Page 63 of Persuading Penny
Moments later, Dad was at the door. His eyes filled with tears the moment he saw me.
“My princess. Look at you. How beautiful you are.”
“Thank you, Dad.”
He came to me, slow tentative steps. I’d never seen him so unsure of himself. He held his hands out to me, a silent request that I set my hands in his. I did.
“Will you ever forgive your dear old fart of a dad for meddling in your life? All I wanted was...”
I squeezed his hands. “I’ve already forgiven you, Dad. I know you wanted what was best for me.”
“And I selfishly wanted what was best for me, too. I wanted to ensure that you would be well taken care of. I wanted you to marry a big name, a prestigious name, a British name. I wanted to boast that my daughter was a...a Seagram.”
I laughed. I felt no bitterness towards him. Everything had worked out as it should. Perhaps if I’d married Cliff all those years ago, our lives would have taken a different turn.
He looked at me. “Aunt Sally told me about Steve Seagram. I can’t believe I was willing to throw you to the wolves...to a wolf like that. I was so impressed by the family name, by that fortune, by the status his name would bring to our name. But I was wrong. I was so wrong.”
“And how do you feel now? How do you feel about Cliff?”
He smiled, a crooked and shy smile. “He seems like an upstanding fellow. American, but...” He chuckled. “I guess I can get used to that.”
“He loves me, Dad.”
“I know. It’s so easy to see, and I know you two will be happy.”
“Penny,” Keely called through the door. “It’s time.”
I looked at my father. “Ready?”
He nodded and turned to open the door.
*****
We’d written our vows, simple, to the heart and a little poetic. In addition, Cliff took a moment to add;
“Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks, within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks but bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
I joined him in finishing Shakespeare’s well-known sonnet. “If this be error, and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”
Tommy ran up to us, the rings in his tight little fists. He’d refused to hold the small cushion Reagan had bought for the occasion.
“Thank you, Tommy,” Cliff said as he took the more delicate ring from the boy’s hands.
“I wuv you, Uncle Cliffy.”
“I love you, too, Tommy.”
Tommy then held his open hand up to me and I took Cliff’s larger and slightly sticky ring.
“I wuv you, Aunt Penny.”
Aunt Penny. Oh, my. I was an aunt. I cupped his cheek, touched by his statement. “I love you, too, Tommy.”
I smiled at him, then looked at Georgina standing nearby with her basket of rose petals. She seemed eager to join in the ceremony. While she’d sprinkled a few petals along the aisle as my father had walked with me, she still had so many petals in her basket, and I could see her playing with them, eager to toss them about.
Cliff took my hand in his, and I brought my gaze back to him. With a slight tremor to his hand, he slipped the delicate ring on my finger as he repeated what the pastor had just said. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
I slipped on his ring, repeating the same line. We kissed, a tender kiss filled with so much love.
