Page 67 of My Dead Wife's Ex Will Do
“Kelsey and Adrienne, have you come here to be joined in marriage of your own free will, without coercion, and with your whole hearts?” Victor asks.
The girls look at each other and say together, “We have.”
“Are you prepared to love, honor, and cherish each other for the rest of your lives?”
“We are.”
“Kelsey and Adrienne, please face each other, join hands, and declare your consent to marry before your friends and family gathered here.”
Adrienne, with murmured prompts from Victor, starts. “I, Adrienne Louise Wharton, take you, Kelsey Joelle Perez, as my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and bad times, in sickness and in health. I will love and honor you all the days of my life.”
Kelsey, my little girl who must have rehearsed this scene with her dolls a couple hundred times, smiles at Adrienne and repeats her own vows. “I, Kelsey Joelle Perez, take you, Adrienne Louise Wharton, as my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and bad times, in sickness and in health. I will love and honor you all the days of my life.”
Adrienne lets go of one of Kelsey’s hands and reaches into her pocket. She withdraws a ring that Kelsey told me they had designed to fit around her sapphire engagement ring. It’s platinum, like her engagement ring, with a crescent moon shape of tiny diamonds that curves around the sapphire’s setting. Adrienne takes Kelsey’s left hand, slips the engagement ring off and slides the wedding band on, then replaces the engagement ring. “Kelsey, I give you this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity,” she says.
Victor fishes in his suit pocket for a less elaborate ring and hands it to Kelsey. It’s a platinum band with gold on the inside, another antique that Kelsey found in an estate sale. It’s understated but very pretty, with a faint art deco design etched on the outside of the ring and initials of the couple who it initially belonged to inscribed on the inside of the band, plus the date of their marriage, this date, one hundred years ago. I hope the couple who wore it first were as in love as Kelsey and Adrienne are.
“Adrienne,” Kelsey says, as she slides the ring on Adrienne’s left hand. “I give you this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity.”
Victor smiles at both of them, spreads his arms wide again, and says, “Kelsey and Adrienne, in light of your commitment and promises to each other, by the power vested in me by the Universal Life Church, I now pronounce you married. You may kiss your beloved.”
The girls draw closer together and Adrienne smooths the billowing veil down Kelsey’s back. They gaze into each other’s eyes for a long moment, then share a sweet, lingering kiss. When their lips part, they press their foreheads together, and Adrienne whispers something to Kelsey that makes her giggle.
When they disengage and turn back to face the rest of us, Victor clasps his hands in front of him and says, “Please join me in welcoming Kelsey and Adrienne to their new life together!”
We all applaud again and the girls blush adorably. They clasp hands and look at each other, then at those of us in the audience. Victor steps behind and between them and puts an arm around each of their shoulders. I fumble for my phone to get a photo of the three of them together. The photographer the girls hired is snapping a barrage of photos and I’m sure Kelsey will send me copies later, but I want this picture on my phone now.
After a few more photos, the girls walk hand in hand down the aisle and Victor follows them. When they reach the tree that Kelsey and I waited behind before the wedding started, the girls step aside with the notary to sign the necessary documents to make the marriage legal under Costa Rican law.
Victor approaches me where I’m standing under a sprawling shade tree. I realize that everyone else has wandered off. Logan and Silas are a few yards away, chatting in the gazebo, and Kelsey’s and Adrienne’s other friends are heading to the restaurant, where the staff have put together a small reception for us.
Victor grabs hold of a branch and swings toward me like a kid on the monkey bars. “We did it.”
“I think it’s more that they did it,” I reply. “They’re the ones who are married now.”
“Hey, we each had one job to do that made it possible for them to get married.” He glances over his shoulder at the girls and the notary, who’s stacking papers into a neat pile. She stashes them in a document bag, smiles and shakes her head at something Adrienne says to her, then shakes hands with both girls, and heads down the path toward the resort’s exit. Kelsey and Adrienne return to the gazebo with the photographer.
I snort. “Your job was to actually marry them. All I did was walk Kelsey down the aisle.”
“And you know how much Kelsey wanted that. I’m not sure she’d consider herself married if she hadn’t had these trappings of a ceremony. Rituals are important.”
I, of all people, understand that. I smile at Victor. “That was a beautiful sermon.”
“Thanks,” he says. “I hope this wasn’t too…I don’t know…blasphemous, for you?”
I shake my head. “No. It was perfect.” He looks a little skeptical. My hand moves before I can stop it and takes his. “Really, Victor. Just perfect.”
Thirty-Three
VIctor
This is the second time Jason has voluntarily taken my hand in public. God, I want to kiss him. I’m pretty sure that would be pushing it way too far, though.
And yet, Jason is still standing here, staring at me. Holding my hand.
“Victor,” he says, then stops. He swallows and I watch the movement of his throat. “I’ve been thinking…”
“Always a bad idea,” I say lightly, even as he says over me, “Well, not thinking exactly, but wondering…”
