Epilogue
© Copyright 2005 by Elizabeth Delayne
Andrea and Eric’s wedding was everything that they were; styled, elegant, classic, and held at the church—their church. Their reception was everything that their friends were. Spilling out from the Spring’s restaurant and onto the beach, the music was loud, the food overflowing.
Derek wore a suit, because it was Andrea’s wedding, after all. But he stood barefoot in the sand, his jacket and tie discarded. He looked around, studied the groups of people that waited ... Lance and Ham, Mitch and Joe, John and his entire family. His girls were out near the waves, splashing around with some of the older children that had changed for the reception into something more beach friendly.
Other guests ranged from Eric’s father, who stood separate and aloof, serious; a little perplexed by the reception itself, and his mother and sister who mingled with a wide berth between them. There were the Lyons and their friends, a few of the town elite, some clients, coworkers, and more than enough family.
They crowded the large open deck of the restaurant and into the sand beyond.
The rest were her friends—their friends—unafraid to get their feet in the sand. Even he was surprised by the people that turned out. A few were junior lifeguards, former junior lifeguards, some were regulars at Kuzcos and the half pipe. Many of them were members of their church, but not all.
How her life must have changed by knowing Amy, by becoming a lifeguard and stepping out of that quiet shell ... by putting her tray down across from the one person everyone thought she should hate.
Here she was, the life of a party, and she, along with most of the wedding party, hadn’t even arrived yet.
He bided his time until he saw the flash of soft blue slip through the restaurant doors. Amy went straight to Mrs. Lyons, handling whatever duties were hers as maid of honor. The dress was elegant, some soft, filmy material that brushed over her toes. Her hair was pulled up with soft curls cascading in the back.
Andrea and Eric entered with flash and laughter, and for a few moments she was caught up in the flurry.
But as she stopped, seemed to take a breath, he went to her side.
“You look beautiful.”
She looked up at him, turned to him, and smiled. “Thanks ... I feel beautiful today ... and weepy. I can’t believe the last six months went so fast.”
“You wouldn’t have said that two weeks ago.”
Sharing an apartment with Andrea and Chloe, in the middle of planning for the wedding ... in the wake of national attention from Vince’s arrest and the fallout from all of the revelations ... it hadn’t been without the petty arguments of roommates, that sometimes spilled over into the station. Still, they’d gone to New York, driven up and down the California coast in Amy’s T-Bird convertible ... cooked dinner, watched girly movies ... tried to pile as much into the six month period as they could stand.
“Andrea was right. We needed it, arguments and all,” she smiled ruefully. “In five weeks, Chloe will be gone. Not just married, but gone ...”
Derek followed her gaze as she located her friend in the crowd. Chloe stood with Mitch and his family. She wore a dress identical to Amy’s, with the added decoration of a ring on her finger. Mitch stood beside her, his hand locked in hers. The therapy had been hard, and not without complications, but he wanted to be able to dance with Chloe on their wedding day. It looked like he would get to dance with her today ... maybe with a slight limp, but dance all the same.
A familiar look crossed over Amy’s eyes, and she frowned, obviously worrying over it, over the past. Derek slid his arm around her, drew her against him. She rested her head against his side and slowly relaxed.
This was where she wanted to be, Amy thought ... surrounded by her friends, by the people important to them, by the town.
It was all important to her.
Her father stood with Anna. They weren’t together, not as a couple, at least, not yet ... but for the first time on an extended basis, they seemed comfortable as friends.
As Andrea and Eric were called to the center of the deck, the crowd parted. They slid into their first dance as husband and wife; their steps seemed so in-sync, as if they’d been practicing their whole life. Andrea was radiant, her blond hair cascading down her back. She looked up at Eric as if ... as if he was all she had ever waited for, as if together they could conquer the world.
For Amy it was a beginning ... the pang of sadness was there, but so was the anticipation. For the first time in so long she felt as if she was where she was supposed to be, where she wanted to be. She had plans. They were still ideas really, and hinged on so much.
The Mallory Carpenter Center for Teens.
It made her smile. She thought it would have made her mother happy as well.
Vince was in jail, his bail denied. His lawyers were pressing mental insanity, but Amy decided not to worry about it. He wasn’t a free man.
And with her father’s status that drew the national press, everyone in the country knew about it.
Vince wasn’t just facing criminal charges, but several civil malpractice suits as well. His big estate on the cliffs had been put on the market—which was opening up a prized piece of property. Her father was working for the owners of the Spring’s restaurant, via a third party to purchase it ... and if the restaurant were to move to the cliffs, allowing it to focus on it’s more exclusive clientele ... then with her father’s help, she could purchase their current facility from them ...
A prime location, right next door to the beach station house.
It was years down the road, but it was still a possibility.
Finally, a possibility.
The wedding party was called to join the newlyweds on the dance floor. Amy slipped off her strappy sandals, died the same blue as her dress, then held out her hand out to Derek.
“Captain Johnson, would you care for a dance?”
He slid his hand into hers.
They danced on the edges, closer to the ocean then the center of attention. Amy closed her eyes and listened to the ocean, absorbed it.
This was right. This ... was so right.
“I wonder what it’s like to live in a place where you can’t hear the ocean.”
“Are you itching to find out?”
“No …” she closed her eyes, listened to his heartbeat. “No, I don’t want to be any other place then right here.”
“Right here, as in Basin Springs, or right here as in,” he tightened his grip, spun her out and around, then back into his arms, “right here, with me?”
She laughed, looked up at him. “I couldn’t choose.”
“Then are you thinking about asking me to marry you again? Because if you are, I accept.”
Her heart tumbled over, but she managed to look him in the eye and she saw acceptance, trust, and patience. “We haven’t been dating for months.”
“When have we not been dating? If our kids ask us one day what we did on our first date, I’m going to say that I handed out a traffic citation in your honor.”
Amy felt the laugh spill out of her and tightened her hand in his. “Maybe you should ask this time ...”
“If I have to ask you, then that means I have to ask your dad first.”
She looked over at her dad, where he stood talking to Ham. “If you’re wanting to ask my father ... you’ll have to ask them both. Ham will get a kick out of it ... and my dad would ... it might make him uncomfortable, but I’d think he’d secretly want you to. Of course, you’ll probably need to come have dinner with us first ... at least a few times. It will probably be a bit easier if you two knew each other a little better.”
“You think he’ll say yes?”
Amy shrugged. “You know my dad ...”
“You’re not making it easy on me.”
“If you want things easy you’ll have to find someone else.”
He laughed, and she could see in his eyes that he’d thought the same thing many times over the last year. She didn’t blame him.
“Derek ...” his name trembled on her lips. He looked down at her, concerned. “If you were asking ... it might be awhile before I could ... before we could. With the planning for the center ... and the trial. And I don’t have my degree, or know exactly how to finish it. Nothing’s set yet and I ... I don’t know when or how ... or what has to come first.”
“Amy, haven’t I told you before? If it’s strong, it will last. When the time’s right, we’ll be ready.”
“I do love you,” the words flowed simply from her heart. “Don’t say anything yet ... I just wanted to remember saying it, here at Andrea’s wedding. The possibilities seem so wide open and endless.”
His hand squeezed hers, his eyes full of emotions. The love she hadn’t let him voice was there, so clear and beautiful, along with so many other things ... trust, belief ... things she hadn’t felt void of for a long time.
“Then let’s finish our dance.”
The floor cleared again when it was time for Andrea to dance with her father. Lance came over for Amy when other fathers and daughter pairs were asked to join. Derek watched as a single tear escaped, but she walked to the dance floor with him. Lance said something that made her laugh, then smile... and she rested her head next to his heart, where she could hear his heartbeat.
They were beautiful, so much more so because they were healing. Derek blinked back his own tears and looked around to find that he wasn’t the only one watching them. For a moment, many people forgot about Andrea ... and watched as a miracle danced.
It would take fifteen months and six days, but Derek would finally get Amy down the isle. For their honeymoon, they got into the driver’s seat of her T-Bird convertible and drove up the coast ... passing into two more states and finally into Canada.
If their honeymoon could have lasted forever, they would have kept going ... and talked about doing so.
For Amy, there was an entire world to explore.
~Ephesians 3:17b-19
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