Viv
The Okaloosa County Clerk of Court was not exactly the setting for a fairytale wedding like the one they’d seen that seventeenth summer. The words from Vivien’s Destin diary echoed in Kate’s head when she looked around the room where Tessa and Dusty would exchange their wedding vows.
Vivien had been so excited that she’d stumbled onto the “wedding entry” in her stash of teen diaries, she’d actually brought the notebook along today and insisted Kate read it as Vivien drove to the courthouse.
No, this was not the dreamy beach wedding at sunset her sister had described that summer day in 1994.
The fluorescent lights hummed overhead with all the romance of a dentist’s office, the carpet was the shade of gray that Kate had seen in too many Cornell hallways, and somewhere down the hall, a copy machine was grinding through what sounded like a very long document.
But when the officiant—a kind-faced woman in a navy blazer who’d introduced herself as Judge Patricia Clement—said, “By the power vested in me by the State of Florida, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Kate Wylie forgot all that.
Her dear twin sister was finally married…at fifty years old.
Tessa—wild, fearless, fun-loving, and chronically unpredictable Tessa—stood in the small ceremony room in a white sundress and sandals and gazed into the eyes of Dusty Mathers with an expression Kate had never seen on her sister’s face.
She looked…at peace.
Dusty held Olive on one hip, reminding them all that this sweet toddler was the reason for this “quickie” wedding. They planned to adopt the two-year-old little angel from a young mother who had lost her husband and parents not two days after Olive was born. In a struggle with what Kate assumed was depression or maybe addiction—Dusty was her therapist and couldn’t share—Olive’s mother made the decision to give up her child for adoption. Her only stipulation was that Olive be adopted by a married couple.
And as of a minute ago, they became exactly that.
Olive had spent the brief ceremony gnawing on the ear of a stuffed manatee with intense focus, occasionally taking a break to drop her flaxen curls on Dusty’s strong shoulder, nuzzling his salt-and-pepper beard and reaching up to grab his glasses.
He didn’t seem at all fazed, just elated.
After the pronouncement of marriage, he shifted Olive with ease to take Tessa’s face in his free hand and kiss her with confidence and love.
Their soon-to-be daughter let out a squeal that might have been delight or might have been a protest about the interruption to her manatee chewing, and the small room filled with laughter.
Kate pressed her fingers under her glasses to catch the tears before they fell. Beside her, Vivien was openly crying, clutching a tissue she’d had the foresight to bring.
Five people and a toddler in a government building on a Friday morning. That was Tessa’s wedding. No lace streamers,no flower-decked arch, no long white gown. Just a couple who’d found each other and let a two-year-old be the catalyst that put their budding romance into warp speed and a tender exchange of vows.
It wasn’t at all what Tessa had expected in life—but was anythingconventionalwhere Kate’s twin sister was concerned?
No, and that was why they joked about being “opposite twins”—Kate was pragmatic, logical, and driven by facts and science. But Tessa? Impulsive, high-spirited, wildly illogical, and driven by her emotions.
Not for the first time since they emerged from the womb, Kate envied that…freedom. What would it be like to throw caution to the wind, make a spontaneous decision to marry, and wear a look of sheer joy and anticipation of whatever was ahead?
Taking Olive from her husband’s arms, Tessa flipped some long blond hair over her shoulder in a quintessential Tessa gesture—graceful, gorgeous, and, yeah, a tad dramatic.
“Well?” She grinned, her eyes glassy. “Am I really married?”
“You’re really married.” Kate pulled her into a hug, careful not to squish Olive, who responded by pressing a damp manatee ear against Kate’s cheek. “I’m so happy for you, Tess.”
After a lifetime of restlessness, after twenty-five years of carrying the secret that she’d had a baby and given him up for adoption, after decades of losers who only cared about her looks, Tessa had found her forever.
She found that baby she gave up, too. Roman was a grown man, in love with Vivien’s daughter, and very much part of Tessa’s world.
And as only Tessa could ice her cake of life, she’d reconnected with the quintessential “bad boy” they’d known from their summers in Destin and fallen in love. Tessa and Dusty had bought a two-family beach house together andlived separately, the only way they could afford the waterfront property.
But that older Miramar Beach house would be reconfigured into a one-family home, complete with the little girl who’d landed in their laps.
Little Olive Oyl, as Tessa called her, would soon be family when she became Tessa and Dusty’s daughter in every way that mattered. No one deserved this happiness more than Tessa Wylie.
“Wait.” Kate drew back at the thought. “Are you changing your name?”
“I’d like to be Mrs. Mathers,” Tessa admitted. “But my company is Tessa Wylie Events, so…maybe I’ll just use both.”