Chapter 34-1

June in Boonsboro, Maryland was killer. The heat was sticky and clogged my throat any time I inhaled - but it wasn't like I was complaining. I happened to love the summer. And even if I was a guy and wasn't supposed to get excited about these kinds of things, I had to admit it was the perfect day for a wedding. I was looking at it purely from a photographer's point of view, of course, and the clear blue sky was my best friend at the moment. Well, it'd make shadowing a problem, but that was fixed easily enough. I had, however, never shot a wedding before. Not that the opportunity hadn't come up, but it was awfully hard to capture every possible shot when you were the lone man on the job, and I didn't have an assistant. But when Rebecca, Chris' only sister and my aunt, had called me in a panic a few weeks ago because their wedding photographer had bailed at the last moment, I'd agreed to do the job without a second thought. How could I refuse to photograph my aunt's wedding? I would've been disowned by my mother if I hadn't. Ever since my impromptu jaunt down to Boonsboro the other month, and Rebecca had discovered she had three nieces she knew nothing about, contact had flourished between us all. Rebecca and the girls were constantly on the phone with one another, and she'd even come back to the city a few weekends ago, after Milo's baptism, so the girls could show her the sights. My mother's relationship with her sister-in-law had improved considerably, though I suspected there was still some bitter feelings there because my mother hadn't told Rebecca she was pregnant when Chris was killed. Things were improving, however tense they still might be, and I wasn't willing to rock the boat - like where Irene and Carter, Chris' parents, were concerned. If things were to get better, it would happen in its own time, because I was done meddling. So my mother, my little sisters, Hadley and our son, made the four hour drive down into Boonsboro for Rebecca's wedding in mid-June. Rebecca had asked the girls to be her bridesmaids a few months ago, and they'd thoroughly enjoyed the whole process leading up to the wedding. And this left me with the daunting task of finding an assistant for the wedding who could at least competently handle a camera, which wound up being - "Carlo, I swear to God, if you take one more photo of that girl's ass, I'm going to weigh you down with cinder blocks and dump you in the Hudson." My cousin burst into a round of immature giggles, wiggling his eyebrows at me. "What are you, le mafioso? Don't be such a spoil sport, Archer. You can't honestly tell me you aren't enjoying the view here." A surprising amount of Rebecca's old sorority sisters came into town for the wedding, which Carlo was thoroughly enjoying, which was in turn thoroughly annoying the hell out of me. "Coglione, I'm married." "So? Doesn't mean you can't look, my man. Who's the coglione now, eh?" The urge to strangle my cousin was stronger than ever, but the ceremony was starting soon, and it was probably a sin to murder someone in a church. "Consider this my form of payment," Carlo continued as he watched another gaggle of Rebecca's sorority sisters flutter by to their seats in the pews. "You know I'm doing this free of charge, right?" I said, biting back a sigh. Carlo shrugged, fiddling with the settings on the camera I'd managed to borrow from a guy I'd gone to Pratt with. "Who am I kidding? You wouldn't have given me a cut of the payment anyways." "Not true. I would've paid you what you're worth." "And that would be?" "About seventy-five cents." That comment opened up a round of manly bickering in Italian, with a lot rapid hand gestures and cursing. We were getting a good bit of attention from people sitting towards the back of the church where we were huddled, but I was willing to bet there were less than ten people present that even knew Italian, so I figured it didn't matter. "For the love of God, would you two shut up already?" Our bickering was cut short as Hadley came marching over, Milo in her arms, a dangerous look on her face as she narrowed her eyes at us. "Who, us?" Carlo said, playing innocent. "We were just having a...creative discussion." "You do know I can speak Italian, right?" Hadley said dryly. "This is hardly the place to be threatening to punch someone in the dick." "My goodness, the foul mouth on you!" Carlo gasped. "You shouldn't speak like that in front of the baby, you know." Hadley somehow managed to smack Carlo upside the head even while holding Milo, and then turned her attention to me. "Rebecca and the rest of the bridesmaids are ready for you. You'd best get to it before she has a breakdown." "A breakdown?" I repeated with a grimace. "C'mon, it's her wedding day," Hadley said, like this should've been obvious. "Every bride is a wreck on their wedding day. At least before the ceremony." "Even you?" "Yeah, even me. Half of Italy flew in for our wedding, remember?" "Yeah, you're right. I almost forgot." Our wedding hadn't been as stressful as I thought it would be, but when the alcohol started flowing and my extended family members had their fair share, I'd done my best to block it all out. I told Hadley I'd see her later, and after pressing a quick kiss to the top of Milo's head - who was very much enjoying playing with his mother's hair - I went in search of Rebecca and her bridesmaids. Rebecca was, of course, seconds away from having a breakdown when I found her. She looked stunning in this fancy ivory gown and perfectly curled hair, but her bridesmaids kept fluttering around her, assuring her that everything was going to be fine, and that the wedding was going to be perfect. If I had any alcohol on hand, I would've given her some and told her to buck up, but instead I settled for assuring her everything was fine, and that she would feel better after we got some photographing done. The ceremony itself ended up starting about ten minutes late, but everything else ran smoothly. Carlo actually managed to pull his head out of his ass and take pretty good photos, so it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be. Tatum, Rebecca's now-husband, looked gobsmacked at his new wife's grand entrance on her father's arm, people sniffled and grabbed for tissues during their vows, and all was as it should be during a wedding. The reception immediately followed the ceremony on the church's back lawn, all decked out with tasteful decorations and fancy china patterns. I assumed it was quite the to-do given the size of the wedding and the amount of people that had turned out for it. As thrilled as I was that Rebecca was now married and perfectly happy with her new husband, her wedding was technically a job for me, and I dropped into business mode, directing and positioning the wedding party, trying to get the perfect angle and lighting for each shot. The wedding party didn't show up at the reception for another hour, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to photographing weddings. I was still on the move as the reception went on in full swing, though I told Carlo he could take a break. The only part I'd really needed extra help with was the ceremony. Carlo was only too happy to oblige and immediately pulled one of Rebecca's sorority sisters out onto the dance floor.