He didn’t kiss her. Instead, he said something quietly that was for Emily alone.
It was only because Frankie was seated so close that she could read his lips.
I love you. Always.
Always?
Frankie felt an ache in her chest. How could you promise something you couldn’t possibly be sure of? What happened? Did love change or did people change?
She thought of her father, of promises and lies, and wondered when one had turned to the other. Had he meant the vows he’d said on his wedding day? Had he believed them and broken them or had he never really believed them in the first place?
She saw Ryan’s hand slide from Emily’s head to her bump and linger there protectively while they shared a look that excluded everyone else. It was the most intimate, private moment Frankie had ever witnessed, and for that single fleeting second she actually believed that this was real. It surprised her, but what surprised her most was the deep-seated hope that it was real. That these two people had something that could last.
She wanted to believe that, she really did.
And then it was over and there was laughter and clapping and people crowded forward to offer their congratulations in person.
Frankie stayed still, all the words jammed inside her.
Matt’s hand covered hers. “Are you all right?”
Was she? She wasn’t sure. Her head was filled with questions that she couldn’t answer. She wanted to talk to him, because Matt had a wise and measured view of the world whereas she saw everything through a distorted lens. But this wasn’t the place for that conversation. She couldn’t sit in the front row at someone’s wedding and discuss whether love was something that could really last.
Watching Ryan and Emily, she almost believed that it could. It was like glimpsing a patch of blue sky in the middle of a storm. And the blue sky spread, as the wedding turned into a beach party and the guests ate lobster steamed in seaweed and cooked in wash kettles over open fires using water from the ocean.
As darkness fell, Ryan slipped his jacket around Emily’s shoulders and pulled her in for a dance on the sand. And when Lizzy tried to join them he lifted her, too, and they danced in the firelight, the three of them together.
A family.
Frankie felt something she’d never felt before. A yearning, a deep, aching, empty place inside herself she hadn’t realized existed.
Ryan had provided a stack of picnic blankets and Matt grabbed two plates of food and guided Frankie to a patch of sand slightly away from the main celebration.
She curled up on the blanket, listening to the strains of laughter and music. Matt sprawled next to her. “Tell me what you were thinking back there.”
“That this is the nicest wedding I’ve ever been to.”
“That’s it? That’s all you were thinking.”
She sat cross-legged and stared out to sea. “I’ve never really believed the whole happy-ever-after fairy tale, but Ryan and Emily seem so in love with each other.”
“You don’t believe they are?”
“I want to believe it.” She picked at her lobster, wondering how much to say. “When relationships go wrong, do you think it’s because they were always wrong or because the people changed?”
“You’re asking me if people can be in love and then not be in love? Yes, I think that can happen. Life can put pressure on any relationship, but a strong relationship can survive it. My parents were under a lot of pressure when Paige was ill. They had some tough times, but they supported each other. I guess what I learned from watching them is that if you’re honest in a relationship, if you’re not afraid to say how you’re feeling and listen to how the person you love is feeling, then you can work it through. You can find a way.” He paused. “You’re thinking about your parents?”
“I remember picking up their wedding photo once and thinking that they looked happy. I had so many questions about that photo. They were smiling at each other, as people do in wedding photos, and I wanted to know if it was real. Did my dad love her when they got married and then fall out of love? Or did he never love her?”
“Your mom never talked about it?”
Frankie shook her head. “At the beginning she was so upset and angry she couldn’t say a good word about him, and afterward she didn’t want to talk about him at all.”
And Frankie had had questions. So many questions.
“You’re not in touch with him, are you?”
“He sent me a birthday card when I was fifteen and I’ve heard nothing since.”