The Night He Said No One

The Wedding

They got married the following June at a converted barn venue outside Ceresco, with a gravel lot full of pickups and string lights hung from the rafters, and a long table of pies because Kenzie’s grandma did not believe in wedding cake.

I wore my one suit. I sat at table eleven with Ryan and Tess and the guys from the beer pong table. Danielle was not there. I don’t know if that was Brody’s decision or Kenzie’s, or nobody’s.

The ceremony was short. Kenzie cried before she even got down the aisle. Brody cried when he saw her. Her dad shook his hand afterward with both of his.

Then came the toasts.

Kenzie’s sister went first, and she was funny. Brody’s best man was his cousin, not any of us, and he told a story about a fishing trip that went fine.

Then Kenzie stood up. She hadn’t planned to, I could tell. She took the microphone from her sister and laughed and wiped her eyes and said she just had one thing to say.

“Everybody here knows I’m a lot,” she said, and the room laughed, because they did know. “I’m loud and I’m stubborn and I have put this man through some stuff. And he has put up with every bit of it.”

She looked at Brody.

“He is the most honest man I have ever met,” she said. “He has never once lied to me. Not even when it would’ve been easier. And I don’t know how I got this lucky.”

Everybody clapped.

I clapped too. I didn’t know what else to do with my hands.

Across the table, Tess was looking at me. Ryan was looking at his plate. I looked at Brody, up at the head table, and he was looking right at me.

He didn’t smile. He didn’t nod. He just held it for a second, and then he looked back at his wife and kissed her, and everybody cheered.

I have replayed that second more times than I can count.

Was that a man who had told the truth, hearing his wife say so in front of everyone he loved, and grateful I’d kept my word?

Or was that a man who had just heard his wife call him the most honest person she knew, and was checking to see if I was going to stand up?

I didn’t stand up. I ate my pie. I danced once with Tess. I drove home before the sparkler send-off.