“Not really,” I say at the same time Katie says, “No, thank you.” We both laugh, and Dan lets out a chuckle too.
The pastor starts the ceremony, and asks who gives this woman to be married. Adam jumps to his feet and he, Dan, Gabby, Alex, and Trixie all scream at once, “We do!”
Katie laughs and Dan kisses her cheek, places her hand in mine, and goes to sit. I see him slip his hand inside Adam’s, and Adam leans against him for support.
We get to the vows, and Katie turns to face me.
“Hi Jake,” she whispers.
“Hi Katie,” I whisper back.
“The couple has written their own vows,” the pastor says. He motions to Katie.
“Hi Jake,” she whispers again.
“Hi Katie,” I whisper back. Again.
Katie’s voice is strong and sure when she goes on. “I fell in love with you when I was sixteen years old, Jake. And right then, I wasn’t ready to be your wife. I needed to do a few things, meet a few people, have a few children, and then I had to find my way back to you. But when I got here, here you were. You were open and willing, and I think you fell in love with my kids at the same time that you fell back in love with me.”
I chuckle. “I did.”
“I promise, Jake, to love you through all things, forgive you through all things, and persevere with you through all things. I promise to forgive easily, to love honestly, and to value you always. I love you, Jake, and I want to feel like this forever. I hope you’ll be a father to my kids, a husband to me, a friend to everyone, and I hope we die still loving one another the same way we do today, if not more.”
She wipes her eyes again. “Your turn,” she whispers.
“I fell in love with you, Katie, when I was sixteen years old. I wasn’t ready then, though, because we both had a lot to learn. We had to grow and change so we could be ready for one another when the time came, and I have to tell you, Katie…” I lean toward her and say loudly, “I am so ready for you!”
The wedding guests let out a tiny ripple of laughter, but I carry on. “I promise to listen when you talk, I promise to talk in a way that will make you want to listen, and I promise to work together with you on all things all the days of my life. For as long as I get to keep you, I will cherish you and the children you bring with you into this marriage. I know I won’t be their father, but I hope I get to have a special place in their lives. But even more than that, I promise to love you, Katie, in the best way I know how.”
Katie smiles at me.
“Oh,” I say. “I also promise to humanely trap and release every rodent that ever tries to do you harm, and I promise never to let those gnarly beasts harm your kids in the process.”
Katie tosses her head back and laug
hs. A wave of laughter spreads through the wedding guests.
The pastor speaks for a few more minutes, we exchange rings, and I finally get to kiss her. She lifts her arms around my neck, holds on tight, and kisses me back. I lean down close to her ear. “You feel like summertime,” I tell her. I watch her eyes. They tell me everything.
Mrs. Stone passes Hank to Katie. She motions to her kids, and they come to join us. I kneel down and wrap my arms around all of them and Sally licks the side of my face. I scoop Trixie up. “Why did you put my dog in a tutu?” I ask her.
“He likes the tutu,” Trixie says, as if it’s obvious. “And he looks really pretty in a tutu.”
I never thought I could be this happy. Summertime for a lifetime.
Epilogue
Katie lies naked on the bed of our hotel room, her arms flung open wide. I stand in the doorway and stare at her. I saw her when she was pregnant with Hank, but I only got to experience the end of that pregnancy. This time, I got to experience it from start to finish. I got to hold her hair back every time she puked from the smell of eggs in the morning. I got to watch the little flutters of the baby’s heart when we had the first sonogram. I got to see Katie’s face when she felt that first tiny little jolt in her belly when the baby moved.
That day, we were sitting on the couch watching a movie with the kids. She suddenly gasped and reached for my hand. She smiled at me, lifted her shirt, and said, “Can you feel that?”
I couldn’t feel anything but the soft skin of her belly, but she could feel it and that was all that mattered. It was another month before I felt the first kick. But as the days passed, her belly grew bigger, and the life inside her became real. It was a life that we created together, and it was my first baby, but this baby wouldn’t be my first child.
You see, I already have four children, and they are mine in every way, including in name. They hyphenated their last name, adding Jacobson to it, when I adopted them all. But they had my heart long before that.
Gabby will start college in the fall, and while she’s a brilliant, beautiful, sweet girl, she is still a teenager, and teenagers are challenging by nature. She wants to grow up, and I desperately want to keep her a child. I’m not getting my wish. She’s becoming her own person, and she’s leaving Katie and me behind.
Alex just turned eleven, and he’s still obsessed with sports. I’m coaching his Little League team and his football team. Sometimes I have to do it with Hank strapped to my chest, but we get the job done. Alex is still hesitant to call me Dad, but when he has to make portraits of his family in art class, he makes me the biggest figure in the picture, and I know I play a very important role in his life.