The Wedding Letters

by Jason F. Wright

  A&P sat for five minutes, thinking hard. Then she got up, went inside her home, opened the book of letters, slipped the other four into plastic sheet protectors, and reread the fifth yet again.

  She called Malcolm but hung up before he answered his cell. Then she called Rain and did the same.

  “What do I do?” A&P asked, but Putin didn’t answer.

  She put the letter in her purse and picked up the book of letters. She ran her finger across the initials and began to walk.

  No one with any history at the Domus Jefferson could ever recall seeing even half as many cars in the small parking lot. They were jammed in and tripled-parked. Others were parked alongside Route 11, and one of Samantha’s deputies worked traffic control.

  They came from all directions. Some came because they hoped a wedding might still occur, others came because they’d stayed at the Inn and had become family—a few actually were family—and still others came without any connection to the Inn at all. They came because someone knew someone who said a party was happening with free food, face painting, and dancing.

  Malcolm and Rain spent much of the afternoon watching it all from two rockers on the porch. The rockers to their left and right exchanged visitors every now and then as friends wished them well or stopped by to share a favorite story.

  Matthew and his son, LJ, arrived, a pleasant surprise not even Matthew had expected until the night before. In a quiet conversation in his office, Matthew confided to Malcolm that he wanted to turn his life around but didn’t know where—or how—to start.

  Malcolm comforted his brother and encouraged him to seek spiritual help from their longtime family pastor before returning home from the celebration.

  Around lunchtime, Noah arrived alone. He gathered the immediate family in the living room of the Inn and presented A&P with her painting. She wept openly at the vivid depiction of her home and the two adults standing off to the side. What Noah hadn’t told her was that he’d added Alan, her husband, to the painting at the very last minute. “He’s been here all these years anyway,” Noah told her. “Might as well be able to see him.”

  Later Noah and LJ snacked in a corner of the main reception tent and caught up on the news about Rachel, LJ’s recent track success, and Monica’s business. “Tell Aunt Mon I said hey, would you?” Noah asked him.

  Allyson was beckoned to the swing for a long chat with A&P. Allyson shooed away some children who were trying to see how many people they could fit on the bench. The women talked for as long as they could about A&P’s decision, and Allyson’s opinion was exactly what she’d expected to hear. “Do it.”

  Malcolm kept watch for the Van Dams and was surprised they hadn’t been among the first to arrive. Rain suggested calling to be sure they were all right, and Malcolm considered it for as long as it took him to realize they were low on ice.

  Alex Palmer and his wife also came. Malcolm questioned why he’d been meeting with A&P and he responded with a smile, “Sorry, Malcolm. Attorney–client privilege.”

  While he’d chosen not to attend, Daniel still sent a large bouquet of fall flowers and a card to the Coopers thanking them for taking care of Rachel and Stephanie and wishing them well on their next phase of life. Malcolm made a mental note to write him back after the dust and drama settled and thank him for having done the same thing.

  Stephanie mostly stayed away from the chaos, choosing instead to sit in a camp chair in the distance watching people pose for photos, negotiate turns to hold Baby Taylor, and reconnect with the Coopers. Just like Noah, she checked the driveway more often than she needed to in hopes Rachel would appear.

  She didn’t. Rachel had received several urgent text messages from Tyler, her best friend at work, asking her to call him back. But with so much to process about the day she’d gone back and forth from dreaming about to dreading, she turned the phone off and buried it in her purse.

  At 3:30 p.m. the crowd was called to assemble in front of the gazebo. The wooden padded chairs were filled in seconds and most people were left to stand along the sides and the back. Pastor Robinson took the microphone and asked for reverence.

  “Friends of the Coopers. Friends of the church. Friends of the Inn. And friends of our God in Heaven. Welcome to this celebration and to this surprise renewal of wedding vows.”

  The crowd buzzed with excitement, and Pastor Robinson grinned until the noise fizzled into silence. “This day is special, not because of this family or because of this chance to say good-bye. It is special because like all days, it is a gift from God and we thank Him for it.”

  “Amen!” someone shouted from the crowd. Other voices echoed it.

  “We would be remiss if we did not have a moment of silence to remember Jack and Laurel Cooper who revived and restored and resurrected this spot of land and this historic Inn. God be with them.”

  Only Baby Taylor could be heard cooing somewhere in the crowd.

  “What was once a wedding, today becomes a renewal. Please stand and join me as I present to you Malcolm Cooper and Rain Jesperson Cooper.”

  From the speakers sitting high atop tripods, the wedding march began. The standing crowd parted and Rain and Malcolm appeared. Rain was dressed in a white blouse and a dark brown, knee-length skirt. Malcolm wore a gray suit, white shirt, and no tie. They walked arm in arm down the aisle and to the head of the gazebo. Malcolm smiled down at Noah who was sitting on the front row between Allyson and A&P. Noah tried but could not smile back.

  Pastor Robinson stood on the top stair. “Do you come here today to renew your vows?”

  “We do.” They said the words exactly as they should have, in unison.

  As Pastor Robinson began the ceremony, a car with DC tags pulled halfway up the driveway and onto the grass. Noah craned his neck, hoping to catch a better view, but saw only two men step from the car.

  Just latecomers, Noah thought as the men mixed into the standing crowd.

  The pastor read a special prayer he’d written and a verse from the New Testament. Then he invited Rain and Malcolm to say their vows. Neither had written any but both spoke eloquently from the heart. Only the first few rows heard them, but those that did knew they would likely never forget the words.

  Pastor Robinson offered another short prayer and repeated the all-important question from their wedding over two decades earlier. The answer was the same, and he invited Malcolm to kiss his bride.

  As the crowd cheered and the children raced away to resume their games, a sheriff’s department SUV pulled into the driveway with its lights flashing. Stephanie felt her heart skip out of her chest.

  The SUV didn’t stop at the makeshift grass parking lot at the bottom of the hill. Instead it pulled up and parked directly behind the gazebo. One of Samantha’s deputies got out of the SUV driver’s side and disappeared into the crowd. A moment later another person got out of the other side and retrieved something from the backseat.

  Noah rose from his seat. Rachel.

  She approached the gazebo, carrying a long, black garment bag and an air of confidence.

  Noah stayed planted in front of his chair. As Rachel passed in front of the newly remarried couple, Rain couldn’t resist grabbing her by the arm and pulling her in for a hug. When they released one another, Rain took the garment bag from Rachel and held it in both arms.

  Rachel stepped up and took the cordless microphone from Pastor Robinson.

  “Hello everyone,” she said.

  The stunned crowd replied with a murmur of surprise.

  Rachel walked toward Noah and stopped just inches away.

  “Are you kidding me?” Noah said with a smile and enough butterflies in his belly they could have lifted him from the ground.

  Rachel scanned the first few rows and immediately spotted her mother. “Hi, Mom.”

  Stephanie waved shyly with one hand and covered her mouth with the other.

  Rachel’s eyes went back to Noah. “There’s no easy way to do this, is there?”

  He shook
his head.

  “And this isn’t some scene in a Nick Sparks’ movie, is it?”

  He smiled and shook his head again.

  “I miss you and I love you and I miss you and I want to get married and I’m sorry.” The words exploded out much faster and in an entirely different order than she’d rehearsed them on the long drive out.

  Noah started to speak but she shushed him loudly into the microphone and the crowd laughed.

  “I listened to you, now you listen to me. . . . You are right. We can find other people. We can probably even find happiness with other people. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to be the Rachel Kaplan I can be with some other person. I want to be the Rachel Kaplan I can be with you. You hit me that day on my bike for a reason—”

  “He’s a terrible driver!” Matthew yelled from a few seats away and the crowd laughed again. Samantha, seated next to him, yanked on his ear.

  “I don’t dispute that.” Rachel smiled. “What I do argue and what I will argue until we die—besides how cold we should keep the thermostat during the summer—is that it was meant to be. I might be happy somewhere else with someone else, but I don’t want to be. I want to be happy with you.”

  “Are you sure?” Noah said.

  “Actually, it’s the only thing I’m sure of right now.” The crowd began to cheer and Rachel shushed them, too. “Wait, I need to do this. Noah Cooper, will you—”

  “No!” Noah took the microphone from her. “I asked you first. Will you marry me?”

  Rachel shouted out a yes that didn’t need a microphone to be heard across the grounds at Domus Jefferson.

  The crowd cheered even louder as family members mobbed the couple. Rachel broke free and found her mother. “We’ll need time,” she whispered.

  Stephanie whispered back, “I know.”

  Pastor Robinson descended the gazebo stairs and took his turn on the microphone. “I think we have a wedding to perform.”

  Rain and Stephanie hurried off with Rachel into the Inn to put on the dress and fix her hair. Samantha made a bouquet by pulling flowers from the arrangements scattered around the gazebo and the nearby dining tent. Matthew retrieved two cameras from inside and put Shawn in charge of one of them.

  Malcolm dove deep into his upstairs closet and found his father’s classic tuxedo that no one had worn in years. “This never fit me quite right,” Malcolm told his son as he removed it from the hanger. “I have a feeling you’ll be a different story.”

  Noah was different, indeed, and the tuxedo fit him perfectly. Even his grandfather’s faded shoes looked like they’d been custom-made for Noah’s feet. “You look just like your grandfather,” Malcolm said, pride etched into every single word.

  Malcolm, Matthew, and Noah were standing by Pastor Robinson at the bottom of the gazebo stairs when the crowd parted and Rachel floated through it with her mother and soon-to-be mother-in-law trailing.

  Noah and Rachel’s vows were as unique as the day.

  “Rachel, I’m likely going to be a starving artist our entire marriage. I will create books for children that no one’s children except for ours might read. I’ll mess up more than I should, and I’ll never want to live far from this valley. But I will love you more than you’ve ever been loved and I won’t ever let you fall, because I’ll be standing next to you.”

  “Noah, I’m still more broken than whole. My emotions are racing through me and changing directions more often than the wind. I don’t know how this ends. I don’t know how any of it ends, but I know it ends with you. And that’s good enough for me.”

  Vows were followed by more cheers and a prayer. Then the pastor married them in as few words as possible. Stephanie stood on one side and Noah’s parents stood on the other.

  “I now pronounce you man and wife,” the pastor said. “You may kiss the bride.”

  As Noah leaned in he whispered in Rachel’s ear, “Don’t you just love overcast days?”

  Chapter 45

  The crowd began to disperse for food and dancing and no one but Noah noticed another car arrive. This one was a rental and it pulled up onto the grass at the top of the hill, parking just behind the sheriff department’s SUV.

  A man climbed out of the vehicle and he lingered by the car, as though unsure where to go next.

  Noah’s attention was pulled from the newcomer when A&P called the family and those interested to gather up front so she could present the new couple with their two books of Wedding Letters and to make an important announcement. Quite a few people moved up to the front rows. Others remained standing but tuned in.

  “First, an announcement, if I might,” A&P began.

  Family and friends nodded and went silent.

  “I know that Malcolm and Rain are wondering where the new owners of the Inn are. I’m sure most of you haven’t met them yet and looked forward to meeting them today.”

  Rain surveyed the crowd for Mr. and Mrs. Van Dam, and Malcolm realized he’d completely forgotten about them.

  “Allow me to introduce the new owners to you.” She pointed at the first row. “Jake, Angie—come up here.”

  Samantha’s eyes opened wide.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, Domus Jefferson now belongs to Jake, Angie, and Baby Taylor.”

  Rain was nearly speechless.

  Malcolm was not. “How? Anna Belle, you promised me. What did you do?”

  “I had almost nothing to do with it. My personal attorney, Alex Palmer, presented the Van Dams with another business opportunity that was more attractive.”

  “More attractive?” Malcolm said. “The sale has already closed.” He looked into the crowd for Alex and saw him smile, take his wife’s hand, and blend into the crowd spilling out of the tent.

  “You closed,” A&P said. “You’re right. But the Van Dams found something else and sold the Inn to these kids. Happens all the time.”

  “Happens all the time? How could they afford it?”

  A&P fought a smile rather unsuccessfully. “They got a very good price.”

  “Angie?” Samantha spoke up. “What’s going on?”

  Angela handed the baby to Rain and put her arm around her husband. “Jake got laid off last month.”

  Jake nodded confirmation and blushed in embarrassment.

  “A&P offered to help, but we couldn’t take it. And she’d promised Uncle Malcolm not to get involved. So she—”

  “Bent the rules,” Malcolm offered.

  “And she bought the Van Dams another place that Alex found. A place closer to the city. It was much more expensive, but it had a pool and trails—lots of things they were going to add here anyway. They jumped at it.”

  “Oh, I bet they did,” Malcolm said.

  “Mr. Palmer worked it all out. We don’t really know all the details, just that we got it for a steal.” Angela looked at her husband. “The Inn will be ours.”

  “But do you want it?” Rain asked.

  “We do,” Jake answered.

  “So you’re moving here?” Samantha said.

  “Can’t run it from the Midwest, Mom,” Angela said.

  “You’re going to raise Taylor here?”

  The baby cooed on cue and everyone laughed. “Yep. First steps, first words—all of it will happen right here.”

  Malcolm looked at A&P and shook his head. “You’re in so much trouble, Anna Belle.”

  A&P’s eyes were wet and she didn’t speak for risk of blubbering. Instead, she hugged him and listened to him whisper “Thank you” in her ear.

  After everyone hugged everyone else, Allyson took a turn and called the group’s attention. “You still have the letters, right, A&P?”

  “Of course.” She handed one book to Rachel and one to Noah. “It’s the most letters I’ve ever seen come in.” The couple flipped through the pages, capturing a few names here and there, but knowing there would be plenty of time later to read the letters.

  “You’ll laugh at these, and you’ll certainly cry at these, I promise you. And kids,
you will cherish every one forever, I know it.”

  Noah and Rachel hugged her from each side and after a minute Allyson poked her head into the mass of cheeks. “But isn’t there one specific letter, A&P?”

  A&P exhaled and pulled the final letter from her purse. “There is.”

  “Are you going to read it?” Allyson asked.

  “My heavens, Ally, yes! Patience!” Normally the Coopers would have chuckled and teased their aunt for her meddling, but curiosity was running too high for anything other than holding their breaths. “If you’re happy I’m reading this now instead of just handing it to you later, it was all my idea. If you’re angry and wish I’d done it differently, blame your aunt.”

  Nods all around.

  • • •

  September 21, 2011

  Dear Rachel,

  I can’t believe I’m writing you. I have been looking for you lately. Then, just when I almost gave up, I found you. Was that God working?

  I have been wondering how you have been. I have been wondering about your mother. I haven’t seen you in so long. I wasn’t sure at first if that was you on the web page about your wedding. Your name looked different, but I recognized you in the pictures. You look so beautiful. I am happy you are getting married to the boy on your web page. Noah? He looks like a good man. I hope he makes you happy. Hope he treats you good.

  The web page said I could send a letter to the A&P, though it seems strange to send a letter to a store. Well, I can only hope this gets to you.

  I have wondered a lot where you and your mother have been. I have also wondered what you did with your life. I am so happy to see what you are.

  When your mother left, I was not very surprised. I wondered where you were and I looked for a while. But I gave up looking. I was angry, but I gave up on being angry too.

  I bet you and your mother are more happy now than if you had stayed in Kansas City. I was mad you left. But not surprised.

  I stayed there for a while and worked that same job. But they fired me. I did not work for a while and I got kicked out of the apartment. I lived in a shelter downtown for a while. But I got in a fight and they kicked me out. I lived in another shelter for a while after.