She finally looked like a bride who had been waiting for this day. She beamed. We began the ceremony again.
This time, Alice laughed through her vows and cried through mine.
Afterward, her father embraced me tightly. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for looking after my girl.” Later, when Alice and I were in our rented car, being driven off to the airport for our honeymoon, she told me everything.
It turned out that Alice had reached out to her father a few weeks before the wedding.
They had been speaking on and off over the years, but when it came down to our wedding—she just wanted him to walk her down the aisle.
“My dad bought me the handbag,” she admitted. “But the shoes and earrings were from my bonus.”
I’m not sure if my father-in-law plans on being a part of our lives, but I do know that I’m grateful he walked Alice down the aisle.
“Maybe he’ll stick around,” she said later when we were sipping on champagne. Maybe he will.
