25. Epilogue Bernadette

My wedding dress was the most beautiful thing that I had ever beheld in my life.

It was now one year after our son, baby Reese, had been born, and Lucas and I were finally getting married.

He had had a custom dress made for me for the occasion. It was a mixture of soft baby pink and white, all flowing vintage lace and hand-hemmed chiffon. The sleeves floated around me like wings and the train was spotted with hundreds upon thousands of tiny freshwater pearls.

I didn't want to imagine what the price tag had been, and thankfully, I didn't have to. Lucas had taken care of that entire side of things and had told me not to worry about it at all. He wanted our day to be as special as possible, after all, so spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a wedding dress was nothing for him.

It certainly made me feel like a princess or someone from a fairytale. And Vanessa, Rachel, and Ana all commented on this as they helped me to get dressed.

They were all, of course, my bridesmaids. They wore matching dresses in a deeper shade of baby pink with pearls dotting the bodices and no trains to trail behind them. Their bouquets were made of baby's breath and dotted with even more freshwater pearls and a few choice roses.

My bouquet was the same, but with way more roses and a lot larger. All in all, we looked lovely together.

"You look like a dream," Ana said with a sigh as Rachel laced up the back of my dress.

"I hope I look just as lovely in my wedding dress," Rachel said, looking over at Vanessa with a smile. In the year since Reese had been born, Vanessa and Rachel had finally come out and told us that the two of them were dating. And Vanessa had proposed to Rachel on top of that.

It was a fairy tale ending for all of us, it seemed.

Well, all of us except Samuel, who still seemed to have no luck in love. But we knew that he would find it eventually. And when he did, we would all be there to support him through it.

"I think Lucas might just keel over when he sees you," Vanessa said as she examined me. "I don't think he ever expected you to look this lovely. It's going to be the death of him."

I giggled. "I certainly hope not. The two of us still have a child to raise, after all."

"That is true. I'm sure he'll make sure that everything is all right then." Vanessa laughed. "He wouldn't leave you alone with that little tyrant Reese after all."

Reese was quite the little tyrant. In the year since he had been born, he had learned how to walk (with a little help for farther distances) and could say some basic words. He tended to get into everything, and since Lucas and I didn't want to hire a nanny or anything like that it left us taking turns off work to keep him out of trouble.

He loved to explore, and he loved being read to. He loved especially going to the park and playing out in the rain with his toys. He had learned to draw and was a master scribbler of all things. We had to supply a constant barrage of paper and coloring books to make sure that he wasn't drawing on any of the walls. We had already had a few casualties that had to be washed out and painted over.

I had a feeling that later in life he would definitely be a great artist or something like that. He seemed to truly enjoy the act of drawing after all, and we did our best to continue to encourage him in it. We had plenty of his pictures all around the house, and we had a feeling that we would only keep adding to that collection.

"I wonder if he'll remember today," I said with a sigh.

"He might have some vague memory of it," Rachel said. "And even if he doesn't, you'll have plenty of photos for him to look at when he's older. I think he'll love seeing himself in a little suit all dressed up for your wedding."

"I hope so. I can't imagine he's enjoying being wrangled into a suit right now."

It was a constant battle to keep Reese in clothing of almost any kind. We had found that he liked soft cotton clothing the best, but he did not like pants. Eventually, we settled on onesies and overalls. This was definitely not what he was wearing to the wedding though, so I could imagine that he was doing his best to protest the suit.

Or maybe he had finally decided to be a good little boy for once. I certainly hoped that it would be that.

Vanessa laughed. "Oh, and it's going to be my joy to walk him down the aisle in that little suit holding the rings. I certainly hope he at least holds my hand like the good little boy I know he can be."

"When has he been that?" Ana questioned with a smile. "He both makes me want to have children and makes me fear their very existence."

"He can be good when he wants to be," I protested. "You know there's been a few occasions where he's understood the importance of behaving."

"I certainly hope today is one of those days," Vanessa said, shaking her head. "Or else I'm going to have an absolute time getting him down the aisle.

Ana nodded sagely, beginning to put the flowers that matched my bouquet into my hair. We had decided to go with a simple updo that could be threaded with fresh flowers. I was already wearing a crown of pearls and a low-seated veil.

Lucas and I had considered going with the more traditional approach of having a veil that covered my face, but he said he didn't want to obscure my face for one minute. He then called me his star in a dark sky, and I had smiled and agreed to go with the less traditional veil situation.

Rachel gasped and clasped her hands together as Ana finished. "You look absolutely lovely. I don't think Lucas is going to be able to keep his eyes off of you."

"Agreed," Ana and Vanessa said at the same time, then looked at each other and giggled.

"Good to know you guys all have confidence in me," I said with a sigh. "I'm actually feeling quite nervous now. I don't know what I'm going to do, it feels like the whole world is going to fall down the moment I set foot outside of this room."

"Oh, baby." Vanessa pulled me into a hug, squeezing me tightly. "You're going to be okay; you know that? The love of your life is waiting for you, and I know that the moment you set your eyes on him you're not going to see anything else in that room. It's going to be all right."

"Thank you, Vanessa." I squeezed her back, then let go. I took a deep breath. "I think it's about time that we all got ready, huh?"

"I'll go check to make sure they're ready for us," Ana said with a smile. "They should be, but it doesn't hurt to check." She skipped out of the little room in the church to go to the antechamber. Then she was back a few minutes later with a smile and a thumbs up. "They're all ready for us. In fact, the music is even starting to play."

"Fantastic." I smiled, then followed the three of them out of the room into the antechamber.

Can't Help Falling in Loveby Elvis Presley had started to play. It was the song that we had chosen as our wedding march as it made butterflies flit throughout my stomach and had been the song that the two of us had most related to when looking at possible songs.

My mom was waiting for me in a beautiful short lace dress, beaming with pride as she looked me up and down.

"You look lovely," she said, taking my hand and squeezing it. "I know that your father would have loved to walk you down the aisle on this day, but I hope that you'll accept me instead."

"Of course." I leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

The wedding party began walking down the aisle of that beautiful little church then. First went the bridesmaids and the groomsmen: Howard and Ana, and Rachel and Samuel. Then Vanessa and Reese walked down—much to the delight of everyone gathered—carrying the rings.

One of Lucas's younger cousins walked the aisle as the flower girl. And then, finally, it was my turn.

As the music reached a swell, I took my mother's arm and a deep breath.

And then we rounded the corner and stepped into the main chamber of that church.

There were audible gasps as people set eyes on my dress. I couldn't blame them; it was quite the thing to behold. But all that my eyes saw was Lucas.

He was positively radiant, staring at me from his position next to the altar. I could see my future in him, in his smile, in that suit that he wore and the way that he was standing. I wanted so badly to be next to him then, for him to hold me in his arms.

I knew what that felt like, to have his arms wrapped around me. It was the best thing in the world to be inhaling his scent, to be feeling his body so close to mine.

And now I knew that I would be experiencing that for as long as the two of us should live. I would be with him for the rest of my life. He would be there, gracing my every morning with his smile and graving every night with his touch.

"You ready?" my mom asked, smiling up at me.

I nodded, and the two of us began to walk down the aisle, toward my future.

It was the only future that I wanted, and I felt so lucky to know that it was mine.

We got to the altar and my mom handed me off to Lucas, who squeezed my hands tightly and gave me a smile. I smiled back at him, then the two of us turned to the priest.

He walked us through our traditional vows and then it was time for the two of us to read what we had written for each other. We started with Lucas.

"Bernadette, my dear Bella, I don't know how to properly express my love for you. I thought about writing a poem, maybe a love sonnet just for you, but whenever I tried the words just wouldn't come to the pen, and the ideas wouldn't come to my mind. You see, my love for you is boundless and indescribable, so I wanted to read you a poem instead that I feel expresses my love for you better than any words that I could conjure.

"Pablo Neruda's seventeenth love sonnet: I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

"To me, you are everything, and these words seem to express that best. I hope that you will let me be your everything as well."

"Of course." I wiped a tear from my eye. "I can't believe you read poetry for me."

"I'll read a lot more poetry for you if it gets that response." He winked, and I laughed.

Then it was time for me to read my vows. I took a deep breath, taking the slip of paper from Ana that I had given to her earlier. She smiled at me encouragingly.

"Lucas, I knew that you were special from the moment I met you. After all, what other fifth grader would make friends with a lonely little first grader?" There was a chorus of laughter from the audience. "But I had no idea what you would become to me. In short, you are everything. You are the sun and the moon and the stars. You are my reason for getting up in the morning and the gentle tide that lures me back to bed in the evening. You are the hours that pass by too quickly and the cry of our child at three am when he manages to climb out of his crib again. And you are mine, and that is all that I could ask for. So, I ask you to let me make that permanent, so I know that you will continue to be my everything until the end of time. Because you are the end and the beginning for me and there is no one else that I'd rather have by my side during this life."

"I'll be there until the end," Lucas said. "I can promise you at least that much."

I smiled up at him and he smiled down at me. He reached across to grab my hand, squeezing it tightly. Then we turned back to the priest.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife," he said. "You may now kiss the bride."

There were cheers as Lucas grabbed my waist and dipped me into a kiss, but all that I could concentrate on was his lips against mine and the feeling of his hands holding me steady. I had no doubt that they would continue to do so until the end of time.