I went to the front door to check on his truck, and there he was, tossing a ball with the Anderson's kid.

“Oh, there you are,” I said.

“Looking for me?” he asked with a boyish grin.

I made an apologetic frown. “Barbie is requesting your services. She would like you to help her bring over the fold-out tables.”

“Oh, I see,” he said. He tossed the ball at Petey. “I gotta run kid. Just keep snapping at the wrist like I showed ya.”

The little boy smiled and scurried away.

I held the door open as Bobby walked by. Having his smell so close to me whenever I wanted was something I already missed. “Now be good,” I whispered to him playfully.

He crossed his heart at me and winked before turning.

“Barbie!” he called out. “Putting me to work on a holiday!”

They left together and I was alone in the stillness of my living room. Barbie didn't concern me. She was a silly woman. Bobby knew that. But it didn't stop me from feeling a little resentful towards her constant need to compete and seek out the attention of men. Especially when the man was my Bobby.

But we all had our issues. And beneath her silliness, Barbie was good to me. Always willing to lend an ear, or help out when I needed it. And to me, that's what mattered most.

Rory finally emerged from the bedroom, slapping his hands together. “Was Barbie just here?” he asked.

“Yes, why?”

“Did she tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“Oh maybe she doesn't know. I called Stan at the office, and I made some plans for us all to go out to dinner this evening.”

What happened to Rory while he was gone? The AC and now this? I almost for a moment feared he might know and was trying to win me back. But if that was the case, his reaction would not be so kind. Was Rory finally turning over a new leaf?

“Oh that's great!” I said.

“Put on something nice.” He slapped my behind before heading to the kitchen to help himself to the warm lemonade iced tea I left on the table.

Seven Years Earlier

“My little girl looks so beautiful,” my dad whispered into my ear as he embraced me. The violinist changed her tune, indicating it was our turn to proceed down the aisle. The lace cape sleeves of my dress itched in the heat. The neckline felt like it was tightening on its own, threatening to wrap around my neck. I hoped it would so I could have an excuse to cry out.

I looped my arm around my father's, resisting the urge to rip off the collar of my dress, just so I could be free. I prayed. I begged for help. And it wasn't that my pleas were ignored, or that they floated unheard into the universe.

No. My prayers had been answered, and the answer was: it's too late.

I tried not to look at Bobby, the best man, but my eyes betrayed me for a fraction of a second. In that fragment of time, I saw a hollowness in his eyes. Like he was there physically, but found a way to escape the moment so he could survive it. Bobby had resigned himself to our fates. I looked back at Rory, who was smiling like a flappy-eared dog, and burst into tears. People smiled around me thinking I was overwhelmed with love, and I was, but not for the groom.

I felt dirty as the vows were recited, like I was rubbing my happiness in Bobby's face. But I wasn't happy. I hoped he understood this was all an act. That I had to pretend for my sanity.

And then when Rory took my hands, my heart skipped. Not because he had that effect, but because I still had the ring on. The one Bobby gave me, on the finger where Rory would be putting on my wedding band.

Rory’s vows to me were a blur as I tried to figure out a way to remove the ring before he might notice. I got my chance when he turned to grab his ring from Bobby. I slid it off my ring finger and in an attempt to transfer it to the other hand, I dropped it. As if my heart needed any more pain, I watched it roll towards Bobby's foot and stop at his shoe.

He looked at me, and saw the look of horror in my eyes. In that moment, he comforted me with a nod as he picked it up and inconspicuously slid it into his pocket.

So, I did what I was there to do. Vowed to love and honor, through sickness and health, 'till death do us part, the brother of the man I truly loved.

As the sun set, I finally had a moment to sit and breathe. Family, friends, strangers, they were all here, congratulating me on my new life. They didn't know they were smiling in my face on one of the saddest days of my life.

I hadn't seen Bobby since the ceremony. And I hoped he understood that losing the ring was an accident, and I intended to follow his wishes and hold on to it.

I didn't know how I would act when I saw him again. Just hours ago, we were professing our love, making plans to run away, our bodies united in a way that I only ever intended to be with my husband. And now, this invisible line had been drawn. A simple ceremony had cut us off from ever having that again. We would have to go back to the way things were.

“Where's the necklace?” Rory asked as he sat beside me, his arm around the back of my chair.

I felt for my neck. “Oh no! I guess I forgot in the pre-wedding hullabaloo. I am so sorry. It was beautiful. Thank you so much.”

“Of course sweetie.” He kissed me on the cheek and I felt nothing. “You look so beautiful today,” he said.

“Thank you, honey. You look handsome. Very handsome.”

Rory sat back, watching the sun descend upon the lake. “Can you believe one day, our kids will swim in that lake? Climb those trees? Play in this grass?”

I shook my head wistfully. “No. To be honest I still feel like one of those kids myself.”

“Ha. Me too.”

The sound of clinking rose above the humming of the crowd. Others joined to boost the signal.

I followed the sound and my heart clenched when I saw Bobby standing, a champagne flute in one hand, a knife in the other. Bobby had been drinking. I could tell just by looking at him. My entire body stiffened thinking of the possibility of him losing it up there, spilling our secrets in a drunken speech. But when he uttered the first words, I knew he brought the Bobby everyone loved. The one that people wanted to hover around, hoping they could get just a sliver of the magic he possessed.

“I've known Lil since I was, I think, six. Maybe seven. She and I sort of have a reputation of getting after it. I think it started when I tried to steal her candy apple at a carnival and she socked me. Hard. And then began a thirteen-plus year war that still rages until this day.

That girl has a savage right hook on her, ladies and gentlemen.”

Bobby paused as the crowd laughed. His tone changed as he looked to the floor, almost uttering the words to himself more than to the rest of us.

“Lil, the girl who was beautiful no matter how hard she tried not to be.

“And if there was anything I knew early on in my life, it was that Rory had eyes for her. He loved her before he even knew what that meant.”

I choked back tears as I recognized the words he said to me the night before. His secret message to me in front of everyone.

“I knew my entire life this day was inevitable.”

Bobby looked up with glassy eyes at Rory.

“Rory, you bastard. You're marrying the most amazing girl I've ever known.”

Bobby's eyes moved to mine next, but as soon as they locked, and he saw my tears, he broke the gaze, looking down to the floor. His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he masterfully braced for the emotional upheaval. He looked at me again with a smile that betrayed the melancholy in his eyes.