The Big 5-Oh! (26 page)

Jared sighed and thought of Liv. “Better than you know.”

“So just be happy for me?”

“I’ll give that a go.”

“Thank you.”

“So are you ready to go downstairs and get married?”

“Just one thing first.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“When are you going to get wise about Olivia?”

Jared wasn’t sure he could stand being any wiser about Liv. But he wasn’t going to share that with his twenty-something son.

“Will there be food after this thing?” he asked with a grin.

“I hope so. I could eat a cow.”

“If anyone else had said that, I’d have thought they were exaggerating. Let's go get you married, son. I’m hungry.”

Rand stopped him at the door with a tug to his arm. Jared turned around and, when their eyes met, he smiled. “Congratulations,” he said in a whisper, and then he pulled Rand into an embrace.

“I love you, Dad.”

“Of course you do. I’m a great father.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. But you’re better than mediocre.”

Jared released him, and then smacked him on the back as they passed through the doorway. “It's tragic how mouthy you’ve become. Your mother would be so disappointed.”

“Imagine if she could see how you’ve let yourself go. That gut alone would make her weep.”

Jared shook his head and laughed as he followed Rand down the stairs. “Ingrate.”

Instead of slinging something back in their usual bantering style, Rand turned toward his father and smiled.

“You’re the blessing of my life, Dad.”

“And you’re the blessing of mine.”

“Thanks for being my best man.”

“Who else? You know I’m the best.”

“Second best, right after me.”

“Let's go get you married before Shelby realizes what a huge mistake she's making.”

“Seriously,” Rand said with an arched brow. “Bite your tongue.”

Jared placed his hands on Rand's shoulders and looked him in the eye. “She's a lucky woman.”

“I’m the lucky one.”

The stallion stood before Prudence and whinnied. “It seems like you’ve only just arrived, and now you’re on your way home,” he said.

Home. She’d never been confused by the word before, but now Prudence was torn straight down the middle. The fragrant green grass of the meadow called to her from far away, and yet her heart told her that, if home is where the heart is, then this clearing by the Enchanted Pond had to be where she belonged.

“Another day?” Horatio suggested.

“No,” she replied on a soft, mournful bray. “It's time to go.”

“Are you certain?” the stallion inquired.

The truth of the matter was that Prudence wasn’t sure at all. Still, she gathered her courage and said good-bye to her new friends in the clearing, and then she put one hoof in front of the other and headed … home.

L
iv remembered Pastor Ed Phillips from Jared's church. He’d made her cry when he spoke about the return of the prodigal son. With his first few words, Liv felt fairly certain he was going to make her cry again, but for different reasons this time.

“In presenting themselves here today, Rand and Shelby perform an act of faith. After knowing one another for only a short time, both of them feel certain that a lasting and growing love, although never guaranteed, is part of their destiny. I’m not an easy one to convince of such things,” he said, sharing a grin with the twenty or so guests in attendance. “But I am convinced, just the same.”

Jared looked so handsome standing there beside his son, and Liv couldn’t help but imagine for a moment that it was their wedding, that she was up there with him, that together they were listening as Pastor Ed assured them that a hasty marriage didn’t necessarily mean a casual decision.

Liv noticed Shelby draw in a deep breath that she let out in a puff. She looked far more demure and pretty than Liv even remembered her. Her blonde hair was swept upward into a twist that was dotted with pins bearing rhinestones and small red flowers. The bodice of her white dress was sleeveless with a high neck and beading that sparkled with the reflection of the candles, and the ankle-length skirt flared only slightly with its overlay of tulle. Beaded white satin ballet slippers finished off the look, and Liv thought the bride looked very much like a regal ballerina.

“Rand and Shelby, let the foundation of your marriage be the devotion you have for each other at this moment. When trouble comes, because it always does come, commit yourselves to looking back at this day, with your friends and loved ones surrounding you, and the net of God's assurance beneath you, and stand firm. Never allow your love for each other to be blotted out by the everyday, or by the doubts of others, or by
the worst-case scenarios that may play in your heads. Let your love stand strong like a house built on solid rock rather than on sand. Take comfort in what you see in one another's eyes this day, and hold it to you like a shield against anything else that would come to chip away at the foundation of what you believe in your hearts to be true: You were meant to be here, in this moment, on this day.”

Georgia slipped into the row beside Liv, and she squeezed her wrist as she sat down in the chair on the aisle.

“What did I miss?” she whispered.

“They just got started.”

Georgia's hand went to her heart the moment her eyes came to rest at the front of the room. Liv wondered if Jared was the inspiration for her reaction, or Rand and Shelby. Despite the fact that they had mended their fences, Liv hadn’t forgotten that Georgia's affections for Jared went far deeper than a few kind words and an appreciation for the competition.

“The bride and groom have written their own vows, which they would like to share with each other and with all of you now.”

Rand looked into Shelby's eyes and gulped. They both smiled, and then he took her hand into his.

“Shell, I love you so much,” he began, and then he paused and smiled as he shook his head. “I’d always heard that love was a gradual thing, that it crept in slowly when you weren’t necessarily looking. But for me, it didn’t come that way at all. It hit like a thunderbolt. The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I’d found my match. And not just because you’re so incredibly beautiful, but because you have a light about you, a heart like no one I’ve ever known before. With each passing day since that one, my love for you has grown until I can hardly contain what I feel for you. I promise to spend the rest of our lives
showing you that I’m fully aware of how blessed I am to have found you. So …”

Rand turned toward his dad, and Jared produced the ring. His eyes sparkled as they met Rand's, and Liv sighed. Somewhere between their conversation in the car and this moment, Jared had come to terms with his son's marriage. She could see it on his face, burning in his eyes.

“… I give you this ring,” he continued, slipping it onto Shelby's finger, “as a symbol of my vow. With all that I am, with all that I have, I honor you in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Shelby's head tipped to one side as she fought back the tears. “Oh, Rand,” she sniffed. “I love you so much that I feel like I could bust wide open from it. I’m so thankful that, when you looked into my eyes, you immediately felt the same as I did. I can’t imagine being in love like this alone. But for some reason that I can’t comprehend, that I certainly don’t deserve, God chose to bless me in this way. And with our union, He's gone one further. He's allowed me to trust, without question, in something that I just don’t understand. That's
SO
not me,” she added, and Rand nodded.

“You’re right,” he said, chuckling. “It's not.”

The guests erupted in laughter at that. Liv understood the sentiment. She was having trouble trusting in her own unusual emotions.

She noticed Jared give a gentle pat to Rand's shoulder, and the simple act brought tears to her eyes.

“I know,” Shelby went on. “But that was the old me. This new one, the one that pledges her love and life to you today, the one that believes one-hundred percent in a future with you, this Shelby is a new creature. Today, I become your wife. I can hardly wait to see what happens next.”

Shelby turned to the friend beside her, a wide-eyed brunette with a smile so big that it seemed to fold her face in half. She handed Shelby the ring.

“Please accept this ring as a symbol of my vow. With all that I am, with all that I have, I honor you in the name of Jesus Christ.”

“Beautiful,” the pastor commented. “Just beautiful. So now, before your friends and your family, and before the God who will nurture you and love you and protect you all the days of your life, I pronounce you husband and wife.”

Rand moved in for a kiss before the pastor could suggest it, and Shelby slipped her arms around his neck with such joy that Liv's pulse raced a little.

The pastor smiled and then shrugged at the guests. “I think that's the part Randall's been waiting for. Family and friends of this happy couple, I give you Rand and Shelby Hunt.”

Applause exploded in the room, and Liv hopped to her feet to join in. The tears that had welled in her eyes cascaded down her face as Jared and Rand hugged one another. She clapped her hands furiously, and Georgia put fingers to mouth and let out a shriek of a whistle.

She and Liv embraced one another as Georgia exclaimed, “What a joyous day!”

The guests tossed white confetti and red rose petals at the bride and groom as they made their way past them, and Jared followed, stopping in the aisle to give Georgia a hug. Then he reached out for Liv's hand and led her down the aisle alongside him. She couldn’t imagine what Jared was feeling just then, hand-in-hand with her, sauntering down the wedding aisle, but her own heart raced with emotion.

I love this man. I love him so much.

Liv thought back to Shelby's words about feeling like she could burst with the love she had for Rand. She and Jared
really did have a lot in common with the bride and groom. Except for the fact that neither of them was brave enough to take such a leap, even in the name of love.

In the dining room, a small wedding cake decorated with red roses sat in the corner on a round table. The large mahogany dining table that consumed the center of the room had been laid out with a gourmet feast of buffet items, from a four-tiered glass seafood extravaganza to a smoked salmon on cut crystal to a shining silver platter offering a scrumptious prime rib. Small matching glass bowls offered sides such as cranberry sauce, whipped sweet potatoes, steamed asparagus, and a tomato and mozzarella salad. Shelby's family had outdone themselves, and Liv marveled at it all being pulled together in such a short time.

“Please help yourselves to the buffet,” Jasper announced, with his arm around the shoulder of his beaming wife. “There are tables and chairs set up through those doors, or outside on the veranda. And once the living room is cleared from the wedding, there will be music and dancing. Enjoy yourselves!”

Liv and Jared made their way around the buffet table. She lined shrimp around the outside of her plate, and placed a slice of prime rib right in the middle. One dab of this side dish, one dab of another one, and Liv's china plate was heaped with food when she and Jared made their way to a table on the veranda.

White twinkle lights glistened in the trees and around an ornate wrought iron fence, and each table had donned a dark red linen tablecloth. In the center of each sat a small glass dish that held two floating candles and one perfect white gardenia. The flowers’ faint scent whispered in the air above the wedding guests who chose an outdoor setting for their meals.

“It's hard to believe it was just this morning that we were collecting the remnants after the storm.”

“I was thinking that earlier,” Liv replied. “Florida weather is so odd.”

“Well, it's beautiful now.”

“I can’t believe what an amazing job Shelby's parents did putting this together,” Liv told Jared in a hushed voice.

“You know what Vivian said about seeing something in Shelby that she’d never seen before?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that look in Rand's eye before either. I think he's really committed to Shelby.”