40. Annette
Chapter forty
Annette
Until Forever
Five months later…
I wake before the alarm.
For a moment I simply lie there, listening.
The inn is unusually quiet. Somewhere downstairs, I can hear someone setting a coffee mug on a countertop. A gull calls from somewhere over the lake. Beyond my window, gentle waves lap against the Briar Cove shoreline.
It feels like every other morning, and nothing like every other morning.
Today I'm marrying Jamie.
The thought makes me smile before I've even opened my eyes.
I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling, letting reality settle over me.
I push back the blankets and walk barefoot to the window.
Morning sunlight dances across the lake, turning the water into thousands of tiny diamonds. The docks are still quiet. The little bakery down the street won't open for another hour.
Everything feels peaceful.
Maybe that's why I notice that there aren't any butterflies, no panic, no second thoughts, only a deep, quiet certainty.
I think that's what love becomes when it grows up.
Not fireworks. Not uncertainty. Peace.
I wrap my arms around myself and smile out at the lake.
***
Months ago, I worried about today for reasons that have nothing to do with weddings.
Not the dress. Not the vows. Not even the guests.
I worried about our families.
Jamie grew up surrounded by people who had loved him his entire life. His parents had welcomed me without hesitation. Coach and Becca had somehow made me feel like I'd belonged in Frostholm long before I believed it myself.
My parents...
Well...They'd raised a daughter who had spent years chasing the next opportunity, never quite certain where she belonged.
In the end, I shouldn't have worried about introducing our families.
Within an hour of meeting, our mothers were trading recipes, and by dessert, my dad was teasing Jamie's father about finally admitting hockey players could learn something from baseball. Coach leaned back in his chair, looked around the table, and smiled.
"Looks to me like we've got room for a few more around here."
No one argued.
It no longer felt like Jamie's family and mine.
It simply felt like ours.
***
Now a soft knock sounds at my door raises me out of my thoughts.
"Annette?" Keisha calls through the wood. "You decent?"
I laugh.
"Barely."
"Good. Because your wedding crew just arrived, and Becca already has coffee in one hand and a checklist in the other."
"That sounds about right."
"It gets worse."
"Oh?"
"I think Sadie brought pastries."
I grin. "Now you're definitely teasing."
"The woman owns a bakery."
"Exactly."
Keisha laughs. "Open the door before I eat your wedding breakfast."
I reach for the doorknob, my heart impossibly light.
Not just because today is the day I become not Mrs. James Patrick Monroe Walker, but simply Mrs. Jamie Walker.
Because somewhere along the way without even realizing it, I'd already become part of a family.
***
I pull open the door. Keisha is standing there with two coffee cups balanced in one hand and the biggest smile I've ever seen.
"Good morning."
"No." She shakes her head. "Today it's good wedding morning."
I laugh and take one of the coffees.
"Thank you."
"You know exactly how I like it."
"I should. I've only been buying it for..." She pretends to count. "...about eight years."
I bump her shoulder. "I love you."
"I know."
She glances at me for a long second before her expression softens. "You look so happy."
"I am."
"No." She smiles. "I mean really happy."
The words settle somewhere deep inside me. She isn't wrong. Not excited. Not overwhelmed.
Happy.
Behind her I hear another familiar voice. "I brought cinnamon rolls." Sadie appears carrying two white bakery boxes that fill the hallway with the tantalizing aroma of cinnamon and butter.
"I knew it!" I laugh.
Keisha groans dramatically. "I told her you'd say that."
Sadie grins. "It's a wedding. Calories signed a waiver."
Before I can answer, Becca appears around the corner carrying what looks suspiciously like a clipboard. I heard that." She gives Sadie a playful look. "And I'm choosing not to comment because today nobody is allowed to feel guilty about pastries."
She lifts the clipboard. "However."
Keisha immediately groans.
"Oh no."
"Oh yes."
Becca smiles. "We are officially on a schedule."
"There's a schedule?"
"There are three."
Sadie whispers toward me. "She color-coded them."
"Yes, I absolutely color-coded them."
Paige laughs as she walks into the room behind them. "I tried taking one away."
Becca points toward her. "She did, but I had a backup. Haha, young lady!"
Brooke follows carrying garment bags. “I’ve never seen someone create an emergency backup schedule."
"You've never planned a hockey fundraiser."
Everyone laughs.
I simply stand there watching them.
The laughter. The teasing. The way Brooke already knows where to hang the dresses.
The way Paige helped Sadie arrange breakfast without anyone asking, the way Sadie is arranging the makeup and hair products, and the way Becca somehow keeps everyone moving while making it feel effortless.
Months ago, I couldn't have imagined any of this. When I arrived in Frostholm, Keisha was the only person outside my family I could have pictured standing beside me today.
***
For a while, nobody worries about schedules.
Coffee grows cold.
The cinnamon rolls disappear one sticky bite at a time.
Stories tumble over one another until none of us can remember who started talking first.
Keisha reminds everyone about the time I locked myself out of my apartment wearing oversized fuzzy socks and a sweatshirt that said Powered by Coffee.
"I maintain," I tell them, "that I looked completely respectable."
"You were carrying your garbage to the dumpster in your underpants!" Keisha says.
"I was being environmentally responsible, and my shirt came almost to my knees."
"You chased the garbage truck."
"It was moving."
"You chased it."
"I caught it."
The room erupts into laughter.
Sadie wipes tears from her eyes. "I've never heard this story."
"That's because Keisha enjoys saving embarrassing moments for special occasions."
"Oh, this isn't even in my top five."
I point a warning finger toward her. "Don't."
She smiles sweetly. "I won't." A pause. "…today."
Everyone laughs again.
***
The easy rhythm of the room settles around us.
Paige tells a story about Liam somehow convincing an entire elementary school that the team mascot had once played professional hockey.
Brooke admits Caleb accidentally shelved an entire display of romance novels in the history section because he refused to believe there could possibly be “that many books with shirtless men on the covers.”
"I stand by my confusion," she growls, perfectly imitating his serious expression.
Even Becca laughs hard enough to need to wipe her eyes.
Watching them, something inside me grows wonderfully still. Somewhere between hospital hallways, hockey games, coffee dates, bookstore visits, bakery mornings, and ordinary Tuesdays...these women quietly became my sisters.
***
As breakfast winds down, the gifts I’ve prepared for each woman are waiting in a small bag on the dresser.
I pick it up and gather their attention. "I have something for each of you."
The laughter softens. The room grows still, and one by one, I hand each woman a small, wrapped gift with a handwritten note tucked inside.
Each box holds a delicate sterling silver bracelet with a tiny snowflake charm.
On the back of each charm are two simple words. Chosen Family.
For a moment, no one speaks.
Brooke is the first to open her note. Her eyes immediately fill with tears. "Oh, Annette..." She wraps her arms around me. "I'll treasure this forever."
One by one, the others read their notes. Sadie wipes her eyes. Paige laughs through suspiciously bright tears. Keisha simply reaches over and squeezes my hand, and Becca pulls me into a long hug.
***
When we finally settle back into our chairs, Brooke smiles as she slips the bracelet onto her wrist. "I guess it's our turn, Annette. We each have some advice for you, sweet bride."
"Mine is to love each other, especially on the ordinary days, and never be too proud to say you're sorry first."
Sadie nods. "And never stop dating each other."
Paige laughs. "Never lose your sense of humor. Never stop laughing."
Then Becca smiles. "The best marriages aren't perfect. They're simply made up of two people who keep choosing each other. And kindness is the next most important after love "
Finally, everyone looks at Keisha who pretends to think. "I've known you since we were kids and I know you well. She grins. "So, here's my advice."
First Keisha points a finger at me. "Kiss him goodnight every night. Which should not be difficult. Just look at that hunk o’man! "
Everyone belly-laughs.
“And Nettie, don't make Jamie guess what you're thinking."
I laugh. "I don't—"
"You absolutely do."
Five women stare back at me.
I sigh. “Okay, I do."
"You absolutely do."
She reaches over and squeezes my hand.
"Tell him when you're scared."
"Tell him when you're happy."
"Tell him when you need him."
For a long moment...no one says anything. Then she reaches over and squeezes my hand. "Because you finally found someone worth telling."
***
Keisha glances toward the clock.
"Well..."
She claps her hands once.
"If we don't stop crying..."
"...Jamie's going to marry a raccoon."
Laughter fills the room. Several wipe at the corners of their eyes.
"Ladies..."
She smiles warmly at me.
"It's time."
***
For a moment, no one says anything.
Then Becca claps her hands as well. "All right."
She smiles warmly. “Keisha says it’s time, so let’s get cracking.”
The room immediately understands what she means.
Sadie closes the bakery box. Brooke gathers the empty coffee cups.
Paige straightens the garment bags hanging near the window.
Make up goes on, hair gets styled, earrings are next, and dresses of different pastels are slipped over heads and fastened. They are all radiant as Becca clicks over them like the mother hen she truly is.