“It’s just the rehearsal, isn’t it?” she asked, as she drove.
“Yes, as far as I know,” he said. “I don’t even know why we need a rehearsal if it’s a small wedding.”
“Maybe they’ll make it for real instead of a rehearsal,” she said.
“I don’t know. I think you need a minister for that.”
“Maybe. You’d think after all this time that they would just take the chance and get it done.”
They made it back to his hotel, and he quickly checked out. He got the rest of his stuff, threw it all into the back of the truck. They stopped at her place, where they could get showered and changed, with him in a suit and her in a sundress and sandals. By now it was midafternoon, and they headed to where the wedding rehearsal would be. It was a small church with a large park outside.
Rodney stood there nervously in a black suit too. “I don’t know why we have to rehearse,” he said, “I’m already terrified she won’t show up as it is.”
“She needs to,” Tucker said. “This is a lot of stress on everybody.”
“Did you have any thoughts about maybe instead of a rehearsal just getting married now?” Addie asked.
Rodney looked at her a moment, and then a slow smile dawned. “You know what? I like that idea. She’s been trying to get out of this for a long time. When she finally agreed, she went through all kinds of panic about it.”
“Well, if she knows this is only a rehearsal,” Addie said, “she should be here today, but maybe you want to make it real instead of a rehearsal. Take the stress right out of it for her tomorrow.”
Rodney laughed. “She might hate me for it too.”
“It’s hard to say,” Tucker said. As they stood here, another vehicle drove up, and, sure enough, it was his sister. She hopped out, not in her wedding dress but a beautiful dress anyway. Seeing him, she ran forward to give him a great big hug. “You almost died,” she said, “again.”
“So can we finally get you married?” Tucker said. “Just in case I don’t make the next attempt.”
She gasped at him, and tears came to her eyes.
He groaned, pulled her into his arms, and said, “Sorry, that was a bad joke.”
“It was a terrible joke,” she cried out. “Why would you even say something like that? And today of all days.”
“Because you’ve been giving Rodney hell about actually getting married,” he scolded. “Come on. Let’s get this done.”
“It’s not supposed to be something that we just get done,” she said. “It’s supposed to be something that’s revered, that’s honored.”
“Do you honor him?”
“Of course I do.”
“Do you love him?”
“Of course I do,” she said in exasperation.
“Then what’s the problem?”
Silence fell everywhere around them.
Tucker didn’t know how to make it any simpler than that, but sometimes his sister just needed straight-talking to.
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, and she leaned in closer and whispered into his ear, “I’m pregnant.”
He grinned at her. “Well, I’m delighted to hear that, but maybe you should be telling Rodney.”
She nodded slowly. “I just didn’t want the wedding to happen because of this.”
He rolled his eyes, turned to Rodney, and said, “Well, I’m hardly the person to break this to you,” he said, “but it does explain some of the behavior that you’ve been dealing with for the last few days.”
Rodney looked at him, then looked at his soon-to-be-wife in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
Addie understood. “Oh, my gosh,” Addie said. “Congratulations.”
Molly looked at Addie and smiled. “You must be Addie,” she said.
“Yes, I am.” Addie walked over and gave her a big hug, and then she walked to Rodney and said, “Congrats.”
He looked at her in confusion and looked at Molly. “What is she congratulating me for?”
“You’ll be a dad,” Tucker said bluntly. “And that’s why there has been emotional hysteria.”
Rodney stared at Tucker for a long moment, his face blank, and then he looked at Molly. “Seriously?”
She nodded slowly. “And I started to panic.”
He opened his arms, wrapped her up tight in a big hug, and said, “How could you possibly panic about us getting married?”
“Because I figured that, if you found out,” she said, “then you would marry me just because I was pregnant.”
He looked at her in confusion. “So you were trying to keep it a secret?”
“Then I felt guilty,” she said. “So I’ve been torn as to what to do.”
“Obviously you always tell me the truth,” he said, “and then you’ll get your pregnant ass in that church, and you’ll marry me. I’ve been trying to marry you for a decade. Now this just makes me even more determined.”
She burst out laughing. “I didn’t know how you’d react.”
“Well, you could have tried telling me and finding out,” he roared. “I’ve had hell for a couple days now. But this is the best news you could possibly have given me.”
“But what if I wasn’t pregnant?”
He looked at her, shook his head, and said, “Don’t even start. Now this is supposed to be a rehearsal, but they suggested that we skip the rehearsal part and just get married.”
She looked up at them all in delight. “Is that possible?”
“Why don’t we find out?” Tucker said. “At least we could get one thing accomplished today.”
“Something I’ve been trying to get accomplished for a very long time,” Rodney said, rolling his eyes. “I don’t want to go through this anymore.”
At that, the church doors opened, and the minister said that they were welcome to come in. Rodney walked in and took a few steps with him and had a quiet conversation.
Addie looked over at Molly. “Are you okay to get married today? You’re not in your wedding dress.”
“Honestly it doesn’t fit,” she said in a dull whisper. “I was still panicking over what I was supposed to wear.” She shrugged. “I guess I overreacted.”
“You never really wanted to be a mom,” Tucker said cautiously.
“I didn’t before,” she nodded. “And then I did, and then I figured that I was too old, and it wouldn’t happen, and Rodney didn’t want any, and I just went down a rabbit hole.”
“Wow,” Addie said in fascination. “I guess talking to him wasn’t an option?”
“Yet he’s the easiest person to talk to,” Molly confessed. “I’m just an idiot.”
At that, Addie burst out laughing. “No. You are not an idiot,” she said. “You are pregnant, and it’s your wedding day.”
At that, Rodney came bouncing back with a big smile on his face. “We can do it right now,” he said. “We have witnesses, and, other than that, we can just go and get this done. I’m not sure what to do about tomorrow, but we’ll figure it out.” He stopped, looked at Molly, and said, “Unless you’ve got other plans?”