Their wedding was gorgeous. Kallie had been begged by Charlie to be his best man, in what we all considered an adorable display. She’d agreed, blushing the whole time, but she did it well. Angelica was given away by Bette, who was really happy at the entire thing, although she was a tad disappointed that Angelica was marrying a white man. She’d never have said that to Charlie’s face, but Tina told us about it. It wasn’t an active thing but she had expressed some disappointment. I’m certain she got over it, though. The love between them as they stood before the altar was visible to everyone in the church, and they both started crying as they said their vows and exchanged rings.

Angelica’s first pregnancy had been rather rough, and our first grandson was born nearly a month premature. He was healthy aside from all that, though, so we all felt very blessed. Alice started to spoil him immediately and kept it up through all of them, which was just who she was as a person. Tina and I would chide her for it sometimes, but it never did a bit of good. It didn’t hurt them, though. They were all good kids, respectful and polite. I felt immensely lucky to have such a great family. My kids were successful and seemed happy with their lives, and my grandkids were amazing. Looking at them all, I felt incredibly lucky and found myself longing for Alice to come home so she could share that feeling with me.

**********

“Gamma,” Brendan said insistently, tugging on my sleeve. “Phone’s going.”

Indeed it was, on the fifth little snippet of my ringtone for Shane, which meant it had been ringing for quite some time now. Tina and the others were looking at me half in concern and half in amusement as I stood up from the picnic table and answered.

I couldn’t hear a word she was saying, and I thought it might have been my reception. After a few seconds, though, I realized that Shane was crying. All I was able to get out of her was Alice’s name, but that was all it took. I closed the phone immediately and told them all to stay, that I had to go to the hospital. They all volunteered to drive me, but I didn’t want any of them seeing it if what I feared was true.

I kept telling myself that it couldn’t be. I’d left her hours before and she’d been just fine. Still, for Shane to call like that…something was wrong.

I got in the car, hearing Charlie tell everyone to just let me go. He was always a lot like me in that regard; when he was upset, it was best to leave him alone for awhile. He called to me that he’d follow behind, and I heard Tina volunteer to drive Angie and the kids home. Gemma called that they’d follow me too, and I just nodded blankly back at them.

“Is she okay to drive?” Kallie asked worriedly, but Charlie assured her that I’d be fine.

“I’ll tail her to make sure,” he told her, and after that I was in the car so I heard nothing more.