Poughkeepsie (59 page)

Cole kissed her again, just a breath of a kiss, lightly touching her lips. “For today.”

The last kiss was deeper, but still maintained church decorum. It was the intimacy in his gaze that made the guests feel voyeuristic. “For the rest of our lives,” he said softly as he set her back on her feet.

Kyle looked stunned and deliriously teary and happy as she turned to face the crowd, which clapped and whooped. The processional music burst forth, and the organist’s exuberance propelled it through the sour notes. Cole picked Kyle up as soon as they were down the few steps from the altar. The ladies in the crowd sighed and smiled as he carried her down the aisle.

Blake and Livia were next to exit. He took the steps before she could and turned to offer her his hand, like a knight escorting his queen. Livia took Blake’s hand and hugged his offered arm. Bea’s photographer-nephew’s flash blinded them as it captured their moment for all time.

Kyle and Cole’s reception was to be hosted in the community room at the retirement center. The couple multitasked with the slow conga line of seniors heading back home by greeting them as they passed like a receiving line. Kyle got on her tiptoes to search the crowd every few minutes.

“What’s up?” Cole asked. “Are you looking for someone?”

Kyle waved his questions away.

Livia leaned down to her sister. “Beckett?”

Kyle made big eyes and shook her head.

Eventually, Kyle seemed to find what she’d been looking for and became less agitated.

As they drew close to the building Livia was pleased to see Bea in her wheelchair, decked out in a lavender dress and bright rosy blush. A string of pearls completed her fancy look.

“I see your young man has accompanied you today.” Bea accepted Livia’s hug with a gentle pat.

“He has. I’m so glad he gets to meet you.” Livia held Bea’s soft, delicate hand.

“I’ve noticed he always has his body angled toward yours,” Bea reported seriously. “It’s a good sign, my dear. I do believe you’ve found yourself a winner.” She smiled.

Livia leaned back to catch Blake’s eye. As if he heard her heart calling his, he leaned back as well. Livia motioned for him to come over.

“Blake, this is Bea,” she said as he came to her side. “She’s that friend of mine who gives great advice.” Blake touched Livia’s lower back before he took to one knee.

With his eyes sparkling, he turned Bea’s offered hand to kiss it. “Lovely Bea, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Thank you so much for befriending Livia. She speaks very highly of you.”

Bea giggled and swatted at him playfully with the very hand he’d kissed. “What a gentleman. Aren’t you a looker?”

Blake stayed on his knee, giving Bea his full attention.

“I hope you know how rare a girl like Livia is.”

Blake nodded, but said nothing.

“I’ve only met a few souls as crystal clear as hers,” Bea continued. “One of them was my Aaron; we were married for sixty-two years. Souls like that, my boy, are a gift. Cherish her.”

“I will.” Blake stood and gave Bea a formal bow only he could get away with.

Kyle glared at Blake. He jumped and kissed Livia quickly so he could get back into his Kyle-approved position, next to Cole.

A small lady moved on after greeting Livia to address the wedding couple. “Cole Bridge. Look at you!”

Cole’s mouth dropped open. “Mrs. D?” After a shocked pause, he scooped her into a hug. “You’re here?”

“Of course I am, sweetheart. Your wonderful wife delivered the invitation by hand. She insisted it be a surprise.” Mrs. D rubbed Cole’s arm.

Cole turned to Kyle. “Thank you so much. I didn’t know you were going to do this.”

Kyle nodded. “I know how much she means to you,” she said.

Livia smiled, making a mental note to ask Kyle about this later, as the bride turned and held her hand out to Mr. D. He looked like he’d been to a million weddings. Livia suspected Mrs. D was important in a lot of lives.

After greeting each of her guests, Kyle was in for her own surprise. The seniors had been preparing the community room for weeks, and Kyle and Livia both held a hand to their mouths when they saw the intricate decorations.

Nothing was hung very high, but what the residents could reach was touched by love, wisdom, and heart: knit-flower centerpieces, carefully cut paper shapes, and streamers arranged to look like expensive fabric.

The DJ had set up in the corner, and he looked old enough to have started his career by knocking rocks together to entertain dinosaurs, but he was excellent and provided the best oldies in existence. The buffet was served by some of the seniors themselves, their fancy clothes complemented by hairnets.

Cole led Kyle to the center of the room when the DJ announced their wedding dance and Etta James did the honors with “At Last.” When Cole kissed Kyle deeply to show off at the end of their graceful dance, the bride bent one knee and pointed her toe like a smitten cartoon character. The spectators laughed out loud.

Though they spanned an unlikely range of ages, everyone in the crowd was ready for a good time. Kyle twirled endlessly around a mostly stationary Cole, and the older couples schooled their younger counterparts. The seniors seemed to slip from one delicate, complicated set of steps to another, reacting to cues in the music only they understood.

The entire wedding party was adopted by a blue-haired beauty who tried, with varying degrees of success, to teach them some classic moves from the musical past. Blake and Kyle were quick studies. Cole and Livia just shrugged and smiled. Livia watched as Blake sought out Bea for a dance, twirling her chair gently in circles.

Cole tried his best to dance with Mrs. D, but she was much shorter and by far the better dancer. Mostly they rocked back and forth, smiling at each other.

Mrs. D hugged Cole’s middle, hard, and the music cut out just in time for her compliment to carry across the room. “I
knew
you would be a magnificent man.”

When it was time for the father-daughter dance, John politely left Kathy, his date, sitting with Nurse Susan and Dr. Ted. Kyle waited for her father in the center of the floor as the opening notes of Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable” swept through the air. John was not a dancer, but he was determined. He put his arms around his daughter, and Kyle rested her head on his chest.

Halfway through, the DJ suggested others dance as well. Blake swept Livia onto the dancefloor, and she gazed at her sister and father as she basked in his arms.

“Kyle, I love you. I’m always here,” she heard her father murmur as the song came to an end.

Kyle gave her father a kiss on the cheek. “I know. I love you too.”

With the formalities out of the way, the wedding party gathered in the corner with the bride and groom, and Cole grabbed Eve to join them. Beckett’s absence was a looming hole in the joy of the evening, and the friends offered a toast to their absent brother. Eve turned her whole body to gaze at each person in the circle for a moment.

Blake lifted a plastic champagne flute filled with bubbling apple cider. “To Beckett—we wouldn’t be here without him.”

“To Beckett,” the others agreed.

The dull thump of the plastic was unsatisfying, but it would have to suffice.

It was early morning with the sun creeping into view when the room’s harsh fluorescent lights came on. Instead of leaving to collapse in bed, the guests stayed to help clean up. With everyone working together, they had the community room back to its original state and ready for the day’s activities within an hour.

Though Beckett remained confined to the same claustrophobic hotel room that had housed him for weeks now, he’d attended the wedding in every sense but literally.

He dressed for the occasion, and Eve helped him get his bow tie just right before she left, promising once again that her hummingbird pin would send him every detail it could.

Riveted to the live feed from Eve’s transmitter on his hotel room TV, Beckett stood when the congregation stood, and he sat when they sat. And when he noticed that the camera had bounced even lower, Beckett knelt.

As Kyle came fluttering down the aisle in her simple blue dress, Beckett swore aloud in the empty room. “Shit, Fairy Princess, you’re an angel.”

He fought with himself through the entire ceremony—despondent to be separated from his family, but bursting with pride over every single one of them. With no one around to preserve church decorum, he began toasting his sorrows and lining up shots to drown his frustrations about the same time as Cole and Kyle began their vows. By the time they’d reached the reception, he was a rumpled mess on the bed.

But he did see them dance. He laughed out loud remembering when he’d danced with Kyle. She hardly seemed the same person. And Cole needed some
serious
help in the moves department.

“Fuck, brother, you’re making us all look bad!” Beckett shouted at the screen.

Everyone had a glass in their hand at the reception, so Beckett helped himself to a little more. He was just finishing off the bottle when he saw them raise their glasses to him—to
him!
—via Eve’s hummingbird camera. At that moment Beckett was glad he was alone. After joining the toast, his eyes blurry with tears, Beckett threw the bottle against the wall where it shattered spectacularly. This video was testament to exactly how normal his brothers’ lives would be without him.

He lay back on the bed and balled his hands into fists.

Cole shut the bedroom door and gazed at Kyle. His eyes said he’d married his salvation, and Kyle knew what he meant. Two souls in need had finally found resolution with “I do.”

“Wife. You’re the most stunning vision I’ve ever seen. Will you always be mine?” Cole held out his hand as he unbuttoned his shirt.

“Husband, I already promised you that.” She accepted his hand and cuddled into his chest. “I, Kyle McHugh, choose you, Cole Bridge, to be my husband, to respect you in your failures, to care for you in sickness, to nurture you, and to grow with you throughout the seasons of life.”

“Why did you leave out the good parts?” Cole tilted her delicate face toward his.

“It’ll be easy to stand next to you during good times. It’s the bad times, the scary times that are tough. I’ll never leave—no matter what life hands us.” A tear shone on Kyle’s cheek.

Cole wiped it dry with his thumb. “To the bad times then, my divine bride. I pledge my heart to bad times as well.”

He leaned down, changing his hold so he could pull her body into his and deliver a passionate kiss. She buried herself in his chest when they needed to catch their breath.

“I have to ask you something—promise me you’ll be open-minded?” She looked tentative.

He nodded.

“I’ve got some mad skills. Some mad
sex
skills. I want to do stuff to you, without you worrying about me.” She looked at him with one eye closed.

“I can
never
promise to stop worrying about you,” Cole said, smiling. “You’re all I think about. But I’m sure my body is up to this task. Do as you must. I won’t fight you off,” he said with a resolute sigh.

Kyle stepped up and unbuttoned his pants. He put his thumb in her mouth. She smirked around it and swirled her tongue in a circle. Kyle kicked off her heels and switched to her dancer’s toes, en pointe. As she unzipped his pants she kicked her leg up to rest a foot on his shoulder. Cole couldn’t keep his hand from tracing the muscles of her smooth leg. Kyle used the moment to arch into a back bend, carefully dragging her legs over in a display of flexibility. She tucked her knees at the last moment to kneel in front of him.