Chapter 41
Chapter 41
I stood in the Planetarium and watched the two of them. Two kids in love. Their entire lives before them. Nothing but hope and possibility. I guess I was lost in the memory longer than I thought, because an arm slid inside mine. When I turned, Casey stood beaming. Locked arm in arm with me, she whispered, “You were right.” When I looked at her, I noticed for the first time that Casey was behind her eyes. Completely. She was home. “There is a man on planet earth who could marry someone like me.”
“Yes, there is. And he’s a good man. Even the best of men.”
“You approve?”
“A hundred percent.”
“And you’re doing the ceremony, right?”
“If you wish.”
“I wish.”
“Done.”
She chuckled. “You gonna be able to get through it?”
I smiled. “I make no promises.”
“You gonna cry?”
“Definitely.”
A beautiful laugh. “It’s one of the reasons we all love you.” She held both my hands, stalling. Finally, she said, “I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Anything.”
She pointed. “You see that man over there?”
Camp had been invited to the front of the room by Clay, who was now pretending to be a sports announcer interviewing a player after the game. Holding his cane like a microphone, he was asking for the blow-by-blow. “Son, were you nervous?”
“Yes.”
“How much the ring set you back?”
“Pretty much everything I had.”
“Did you plan on getting down on one knee, or did you just fall over?”
“Both.”
“Where are you two going on your honeymoon?”
“Wherever she tells me.”
“Are we invited?”
“Not a chance.”
Laughter rippled throughout the room. If hope fed the fairy tale, then every girl in the room was eating at a lavish banquet tonight. No eye was dry. It was the most fun we’d had since the wedding.
I nodded.
Casey continued, “He’s my whole world. And I want to try to be a wife and a mom and a friend and all the things, but I can only do that...” She paused long enough for the worry to creep up into her voice. “If he comes home every time he leaves with you.”
I saw where this was going.
She locked arms with me again while we watched Clay embarrass Camp. “So I’m sorry to do this to you, but I need you to watch over him. He still thinks he can leap tall buildings in a single bound.”
“I’ve spent some time with him, and I’m pretty sure he can.”
“Until he can’t.”
I nodded.
She pressed me. “No kidding. Straight up. I want your word.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was my job to watch over Bones. I faced her. “I’ll watch him the way Bones watched me.”
“Thank you.”
“Can I say one more thing? ”
She nodded.
The two of us stared across the room. The countless smiles. “Sometimes things work out. Sometimes the good guys win. Sometimes love is easy. It’s okay to be excited.”
“That’s an upstream swim for me.”
“I know. And the two of you get to love your way through it. But remember this...”
She was smiling and crying at the same time. Reality setting in. He’d asked her. She’d said yes. Her dreams were coming true, but she had two emotions yet to bury. “You are priceless. Magnificent beyond measure. And you are worthy of your dreams—so let them come true.” She was really crying now. “And fear is a liar. Tell him to take a hike. And don’t let him steal tonight, or tomorrow.”
She hugged me and kissed my cheek, slobbering snot all over my face, but it was a beautiful slobber. Years in the making.