“I’m asking you now, I guess. I hadn’t even thought about it until Maggie brought it up. You know, I remember Rush and Tracy’s wedding last summer. That wasn’t a big affair. Just a few friends, Tracy in a pretty dress, Rush in a suit. Rush’s little girl holding the bouquet. It was nice. I’d go for something like that.”

“Tracy was a widow,” Conner said. “A big, fancy wedding wouldn’t have been fitting. But this will hopefully be Maggie’s only wedding, and she’s waited a long time for it. Why not just give in and let her enjoy it? What’s the harm in that?”

Travis poured more coffee and sat at the table, staring down into the steaming mug. In the silence, Conner tried to imagine what lay at the root of his friend’s unease. Six years ago, after a trial that had made statewide headlines, Travis, then a highway patrolman, had been sentenced to three years in prison for shooting a suspected kidnapper. Travis had emerged from the ordeal a bitter man who fiercely guarded his privacy. Maggie and his partners had done wonders in bringing Travis out of his shell. But now, even at a happy time, the idea of being the center of attention, surrounded by crowds of people, having to talk to them and answer questions, had struck a layer of buried pain that would always be part of Travis. It might not be rational. But it was very real.

“I know that you love Maggie,” Conner said.

“I do.”

“And I know you’d do anything to make her happy.”

“I would. That goes without saying.”

“Then let me offer you a piece of advice.”

“Since when are you offering advice?” Travis asked. “I’ve never known you to stick with a woman long enough for marriage to become a question—unless you count Ronda May trying to lasso you and drag you to the altar last year. And then all you wanted was a clean getaway.”

“Point taken,” Conner said. “But I know a lot about women. Deny Maggie her perfect wedding day, and she’ll never forget it. It’ll come up in fights you have ten years from now—if the two of you last that long.”

“But if I can talk some sense into her, maybe some kind of compromise—”

“Don’t be an idiot, Travis. Just bite the damned bullet and let her have her big wedding. If you can’t enjoy it, just keep reminding yourself that it’s only for one day. You can put up with anything for one day. After that, you’ll have lovely Maggie as your wife for as long as you both shall live.”

Travis put down his cup, pushed back his chair, and stood without a word of reply.

“Think about it,” Conner said. “Give her everything she wants that day. Maggie’s earned it. She deserves that much.”