Page 113 of Forever Mine
Dammit, more tears.
“Can I have a minute?” I ask, wanting a moment of privacy to get my emotions under control.
My room has been a revolving door of an endless stream of people coming and going for hours.
“Of course.” Liz grabs Ryder’s wrist to check the time on his watch. “You have ten minutes.”
She winks. Another memory Liz and I share. A good one.
Ryder shakes his head, not getting the reference. “Sometimes I wonder about the two of you.”
“You love my crazy.”
Liz hops into his arms and kisses him. Their mouths remain fused together in a very publicly inappropriate kiss as he carries her out, almost running into Mom on her way in.
Mom steps out of the way to let them pass. “Ah, the honeymoon stage of marriage.” Her gaze lingers wistfully as Ryder pushes open the door to the storage closet and stumbles inside with a giggling Liz. “Your dad and I?—”
I immediately cover my ears. “La la la. I don’t want to hear about you and Dad having sex.”
“You wouldn’t exist if your father and I hadn’t?—”
“La la la la. Can’t hear you.”
She purses her smiling lips in faux parental exasperation. Setting her purse down on the adjacent coffee table, she fidgets with straightening my collar.
“Let me get a look at you.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“Micromanaging.”
I laugh, because… well, yeah. Dad can take anal retentive to new levels. He’s been fussing over every detail of the wedding, wanting everything to be perfect. Dad has been as involved in the wedding planning as Mom.
Mom’s eyes begin to pool, and I plead, “Please don’t make me cry again.”
I’ve been a fountain all fucking day, and I don’t want my eyes to be swollen and red for the wedding pictures, making me look like I’ve got a bad case of conjunctivitis.
She pretends to brush imaginary lint from my jacket. “You look so much like your father. So handsome.”
“I look like my mom.”
Same eye and hair color. Same nose and mouth. Jay and I have Dad’s ears, chin, and height.
“Have you heard from him?” I ask.
Mom tries to cover the sad frown that forms by focusing on the two top buttons of my shirt. “He called me last week.”
I know I keep thinking it, but it hadn’t truly sunk in until now. Jay really isn’t coming. My brother, who I had asked to be my best man, isn’t going to be standing next to me when I take my vows.
She takes out a thin, oblong black jewelry case from her purse and presents it to me.
“What’s this?”
“Something old. It was your grandfather’s.”
I lift the lid to find a vintage men’s gold Bulova watch. I reverently touch the rectangular face faded by time. It’s kind of poetic in a way.
“I remember this.”
