17. June #2
“Now,” June said, turning toward the car. “Shall we get to the courthouse? The judge does not like it when we’re late for the slot.”
“Yes,” Tony replied, enthusiastically. “Let’s do this properly.”
The courthouse was a pale stone building with a wide marble lobby and a quiet, formal atmosphere.
The room they had been assigned was small, just one of several the courthouse used for these occasions.
Alfred led the way, and June followed behind Victoria and Tony, trying not to think too hard about how many other people had passed through this building over the years for very different reasons.
Alfred reached the door of the room and pushed it open.
Victoria and Tony stopped.
They both gasped.
The room had been transformed.
White roses filled every available surface.
Soft ivory ribbons trailed from the backs of the wooden chairs.
A simple archway of greenery and cream-colored roses had been built over the small wooden altar where the judge would stand.
Candles were lit along the windowsills. Music was playing softly from a portable speaker someone had tucked discreetly behind a flower arrangement.
Standing at the front of the room were four people.
Clive and his fiancée, Lia. Harvey and his fiancée, Penny.
Victoria pressed both hands against her mouth.
“I...” Her voice broke. She turned to June with her eyes filling fast. “You did this.”
“Not just me,” June told her gently. “They all wanted to do this. I just helped coordinate it and got the judge to sign off on it.”
Her eyes moved to Tony, whose jaw had gone slightly slack as he stared at his son.
“Harvey,” Tony managed.
“Dad,” Harvey replied, his voice rough.
The two of them crossed the room toward each other and met in the middle. Harvey hugged his father with the unguarded grip of a grown man making up for decades of missed embraces. Tony held on tightly and did not let go for a long moment.
Clive stepped forward more slowly. His smile was hesitant. Tony reached out his free hand and drew Victoria’s son into the embrace, too, and Clive didn’t resist.
“Thank you for being here, both of you,” Tony told them quietly.
“Of course we’re here, Dad,” Harvey replied.
June’s eyes filled.
She slipped quietly to Victoria’s side while Tony and the two young men finished their moment.
“Are you ready for this?” June asked her as Tony took his place, waiting for her.
“I’ve been ready since I was seventeen,” Victoria whispered back.
“Then let’s do this right,” Alfred said gently. “May I do the honor of walking you down the aisle, Victoria?”
“Yes, Alfred.” Victoria’s eyes shone. “I’d like that very much.”
June smiled and crossed to the front of the room, standing opposite Tony with the judge already at the altar and the music already starting to shift into something slower and warmer. She took her place as Victoria’s witness. Harvey took his place as Tony’s.
Alfred and Victoria appeared in the doorway.
Alfred offered her his arm. Victoria took it.
The two of them walked slowly down the small aisle together, and June watched Victoria’s face as she made her way to the man she had loved since she was a girl.
Victoria didn’t look like the composed, difficult woman June had spent years tolerating from a careful distance.
She looked like a young woman coming home.
Tony took Victoria’s hand.
The judge smiled and began.
“We are gathered here today...”
The ceremony was short and simple. The vows were spoken clearly. When the judge pronounced them husband and wife, Tony kissed his bride with the unhurried tenderness of a man who had been waiting most of his life for permission to do it.
Clive and Harvey applauded. Lia and Penny cried quietly. Alfred stepped forward and hugged Victoria again with the warmth of a man who had been her butler for decades and had just watched her become a wife.
June stood to one side and let them have the moment.
Then Tony turned and pulled her into another hug.
“Thank you, June,” Tony whispered against her ear. “For everything.”
They had dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Coral Gables that Victoria had chosen specifically because it had a quiet, curtained back room where the eight of them could celebrate properly without any attention from other diners.
Candles flickered on the long table. The wine was poured.
Toasts were made, one after another, each one shorter and warmer than the last.
June watched Tony and Victoria holding hands under the table like teenagers.
She watched Harvey laugh at something his father said.
June sat quietly and let the quiet, aching gratitude of the day settle into her chest.
Victoria leaned toward her at one point, when the men had stepped away briefly to look at something on Harvey’s phone.
“June. How are things for you back in Sandpiper Shores?” Victoria’s eyes searched hers.
“Slowly coming right, Victoria.” June gave her a tight smile.
“And Willa?” Victoria’s brows rose slightly.
“Willa and I are getting back on track.” June’s voice softened. “She’s forgiven me. I think she understood, eventually, why I did what I did. It took time, but we got there.”
“And Rad?” Victoria smiled. “I believe he’s been calling you at least once a day.”
June paused. A small, warm smile tugged at her mouth. “Rad asked me the other week if he could call me Mom.”
Victoria’s eyes went wide. She laughed in quiet surprise. “Isn’t he a bit old for that?”
“I think Lillian was never really much of a mother to him,” June replied. “So I told him I’d love that.”
“Oh, June.” Victoria squeezed her hand. “That’s beautiful.”
June smiled and took a small sip of her wine.
“And Holt?” Victoria pressed gently. “Are the two of you finally...”
“No.” June shook her head. Her heart did the strange, sideways flutter it always did when his name came up directly. “We’ve spoken during the wrapping up of the case. We’re at peace with each other now. We’ve put the past behind us. We’re moving forward.”
“Does moving forward mean toward each other, June?” Victoria’s voice dropped, and her eyes watched June intently.
“I don’t know, Victoria.” June sighed.
“June.” Victoria leaned closer. “Anyone with eyes could see how the two of you felt about each other. You’re not getting any younger.
Neither is he. When life hands you a second chance, you take it with both hands.
Look at Tony and me. I spent most of my life being told we couldn’t have this. And here we are.”
“I’m so happy for you, Victoria. You deserve this.” June squeezed her new friend’s hand.
“Don’t deflect, June.” Victoria looked at her accusingly.
“I’m not deflecting. I’m just...” June sighed softly. “I’m just not quite there yet.”
Victoria let it drop with a knowing smile and a small squeeze of June’s hand.
“How is Sienna?” June asked gently, changing the subject before Victoria could press further.
Victoria’s expression darkened.
“She still refuses to see me,” Victoria admitted. “Or her father. She won’t even see Clive. Harvey told Tony today that Basil won’t see Barry either. Barry flies to the facility every few weeks, and Basil refuses every visit.”
“Give them time,” June suggested. “I’m sure they will come around.”
She feared, quietly, that Sienna might never come around. And as harsh as it was to think, maybe that was for the best for the rest of Victoria’s family. Sometimes a person who had done what Sienna had done didn’t deserve to be welcomed back.
She glanced across the table to where Tony and Harvey were laughing about something with Clive.
Her heart ached for Barry, who would have given everything to sit across a table with Basil the way Tony was sitting with Harvey.
It was during Basil’s first courtroom hearing when Barry was allowed to sit in that June, and Holt had known Barry had no idea his son had been alive.
The look on Barry’s face had cut right through June that day.
A look of sheer joy and devastation at the same time.
It was late when June got back to her neighborhood.
She stopped by her old house first, as she’d been doing every day after work since the renovation had begun.
The new roof was on. The interior walls had all been framed.
The new kitchen was nearly finished. June walked through slowly in the quiet of the evening, admiring what the contractors had done.
She had decided a month ago to convert the house into an Airbnb rather than move back in.
It was too big for her alone now. Carmen had sold her bakery in Miami to the long-standing manager and had moved to Sandpiper Shores to be near Zane.
Zane had accepted an offer to work only one more year as district fire chief, with Willa taking over from him at the end of that year.
Carmen had taken a Captain EMT position in the Sandpiper Shores area.
There was nothing left in Miami tying June to this house.
She had bought the Airbnb across the road the previous month. She now had three properties in Miami to leave to her grandchildren one day. June had an offer on a townhouse near Victoria’s that she was going to move into once the renovation on her house was done.
June sighed as she locked her old front door and crossed the street to her new temporary home.
The Airbnb was too quiet once she was alone in it.
She missed the constant background noise of a full household in a way she hadn’t expected to.
She stepped inside, kicked off her heels, and padded through to the kitchen in her stockinged feet.
She was in the middle of cooking a late dinner for herself when the doorbell rang.
June frowned and glanced at the clock. It was past nine.
She walked carefully to the door, cracked it open, and then her eyebrows shot up.
Ace and Rad stood on her doorstep with overnight bags at their feet.
“Hello,” June greeted them, genuinely surprised. “What on earth are the two of you doing here?”