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Tara
To Mark, Sarah and baby Leo. Thanks for your friendship and letting me hang out with your son. Mark, thanks for always answering my questions.
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“BY THE VIRTUE of the authority vested in me under the laws of the state of Florida, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Zoe Simmons took a big step back as the groom hauled his bride in for an enthusiastic smooch. The bride wrapped her arms around her new husband’s neck while the guests clapped and hooted their congratulations.
Once the couple disengaged, with wide grins meant only for each other, Zoe peered around them to say, “It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you for the first time, Lilli and Max Sanders.”
Lilli sent Zoe a grateful smile, and Max winked before tucking his bride’s hand securely into the crook of his arm as they turned toward the happy faces before them. Linked in the promise of a new life together, the newlyweds strode down the aisle.
With a bittersweet sigh, Zoe watched them walk away.
When she’d agreed to officiate this marriage—a privilege she’d never considered as part of her duties as the mayor of Cypress Pointe, but then soon learned it was a tradition—she’d had good intentions. Lilli had been her friend for years and even though standing here stirred up a bittersweet web of emotions, Zoe wanted to be part of her friend’s special day. In the past few years, Zoe had generally avoided weddings, especially since...
Don’t go there.
The guests filed out of the pews, chatting and greeting friends and family. The mother of the bride, artfully dressed in a jade-colored designer dress and shoes, wiped her eyes with a lacy handkerchief. The bride’s father, tall and distinguished, spoke into her ear. The woman broke out into a wobbly laugh.
Never having known her own father, Zoe had walked down the aisle alone at her small wedding ten years ago. She tried to deny the slight hint of jealously at Lilli’s good fortune, then decided to be honest with herself. This wedding had been a million times different than her own.
“Zoe. Are you coming?”
Shaking off the direction of her thoughts, Zoe nodded, briskly placing her regrets where they belonged, buried deep down in her heart. Today was about Lilli and Max, not the what-ifs and could-have-beens shadowing her own life. There would be plenty of time later, when she was alone, to mull over the events that had led to her current state of affairs.
“I’ll be right there,” she told her date.
Date. It still sounded strange. She’d been out with Tim three times now. He was fun, smart and good-looking. What’s not to like, right? When he’d first approached her, it had been at a fund-raiser they’d both attended. After spending the entire evening talking, he’d asked her out. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Hadn’t she just decided to put herself out there? See what could happen? The initial date, dinner at an Italian restaurant, had been awkward but soon they’d eased into a companionable friendship. He made her laugh and went out of his way to take care of her. You couldn’t ask for more. So why did she
