It was my birthday.

“How you doin’?” Matt asked.

“Peachy. You?” I asked back.

“Good. This is early, something up?”

“Got big plans for the day,” I told him.

“Yeah? What’re you doin’?”

I told him and we talked and laughed and about fifteen minutes in I saw Tate move. He got up off the couch and I heard him say, “Bub, shower, we gotta go soon.”

Then he came to me, pulled my wet hair off my shoulder, bent and kissed my neck then his hand came out to mine lying on the island. When it did, his thumb tweaked the two rings there, my engagement diamond and a very wide, gold wedding band.

Then he pulled away and turned to the living room to see Jonas hadn’t moved.

“Bub, I said shower,” he repeated and Jonas sighed, got up and started to slink out of the living room.

“That your man?” Matt asked in my ear.

I twisted my neck and watched Tate walk down the hall toward our bedroom.

“Yeah,” I replied and I knew it sounded breathy and I figured that was uncool, considering Matt still hadn’t moved on from Ellen.

But I couldn’t help myself.

* * * * *

I was standing in my undies in the bathroom, putting the finishing touches on my hair.

Buster was sitting on the bathroom counter, her ginger eyes watching my hands in my hair.

Tate was standing in the doorway, wearing his suit pants and a dress shirt not done up, leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed on his chest, watching my hands in my hair.

“You should wear it down, babe,” he noted for the fifth time.

“Krys wants it up,” I replied.

“Looks better down,” he told me.

“Okay, but Krys wants it up,” I repeated.

He didn’t answer. I finished my hair and then reached across the basin to the shelves where I kept my hairspray. This meant Buster scampered. I didn’t often use hairspray but Buster had made a habit of hanging with me in the bathroom, she’d been there when I’d given my hair a good shot and she was a smart cat. She learned quick she wanted to be nowhere near the bathroom when I was wielding a can of hairspray.

I was about to give my hair a good dose when Tate’s body hit my back, his hands sliding along the skin at my belly.

His mouth dropped to my bare shoulder and he muttered there, “Like this underwear, Ace.”

He would. It was pale yellow and all lace, a strapless bra and barely there panties.

“Captain –”

His big hand roamed up from my belly to cup my breast.

“I like it a lot,” he murmured, his lips moving up to my neck.

“Tate, we’re already going to be late.”

I watched in the mirror as his head lifted and his eyes caught mine.

“Right,” he muttered but the tips of his fingers trailed the lace at the edge of my bra and I shivered.

Tate felt the shiver. I knew this because he grinned then he let me go and walked out of the bathroom.

I dosed my hair with hairspray. Then I walked into the bedroom and dosed my body with perfume.

Then I went to the closet to put on my bridesmaid dress.

* * * * *

“How many kinds of fool am I?” Krystal, standing at the back of the church about to walk down the aisle, asked. “I’m marrying Bubba in a church.”

I stared at her in shock.

And this was not because somewhere between seeing her yesterday at the bar and seeing her today she’d dyed her hair a deep, auburn red (that looked fantastic, by the way).

No, it was because Krystal was nervous.

I looked over her shoulder at Jim-Billy who looked hilarious wearing a suit with a yellow rose in his lapel. I’d never seen him in anything but jeans, t-shirts, ball caps and hospital gowns.

He was giving Krystal away. Krys didn’t have a good relationship with her parents, so not good, they weren’t even invited. Several months ago, right in the bar, Krys had asked Jim-Billy to walk her down the aisle and she’d done it in her usual Krys, no-nonsense type of way. Even so, when she did, Jim-Billy had stared at her, then he’d burst into tears and he’d sobbed huge man sobs in his beer for at least five minutes.

Then he said yes.

I got close to Krys. “You’re not a fool, this is good,” I assured her.

And it was.

Bubba was still working construction. Bubba was also still devoted to making certain Krystal felt safe and loved at all times. Bubba didn’t drink at all anymore, even when he did shifts at the bar occasionally or when he hung there not occasionally. He never went fishing. Ever. Krys was his world and he’d devoted himself for over a year showing her that.

It took awhile but she cracked. Then she let him back in and a week after she did, he wasted no time and tried to put a ring on her finger.

She didn’t wear it for three weeks but eventually she gave in.

Now, today was the big day.

“It’s good, honey, but I don’t trust it,” she told me.

“Krys –”

“He’s Bubba, I know –”

I interrupted her. “He’s Bubba and I know he’s had a taste of a world without you and he wants no part of that.”

“Right,” she whispered, not believing me.

“I know something else,” I went on. “I know what it’s like to give up thinking there’s something special out there and I know what it’s like to have it walk into your life and I also know what it’s like not to believe. But, honey, now I know what it’s like to live something special every freaking day.”

“Tate is –”

“Lucky,” I cut her off again, “’cause the something special I have is in me and I give it to him so he gives it right back. And that’s what you’ve got. You’re special, Krystal, and you deserve this and you deserve to know that Bubba finally gets it and he’s going to do everything he can to give it back.”

She shook her head. “Darlin’, I ain’t special, I –”

I got even closer and broke in yet again. “Took a chance on me and, doing it, gave me a shot at a beautiful life. Took a chance on Twyla when no one else would hire her because she’s crazy. Took a chance on taking back Bubba even though you were scared. And you take care of everyone around you, you aren’t sweet about it, but, honey, that doesn’t mean you don’t still do it.” Krystal stared up at me and I finished, “Now, walk up that aisle with Jim-Billy and grab onto a bit of your something special.”