Page 70 of Head Room (Caught Dead in Wyoming #15)

Diana dropped me off at the back of the church.

I ran. And I didn’t stop running until I reached the anteroom where my mother waited with my dress.

I was careful to toss the balled-up t-shirt in the opposite direction after I yanked it off.

Mom didn’t even yell at me — wouldn’t take the time away from what needed to be done. That’s how close we were cutting this.

Diana skidded in as Mom brushed my hair while I finished my makeup, with a touch more foundation where we’d scrubbed off the oil.

Tamantha, already dressed and with no shorts on today, helped Diana with her dress, a grown-up version of hers. She fluffed her hair with her fingers and looked gorgeous.

“Cat?” my dad’s voice said from outside the anteroom’s door. “Time for you to take your seat.”

Mom finished helping fasten my dress. Good thing we’d had practice.

She stepped back.

“Elizabeth Margaret Danniher.”

She said no more, but she did give me a look — the look — as she left the anteroom to start her trip down the aisle. I’d hear about this later. As I said, a lot of that going around.

Diana and Tamantha took their places to precede me.

Dad tucked my hand in his arm. “Ready to do this again, Maggie Liz?”

“Again and always with Tom.”

As we started down this aisle, I saw Jennifer in a pew with her parents. They must have saved her a seat. She winked.

Diana and Mike stood at the front looking completely unruffled. But I took satisfaction in noticing she was breathing more heavily than normal.

I shouldn’t be the only one.

Then I looked at Tom, and there was nothing normal about my breathing.

He wore the black suit jacket, now over a black vest and open-collar white shirt. He’d swapped out the suit’s slacks for crisp, dark jeans and cowboy boots that had never seen a day’s work.

I suspected his cowboy hat was near at hand.

He looked wonderful.

If I weren’t wearing this dress, I might steal Tamantha’s idea and cartwheel down the aisle to him.

* * * *

At the end, the pastor looked out to the pews.

“Tom and Elizabeth have chosen each of you to be here today and they’re so happy to share this moment with the ones who are closest to them, those who completely share their joy.”

We turned to the gathering.

And there they were, all the faces smiling back at us.

My parents, my siblings and their families, at the front, with Tom’s parents and sister Jean-Marie and her husband on the other side.

Then a kaleidoscope. Jennifer, her uncle, who was Tom’s childhood friend.

Bonnie and Matt Lester. Mrs. P and Aunt Gee.

My aunt and cousins, Jack Delahunt, who’d been a mentor to Tom, Wardell Yardley with Clara Atwood, a contingent from the station, Connie, Tom’s neighbors and his freshman year college roommate, Iris and Zeb Undlin, Needham and Thelma Bender, my mother’s cousin’s daughter, Peg, and her husband, Mel Welch, my sort-of agent and dear friend.

At the back, as late arrivals, Sheriff Russ Conrad, who was Diana’s plus one, with Shelton and Richard Alvaro.

The threads of our individual lives, gathered here together.

I felt my smile stretch until it hurt my cheeks. It felt great.