14. Elliott
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ELLIOTT
“Momma.” I brush her hand away from my bow tie, but she just lifts it back. “Momma.” I glare at her and step back. “It’s fine. Can you go out now? The wedding’s about to start.”
“Okay, okay,” she says. “You look so handsome.”
I look at myself in the mirror, and I just got a new pair of glasses. “I can see myself, Momma.”
My brother joins us and links his arm through Momma’s. “Momma,” Brandon says. “It’s time for us to go out.” He looks at me. “You ready, Ell?”
“So ready,” I say.
“I can’t believe you’re getting married before me.” Brandon grins, though, and everyone understands why Ry and I have fast-tracked this wedding.
I want to see her walking down the aisle toward me .
I want to roll over in bed and see her sleeping next to me.
I want to memorize every detail of her face, the way her lips curve when she smiles, the way her eyes light up when she’s happy—because someday, those memories might be all I have left.
Someone knocks on the door, and we all turn toward it. Momma hasn’t left as I asked her to, and she marches smartly over to the tall wooden door and opens it. “Hello,” a man says. “My mother says we’re ready for Elliott.”
I hurry over to the door too, and I crowd in next to my mom. “Hey, Danny. We’re ready.” I shake Ryanne’s brother’s hand, and he smiles at all of us.
“All right, guys,” I say as he turns to go back down the hall. “He’s our cue. Let’s get going.” I take Luna’s leash from Brandon and lead the way out of the groom’s room, but my brother and momma come to my side quickly in the hallway.
We walk without hurry toward the chapel in this grand wedding venue, where the sound of pretty piano music pipes back to me. My pulse increases with every step I take, and I’m actually semi-glad I’m going blind when I reach the doorway that leads to the staircase that goes down to the chapel. Then I won’t be able to see the multitude of people here to witness this wedding.
I tell myself it’ll only take me and Luna, Brandon, and Momma thirty seconds to go down the steps and then the aisle, and then I’ll be in position for Ry .
Her whole family has come from New York, and everyone who works at Paper Trail is here too. The store will be closed for two hours today for our wedding, and we chose Tuesday, since it’s our lightest time of the week.
I manage not to trip down the stairs, and all the work Ryanne, her sisters, and her mother did for the wedding shines back at me. Tall, waist-high pillars stand at the end of every row of chairs, which have been draped in white fabric. Bright pink bows have been tied around the backs of the chairs, and Luna and I pause at the bottom of the steps to wait for the guests to stand, though I’m not the bride.
I try to take in their smiling faces, commit them to memory. I tug down the vest of my tuxedo, look at Luna, and start toward the stained-glass window at the end of the aisle. An arch has been set up there, and it looks like it’s floating above the ground, dripping with flowers in dusty rose, punch pink, and all shades and tints of red in between those.
I make it to the altar, which is a thick podium of stacked reams of paper with a huge, clear bowl holding every type of M&M known to mankind. I hug my mother and my brother, and then we each take a handful of candy and eat it.
They take seats in the front row, and I stand next to the stack of paper and the M&Ms, my eyes trained on the staircase across from me. I don’t even dare blink, because I don’t want to miss a moment of Ryanne walking toward me.
Her father enters the chapel from my right, and he parks himself at the bottom of the steps and looks up them. The arched doorway there remains empty, and that only makes my heart rate continue to climb.
Her mother comes down the aisle, and I grin and grin at her. “Grace,” I whisper as I hug her.
“She’s ready,” she says. “They’re lining up now.”
I nod, swallowing hard as she moves to the end seat on the front row. She hugs my mother too, and my cells might burst with the kindness and love present in this chapel today.
Then, the music changes, and the wedding party starts down the aisle. I clasp my hands in front of me as Ryanne’s siblings and their significant others come first, then each of her roommates, all of the women wearing pale pink dresses and flowers in their hair.
“You look sensational,” Claudia says as she hugs me. She grins as she steps back, the bridesmaids fanning out to the right of the arch and altar-podium.
A collective gasp goes up from the crowd, and I yank my attention back to the stairs. Ryanne stands at the top of them now, absolutely angelic in her wedding gown.
It’s bright white, with a similar bow to the chairs wrapped around her waist. It’s satiny and bright pink, and I grin as wide as I ever have. Because I can see it.
I see her .
She puts one gloved hand delicately on the railing, looks down, and takes the first step toward her father.
Toward me.
Her dress shimmers in the early afternoon sunlight, and I can’t tell if there’s any lace or not. Wide straps go up and over her shoulders, and she wears a crown of pink roses and baby’s breath on her head.
She reaches the bottom of the steps, looks up, and our eyes meet. I lift my hand and cover my heart with it. Ry smiles at me, and nothing will ever be as beautiful as her in that gown, smiling at me with a crown on her head.
She is my queen.
I thought about making my vows out of the things the Mars Rovers have said, but I decided against it.
Ry takes her bouquet from her daddy, then links her arm through his, and they start the march toward me. I memorize every step, every moment the sunlight glints on the gems on her dress, and as she gets closer, I see the bodice is covered in lace, beads, and gems, and I can’t wait to touch it.
She arrives, and I loop one arm around her and hold her right next to me. “Mm, I love you, Kitty-Cat” I whisper.
I feel her smile against my cheek, and we separate as her father takes his spot in the first row. She smiles at me, and she reaches up and brushes her fingers across my forehead, sweeping my hair out of the way.
“I love your new glasses,” she says. “I love you , Elliott.”
Luna barks, and that makes me grin and a chuckle to ripple through the crowd.
“Yes,” Ry says to my guide dog. “And now, it’s time to get married.”