Free The Wedding Party by Robyn Carr

in saying yes she would unleash so many memories for me.”
    â€œGood ones?” Gwen asked. “Bad ones?”
    â€œAll of them, from the time I met Sarah and firstheld her close, to the time three years later that I held her cancer-ravaged body as we said goodbye.”
    â€œOh, Denny…”
    â€œI have no idea why this is happening now. Really.”
    â€œMaybe it’s the idea of remarrying,” she offered.
    â€œSarah died eighteen years ago. And we were only together for three years. It doesn’t feel like re marrying. It feels like that was another life.”
    â€œWell, then, what could it be? Are we close to any anniversaries? Of your engagement to Sarah? Your wedding, her illness, her death?”
    â€œNo, thank God.”
    She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Maybe it’s just time for you to revisit this thing. You know, like post-traumatic stress. Maybe this is how you complete the cycle, bring closure. I mean, is it even possible to marry Charlene without your last marriage crossing your mind?”
    â€œI never thought I’d love like that again,” he said, looking anywhere but at his sister.
    A moment of silence passed between them…and stretched out. In a way, Denny and Charlene had been acting like an old married couple since the week they met, but was that a good thing? “And have you?” she asked very quietly, drawing his eyes back to her face.
    â€œOf course!” he insisted. “My God, Charlene is extraordinary. I know you agree.”
    â€œI do,” she said. In truth, Gwen was one of Charlene’s biggest fans, but that wasn’t really the issue here. The issue was her brother, who was morose onthe day he announced his formal engagement. Despite his insistence to the contrary, the bold and passionate way he had loved when he loved Sarah had been buried with her. While Gwen was mostly concerned with her brother right now, it did cross her mind that Charlene might be getting shortchanged.
    Gwen had been eighteen when her twenty-eight-year-old brother met and fell helplessly in love with Sarah Brown, a slender beauty with dark hair and vivid eyes. Dennis had described his first true love to his sister as kind, patient, good-natured and possessing a dry humor.
    They met while Dennis was teaching high-school chemistry. Sarah was the photography and audiovisual teacher at the school and there was such chemistry between them—an intended pun they overused—that the principal asked them to stop looking at each other during school hours. They got married the second school was out—a sweet little ceremony in the park—and spent the summer in Europe.
    What they had together was so obvious, so intense, so devoted and delicious, it became the benchmark for what Gwen wanted for herself. Perfect love.
    And then Sarah died, a slow and miserable death from ovarian cancer.
    â€œI don’t know if I ever told you this, Denny, but one of the things that I have always most admired about you was…is…your ability to take the pain and disappointment in life and turn it into something positive and beautiful. Like letting the experience of Sarah’s illness and death turn the chemistry teacherinto a physician’s assistant who can help people daily. I love that about you.”
    He looked wistful, his eyes cloudy. “She was so amazing,” he said.
    â€œDennis, look at me,” she said.
    He obliged. “You’ve told me that a number of times, Gwen. I appreciate it.”
    â€œDenny, is this some kind of red flag? Maybe you and Charlene shouldn’t be getting married….”
    â€œI was so lonely by the time I met Charlene,” he said. “Dating never did do it for me, you know? I was so grateful to finally find someone who liked the same things. Someone I could talk to. I suggested we get married or at least move in together six months after we met.”
    â€œI