Chapter 13 - One Year Later
One year after the canceled wedding, Jessica woke me at six in the morning.
“Get dressed.”
I opened one eye.
“Is someone dying?”
“No.”
“Then leave.”
“Rebecca.”
I pulled the blanket over my head.
She yanked it away.
“Nathan proposed.”
I sat up.
“What?”
She held out her hand.
A ring.
Not the old one.
A simple gold band with a small diamond.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“And you waited until six?”
“I showed restraint.”
I hugged her.
She started crying.
Then I started crying.
Then we accused each other of making the other cry.
The wedding was scheduled for autumn.
Twenty-eight guests.
At the cabin.
Pizza.
Nathan had apparently been serious.
Jessica asked me to stand beside her.
Not as maid of honor.
As her sister.
“I don’t want titles,” she said.
“I want you.”
That nearly broke me.
Mom promised not to control anything.
Nobody believed her.
She managed reasonably well.
Dad built benches.
Claire was invited.
Mercer too.
The morning of the wedding, Jessica found me on the dock.
She wore a simple white dress.
No veil.
No army of bridesmaids.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded.
Then she looked at me.
“I need to say something.”
“You’re marrying the wrong brother?”
She laughed.
Then became serious.
“If you hadn’t survived…”
I waited.
“I don’t think I could have survived knowing what I did.”
I took her hands.
“But I did survive.”
“I know.”
“And you changed.”
“I’m trying.”
“That’s all anyone can do.”
She hugged me.
Behind us, Mom shouted that we were ruining the schedule.
Jessica yelled back, “There is no schedule!”
I laughed so hard I had to sit down.
At sunset, Jessica married Nathan beneath two oak trees.
No reporters.
No federal vehicles.
No emergency.
When Nathan kissed her, Mom cried.
Dad cried.
Jessica cried.
I did not.
Claire leaned toward me.
“You’re crying.”
“Lake water.”
“We’re thirty feet from the lake.”
“Wind.”
“There is no wind.”
“Mind your business.”
She smiled.
For once, happiness felt uncomplicated.
But my own life was about to change too.
Because after the reception, Colonel Mercer handed me an envelope.
Inside was a promotion recommendation.
And beneath it, another document.
May you like
A proposal to build an entirely new recovery-training program.
He wanted me to lead it.
