20. June #2
He’d always, quietly, wondered what she would have looked like walking down an aisle toward him.
Now he knew.
Holt’s best men stood in a careful line beside him.
Ace stood closest, his hand resting briefly on Holt’s shoulder in a small, steadying gesture.
Holt had chosen Ace because of what Ace had done for June, for Willa, for Rad, for all of them.
Because Ace had walked into Lillian’s living room and stood up for June without hesitation, because Ace had flown Rad halfway across the country without asking why, and because Ace had become Holt’s son-in-law in every way that mattered.
Rad had refused the position of best man outright.
“I’m walking Mom down the aisle, Dad,” Rad had told him firmly. “That’s the only job I want.”
Holt wouldn’t have argued even if he’d wanted to.
Zane stood beside Ace, solid and steady as always.
Then Dean, who’d grown to be like a younger brother to Holt during the wrapping up of the Sandpiper Shores case.
Then Tony, who had worn a careful, slightly dazed smile since the moment he’d arrived at the ceremony this morning.
And Barry, whose inclusion Holt had insisted on personally, because Barry had come through the last year with more grace than anyone had a right to expect from a grieving father, and because Holt respected him more than he could find the words to say.
On June’s side of the arch, Victoria led her line of bridesmaids with her small, composed smile firmly in place.
Willa followed behind her in a pale blue dress, her eyes already shining.
Then Margo. Then Lacey. Then Lucy. Then Carmen, who was openly dabbing at her cheeks with a small lace handkerchief.
Then Judy, Barry’s new wife, who had fitted into their group with the quiet, gentle ease of a woman who had been waiting for a family her whole life and finally found one.
The grandchildren had been flower girls.
Grace, Becky, Katey, and Zoe, had walked the aisle a few minutes earlier in soft pale dresses, scattering rose petals across the sand.
Andy and Tyler had shared ring bearer duty between them, taking the task with equal solemnity.
Mina had been hosting the whole affair with the quiet, fearsome precision of a woman who was not going to allow a single detail to go wrong on her son’s wedding day.
All of it faded now.
Holt’s world had narrowed down to June’s face as she walked toward him across the sand.
June
She reached the arch.
Rad kissed her gently on the cheek and placed her hand carefully into Holt’s.
“Take care of her, Dad,” Rad murmured softly.
“Always,” Holt replied, his voice thick.
Rad stepped back and took his seat beside Mina in the front row.
June’s hand was shaking slightly. Holt covered it with his own, warm and steady, and pressed his thumb gently against her wrist where her pulse was beating fast. The small, grounding pressure of his thumb slowed her heart.
She looked up into his eyes.
“Hi,” June whispered.
“Hi,” Holt whispered back.
The minister smiled warmly at both of them.
“Dearly beloved,” he began, his voice carrying softly over the gentle rush of the tide behind them.
“We are gathered here today to witness the union of June and Holt. Two people who found each other once before, who were separated by circumstance and by choice and by lives that took them in different directions, and who have now, after a lifetime of living, chosen each other again.”
June squeezed Holt’s hand. Holt squeezed hers back.
“Some stories take a very long time to find their true ending,” the minister continued. “This is one of those stories. And I don’t think there’s a person here today who doesn’t feel grateful to be witnessing it.”
A soft, watery laugh moved through the gathered crowd. June heard Carmen actually sob, very quietly, somewhere behind her.
“Holt, would you like to share your vows?”
Holt drew in a long breath. He reached into the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket and pulled out a small folded piece of paper, which he looked at briefly and then folded again without reading.
“I thought I’d prepare something,” Holt admitted softly, his eyes on June’s face. “But I don’t think I’m going to need it.”
A small, warm ripple of laughter moved through the guests.
“June.” Holt’s voice was rough but steady.
“I have loved you since the day I met you. I have loved you through the years we were together, and I have loved you through every one of the years that we weren’t.
I didn’t always know that’s what I was carrying.
For a long time I thought it was something else.
Grief. Regret. Something I would eventually put down. ”
Holt paused.
“I never put it down, June,” he continued quietly.
“I couldn’t. Because the truth was, you were still with me.
You had always been with me. Every single decision I made over the past thirty-eight years was made by a man who was still quietly, stubbornly, completely in love with you, whether I had the courage to say it out loud or not. ”
June pressed her free hand against her mouth.
“I promise to love you every day for the rest of my life, June Angeline Daily Carter. And I promise, for whatever time we still have together in this life, to make every single day of it count.”
June was crying openly.
So were half of the guests.
“I love you, June. I always have. I always will.”
Holt lifted her hand, which he was still holding, and pressed a soft kiss against her knuckles.
June drew in a shuddering breath.
“Holt,” she began, her voice thick but steady.
“I loved you from the moment I met you when I was barely a teenager. I loved you through every year of our marriage. I loved you through the long years when I thought you had moved on from me. I never truly stopped. I tried, once or twice, but it never quite worked. My heart, as it turns out, had made up its mind about you a very long time ago, and it wasn’t particularly interested in what the rest of me thought about it. ”
A small, warm laugh moved through the crowd.
“You are my first love, Holt,” June continued, her voice steady now. “You are also going to be my last. I promise to love you every day of whatever time we have left together. And I promise, every single morning, to wake up beside you grateful that we found our way back to each other.”
She squeezed his hand.
“I love you, Holt Dillinger. I always have. I always will.”
The minister smiled at both of them.
“Then by the power vested in me by the state of Florida, and by the grace of everything that has brought these two wonderful people back to this moment, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” His smile widened. “Holt, you may kiss your bride.”
Holt cupped June’s face gently in both hands and leaned down.
He kissed her slowly, reverently, and with his whole heart right there on the sand for every person in the crowd to see.
June kissed him back with the quiet, certain joy of a woman who had finally, finally made it home.
The guests erupted into applause behind them.
When they drew apart Holt tucked June’s hand into the crook of his arm, turned them both carefully toward the aisle, and walked with his wife down the soft carpet of rose petals between the rows of their loved ones, out into the beginning of the rest of their lives.
The ocean rolled gently onto the sand behind them.
The sun shone.
The breeze carried the sound of Sandpiper Shores up and over them, and home at last.
THE END