Page 73 of Caleb's Salvation
“Missed you, though, Ark,” Angel said with a pat on the man’s shoulder. “Glad you could make it.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it. Only it would have been helpful if you and Shelby and Daniels and Kate could have arranged for a double ceremony.”
“Kate and I don’t want as much fuss as Angel and Shelby are having,” Jackson said. “We’ll do things in our time.”
“Fuss?” Angel countered. “It’s Hope’s Point. Zeke and Eve are putting on the whole thing for, like, a couple hundred dollars.”
Obviously, Angel didn’t know about the exotic flowers Eve was having flown in from the Lower 48. Vivienne had told me all about Eve’s new level of crazy in making this wedding perfect. Including some apparently shady dealings with people from Colombia, South America, to get just the right shade of orchid.
The locals, most everyone from the camp who wasn’t required to hold down a shift, and Eli’s mom would be there. The weather was forecasted to be beautiful and I had no doubt it would be an amazing day.
“Who would have believed it?” Angel said, shaking his head. “Such a stupid idea and it led to all this.”
All this. It seemed like a such a simple statement, but it held so much meaning.All thiswas Shelby and Eli getting married tomorrow.All thiswas Jackson and Kate deciding how long they wanted to stay engaged.All thiswas Ark and Olivia who were going to have a baby in a few months.
All thiswas my wife and son, tucked in a room together at Zeke and Eve’s place because Vivienne and the rest of the women wanted to be with Shelby as she got ready for her special day.
“You ready for another ceremony?” I asked Daniels.
He grunted.
We’d decided it made sense for him to get his minister’s license so he could do the honors. We all agreed that Daniels guaranteed the fastest wedding ceremony possible.
Mine and Vivienne’s vows had gone like this.
“Do you, Cal?”
Me: “Yeah.”
“Do you, Vivienne?”
Her: “Yes.”
“And you, Sam?”
Him: “Yababyabaya”
“Cool. You guys are married.”
I smiled remembering it. Remembering how she’d held Sam while it happened and together, they became mine. Mine to take care of, mine to watch over, but most of all, mine to love.
I’d been lucky once. I was even luckier now. Because having lost so much, I appreciated what I now had that much more. So Vivienne and Sam knew every day how I felt about them.
The door to Bud’s opened then and all our heads turned in the direction. I smiled as we saw the women burst inside. Shelby was holding up a bottle of champagne and wearing a white sash that declared her asThe Bride.
“Hey y’all. We were having my bachelorette party, and I said to the ladies,ladies, wouldn’t my bachelorette party be so much more fun if we could party with a bunch of hot guys?”
“And I said,amen, sister!” Kate called out.
“So we were thinking where could we find the hottest men in in Alaska,” Shelby continued. “And we decided that was Bud’s!”
“Bud’s!” Kate shouted.
“Bud’s!” Vivienne repeated with her arms in the air where I could see she was also holding a bottle of champagne.
Olivia came in behind them and walked over to the table, clearly disgruntled. She plopped on Ark’s lap with heavy thud.
“What’s the matter, Liv?” he said, rubbing her back.
