Chapter 15 - Before the Next Vow
Ethan set the box on the table without opening it.
"Your mom and I have been talking about it. Nothing is scheduled."
Olivia came to sit beside Lucy.
They had taken months to get here. Coffee after appointments. Honest arguments. A first date that ended early because Olivia was tired. Another that lasted until the restaurant stacked chairs.
Love had returned in pieces. Trust followed more slowly.
"Would I have to move?" Lucy asked.
"We'd choose a home together," Olivia said.
"Would you stop doing Friday pizza because you'd already be here?"
Ethan shook his head.
"Friday pizza stays."
"And nobody gets to say I'm being dramatic if I get scared?"
"Nobody," Olivia said.
Lucy thought about that.
"You can open the box."
Inside lay a plain gold ring, nothing like the one Ethan had bought for Victoria.
He turned to Olivia.
"I can't give us those years back. I can give you the truth about what I want now. I want ordinary days with you. Hard ones, too. Will you marry me?"
Olivia looked at Lucy, then back at him.
"Yes."
Six months later, they married in Mrs. Alvarez's backyard beneath a maple tree.
There were eighteen guests, mismatched chairs, and no red runner. Walter wasn't invited. He had written Lucy one letter, without excuses, and was waiting for an answer she didn't owe him.
Olivia wore a simple cream dress. Ethan's hands shook as he took hers.
Lucy stood beside them in pale blue, her hair dry this time.
When the officiant began, she suddenly raised her hand.
"Wait."
Ethan went still.
Then Lucy smiled.
"You forgot something."
She handed him the old photograph from the tan envelope. On its back, she'd attached a new picture: the three of them on the apartment steps, laughing because Ethan had dropped his keys taking it.
"Both go in the album," she said. "You don't have to throw the old one away to keep the new one."
Olivia wiped her cheek. Ethan kissed Lucy's forehead.
Then he turned back and finished his vows.
That night, Lucy placed the empty tan envelope in her desk drawer. The checks belonged with the case records now. She didn't need to carry them anymore.
From downstairs, Ethan called, "Pizza's here!"
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
She paused, smiling at how quickly he had answered.
"Save me a seat."
May you like
"Already did."
Lucy closed the drawer and ran toward the voice that would be there tomorrow.
