Page 89 of All The Things: The Last Thing He Needs Omnibus

So much for not overstepping. But Tommy didn’t mind. He knew he wanted something special, knew he wanted something that would make Bobby happy. He also knew the last thing he needed was to plan a damn wedding. He’d never even been to a wedding. “My guest list is exactly three people long,” he said with a laugh. “You go off. We’re only doin’ this shit once, so whatever you wanna do.” After a second thought, he added, “Keep it cheap.”

The look on her face told him what she thought of a cheap wedding, but she didn’t say anything.

“I’m assuming you’re not willing to wear a tux?” she asked instead.

Tommy didn’t even need to think about it. “When would I ever wear a tux again?” he asked. “I’ve got a good suit, so that’ll do.”

Judy nodded, her expression somewhere between resigned and agreement. “Bobby? Class A?”

He shrugged in answer, but Tommy thought he saw a flicker of something in his eyes. A beat later, he looked at Tommy and said, “It’d be free.”

“I like free.”

With a laugh, Bobby said, “Yeah, I know your love language.”

So that was settled. Bobby in his dress uniform, Tommy in a suit, a handful of guests, cheap and easy and very little input from the grooms on anything else.

Things simmered down, wedding-wise, after all of that was decided. Judy and Colleen and Carrie never discussed their plans around Tommy, or at least not much, and Tommy got to go back to life as usual and let the day roll up on him.

Until one afternoon, a month and change before the big day.

“Tommy?” Colleen took a sip from her coffee, standing in the kitchen, her eyes tired as usual but alert. “What about Pop? You want him there? At the wedding, I mean?”

“Not really, no.” The thought of Cal there rankled on some deep levels. Yeah, they’d seen more of him lately, more than Tommy liked. He’d been by with his letters, he’d made an effort to get to know the kids, been to a few family functions, but Jesus. Did he need to be there for what was probably the most important day of Tommy’s life?

But the look on Colleen’s face made him pause, made him rethink it. “Why? You think I should?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Couple years ago, if someone had asked that, I would’ve told ’em to fuck off.”

“But now?”

“But now it’s your wedding, and you should only have people there that make you happy.”

“He don’t make me happy, Col. I’m not sure he could ever make me happy.”

“Yeah, I get that. I just…”

“Spill.”

“What if he really does come around and he’s part of the family and does good and you regret not having him?”

“What if I invite him and he shows up drunk and pisses on the flowers and then throws up on the cake and I go to jail on my wedding day for killing him?”

She laughed, a little sad but also amused. “That’s definitely a possibility.”

“It’s too early in the morning to think about this,” Tommy said after a minute. “I’ll get back to you on it.”

But he never did. Never really thought about it again until one sunny afternoon in May, just a week or two before the wedding, when Cal came over for a cookout—at Judy’s invitation—to celebrate some award or another that Carrie got in school. Tommy couldn’t keep track of her accomplishments, or any of them, really, since they were all doing good. Even Davey, which Tommy never would’ve guessed was possible. Not so long ago, he’d assumed Davey would be sweating out his first stint in juvie by now. Who knew?

So when Cal showed up with a potted plant in one hand and a grocery bag with chips and grapes and homemade cupcakes, Tommy gave him a hard look. Not because he was pissed off, not because he didn’t want Cal there or want his plant or his fucking cupcakes—which he didn’t—but because Colleen’s words were in his ear. What if he gets his shit together? Had he? Gotten his shit together? This sobriety stretch was definitely lasting longer than any others had, so maybe.

While the kids ran around the yard and Cal played with the twins and the dog and Judy put food out, Tommy pulled Bobby aside.

“Think we should invite him?”

“Your father? To the wedding?”

“No, the dog.”

---