturday of April, on the dock at my father's lake house, with the water flat and silver behind us.

I was seven months pregnant with twins, and the dress had been let out twice.

Mara had zipped me into the dress that morning with her tongue between her teeth.

"You're glowing," she said.

"I'm sweating."

"It's the same thing. Don't move."

There were thirty guests on folding chairs.

My father had painted the boathouse himself, a soft sage green, and he had refused to tell anyone why.

I knew why.

He walked me down the dock with my hand in his arm.

He wept the whole way, openly, and told the minister twice that he was fine.

Caleb stood at the end in a charcoal suit, with the lake behind him and his hands clasped in front.

He had cut himself shaving.

There was a tiny scrap of tissue stuck to his jaw, and nobody had told him.

I loved him so much that I almost laughed out loud.

When my father put my hand in his, Caleb whispered, "You came."

"Where else would I go?"

"Anywhere. I'd have followed you."

"Stop it. You'll set me off."

The minister cleared her throat, which is a thing ministers do when two people are being too private in public.

"Lena has written her own vows," she said. "Lena?"

I took out the folded card.

I looked at it, and I looked at him, and I put the card back in my sleeve.

"I'm going to skip the paper," I said.

My father blew his nose.

"Three years ago I asked you to dance, and you said no, and I decided it meant something about me.

"I was wrong. It meant something about you, and it took me three years and two babies to find out what."

A few of the guests laughed through their tears.

"So here is what I promise. I will argue with you about the budget every day for the rest of my life."

"Thank God," Caleb said.

"I will never go easy on you in a meeting."

"Please don't."

"And when you say you'll pass on something, I'll know what you mean, and I'll make you take it anyway."

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