One #2
“Kenneth Greene, what in heaven’s name are you doing?” Aja’s mother, Dominique, asked her husband, her smile making her eyes sparkle.
Instead of answering, he motioned her over. Immediately she went to him, and seconds later he had her in his arms, dipping her low, dancing her around the suite.
Dane suddenly filled the doorway, standing beside the woman who would be his wife by the end of the day.
It was funny to see his expression as he looked across the room to where I now danced in a circle of beautiful women.
He tipped his head to me, and I smiled back.
I watched him put an arm around Aja’s shoulders and pull her close before he kissed her cheek.
“Jory.” He called my name.
There were hands in my hair, on my back, sliding off my shoulders, clutching at my shirt before I got free to cross the room. As I stepped in front of Dane, he pulled me forward into his arms.
“Thank you,” he murmured, bending toward me, face down in my shoulder.
My eyes flicked to Aja’s as he let me go and left as suddenly as he’d come.
“What’s going on?” she asked quickly.
I coughed once. “Mr. Reid came in here asking some questions about you, and your father took offense.”
“My dad did?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait.” She held up her hand. “I’m sorry, what?”
“It was no big deal,” I lied.
“Questions? What kind of questions?”
I shrugged. “Mr. Reid doesn’t know anything about you, and Dane didn’t invite them to anything but the wedding and the reception, so…I guess they wanted to find out about you.”
“I see.”
“Well, your dad didn’t see, and you can’t really blame him.”
She smiled at me. “It’s not like my dad to get upset about a few innocent inquiries.”
“It was a lot,” I defended her father. “I was uncomfortable too.”
She nodded. “So what happened?”
“It escalated, and Mr. Reid sort of implied that the judge should be worried about what he, Mr. Reid, thought of you, and your dad replied that the only family of Dane’s he was worried about at all was me.” I grinned at her.
“Oh.” She nodded. “Since you and Dane are the only Harcourts in the place.”
“Correct.” I smiled wide, then leaned close and kissed her cheek. “At least until six o’clock.”
She sighed deeply.
“You’ll be the new Harcourt down front in the gown, right?”
In answer, I got arms wrapped around my neck, and she hugged me tight. “What did you do?”
“I went and got my iPod and asked your dad if he still had moves, and if so, might I see some of them.”
I felt her shaking in my arms.
“As you can clearly see, the man’s still got it.”
She clutched me tighter, her head back as the laughter bubbled up out of her.
When I glanced over at her folks, I was rewarded with the warm smile of her mother, who mouthed a thank-you.
I nodded.
It had been tense. Dane’s parents, especially his father, questioning the judge about his daughter…
It had started out so benign, just chatting, before quickly deteriorating into an all-out inquisition.
They knew nothing about Aja and wanted to know everything.
It had been well intended, but had come off as critical, biased, and almost racist.
Dane and Jude had just been walking back from lunch, and I was coming from the opposite direction, having just finished checking on all the equipment in the ballroom for the reception, when we heard the raised voices from all the way out in the hall.
We’d interrupted, and Dane had insisted on showing the Reids to his suite upstairs, away from the communal one being used so the wedding party could visit with guests or get something to snack on before the ceremony.
He took his parents, as well as his brothers Caleb and Jeremy, and his sister, Gwen, so the judge could recover and collect his thoughts.
The look Dane had given me as he left had been so pained that I’d felt my chest tighten just looking at him.
The last thing he wanted to do on his wedding day was upset his future father-in-law with people who were of minimal importance to him.
The truth was, he simply liked the judge better than his biological family.
I had to fix it. I had to restore the ease the day had begun with.
This, then, was what Dane’s look had conveyed on his exit.
And I had accomplished it by dancing around the suite like an idiot with Aja’s dad.
“Jory, what would your brother do without you?” Aja asked me, again squeezing me tight.
“I dunno, but we’ll never hafta find out.”
“No.” She shook her head just barely. “We won’t.”
“Jory!” the judge called for me.
I ran back to him, and he showed me that he could still do the bump. I thought Aja’s mother was going to pass out. That everyone was laughing was a very good thing.
Four hours later, the church was filled with a sea of people who all stood as the bride appeared with her father at the end of the aisle.
She was breathtakingly beautiful, her Vera Wang dress simple and chic, and the pride on her father’s face made everyone smile.
Dane’s parents and siblings sat in the front row on the right, Aja’s mother and grandparents on the left.
Her extended family filled the first three pews, and after that were family friends and friends who were like family.
Dane and Aja now shared a lot of the same people; those who would be spending their lives with them.
The nearest and dearest of all were there with the groom on the stage as they waited for the bride to join them.
Candace Greene stood, regal and stunning, head up as she watched her sister walk toward the man she loved.
All Aja’s bridesmaids, from Zora next to Candace, to Janey on the bottom step, were perfection in their strapless pewter mermaid gowns.
Long, graceful lines with upswept hair and flawless smooth skin, resembling delicate, graceful swans. They were luminous.
Jude, Dane’s best man, was resplendent in his Armani tuxedo, and stood beside Dane proudly, looking as though he had stepped from the pages of a magazine.
I had never seen him look better. I was there, on Jude’s left, and had worried about being included, not wanting to tarnish his moment, being, as I was, without the same height and breadth of shoulder and chest as the rest of the men in his wedding party.
Dane hadn’t worried. He was less concerned with the perfect picture and more with having his brother on stage with him.
Aja, with the same desire, had drowned my objections.
And once we were all out there, I felt better standing with his friends, who had pulled themselves together to stand at his side.
They were all crisp and polished, simply gorgeous.
We had caused quite a stir when we walked out to take our places on the stairs.
Of course, as always, Dane was the one no one could take their eyes off, until Aja walked down the aisle.
Now, as I watched them, Dane and Aja, hands entwined, speaking the words that would join them forever, I was thankful to be there, sharing their moment.
It was humbling to be at the beginning of a new life, the one they would share together.
I closed my eyes and breathed when the words were spoken: “You may kiss the bride.”
The picture of the two of them would be etched in my mind forever.
Aja lifting her head to receive his kiss, her eyes filled with him, and his arm around her waist, drawing her close as he bent to seal their lips together.
Instantly, her arms went around his neck, and he clutched her tight.
They were stunning together, the picture of what love looked like.
There was an eruption of applause when they parted and were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Harcourt, husband and wife.
The thunderous sound consumed the silence from seconds before.
I could not imagine a more perfect moment.
The reception, at the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago, was lavish, money I could not even dream of having being spent to give Aja the day she had dreamed of since she was ten.
There were six courses of food, accompanied by wine and champagne and any other beverage a guest could desire, ready to be created by not one, but three mixologists.
People were in awe of the orchestra and the enormous dance floor and the thousands of candles that cast a warm glow through the room.
The first dance for the bride and groom was fluid precision and mesmerizing to watch.
They went naturally together, blending seamlessly because they fit.
When Aja danced with her father, no one did anything else but stare at the dashing man and his daughter.
Dane floated across the floor with Aja’s mother, and the same was true.
It was obvious from the way they all hugged afterward that this was a union that had both their approval and support.
Not surprising, as it was hard to imagine any parent not wanting Dane for a son-in-law.
I knew that Mrs. Reid had wanted the mother-son dance with Dane that he had given to Aja’s mom, but Dane simply couldn’t have that.
No one would be standing in for his mother, who he still missed, and certainly not Susan Reid.
After much deliberation, Dane had invited his birth parents, along with his sister and two brothers, to come to his wedding, but it was me, without benefit of blood, who’d stood at his side.
I was the one with the same name; I was the one he’d hugged tight after the ceremony.
I was the one his wife called her new brother and who her parents saw as the entirety of the family Dane brought to the marriage.