It was three days later and Josh stood on the Bartlett front porch in a navy suit. He looked out over the lake and sighed.
"Daddy?" said a voice from the doorway, "you ready?"
He turned around to face his daughter, his baby. There she stood looking up at him in the white outfit she had chosen for that day. Her long curly hair, inherited only from him, was tied atop her head and had tendrils falling down framing her face. Her clothing was not the dress that she had shown her mother and CJ just a few days before, no, this was simpler. She wore a tea length white silken tulle skirt that had some sort of silver shine to it coming from the fabric, a white sweater set, the cardigan only three quarter sleeved and the camisole underneath matching perfectly, and of course in only the way Tess could she wore white bejeweled flip flops. She smiled at him.
"Wow baby!" he said as he approached her and kissed her forehead. "You look like an angel. Evan doesn't know how lucky he is."
"Yes he does," she says as she bounds down the front stairs, "I tell him."
"I'm sure you do," he says as he catches up with her and they begin the walk around the house. Josh looks skeptically at his youngest. "Look we've had this code worked out since Molly got married and I'm passing it on to you. If you want out either before or after you get up there you just tug on each ear, and we'll get you out of there. No questions asked."
"Daddy!" Tess said looking at her father with utter disbelief.
"I'm just saying…"
"I know Daddy," Tess conceded.
"I love you, princess."
"I love you too."
"My baby girl is all grown up."
"I'm still your baby."
"Promise me?" Josh said stopping before they reached around the side of the house.
"I promise, promise," she looked at her dad with nothing but the truth radiating from the big blue eyes she had, "forever and always."
"Are you ready?"
"I am"
"Let's get you married," they turned the corner and saw the entire family standing waiting for her arrival. Donna was waiting for Josh at the end of the aisle. There when Tess stood in front of the judge and across from Evan, the judge finally opened his mouth.
"Who gives this woman to this man?" he asked.
"We do," the entire left side of the audience said.
"They do," Tess whispered to Evan as they both giggled.
And the ceremony went off without a hitch, and later that evening at the reception, Tess was sitting at the table in the fading light of the early evening. Carley was dancing with her boyfriend, Jake, who was making her laugh and Tess smiled at them. She had introduced Jake and Carley years before, while they were freshman in college, it was amazing that it took them this long to get together. Carter approaches her from the house and taps her on the shoulder.
"Our grandfather wants you to go dance."
"Will you dance with me?"
"Of course," he says as he offers his hand. As they dance she smiles at Jed from the dance floor. "You look beautiful."
"Thank you," she said as she blushed, the long silence was beginning to get uncomfortable when he looked at her smirked.
"Do we really have to do this again in two weeks?" he asked trying to hide a smirk.
"Yes," she says pretending to be outraged.
"Why?" he whines.
"Because not everyone could be here."
"Everyone seems to be here."
"Not all of his family, or our friends could be here."
"Are those people really all that important?"
"CARTER!" Tess said lightly slapping his chest with the back of her hand.
"What?" he laughed. "All of us were here."
"I know, but," she trails off.
"But? But what Therese?"
"I want the other wedding too, the one I've spent my life planning, the one in the church with the big dress and all of that."
"So what's this?"
"A trial run"
"Why?"
"Because, Grandpa Jed saw everyone else up there, but not me or Carley, and I couldn't be in a club that was just me and her."
"So you're letting her take it alone?"
"I was ready, I planned this with Grandpa Jed being here, I wanted him here," Tess said quietly.
"He's leaving Tess," Carter whispers looking at her carefully.
"I know," she said as the tears began to flow down her cheeks.
"It'll be fine, Therese, I promise you, it'll be fine," he said as the song ended and he kissed her cheek.
"No, it won't," Tess said as they stepped away from each other and one of her surrogate older brothers cupped her face.
And as Carter Seaborn held Therese Lyman-Leahy up so she wouldn't collapse to the dance floor at her wedding, Abbigail Bartlett cried out as the buzzer rang saying that her husband of sixty years had died.
