How to Tame a Silver Fox novel · Chapter 25 of 32

Chapter 25: Vows

Two hundred white chairs stood in rows on the river lawn, and every one of them was full.

A string quartet played something slow beneath the copper beech, and the arch at the water's edge was wound with white roses.

I sat in the front row on the bride's side, because nobody had told me not to.

Arlen sat on my left in the charcoal suit with his hands on his knees.

Junie stood at the back by the sound table with her brother, holding her phone.

My father waited under the arch, with the white-haired director beside him as his best man and a county judge in black at the center.

He looked magnificent and old.

Sabrina came down the aisle alone.

Her mother had stayed in her chair in the front row, with her handbag on her lap, and did not rise.

So the bride walked the white carpet in a fitted gown and a long veil, with her chin high.

Two hundred people watched a woman do something very brave and unwise.

She reached the arch.

My father took her hand.

The judge opened a leather book.

"We are gathered," he said, in a voice like a closing door.

I did not hear the next two minutes.

I heard my own pulse and the lake lapping the stones below.

Arlen's knee pressed mine.

"If any person here knows just cause why these two should not be joined," the judge said, "let them speak now."

Somebody's baby fussed in the back.

I stood up.

My chair scraped the flagstone, and two hundred heads swiveled.

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