1
Helena
After 30 years of marriage, I still had secrets.
Maybe that was a problem.
In fact, I was almost certain that it was.
When you married someone, you married all of them. You married their past, their present, and their future. You married the person you thought they were, and you promised to love the person they actually were, and you hoped those two ideals lined up.
Bob was everything I’d ever asked for in a husband, but was I everything he’d ever hoped for in a wife? Sometimes it felt like our life was perfect. Other times, I wondered what I was actually contributing to the relationship. On days like today, I had to force myself to get up. My heart had more questions than answers, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that.
“Good morning,” Bob smiled at me when he opened his eyes. He had the best damn smile in the world. He really did. He knew it, too. Ever since we’d known each other, he’d had an easy, comfortable grin. It seemed to spread over his face like syrup on pancakes, and it always shot straight to my heart.
“Good morning, pumpkin,” I leaned over and pressed my lips to his. We’d been together for a lifetime, but it still felt damn good to wake up next to him every day.
Not everyone was as lucky as we were.
I knew that.
Sometimes, people got married and they thought they were falling for the person of their dreams, only to discover that they didn’t really know the other person nearly as well as they thought they did. With Bob, that wasn’t a problem. With Bob, I knew exactly what I’d gotten myself into.
He’d never disappointed me.
“Are you ready for today?”
No, I wasn’t ready.
Not by a long shot.
It was the day before Valentine’s Day, but that wasn’t why today was big. Nope. It was big because our son, Matthew, was getting married.
It was his first – and hopefully, only – wedding.