Maybe One Day

Chapter Forty: "Took you long enough."

It seemed that the passing year we took to plan our wedding went by in a flash. In the blink of an eye, we had just started choosing a venue and planning the guest list. Of course, it included every Easy member that we could fit in there. I had been looking it over when Lew looked over my shoulder. 

"Can you believe we're getting married in a couple weeks?" he said, kissing my cheek.

"I didn't even think I was going to make it through the war, so I'm glad that I'm here and marrying the man I love most." I looked up at him from where I was sitting. 

His brown eyes shone in the low lamp light I had on in my office, and they twinkled just like the first time I ever looked into them. I thought back to the first time I ever saw him when I sassed some recruits outside the barracks, when I noticed him in the mess hall... 

"I love you, Lew." I said aloud, leaning up to kiss him.

"I love you too. Now come on, let's get to bed." 

He lifted me from the chair I was sat in and shut the light off, threw me over his shoulder and jogged up the stairs. I laughed quietly the whole way, still wondering how such a wonderfully goofy man could ever love someone like me.

***

The next weekend I found myself in New York City with Mrs. Ackermann and Mrs. Nixon out for the last fitting before the ceremony. I nervously played with the button on one of my gloves as I waited in the dressing room for the seamstress to come in with my dress. I had spent a long time figuring out what I wanted to look like, struggling with the style, cut, and colour. It took days and multiple salons before I finally found one that suited everything I wanted. If the boys swooned seeing me in civilian clothes, just you wait until they see me in my wedding dress. 

Mrs. Ackermann and Mrs. Nixon fussed over me and how beautiful I looked as they made me try on veil after veil. I chuckled to myself, remembering how my mother used to fuss over my appearance on the first day of a new school year. 

I wish she was here. I played with the medallion she had given me so many years ago. You'll always be with me, mama. 

With my final fitting done and all the accessories picked out, we packed it all away in my car and I drove back home. I made sure it was hanging up neatly in my closet before I plopped down on my bed. I'm getting married next Saturday. I could hardly believe it. I had made it through so many trials and so many life-threatening situations and now I was here. A week out from my wedding, alive, well, and I had my Ph.D. These were all things I thought I'd never get to see. While I had resolved that I would make it through the war for my brothers, there were times when I was running through artillery barrages or when I was huddled in my foxhole in Belgium that I thought I would wake up dead. But I wasn't. I was alive and I'm going to be marrying Lewis Nixon. I smiled from ear to ear and withdrew the picture from my breast pocket. It was one that I had carried with me through the invasion and I still carried it today. 

It seemed like so long ago that I was out front of my house with my brother, Lew, and Richard... We were such fresh-faced soldiers for the most part. We all smiled proudly, arms around each other, looking straight into my mother's camera. I brushed my finger over my brother's face, frowning slightly. Who would be walking me down the aisle?

"Hey, Lew?" I shouted from the top of the stairs. "You know if Carwood RSVP'd yet?" 

"Just got his telegram." said Lew, waving it from where he stood at the bottom. "He said he'd be happy to walk you down the aisle." 

I smiled wide once again, jogging down the stairs. I threw my arms around Lewis and hugged him tightly, burying my face in his neck. 

"Hey, is something the matter?" he asked.