Violetta Craft's Arc

Chapter 64 of 65

Six months after Eli came home, Violetta stood in a small side room at the rustic wedding hall and looked at herself in a full-length mirror. The gown was red. She had wanted red since the night Jordie proposed. Floor-length, strapless, silver work climbing the bodice like frost on a window. She had not sewn this one. She had bought it, and she was not sorry. Eli was six months old. Elowen was two. She had not slept enough in a year to draft her own wedding dress, and she had made peace with that. Lymber pinned a loose curl back into place. "Hold still." "I am." "You're bouncing." "I'm breathing." Lymber met her eyes in the mirror. "Your dad is going to cry." "He already did in the truck." Paul knocked and cracked the door. He wore a suit that did not quite fit at the shoulders. He was holding Elowen on his hip. Elowen wore a small cream dress Violetta had sewn between Eli's feedings. Elowen reached for the red skirt and Paul caught her hand. "Not yet, bug," he said. He looked at Violetta and his mouth pulled tight. "They're ready when you are." Violetta nodded. Her heels felt tall. She had not worn heels since graduation. The hall was full. Both families filled the wooden rows. Jordie's parents sat in the front with Eli asleep against his grandmother's shoulder. Jett stood at the end of the aisle in a borrowed jacket, holding the ring on a small square of cloth. Missy and Max sat with Maggie. Saddie waved from the back and dabbed her eyes with the corner of her sleeve. Jordie waited under the beam at the front. Black suit. Red shirt, the same red as her dress. His hair still stuck up in the back. He looked at her the way he had looked at Eli the night he was born. Paul walked her down the aisle. He did not say anything. He squeezed her hand once at the front and gave it to Jordie. "Hi," Jordie said, quiet, only for her. "Hi." They said the words the officiant told them to say. Violetta got through hers without her voice breaking. Jordie did not. Jett handed over the ring. It fit now. Her hands were her own again. When they kissed, Elowen clapped from Lymber's lap and then kept clapping because she liked the sound. Eli slept through it. After, on the porch, Violetta stood with Jordie's arm around her waist and watched people spill out into the light. Lymber caught her eye across the yard and nodded, the same nod she had given her on Elowen's first birthday. Survived. Kept.