More Than Thirty Miles Home

"I will, momma."

I walked up the aisle, hanging on dad's arm and with mom close beside me. Everyone was looking at me. Everyone was welcoming - smiling, clapping quietly, or nodding in approval. As I got to the front, the boys ran over and hugged me, tightly. Carl was as tall as I was and well on his way to matching his father.

"We, love you mom!"

"Welcome back mom!"

"We missed you, mom!"

How could I ever have done anything to jeopardize this!

Finally they let go and hurried back to their seats. Thomas grinned at me and said, "Hurry up and marry dad, mom, and we can get to the party. There's going to be cake!" I laughed and nodded. Mom leaned close and said, "I made the cake." I whispered back, "Thank you," and gave her a hug.

Dad finished walking me up to the front, and mom pinned the hanging lace up so I was not peering at the world through thread. They both kissed me, and I looked up.

I handed the bouquet to Annie, and she gave me a huge wink. I managed to mouth back, 'Thank you,' and then added, 'Best sister, ever'.

I faced Dave, lost my heart in those kind, loving eyes, and I knelt down.

"What are you doing?" he asked, perplexed.

"I promised myself that if I ever managed to face you again, I would get down on my knees and tell you how very, very sorry I am for hurting you. For betraying you and my vows. And for giving away what was only yours. And for running away rather than face the music."

Dave smiled, and knelt down in front of me. He took my hands, a touch I had never hoped to feel ever again, and said, "And I thought you should have a new engagement ring, since you had to pawn the first one." He slid a small diamond onto my finger, set on a slender, elegant band. He winked. "The wedding rings are identical in design, but brand new. We are starting over. We cannot go back to what we had, but I believe we can make something brand new that can be better. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Now I think our first task is helping each other up, since neither of us is as young as we once were."

We managed to get up, holding tightly to each other, as the audience, our friends and family, chuckled, and then burst into cheers and applause.

Father Ambrose entered from behind the vine covered trellis and stood in front of us. He looked at me sternly, but melted a little at my contrite, teary smile. "Have you been to confession recently?" he whispered to me. I nodded slightly, "Last week, Father, and my penance is complete." He nodded and then looked over our shoulders at the assembly. "In the eyes of the church, this couple are still husband and wife, so I am officiating, not as an official

Church witness, but as a Justice of the Peace for the state of Pennsylvania to renew their civil marriage. Given the unusual circumstances, I am giving this couple," he glanced at his watch, "five minutes to talk to each other and convince me that they are sincere." He looked at us expectantly.

"Dave, you are the most thoughtful and wonderful husband any woman could have. I am truly, deeply, terribly sorry for what I did. And I thank you for your forgiveness - and trust. I promise you, and God, it is not misplaced."

"Melissa, I never want to experience pain like that again, but try as I could, I couldn't hate you. You were the victim of a very skilled and very successful serial seducer. I said on my sign that we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we do, but I think you, I think all of us, have been punished enough. I forgive you. Let's work on love, now."

"And I guess I have to forgive Ann for giving me away," I glanced over at Annie, who lifted an eyebrow and shook her head.

"She didn't give you away. I heard not one word from her lips - I heard them all from you."

"Me?"

Dave nodded. "I had been shopping and was dropping off a bag of groceries and checking in on Ann. She invited me to have a cup of coffee. We were sitting, chatting, when you called. She put her phone on speaker. The pencil scratchings you heard was us passing notes back and forth. When you arrived yesterday, Ann's phone was on and I was listening to you. There were so many times I just wanted to reach through and hug you. I heard how remorseful you were and I believed, deep in my heart, we could make it work. I was the one who texted Ann and let her know I had heard enough, and the wedding was a 'Go'." He looked a bit sheepish. "Keeping you in the dark until the very last minute, well, was kind of getting payback for you standing all of us up at our intervention session. And I'm - half - sorry about that." And he gave me his signature lopsided, quirky smile again that told me that everything would be alright.

"And," he added, "We'll be honeymooning in the South Pacific for two weeks." Then came another 'Dave' grin at the ironies of life. "We may be the only couple going off on a honeymoon who have counselling already set up for the day after we get back." There were a few chuckles from the crowd.

"How are we affording another South Seas trip?"

"Courtesy of Ann. She set aside some of Peter's insurance money and told me that it was to return the favor if I ever got married again."

I turned around and hugged my wonderful, wonderful sister, and whispered, "Thank you," in her ear as I felt her tears on my neck. I turned back to my once and future husband and whispered, "I have a lot of serious ass-kissing to do, and we should get started as soon as possible." We grinned at each other and turned back to Father Ambrose.

"Okay, I'm convinced. So I will say, dearly beloved we are gathered today to RE-join this man and this woman in marriage..."

And all we heard, as we tearfully smiled at each other, were our whispered 'I do's', and whether we heard Father or not, we were kissing right afterwards, because it was long, long overdue.

THE END

Thank you for fighting your way to the bitter end, and I hope that even if you are firmly in the BTB camp, that I managed to set up a reconciliation which is reasonably believable within the story parameters.