When it came time to bring home the bride, I finally tracked down the wedding shoes they'd hidden.
I'd just crouched to slip them onto Karen Simmons's feet when her phone rang.
The second she answered, her eyes went red with panic.
"Tony, something's happened to Marvin James's wedding car! I'll be right back, I swear I won't hold up the ceremony!"
She snatched up the keys to the new car I'd given her, grabbed the shoes right out of my hands, pulled them on, and ran.
Watching her rush off, my parents nearly fell apart.
"Kari, the bride's feet aren't supposed to touch the ground!"
"You run off now and miss the lucky hour, then what!"
But she didn't even turn her head.
"There's no need to make such a fuss over all that. It's just old superstition. Whenever I get back, that's the lucky hour."
My parents were getting on in years, so all I could do was calm them down while we waited for Karen to come back.
That wait stretched to four hours.
It wasn't until dark that her call finally came.
"Tony, the lucky hour's already passed anyway, so there's no rush now, right? Marvin's wedding hit a snag today and he's feeling down, so let me stay a little longer and have a few drinks with him. I'll definitely be back before midnight!"
That was when I understood: the biggest day of our lives couldn't compete with the moods of the boy she'd grown up with.
Even with my heart being carved up, what could I do.
"Fine. I'm not rushing you..."
Our wedding was already off, so it didn't matter whether she came back or not.
1
The moment I hung up, my parents' eyes flared with alarm.
"Anthony Pruitt, you can't keep indulging Kari like this! The guests are all still waiting at the hotel. How can you not be worried? I'm calling her! This is outrageous!"
"Dad, whether she comes back doesn't matter anymore. I can marry someone else..."
To marry me off in style, my parents hadn't only invited family and friends. They'd invited all of New York high society.
In the four hours the guests had been waiting, whispers had already started that the bride had run out on the wedding.
My parents had forced them all down with lies.
I didn't want them losing face because of me, so I pulled out my phone to call Karen myself.
But my father saw straight through me. He pressed a hand to my shoulder, his voice firm.
"Anthony, you walked ninety-nine steps for that girl without ever looking back. I don't want your love to end in regret, and a marriage isn't something you throw away in a fit of temper. Let's try one last time. Just this once!"
Loving Karen was carved into my bones from the moment she threw herself over me during the earthquake, shielding a total stranger with her own body.
After she saved me, I followed my heart and chased her for two years, until there wasn't a soul in New York who didn't know it.
Everyone knew my one fixation was making her my wife.
If there were any way, I didn't want to give her up so easily either.
"Kari, hurry back, Anthony and all the guests are waiting for you..."
While I was still lost in a daze, Karen actually answered my father's call with a hiccup from the drink.
"Dad, didn't Anthony tell you? I've still got things to take care of. I can only come back once I'm done. I'll have to trouble you to smooth things over with the guests."
She was so sure I wouldn't tell my parents the truth, her voice light and breezy.
She never expected that tone to be exactly what blew my father's fury wide open.
"Drinking with your childhood friend matters more than marrying my son?"
"You dragged your parents along to deliver a wedding car to that boy and let your own wedding fall apart. We could let that go. But then you had to stay there and drink yourself blind. What do you take Anthony for? Do you not want this marriage at all?"
"If you don't, then just say so! My son, Robert Pruitt's son, does not have to have you!"
My father had always been gentle with people. This was the first time he'd ever raised his voice like that, all bluster over a breaking heart.
Karen sobered up a little at the scolding, then turned serious.
"Dad, how could I not want to get married? Marrying Anthony is my dream!"
"But Marvin and his wife were just too kind about it. They insisted on thanking me for saving the day with the wedding car, and the whole crowd sat me and my parents down at the hotel to have the celebration drinks and witness their happiness. We're practically family to Marvin. Showing up and then leaving before the ceremony would look terrible..."
If today hadn't been our own wedding, there'd have been some sense in what she said.
My father was so angry the veins stood out on his forehead, but he still thought of how she'd saved my life, and through gritted teeth he gave her a chance.
"Since the ceremony's over anyway, I'm giving you half an hour. Get back here right now! Otherwise I'll take it that the Simmons family is calling off this marriage!"
Karen hesitated for a second or two on the other end, then agreed to everything.
"Okay, Dad, I'll do as you say. I'm coming back now!"
At last my father's face eased a little.
Half an hour had barely passed when Karen's parents came bursting into the bridal suite, drenched in sweat.
