"I wore my mother's white suit and hat with a small veil attached. William wore his father's blue suit. We stood in the front of the church, the same church Emmaline and Marshall had stood only a month earlier. William gave me a solid gold band, which I wear today and will never remove. At that moment I knew I had married my love of a lifetime."
"We've all been blessed with love, haven't we?" Caitlin said. "Tell me something, grandma; it seems with these perfect loves, those matched in heaven, someone dies before their time. Will something like that happen to me and Garrett?"
Rachel took her hand and squeezed. "No one knows, but don't let that stop you from pledging your love to this man. Live each day to the fullest, leaving nothing unsaid, nothing undone. Then if you don't have a tomorrow, there are no regrets."
"Thank you." Caitlin knelt in front of her grandma's chair and rested her head on her lap. The woman's wrinkled hands lay on Caitlin's soft hair and smoothed the plaits.
"You have finally come home to me," Rachel said, her voice cracking. "I love you."
"I love you too." She looked up at her grandma, sadness filling her eyes. "Granddaddy won't walk me down the aisle. He won't dance with me on my wedding day." She gulped hot tears that settled in the back of her throat. "I know it's not usually done, but would you walk me down the aisle and give me away?"
"Give you away? I just got you." Rachel's beaming smile greeted the forlorn look on Caitlin's face and soon she was smiling too. "Of course, love. It would be my honor."
Caitlin relaxed in her thoughts of becoming Mrs. Garrett Winston by month's end.