Chapter 22 Six Months Later #2
“Breakfast. Don’t forget breakfast,” I said as I closed his door and went down to my own bedroom to shower.
God blessed us with a perfect day for an outdoor wedding, clear and in the upper sixties, without a cloud in the sky. On the patio below, guests had started to arrive. The woman I’d hired to do my hair and makeup had just left when my friends knocked on the bedroom door.
“Come in,” I called out, taking one last look at my hair in the mirror.
I’d asked for a loose chignon, with jasmine blossoms in the twist. My dress was ivory silk with layers of soft ruffles that cascaded down the skirt, and hand-sewn floral appliqués—tiny, delicate blossoms in blush and champagne—climbed from the hip to the shoulder.
In they came, all four women, plus Madison, who someone had already helped dress. Grace had done a fantastic job on her hair, sweeping it into a style similar to mine. I’d saved a bit of jasmine for her, which Grace had carefully placed in the back.
“Mommy, look at me.” Madison twirled in a circle to show me every inch of her dress.
“You’re like my little flower,” I said, holding out my arms.
She ran to me, hugging me around the waist. “Mommy, you have to put your dress on. Everyone’s down there.”
Gillian, looking radiant and very pregnant in a flowing blush dress with flutter sleeves that skimmed her belly, was already tearing up. “Oh, Esme, you look lovely.”
“You all look beautiful too,” I said.
Lila was elegant as always in a pink lace sheath that fit her small frame like it had been made for her. She carried a small clutch and wore heels that would have put me in the emergency room.
Delphine wore a red sleeveless midi with a sculptural ruffle at the hip. Only Delphine could pull off a dress like that for an afternoon wedding, with her dark hair cascading down her back. She looked like a movie star.
Seraphina had chosen a sage green halter dress, soft and flowing, her red hair loose around her shoulders.
All right,” Lila said, lifting the gown carefully from its hanger. “Let’s get you into this dress.”
They helped me step in, with Lila holding the bodice and Gillian managing the skirt so I didn’t step on the ruffles, Seraphina gathered the train while Delphine stood back, taking photos on her phone.
Madison, for once, was quiet as a mouse, simply sitting on the chair in the corner and gazing at me like I was a beautiful movie star.
Lila buttoned me up and stepped back. Everyone went quiet.
I turned to face the mirror and, I had to admit, I looked good. “This dress cost more than I made in a month at the shop. But Grady insisted I get exactly what I wanted, and it was this.”
“Mommy, you look like a princess,” Madison said.
“The hand-sewn flowers are stunning,” Lila said, peering more closely at the detail on the dress.
“I think Esme is more goddess than princess,” Seraphina said. “The goddess of flowers. Making the world more beautiful in her realm.”
Delphine, who never gushed, looked me up and down and said simply, “Perfect.”
“Oh no,” Gillian said, fanning her face. “I said I wasn’t going to cry. I’m already puffy enough.”
“You could never be puffy,” I said, fighting tears myself.
“Look at this belly.” Gillian placed both hands over her pregnant stomach. “I feel like I might burst at any moment.”
“How many weeks are you?” I asked. “Thirty-eight?”
“That’s right. And I’m so ready,” Gillian said. “Alex put his foot down and told me I couldn’t teach any more classes until after maternity leave. I’ve been bouncing off the walls.”
“You have a baby in there,” Delphine said. “He’s absolutely right to make you slow down.”
“I miss seeing my feet,” Gillian said.
“I remember that feeling,” Lila said, a little wistfully. “It all goes too fast.”
“We have gifts,” Lila said. “For our beautiful bride.”
“You didn’t need to get me anything,” I said.
“Don’t be silly,” Delphine said. “This is what best friends do.”
“But it may be an adult-only moment,” Seraphina said, with a nod toward Madison.
“Madison, honey, why don’t you head downstairs and find Grace,” I said. “She knows where you’re supposed to be when we start the ceremony.”
Madison popped up out of the chair, blowing kisses as if she were a starlet on a red carpet. “Tootles.” She slipped out to the hallway, her shoes clicking against the hardwood floors.
“Tootles?” Lila asked, laughing. “Where did she get that?”
“From Grace,” Gillian said, rolling her eyes. “It’s one of her new things.”
“These kids never cease to entertain,” Delphine said.
My four friends gathered around me.
“This is something old,” Seraphina said, handing me a small frame.
Inside, pressed flat and perfectly preserved, were a sprig of lavender, a miniature rose, and a tiny fern frond.
“These are from the arrangement you made for my very first book launch. I saved them.” Seraphina turned the frame over. On the back, each of them had written something.
My guess? Mary Oliver would be proud of how you’ve lived your life thus far. I can’t wait to see this next chapter unfold for you. May it be wild and precious and full of love. - Seraphina
You are brave and beautiful and more powerful than you’ll ever know. Be happy, my darling friend. You deserve it. - Gillian
A happy ending is yours at last. The path may not have been without curves, but I suspect it was worth the wait. We’ll all be friends until we’re old ladies and then in heaven running through the most beautiful garden ever planted. - Lila
You make the world more beautiful. It’s just a fact. I’m lucky to have you. We all are. - Delphine
I pressed the frame to my chest and closed my eyes.
“Don’t cry yet,” Delphine said. “We’re not finished.”
“Something borrowed,” Gillian said, handing me a small box. “And something blue.”
I opened it. Inside, nestled in tissue paper, was a pale blue lace garter.
“It’s the one I wore on my wedding night,” Gillian said, patting her belly. “Clearly it has potent energy, so consider yourself warned. Use it with care.”
We all laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“It might have been better to get her a package of birth control,” Delphine said.
“You’re no fun,” Gillian said, poking Delphine with her elbow.
“I’ll save the garter for your wedding, Delphine,” I said saucily.
“By the time I walk down an aisle, that garter won’t be something borrowed anymore—it’ll be something old,” Delphine said.
Lila stepped forward, handing me a rectangular velvet box. “And lastly, something new. This is from all of us.”
I opened the box. Inside, on a delicate gold chain, was a sunflower pendant, its petals sculpted in gold, its center filled with tiny pavé diamonds that caught the light from the bedroom window and scattered it like lightning bugs on a summer evening.
“Oh, you guys, it’s so pretty,” I said.
“We wanted you to have something really special,” Seraphina said softly. “Something you’d wear every day to remember that you’re loved. Not just by Grady. By us too.”
“This must have cost a fortune,” I said. “Not that I’m complaining. It’s gorgeous. I’ll cherish it.”
Lila lifted the necklace from the box and moved behind me. I felt the cool weight of the chain settle against my collarbone, her fingers working the tiny clasp. The pendant rested just below the hollow of my throat.
“Before you were Grady’s sunflower, you were our sunshine,” Lila said.
“During all these years of friendship, it’s been you who has cheered us up when we’re down and celebrated us when we’re up,” Seraphina said. “Even when you were hurting.”
“That’s right,” Delphine said. “I don’t think any of us could have gotten through some of those dark days without you.
I remember very clearly how you showed up for me after I lost my husband.
I’ll never forget your generosity—being there for me when Madison was just a baby and your marriage was falling apart. That’s just who you are.”
I looked at each of them in turn. My friends in blush and pink and red and sage—a perfect bouquet.
These women had carried me through the worst years of my life and delivered me here, to this room, to this day, to this man waiting on the patio below.
I wanted to say something worthy of what they’d given me—not just today, but every day for nine years.
The dinners. The babysitting. The wine on the bad nights and the good.
The loans. The way they’d loved my children as their own and never once let me believe I was anything other than a good mother.
But all I could say was, “Thank you for being my friends. For being the family I always wished I had.”
“Oh no,” Gillian said, pressing both hands to her face. “I said I wasn’t going to cry.”
Delphine produced a blue silk handkerchief from her clutch and handed it to Gillian. Then she pulled out a second one and pressed it into my hand. “For later,” she said. “Just in case you need it.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go get married.”
For the ceremony, white wooden chairs had been placed in two curved rows, angled to face the arbor and the ocean beyond.
Grady and Vance had built the simple arbor with instructions they’d found on YouTube.
I'd wrapped it in trailing greenery eucalyptus, jasmine, and ivy.
Clusters of sunflowers, pink peonies and white roses were tucked in at the top and cascaded down the sides.
Sunflowers lined the aisle in mason jars.
String lights crisscrossed overhead in lazy loops, waiting for dusk to come alive, just as the reception began.
Beyond the last row of chairs, the garden sloped down toward the ocean, the raised beds green and blooming, the apple tree heavy with white blossoms. Our late afternoon sun made the ocean impossibly blue.
Madison went first, scattering pink petals down the aisle between the white chairs. The ruffled blossoms on her dress seemed to move with her. She reached the arbor, took her position, and gave Grady a thumbs-up.