The Last Ward Wedding
A Ward family bonus short story previous published in the Nightingale Anthology
The texts weren’t the thing that alerted me that something was wrong. Not even the missed calls. It was when I arrived home, and she didn’t greet me. The wedding was forty-eight hours away, being held in the backyard of the house that all the girls had grown up in, and she was nowhere to be found.
“Where is she?”
They all looked up at me, varying degrees of exhaustion on their faces. Molly sighed, flopping back on the couch. “I lost track of her about an hour ago. She said something about ribbons and mints, and …” Her voice trailed off. “I honestly don’t know. I think she’s losing it.”
Lia tied off a small delicate white mesh baggie filled with … I wasn’t quite sure, but there was a mountain of them on the family room floor.
Wearily, I ran a hand down my face and sighed. My sisters snickered. The only one who remained quiet, watching me with a tiny smile on her face, was the one set to walk down the aisle in two days’ time.
“She say anything?” I asked Claire.
Claire shook her head. “Not to us, but we could see it in her face.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What?”
Isabel tossed another baggie onto the pile. “The impending mental breakdown.”
Molly laughed.
“That bad?” I asked.
Claire winced. “Maybe a little?”
Lia nodded. “A lot. She had the crazy eyes right before she bolted. Kinda like she got last week when she couldn’t get the balloon arch just right.”
“I told her to hire that out,” Isabel said. “Those things are a giant pain in the ass.”
I sank onto the couch next to Molly, curling my arm around her when she shifted to lay her head on my shoulder. “How many more of these you guys have to do?”
Lia checked her watch. “We’re almost done. Which is good because I have to get home to tuck the little man into bed.”
“I need to tuck myself into bed,” Molly said around a yawn. I kissed the top of her head, and she smiled against my shoulder, running a hand over the twenty-two-week baby bump underneath her black shirt.
My wife was hiding somewhere in our house, wedding-meltdown in full effect, and I knew I’d find her eventually. But I didn’t often get a quiet moment with my four sisters. For years now, we’d been slowly adding significant others into the mix. Boyfriends became fianc?s as months passed. All but one had become husbands.
Lia was the first to bring a baby into our crazy mix, and damn if that kid didn’t steal a giant chunk of my heart that I didn’t realize was still up for grabs. Molly got married first. Then Isabel. She and Aiden had two girls and Paige wasn’t sure she could handle all the happiness they brought her.
Lia and Jude got married next, a wedding that featured a few international athletes that even had me a little starstruck. Perks of my sister marrying a former British footballer.
And that left Claire. The quiet one who probably caused me the most sleepless nights. Not because she was trouble, or because she broke the rules, but because she didn’t. There was so much worry in watching a heart like hers grow into adulthood, because I never wanted her to lose the sweet, soft side of her that made her so special.
To everyone’s complete surprise, the man who captured that heart was big and tattooed and had an edge to him that hid what a giant fucking sap he was for my sweet, soft sister who was so good at knowing what everyone needed.
They took their time, and in true Claire and Bauer style, they’d asked Paige and me to hold a small backyard wedding the same day he slid a delicate antique ring onto her finger.
For a few minutes, I watched my sisters talk and laugh, trying to remember what it had been like years and years ago, when it was just the five of us against the world.
Isabel nudged me with her foot, and I blinked out the memory. “What’s that face?” she asked.
I sighed. “Memories. Wasn’t that long ago we were sitting in this room arguing about who got the pick the movie to watch. Or whose turn it was to get the good seat on the couch.”
Lia grinned. “Remember when Isabel dumped a bowl of popcorn over my head because she hated my choice of movie?”
“You made us watch
The Princess Diaries for six weeks straight, Lia.”
“I was finding popcorn in the couch for the same amount of time,” I muttered.
Molly laughed. “Don’t you miss it?”
I closed my eyes at the sound of their laughter, these four bright, funny, caring women who’d been my entire world for as long as I could remember. They were starting families of their own, and nights like this, they were few and far between. I didn’t ever want to forget what a gift they were.
I missed the popcorn throwing.
The screaming matches.
The stickers I couldn’t ever quite clean off the walls.
The way they’d mess up a bathroom beyond any human comprehension.
The long talks we’d have—through their tears—about mean friends and bullies and boys they liked. How they taught me that loving someone that much meant you had to watch them suffer things that you couldn’t fix.
And even though the years had brought us so many new people to love, my own wife and son included, there was something almost holy about those early days when we carved out a path for our family. “Yeah, kid. I miss it.”
My throat must’ve sounded tight, because she lifted her head and popped a kiss on my cheek. “Don’t cry.”
“I’m not,” I said gruffly.
I was.
Claire watched the exchange as Lia tied up the last bag and pronounced their labors complete.
Lia helped Molly up off the couch, laughing as her sister groaned at the ache in her back. Isabel joined them, laying a hand on Molly’s gently rounded stomach. And from the floor, I saw Claire’s gaze linger on her sisters, a melancholy expression stealing over her pretty face.
I stretched my leg out and tapped the side of her thigh with my foot. She blinked away from the scene in front of us, advice being given about easing pregnancy back pain from the two sisters who’d already done it.
I tilted my head so she’d join me on the couch, and she did with a widening smile.
“You ready?” I asked quietly.
She let out a slow breath. “Yeah.”
“No nerves?” I pressed my shoulder against hers. “Because if you want to slip out the back, I can take Bauer.”
Her face turned to mine with a disbelieving list of her dark eyebrow. “Can you?”
For just a moment, I thought about the reality of fighting a professional snowboarder a couple decades younger than me. I glanced down at her. “Maybe.”
She laughed. “No nerves,” she said. “I would’ve married him ten times by now.”
“I know.” I sighed again. “I should go look for Paige.”
My sister nodded slowly. “Yeah, you probably should.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.