An Excerpt from Shotgun, Wedding, Bells

 

Our wedding day dawned like a scene from a fairy
tale. Frozen rain coated the freshly fallen snow. The glassy surface glistened
like a million tiny diamonds. Icicles hanging from the eaves of our house
formed natural prisms, casting rainbows across the blanket of white. Sunlight
transformed the long dead banks of mums into mounds, like glittering pillows
under a white duvet. The scene before us was beautiful, but treacherously
slick. This overnight winter storm had paralyzed travel throughout the St.
Louis area. All the salt and sand we’d tossed down on the walkways hadn’t done
much good.

Our friend Detective Stan Hadcho guided me along the
flagstones, by means of a good grip on my elbow. He escorted me from the back
door of our house to the gazebo. As we walked, Leighton Haversham, our former
landlord and dear friend, snapped photos so I could make a memory album. That’s
what I do. I’m a scrapbooker and owner of a store called Time in a Bottle.

At the stairs to the gazebo, I stared up into the
smiling faces of the people so dear to me: my newly adopted son, Erik; my
daughter, Anya; Erik’s aunt, Lorraine Lauber; our nanny, Bronwyn Macavity; my
fianc