A Walk Along the Beach by Debbie Macomber Page 0,74

we would lose Harper. The thought was crippling me emotionally.

We ended the conversation a few minutes later, after Chantelle had filled in a few more of the details.

When I returned to Harper’s room, I found my sister awake. “Hey,” I said, “I’ve got great news. Lucas and Chantelle are going ahead with their wedding. It’s going to be here at the hospital on Friday.”

Harper blinked and I assumed she hadn’t heard me. Then I realized she had, and understood, perhaps for the first time, the implication of why it was necessary.

“That’s wonderful.” Tears filled her eyes.

“Hey, hey. You’re going to kick this, Harper. You and I both know it, right?”

“Right,” she agreed, without a lot of enthusiasm.

“What’s important is that Lucas and Chantelle want us both to be part of their wedding.”

She smiled then. “I only hope my dress still fits, seeing how much weight I’ve lost.” That was something Chantelle had already taken into consideration. Briefly, before we ended the call, she told me she’d altered Harper’s dress so that it wouldn’t hang on her.

* * *

—

We started getting ready for the wedding at about noon on Friday. Chantelle arranged for a hairdresser to come to the hospital. She even supplied a wig for Harper that was the same thick lilac/silver her own hair had been before she started chemo. With makeup and her wig, she looked almost as good as she did before the cancer and the weight loss.

John stopped by in the middle of the preparations to check on Harper. The excitement and adrenaline gave her a boost of energy that she was going to need to get through this day.

I noticed how gentle he was with my sister, how tender and kind. I wanted to hug him. Seeing him with Harper made me miss Sean with an intensity I’d never experienced. He’d been away long past the time he’d originally hoped. I hadn’t heard a word from him since his phone call. Not a text, an email, or a call. I understood how important this assignment was to his career, and at the same time I longed for him to be with me, especially today, for my brother’s wedding.

It seemed wrong that he would be on the other side of the world. He had no way of knowing what was happening. I couldn’t blame him for not being with me, but that idea brought home what our lives would be like if we continued with this relationship. That gave me pause. I needed to rethink things. Not now, though. Later, when my head was clear and I wasn’t fighting this battle.

Chantelle’s sister checked in with Harper and me just before the ceremony started.

“Your dad is here. Is it all right if he comes in?”

“Yes, please,” Harper answered before me.

She left and the hospital room door creaked open before my father’s head appeared.

“Come in, Daddy,” Harper whispered.

Dad was dressed in the same suit he wore for Mom’s funeral. When he found Harper sitting upright in the wheelchair, he knelt on one knee on the floor next to her. I noticed his lips trembled with the effort to hold back tears.

“Even now you’re so beautiful…Your mother would be so proud,” he whispered, and turned his head to look up at me. “Of both of you. I don’t know what I did to deserve such amazing children. I am blessed beyond anything I could ever have imagined.” Tears leaked down his face.

Gently, Harper wiped them from his cheeks. “I love you, Daddy.”

“Love you, too, baby girl, with all my heart.”

A knock sounded against the door. It was time. To my surprise, John appeared, dressed in a suit and tie instead of his normal white lab coat. He went behind Harper’s wheelchair, and with one hand holding on to the wheelchair and the other on her IV pole, he rolled her out of the room. Dad and I followed behind.

Once we were assembled in the cafeteria, the florist handed Harper and me floral bouquets tied in burgundy-colored ribbon. Looking onto the courtyard, I saw that the picnic tables had been removed and that two rows of chairs had been set angled before the flower-covered archway.

Chantelle’s mother, along with her godmother and husband, were seated on one side. Dad and the wives of my brother’s two best friends sat in the opposite section. I was escorted down the aisle first by Ted, Lucas’s Army buddy, followed by Harper, pushed in the wheelchair by John. Harper stretched her arm over