Page 56 of The Leaves In Autumn
“If you’re an inch away, you might see a little mark. Put your hair over your shoulder.”
“Yes. Good idea,” Aurora backs me up and ignores her previous fib.
Dove takes the bottle of champagne from the bucket.
“Let’s have a toast to the sisterhood, before you go get married.”
“Good idea.”
We take the crystal glasses, and she pours half flutes. “Here’s to us. To the wonderful tribe we have found in each other.”
Aurora’s eyes are misty. “I love each one of you,” she says, taking my hand and squeezing.
“Me too.”
Scarlett raises her glass and what she says makes us laugh at ourselves.
“I’ve never known women who soaggressivelybelieve in each other. Our friendship is like a religion.”
“Don’t make me cry!”
“That’s so beautiful!”
Layla pats a tear and opens her eyes wide, to stop more.
“Okay! Enough! We are going to mess up our makeup!”
Dove’s cell sounds.
“Five minutes! Aurora you are being paged.”
“Everyone out!” Layla orders. “Except Barbra. We’ll be there in a minute.”
“We’re out of here!”
Aurora, Scarlett, and Dove head for the front door, where we will be walking out. I turn to Layla and the lump in my throat rises.
“Do you have a tissue?”
“Yeah, right here in my bouquet. But don’t get your snot on it.”
That stops my tears, and we chuckle at ourselves. She meets my gaze and lowers her chin.
“I love you, you know.”
“I love you back.”
How long have we been saying that? Since I could talk, I think.
“You are going to have a wonderful life with Van. You did good, sister.”
“I want to thank you. More than any other person in my life, you have made me believe in myself. Whenever I have felt sad or hurt or just confused about where I was headed, you have made it better.”
“We will always be that for each other.”
We come in for a hug and hold on. When she pulls away, a ripping sound stops us in our tracks. Uh oh.
“Shit! My earring stuck to your veil! Oh my God, Layla!”
