The Love We Missed novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: Lock the Door

"Tomorrow's good," Ciaran said from the stove.

"Tomorrow is not good," I said. "Tomorrow is Monday."

Nellie looked from him to me with her hands still on her hips.

"Saturday," she said. "Final offer."

Tricia laughed so hard she had to sit on the floor.

We didn't get married that Saturday.

We got married on the third Saturday in May, on my sister's porch, under the swing.

The duplex was still aggressive green.

Tricia had wound white ribbon around both of the swing's chains and refused to let anybody sit on it until after.

There were thirty folding chairs on the sidewalk and the strip of front lawn.

The nurses came straight off nights, with flowers pinned to their scrubs.

Carrot and Broccoli came in real clothes, and nobody recognized them for ten minutes.

The couple with the twins came, and the old woman from Highland Park in her hat.

The man next door with the snowblower brought his own lawn chair and sat in his driveway.

Tricia married us.

She'd gotten ordained online in April and told everybody at the hospital.

She stood at the top of the steps in a navy dress with her reading glasses on her head and a printout in her hand.

"I've waited my whole life to tell a crowd to shut up and listen," she said. "I'm not going to rush it."

"Trish," I said.

"I'm going to rush it a little."

Nellie came up the walk first in her yellow dress and her rain boots.

She'd refused shoes.

She threw the petals in handfuls, very hard, mostly at the nurses.

When the basket was empty, she looked around for where to go.

Patrick was in the back row, on the end, in a gray suit and no watch.

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