Lillian watched them disappear behind the door, and then leaned into my ear. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this moment. You’ve always been family, Nina. I can’t explain it,” she whispered. A sweet, innocent laugh escaped her throat. “Some nights, after Jack and Cynthia took you home after I’d make you all dinner, I would cry.”

My eyebrows popped up. Lillian was always so candid about her feelings for me. Even so, her words surprised me.

“Gabe used to shake his head. He always thought me to be irrational when it came to you. But each time you left my home, I felt I was letting my daughter go away to live with someone else. I must sound crazy. It sounds silly to say out loud. I…I just wanted to tell you how happy it makes me that after today…I can call you my daughter.”

I hugged her to me. The intensity of emotion in the room was overwhelming. I didn’t hear crazy. Lillian’s words sounded like love.

“No, no, no, no…,” Beth said, pulling a tissue from her purse. “Don’t cry. Your mascara is waterproof, but it’s not magic. It could smudge.” She carefully dabbed under my eyes. “You’re only marrying the man of your dreams soon. What’s to cry about?”

I smiled. “Touché.”

The music sounded. Beth handed me an exquisite bouquet of pink and white tulips, winked at me, and then slid out of the double doors to take her walk. I stood alone in the vestibule, in my dress, holding my favorite flowers—the same Jared presented me on our first date. I was amazed, then, at the coincidence. Now it just made me smile. Why he was ever nervous about whether I would fall in love with him was a mystery. Not only was he the most thoughtful, most selfless and loving person I knew, he was also armed with the knowledge of all my likes and dislikes. He was more armed to win me over more than any man could any woman. The tulips were perfect. Jared had sent me this very bouquet many times over the course of our relationship. It just occurred to me that these flowers had also been sent to me before our relationship; on birthdays, my high school graduation, and I remember feeling comforted by a wreath at my father’s funeral bearing the same flowers. Jared had never mentioned it before, but I knew they were from him. That thought made me smile. He had loved me for a long time, and now I was about to walk down the aisle of our chapel, on our island, to pledge my eternal love to him. Life had never felt so right.