Eliot put his hands on his hips and said, “Yes. We agreed your high heels would be too treacherous on the wet patio, but I cannot in good conscience let you get married in those.” She was wearing the beat-up running shoes she wore to the gym.
“These are comfortable and nonslip,” she informed him.
Eliot exclaimed, “And hideous!”
Lark chimed in, “Wait, I think I have a solution,” and darted from the room, only to return a few moments later with a pair of glittery red sneakers.
Yolanda traded her gym shoes for the sparkly pair, then told Lark, “These actually fit. You have freakishly small feet.”
“And they’re borrowed,” Lark said. “What’s the tradition? Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?”
“I totally have that covered! The dress is new, and this is old and blue.” Yolanda held up her slender wrist to show us her dad’s watch. It was silver with an indigo blue face, and it looked huge on her. She sounded wistful when she said, “I wish he could’ve met JoJo and walked her down the aisle. He knew I’d never go for that, but she would’ve loved it.”
Eliot crouched down beside her and took her hand. “You know he’s here with you today, Yo. Plus, this house is the physical embodiment of his love for you. That’s why it’s so special that you’re getting married here.” Yolanda seemed like she was fighting to hold back tears as she nodded and turned her head to look out the window.
“Come on,” I told Lucky, because I figured Yolanda could use some privacy, “let’s go check on Owen.”
I took his hand, and once we were back in my room he asked, “Did Yolanda’s dad buy this house for her?”
“In a way. She’s an only child, and her parents were divorced. When her dad died, he left everything to her, and that inheritance provided the down-payment for the Victorian. She makes a good living as a nurse, but you know how expensive real estate is in this city. That’s why she helps cover her monthly mortgage payment by renting out these four bedrooms.”
“And in the process, she made herself a new family,” Lucky said, and I nodded.
We’d woken the baby with our conversation, but that was actually fine with me since I didn’t want him to miss the ceremony. Lucky sat on the bed while I changed Owen’s diaper and wrestled him into a clean outfit and the tiny rain gear. The baby wanted to pull the hat off immediately, but I quickly distracted him with the cow from his wooden puzzle, which he was very fond of for some reason.
Once he was dressed, I picked him up and told Lucky, “Let’s go check on JoJo. Last I heard, she was in her room with her friend who’s officiating the ceremony. God, I’m so nervous for her.”
“More so than Yolanda?”
“I want it to be perfect for both of them. But JoJo’s been thinking about her wedding day since she was little, and it means more in her case than it does with most people. She told me a story once about seeing a pretty, white dress in a store window when she was ten years old. Her first thought was that she’d love to get married in something like that someday. It was the first time it really clicked for her that she was transgender. So, in a lot of ways, today is the culmination of everything she always hoped for and dreamed about, the life she could only imagine back when she was growing up in a family that didn’t understand or support her.”
Lucky sounded emotional when he muttered, “I wish I could stop the rain and make the day perfect for her.”
I smiled at him and said, “It’s going to be perfect anyway, rain and all.” I knew I was right when we went downstairs and got a look at the magic my family had made.
The front door was open, and Kel’s two men were out on the porch, acting as greeters. Gorgeous swags of red roses framed the doorway inside and out, and a breeze mingled their perfume with the scent of the rain. The living room was full of people and softly aglow with the light from dozens of lanterns and flameless candles. Music was playing, thanks to a battery-operated boom box and a stack of dusty CDs someone had found in the garage, and everyone seemed relaxed and happy.
I shifted Owen to my other hip, and Lucky rested his hand on my lower back as we followed a path of red rose petals down the hall to the open back door. When we took a quick peek outside, Lucky murmured, “That’s amazing.” A few people were already clustered in pairs under those big, brightly colored umbrellas, and now I understood my brother’s vision. The flashlights made the umbrellas glow like a sea of paper lanterns.
The rest of the yard was beautiful too, rain and all. Dozens of flameless candles in a rainbow of colors lined a path to the arch, which was swathed in swirls of rainbow tulle. The strands of battery-operated twinkle lights we’d woven into the airy fabric made the whole thing look ethereal and dreamlike.
Lucky said, “Everyone did a great job,” and I nodded. I was really proud of what all of us had accomplished to not just salvage our friends’ wedding day, but to make it so special.
We backtracked and knocked on JoJo’s door, and her friend called, “Come in, unless you’re Yolanda. That girl needs to be patient and not ruin the surprise!”
When I told them it was us, JoJo shouted, “Get in here, fam!”
The moment I opened the door and saw JoJo standing in front of her full-length mirror, I started to tear up and whispered, “Oh, JoJo, you’re just absolutely beautiful.” Her hair was in loose curls, and she wore a garland of tiny, dark red roses like a headband, with its long, red ribbons streaming down her back. Her lipstick, nail polish, and pumps were the same shade of red, and her white dress was perfection. The style made me think of the 1950s with its fitted, short-sleeved bodice that flared out to a full, mid-calf length skirt. My favorite part was the hundreds of tiny, sparkling, clear glass beads. They covered the bodice and looked like they were spilling down onto the skirt, with a heavier concentration at the top that gradually thinned out to a light sprinkling toward the hem.
I gave her a half-hug with the baby on my hip, and she laughed and said, “I swear to god, Logan, don’t you make me cry! My makeup’s waterproof, but I don’t want puffy, red eyes on my wedding day.”
“Nope, no tears allowed,” I said, as I smiled at her. “You really are a vision, though.”
“Thanks, love. So tell me, how’s my Yolanda holding up?”
“She misses you and wants to marry you like, ten minutes ago.”
“Same. We’re close though, right? I heard some of our guests arriving.”