Happy Birthday: A Novel

“Thanks, I know.” April laughed. “I just hope I make it through the wedding.” She’d had contractions all morning, but she was sure that it was just nerves. The baby knew something big was happening. Its parents were getting married. April said as much to her mother, and Valerie smiled.

“Just try not to have the baby before we cut the cake,” Valerie advised her, and they both laughed.

By eleven o’clock, all the women were in their respective rooms getting ready, and emerged right on time. Ellen and April’s half-sisters looked lovely in their dresses, and their hair was done simply. Valerie was bustling around in her lavender organdy dress, putting her pearls on, and Maddie arrived to see what she could do to help them, wearing sober navy blue. Dawn was standing in the background wearing a short electric blue dress and high-heeled platform shoes.

And then they all went into Valerie’s bedroom to see April. She looked absolutely beautiful in the white silk trapeze dress. The flowers were braided into her hair just as Valerie had suggested. And at ten to twelve, Dawn handed them all their bouquets.

The judge was there by then, waiting in the living room with a glass of champagne. He was an old friend of Valerie’s, and happy to do it for her. Five minutes later, all the men arrived. Jack, Pat, and Mike, and Jim and Ed from the paper. Dawn pinned a tiny white rose to each of their lapels, except Mike who got lily of the valley, just like those in his bride’s bouquet and hair. He looked scared stiff.

“Hang in, man, it’ll be over before you know it,” Pat teased him, and they all accepted a round of champagne as they chatted with the judge. Mike looked as though he needed it, and then Pat went to the back of the apartment to see his daughter.

The guests began arriving promptly at noon, and by twelve-thirty everyone was there. April and her father were chatting quietly in her mother’s bedroom then.

“You look beautiful,” he said to his daughter. She really did look like a bride, even in her condition, and she looked radiant. Everything had turned out well.

Valerie didn’t even have time to see Jack or talk to him once the guests started arriving. She smiled at him across the room, and for a minute wished the wedding were theirs. Then at least she could be sure she wouldn’t lose him. But even wedding vows didn’t guarantee that, as they all knew well.

At twelve thirty-five, the small chamber group began playing Handel’s “Water Music,” and April came out on her father’s arm, with her sisters in front of her. And Mike gasped when he saw her. April looked beautiful, and as she turned to him, she beamed.

Valerie, Pat, and Maddie were all standing together in the front row, with Jack just behind her. She turned to look at him several times, and he gently touched her shoulder and squeezed it. He leaned forward once and whispered, “Everything is going to be okay.” She didn’t know if he meant for April, or for them, but seated in the front row, and during the ceremony, she couldn’t ask. She nodded, and whispered something to Pat about how beautiful their daughter looked. And then after a few words, the judge pronounced them husband and wife, and they kissed. They greeted all their friends with smiles and hugs, and April and Mike were both wiping tears from their eyes. It had been a perfect little wedding.

“You did a beautiful job,” Jack complimented her when she turned around to face him after the ceremony.

“Thank you,” she said, looking up at him with the weight of the past week in her eyes. He could see it and it touched him. “I’m not going to Miami,” he said simply, not wanting to keep her in suspense a moment longer. He had decided the day before, but wanted to sleep on it. He had called his agent and attorney that morning before the wedding.

“You’re not?” She smiled broadly at him. “Are you serious? But what about your career?” She was worried about him, and didn’t dare ask him what had made the decision for him. Not wanting to live in Miami, or them? It didn’t matter. He wasn’t going. She wanted to cry in relief as she put her arms around him and kissed him.