“You’ll be my maid of honor.”
She grabbed both my hands.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Part of me expected our parents to object.
They had always been extremely protective of Gracie.
Sometimes too protective.
They monitored her friendships.
Controlled her spending.
Discussed her future while she was standing in the same room, as though she could not hear them.
Yet when Noah announced their engagement, my parents simply smiled.
“Noah will take excellent care of her,” Mom said.
Dad clapped Noah on the shoulder.
“You chose wisely.”
Something about that sentence hurt more than it should have.
Their Wedding
The wedding was small.
Noah wore a charcoal suit.
When Gracie entered the ceremony room, he began crying before she even reached him.
There was nothing calculated in his expression.
No performance.
Only love.
Still, while he placed the ring on her finger, I wondered whether I truly knew the man I had called my best friend for most of my life.
