“Are you ladies ready? It’s time,” Amy’s friend Diane says as she pulls open the doors.

The murmur of the crowd quiets as a trio of violins start playing. Shelby squares her shoulders and steps out onto the patio. Jasmine takes her place in the doorway, ready to go next. I hand Gabby her bouquet, and she wraps her fingers around mine, giving them a gentle squeeze. There are tears brimming in her eyes—the happiest kind—as she gives me a knowing smile.

“You look beautiful,” I tell her, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “You’re going to be so happy, Gab. You deserve all the happiness in the world.”

“So do you,” she whispers. “I love you, Callie.”

I nod, smiling. “I love you too. Good luck, sweetie.”

Gabby lets go of my hand just as Diane touches my shoulder, letting me know that it’s my turn to go. I step out onto the green, green grass of the pristine lawn, and I look everywhere but at Nate, because I’m afraid that I’ll walk too fast if I see his face. Instead I focus on putting one foot in front of the other and walking down the aisle between the rows of pristine white chairs that hold all of Ben and Gabby’s loved ones. Amy gives me a smile through watery eyes as I walk past her, and I take the three steps up onto the altar.

The music changes to a soft, swelling march as Gabby steps out of the house. I watch her through my own tears as she walks down the aisle, Ben looking so in love that it seems like he’s having a difficult time not running across the yard and taking her in his arms. And the cynic in me—bastard that it is—makes itself known. I can’t help but think about all the couples who have done this before them, who have walked down aisles and stood on altars where they promised to love each other forever. Couples who—years later—wind up fighting over kitchen tables and antique lamps in the comfort of the offices of their five-hundred-dollar-per-hour divorce lawyers. Did they all start off looking like Gabby and Ben?

I think about Amy and Jack, holding hands in the front row, who somehow managed to beat the odds. Is it predetermined when couples walk down the aisle which ones will make it and which ones won’t? Or does everyone start out with the same shot, and the choices they make throughout the years either bring them together or push them apart? My head spins at the thought of it all. Getting married, hell…even giving your heart to someone is like jumping off a cliff. How can people make this kind of commitment not knowing what will happen when they land?

People like my mom and dad just couldn’t make it work. But there are also people like Amy and Jack. And people like Gabby and Ben, so in love with each other that it both inspires and scares me.

And then there’s Nate. Standing across the aisle from me, his eyes locked with mine, smiling at me like the whole world has fallen away.

When he looks at me like that, I wish it would.

I reach out and take Gabby’s bouquet.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”

DINNER STARTS just as the sun goes down, and the twinkle lights draped from the poles of the canopy combined with the soft candlelight from the tapered arrangements on the tables cast an ethereal glow across the tent. There’s a dance floor on the far side of it with a deejay booth in the corner, but he’s playing soft music now, mainly drowned out by the buzz of conversation and silverware clinking on china. Dinner is a delicious one: filet with a side of roasted asparagus and mushroom risotto. We’re drinking delicious wine, and the company is wonderful. Ben and Gabby just got married, and they’re so disgustingly cute. I should be happy—I mean, I am happy—but I shouldn’t be so caught up in my own thoughts.

I feel like a bundle of nerves and insecurity, and absolutely nothing is helping. Thankfully, I don’t think that my distraction is that obvious, or if it is, other people are too wrapped up in the party to notice, which is good. Nate is sitting to my left, cutting steak and asparagus into tiny pieces for Madeline. She’s sitting on his lap, giggling. Jessa’s sitting a few tables away with her husband, who just arrived this morning. They seem to have fallen on the Wright side of things as far as functional relationships go: they’ve been married for five years, and they’re looking at each other like it’s their wedding day. Even Ethan and Emily are leaning close to each other, holding hands and sharing smiles.

I seem to be the dysfunctional one in this group. Oddly, it doesn’t depress me, it just makes me want to isolate myself so I don’t accidentally taint any of these lovely people around me. Especially the one right next to me, who’s being so adorably wonderful with his niece that I’m having a difficult time wiping the smile off of my face.

“Are you gonna save a dance for me later?” Nate asks as he spears a piece of meat with his fork.

“Why do I gots ta save it?” Madeline looks up at him with her big, blue, inquisitive eyes.

Nate grins and lets out a small, airy laugh. “It’s an expression, Mad. When you want to dance with a pretty girl and you know that lots of other boys are going to ask her too, you want to make sure that she knows you want to be one of those boys. So you ask her to save a dance for you.”

Madeline’s cute little mouth forms a tiny ‘o,’ and I can tell that she doesn’t quite understand, but she goes along with it anyway. “‘Kay.”

Nate laughs as Madeline steals the steak from from the end of the fork, popping it in her mouth with a high-pitched hum.

“You’re going to save a dance for me later, aren’t you?” He gives me a sexy wink that makes my heart ache as much as it makes it flutter.

I nod, not trusting myself to say anything.

Nate’s eyebrows scrunch together; he must notice that I’ve got something on my mind. As soon as he opens his mouth to say something else, Amy stands and clinks her spoon against her wine glass. When the room is quiet, she picks up a microphone and walks over to our table, coming to a stop right in front of Ben and Gabby.

“Thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate my son and my new daughter,” Amy says with a smile. I notice that she didn’t call Gabby her daughter-in-law, and yet again I feel this surge of affection for this wonderful woman who has welcomed my best friend into her family in every possible way. “My Ben has always been very private. He keeps everything he cares about very closely guarded; he doesn’t like to share it with the world. When he was a boy, he was full of big ideas, and he was so smart, but he never wanted to show his father and me anything he was working on before it was finished. He wanted to be sure it was exactly the way he wanted it to be before he showed either one of us.”

I look over at Ben; his fingers are entwined with Gabby’s, and he’s looking down at them with a shy smile on his face. Gabby’s eye’s are trained on Amy.

“When he went off to college in Texas, all he could talk about was the Rangers and the heat and how much he hated his Chem professor. Then one day, he mentioned Gabby. He told Jack how she’d shared her English Lit book with him when he’d forgotten his back at the dorm and didn’t have time to go back and get it.” Everyone laughs; Ben’s forgetfulness is well-known to those who love him. Amy turns and looks at Gabby, then reaches out and takes her hand. “He started talking about her more and more, and finally one day he brought her home to meet us. I knew then, the first time I saw him smile at her, that we’d wind up here someday. My serious boy who loves so deeply and cares so much had finally found a partner who could make him laugh. Gabby is…she’s everything I’ve ever wanted for him. She’s exactly the kind of woman I wanted him to marry, and I think his father taught him everything he needs to know about being a loving husband to her.” A tear slips down Amy’s cheek as she looks over at Jack, and I have to swipe away the tears that are falling down mine.