“YOU BETTER TELL ME YOU DIDN’T MEAN THAT”
Adrian looked at me.
“What?”
“Pull over.”
He glanced at me again.
Then pulled the car to the side of the road.
The second he put the car in park, I turned toward him.
“What did you mean?”
“About what?”
“‘We’ll work something out.’”
He sighed.
“I knew you were going to ask.”
“Of course I was going to ask.”
“I didn’t mean Ethan was coming out of the ceremony.”
“Then what did you mean?”
Adrian looked through the windshield.
“I meant we’re going to work something out with my mother.”
I stared at him.
“She wants him out.”
“I know.”
“She doesn’t want his face in the wedding photographs.”
“I know.”
“She actually said that.”
“I know.”
I felt tears building in my eyes.
“I don’t understand how someone can look at my brother and see a problem with a photograph.”
Adrian turned toward me.
“He doesn’t have to know.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“I know.”
“No, Adrian. He spent weeks practicing.”
“I know.”
“He called the chapel.”
“I know.”
“He’s been walking up and down my mother’s hallway every morning.”
“I know.”
“He thinks he’s doing this for Dad.”
Adrian reached for my hand.
“I know.”
I looked down.
My hands were shaking.
“I don’t want him to feel ashamed.”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because we’re not going to let my mother make him feel that way.”
I looked at him.
For the first time since dinner, I felt some of the tension leave my chest.
Then Adrian smiled slightly.
“You know what your brother is going to say when he hears about this?”
I wiped my eyes.
“What?”
“He’ll probably ask whether your mother wants him to practice standing farther away from the photographer.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
“Don’t joke.”
“I’m serious.”
“That is exactly what he would say.”
We sat there for another minute.
Then Adrian said:
“My mother thinks weddings are photographs.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“She thinks if everything looks perfect in the album, then everything was perfect.”
He shook his head.
“She doesn’t understand that people are what make the photographs matter.”
I looked out the window.
“I wish Dad were here.”
Adrian squeezed my hand.
“I know.”
That sentence broke me.
I started crying.
Not the quiet kind.
The kind I’d been holding back for eleven months.
Adrian didn’t try to stop me.
He just sat there.
And let me cry.
Eventually, I wiped my face.
“We’re still doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“Ethan walks me.”
Adrian smiled.
“Of course.”
I took a deep breath.
“And we’re not telling him what your mother said.”
“Agreed.”
“Not until after the wedding.”
“Agreed.”
I nodded.
“Good.”
We drove home.
But the next morning, something unexpected happened.
Ethan called me.
“Claire?”
“Hi.”
“I have a question.”
My stomach tightened.
“What is it?”
“Did Mom tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
He paused.
Then:
“I practiced the turn.”
I smiled.
“The turn?”
“Yes.”
“What turn?”
“The important turn.”
I laughed.
“The turn at the front?”
“Yes.”
“How did you practice that?”
Another pause.
“With Dad.”
My smile disappeared.
“Ethan…”
“I know he’s not here.”
His voice was quiet.
“But I remember.”
I closed my eyes.
He continued.
“Dad said I had one job.”
I couldn’t speak.
“What job?”
“To make sure you got where you were going.”
I put my hand over my mouth.
Ethan laughed softly.
“So I practiced.”
That was when I realized something.
Ethan wasn’t trying to replace Dad.
He knew Dad was gone.
He knew nobody could replace him.
He was simply trying to carry one small piece of Dad’s promise into the future.
And suddenly, I knew exactly what I had to do.
I wasn’t going to let anyone take that away from him.
Not even my future mother-in-law.
But I also knew Margaret wasn’t going to stop.
And three days later, she proved it.
