33. Teddy
TEDDY FINISHED STUFFING FIFTY WEDDING FAVORS WITH foil-wrapped chocolates, taffy, and fudge. She expected Jack any minute. After they fetched Brooke, they headed to the library to decorate for Dot and Pete’s wedding.
The familiar rumble of a truck and the crunching of gravel announced Jack’s arrival. She stepped outside.
“Hey, beautiful.” Jack wore his signature grin. He put his huge hands around her waist, lifted her until her legs dangled, and spun her around. “Did you miss me?”
She checked the time on her cell phone. “Since last night? The hours have been unbearable.”
“Very funny. I want you to know that plenty of women out there would love my company.”
“I want names.” She grabbed a scrap of paper and a pencil. “I won’t have it. I’m mean when I’m jealous.”
Jack eyeballed the boxes on the floor and the counter. “Are we decorating for a wedding or a state-wide Shriner’s convention?”
“Just load the boxes.”
When they reached Dot’s house, Brooke ran outside. “I thought you weren’t coming.”
“Are we late?” Jack asked.
Teddy confirmed the time. “It’s 7:01. We are one minute late.”
“My apologies,” Jack said.
Brooke gave him a friendly punch. He grabbed his stomach and buckled over. “That’s assault.”
Jack loaded several more cartons of decorations complaining good-naturedly the whole time. Ten minutes later, he unloaded the same boxes at the library.
The library had one medium-sized room where they held town hall meetings. Twenty round tables each seating eight filled the area in front of a rectangular table for the bridal party. Teddy, Jack, Brooke, Barb, and Walt would be seated at the head table with Dot and Pete.
Teddy enlisted Jack to help her hang LED organza curtains on the wall behind the bridal party table. Brooke dressed the tables with a gold candle in a wreath of autumn leaves and gourds and added pumpkin-colored silk bags filled with Teddy’s artisan candies.
At the head table, she and Brooke added a spray-painted tree. On its branches, they hung heart-shaped gold ornaments engraved simply with Dot and Pete. Teddy left the date off the hearts not knowing exactly when their love affair had begun.
By nine o’clock, Dot arrived. “Wait a minute.” Teddy turned to Dot. “Close your eyes.”
Jack dimmed the overhead lights and turned on the organza curtain lights. “Okay, now open them.”
“Wow!” Dot’s face lit up with a broad smile. “How did you do it?”
“Do you like it?” Brooke clenched one of her mother’s arms and guided her past the round tables to the head table.
Dot hugged Brooke. “I love it.”
Next stop. Get Dot to the church on time. Convincing Dot to take the day off from the restaurant hadn’t been easy, even for her own wedding.
At the church, Dot finished dressing in a small anteroom behind the sanctuary. With her short blond hair styled in a bouncy bob and makeup to accent her peach-colored dress, Dot gave the impression of polished television personality. But she paced the small anteroom like a caged cheetah.
“What if he doesn’t come?”
She showed Dot a text from Jack: The subject is in custody.
Jack included a thumbs-up emoji and tiny church emoji for added affect.
Someone tapped on the door. Teddy opened it.
The priest, Father Phil, said, “Are we ready?”
Dot nodded. She hugged Brooke whose eyes were moist. “Don’t make me cry. You’ll ruin my makeup.”
The church filled with the sound of “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. Teddy walked down the aisle first, feeling almost like a bride herself.
Jack winked at her and mouthed, “Looking good.”
Jack and Walt stood in front of the altar with Pete, who had borrowed a suit for the occasion. Jack wore a crisp white shirt, his signature creased Lee jeans, and cowboy boots. In his long white Guayabera shirt, black pants, and black Vans, Walt added some beach flair to the wedding party.
As for Pete, his smile lit up his face as he watched Brooke walk down the aisle. Brooke played the role of both flower girl and maid-of-honor because she had always wanted to be a flower girl. She tossed peach rose petals as she made her way down the aisle.
Finally, Dot entered. Pete placed a hand on his heart. Teddy’d been holding her breath and exhaled with a long sigh.
Pete took Dot’s hand, and they offered a tiny bow to the wedding guests before turning to the priest. When the time came to give the bride away, Brooke stepped forward and said, “The guests here today and I do.”
Teddy couldn’t help but think about what her own wedding might be like as she listened to the priest, “Send thy blessing upon these thy servants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in thy name; that they, living faithfully together, may surely perform and keep the vow . . .” The words poured over her like a warm wave. She wanted a perfect love, and maybe that dream was within her grasp.
“You may kiss the bride,” the priest said.
“On Top of the World” played from the speakers as Pete and Dot danced down the aisle. They motioned for Jack and Teddy to dance as well. Skipping and twirling, Brooke and Walt followed them. By the end of the song, everyone in the pews clapped and sang along.
When the song ended, an acolyte rang the church bell. Dot and Pete held hands and listened as the bell rang out over Bird Isle announcing their marriage.
Also holding hands, Teddy and Jack walked over to the library where Jack had parked his truck. She tried to read the expression on his face, no smile, his jaw set. A picture of Jack flashed in her mind. He waited at the altar in a tuxedo. Angela walked down the aisle in a designer gown with a long, flowing train. Teddy swatted her cheek. Get a grip. Be here now.
After a few steps, Jack stopped and turned around, as if he just now noticed she lagged behind. “Do you know what you’re going to say?”
“What?”
“For the wedding toast.”
Teddy laughed to herself. While Jack worried about the wedding toast, Teddy imagined him thinking about his own wedding. She needed to learn to trust him. Meanwhile, she’d completely forgotten about the wedding toasts. “I hadn’t even thought about it. But you are the best man.”
“I need a joke.” Jack’s face brightened. “Maybe something about how long Pete took to ask her to marry him. Like this: I’m not saying that Pete is a procrastinator, but he waited for his daughter to turn sixteen before popping the question.”
“Ba-dum-bump.” She frowned.
“How about this? Pete was so worried he’d be late for the wedding that he scheduled the date sixteen years in advance.”
She chuckled. Kinda funny. “I like that. You’re going to be fabulous. A regular stand-up comic.”
“You don’t think Dot and Brooke will be offended?”
“I don’t. Their story is not any secret.”
Inside the library, delicious homemade dishes covered the table. Dot had cooked for Bird Isle for so many years, everyone jumped at the opportunity to cook for her.
Jack stepped out to his truck to get his briskets. Teddy helped arrange the food with salads and fruit at one end and desserts at the other. Three kinds of deviled eggs—jalape?o, bacon, and shrimp—and salads of every variety: spinach, potato, coleslaw, fruit, Greek, crab, broccoli, and macaroni. She made a note to try the tamale casserole, which smelled of cumin and chile, but the other steaming casseroles—green bean, tator tot, King Ranch chicken, lasagna, shepherd’s pie, tuna, and turkey tetrazzini—tempted her as well.
For dessert, instead of a wedding cake, Dot had chosen a cupcake tree with red velvet, yellow, and chocolate cupcakes. Peach, apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies finished the choices.
“Peace be with you,” the priest said. The Episcopalians in the group knew that meant: be quiet, we are about to pray.
Father Phil blessed the food, and the bride and groom filled their plates by taking portions of everything so as not to offend.
When the time came for the toasts, Jack stood and raised his glass. “Aristotle said, ‘We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths, in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs.’ Today’s event will be ingrained in my memory forever. I’ve come to love you people. All of you live in deeds not years. In Bird Isle, the heart beats freer and stronger. Time and health are two precious assets. I know my friend Pete has a new respect for both. He learned it’s never too late for second chances, or even third, fourth, and fifth chances. He had the courage, faith, and hope to do what he did, and from the looks on their faces these last few weeks, I know his faith paid off. So, let’s all toast to many years of heart throbs.”