Norma hit the last notes of the wedding march. The couple stopped abruptly, bumping against each other, still clenching each other’s hands. Max cleared his throat. He looked at the scrubbed, frightened faces of the young man and woman, who waited for his usual, meaningless crap about matrimony. He couldn’t make himself say it.
“Why are you here?” he demanded bluntly, scowling at them.
They jumped in unison. The groom turned red with embarrassment. “You think we shouldn’t be here, huh?”
“I don’t know. Why are you getting married?”
The bride began to sputter. “B-because we l-love each other—”
“That’s not enough,” Max told her. “You have to love each other in a certain way. You have to be willing to love each other even when one of you is impossible to love. You have to be willing to take the other person’s pain as if it were your own. You have to want the other person’s happiness as much—if not more—than you want your own happiness.”
“We’ve got all that,” the groom said defensively.
“Tell me something. You two look like you haven’t got an extra dime between you. Is that any way to start a marriage? Have you got any place to live? Do you have decent jobs?”
“Stop it, Max,” Betty said brokenly. The couple swiveled around and stared at her. She stood up and looked at Max with tears in her eyes. Then she looked at the couple. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have very much money, or a wonderful place to live, or decent jobs. If you really want to take care of each other for the rest of your lives, you can build a good life together.”
“I work at the gas station over on highway seven,” the groom told her. “And I just bought a double-wide trailer.”
Max shook his head. “But what if you lose your job? How will you make the trailer payments?”
“I’d get another job!”
The bride pivoted toward him and lifted her chin. “I can pay ’em. I work days at the Hamburger Barn and nights at the Laundromat.”
Betty applauded. “You two are going to be just fine.”
Max met her angry, sad gaze and held it firmly. He felt as if he were strangling inside. Take the last step. It’s such a small one. See if she believes in your newfound faith. “What if he wants to give her more than he’s capable of giving, and it makes him do things that hurt her?” Max asked.
The anger faded from her expression. “Are we still talking about money, or are we talking about loyalty, commitment, and promises built on faith?”
“We’re talking about money. The rest—he can give that, all of it, because he knows he’ll never stop loving her. She’s changed his attitude toward making promises, you see. But maybe he’s worried that she won’t believe him, because he’s been so stubborn and confused in the past.”
Her hands rose slowly to her mouth. “Maybe she trusts the future more than the past. Maybe she trusts him in a way that she’s never trusted anyone else, because he’s always been honest about his feelings.”
The bride and groom looked at each other in bewilderment. “Huh?” the groom said.
At the back of the room Audubon leaned on the back of a chair, his chin propped on one hand. He looked disgruntled. “Sssh, children. We’re merely spectators.”
Max continued to hold Betty’s gaze. “He hasn’t always been honest. He let her think that he wanted to make money more than he wanted to stay with her. He thought the money would make her believe in him more.”
She moved slowly into the aisle, never looking away from him, her hands still raised to her lips in amazement. “He thought she’d be uncertain about his motives?”
Max nodded. “Would you say that he’s wrong?”
“Without a doubt.” She glided toward him as if floating on forces that didn’t require her conscious will. “Do you think he’ll stay with her?”
“Without a doubt.” Max stepped down from the platform. He held out his good hand. “Do you think she’ll believe him when he says he can look into the future and see himself as a husband and father?”
“Oh, she wants to believe that most of all.”
He met her halfway up the aisle. She took his hand and stepped closer to him! With the space of a whisper between them Max asked, “Do you think she’ll marry him?”
Her eyes glistened. She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it. “At the very first opportunity.”
He pulled her into his arms and tucked her head against the crook of his neck. “Then they should definitely get married.”
The bride and groom stared at him hopefully. “Us too?”
“You too. But I tell you what. Go change into the costumes you wanted. This marriage ceremony is going to be the best I’ve ever performed. And it’s on the house.”
He sighed happily as Betty began laughing and kissed his cheek. Norma whooped. Audubon stood with great dignity. A rueful smile touched his mouth. “I suppose,” he said dryly, “that I’m not surprised.”
Holding each other deep in the heart of the night, they finally gave up. Each time they tried to be solemn and discuss the future, they were distracted by the present, and made love again.
“We don’t have a place to live,” he reminded her.
“And very little to wear in public.”
“Not to mention only one toothbrush. Did you have to buy a pink one?”
“We’ll pool our resources and get you a blue one.”
“Okay. I’m happy.”
“You feel happy. Very happy. Oh, Maximilian—”
“Now, stop doing that. Yes, keep your hands right there, and be still. Be serious. What kind of wedding do you want?”
“Why don’t we have a military wedding? I’d love to see you in uniform. We could invite the men from your old team.”
“I’d like that,” he answered gruffly. “It’ll be dignified, I promise you. I won’t treat it like one of the parlor weddings. It’s not a joke to me.”
She kissed him. “But you can’t let me be dull and stuffy, Major.”
“Well, you could wear the Daisy Mae outfit.”
They both laughed. “I think not,” she told him. “Perhaps I’ll just let Faux Paw be my bridesmaid. That should liven things up.”
“I can’t wait to see that. We should do it soon.”
“I’d love to.”
“Love me?”
“Forever.”
Now he was the one who couldn’t keep from distracting them from conversation. Betty sighed happily as he began touching her. The man could do such amazing things with only one good hand.
“I look forward to a lot more attention like this,” she whispered.
“I guarantee you’ll have it. Along with a lot of love.”
She traced his lips with her fingertips, anticipating his smile before she felt it. So much hard work lay ahead of them. So much to rebuild. So many risks to take. She and Max should stop being irresponsible and become properly depressed.
No way. She kissed him, moved closer, and knew that the future was safe and happy within her arms.
Deborah Smith, Honey and Smoke
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