A Very Merry Superhero Wedding (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke) by Kitty Bucholtz

than ‘he liked it,’ okay?” Hayley laughed.
    After Tori opened the last gift, Sam presented her with her bridal shower ribbon bouquet. Tori didn’t know how she’d done it, but Sam had twisted some of the ribbons into flowers, braided others to make an edging, and left trailing tendrils to hang from Tori’s hands when she held the bouquet. She’d also braided the silver and white ribbons together to create a headpiece that looked like something out of a Disney movie.
    “Sam,” Tori breathed as Sam arranged the ribbons on her hair. “This is beautiful.” She hugged her little sister tight. Since they hadn’t lived in the same house for several years, Tori hadn’t realized how much she didn’t know about Sam, like how artistic she was. “Wow.”
    All the ladies ooh’d and ahh’d and suddenly everyone had a phone or a camera in hand, taking pictures. Tori smiled and grinned and hugged and laughed and smiled some more. By the time the last of the guests had left, her cheeks ached. But her heart was overflowing.
    “Lex, Hayley, Sam, that was wonderful. Really beautiful.” She hugged them each in turn. “Thank you so much. That was the loveliest shower I could have imagined.”
    She turned to Joe’s mom. “Hannah, thank you so much for this. I hope your family thinks I’m…” She fluttered her hand, trying to think of a word better than “okay.”
    Hannah hugged her tight. “They think you’re wonderful,” she said. “You and your whole family.”
    Tori smiled and felt her usual quieter self return. She ducked her head to hide the blush she feared was blooming. “Oh…well, good. Um, do you need help cleaning up?”
    “You girls go on, I’ve got it covered.” Hannah pointed behind Tori to four women coming down the stairs. “The troops have arrived.” At Tori’s questioning glance, she clarified, “My Bible study offered to do the cleanup today.”
    The ladies waved and called out greetings to each other. Tori recognized one woman, but didn’t know her name. These strangers had come to help make her day perfect. Wow.
    Tori turned to her mother. “Mom,” she started to speak as she hugged her, but her throat closed up. Dixie held her close, rocking her slightly in her arms. Neither of them said anything, just sniffled and held on.
    Eventually Dixie pulled back. She placed her hands gently on the sides of Tori’s face. “I love you.”
    Neither one of them mentioned any of their struggles to get along over the years, the fights, the misunderstandings, the times Danny had to step in and negotiate peace. They just stoo d togethe r for a moment.
    “I love you.” Tori poured her heart into the words, willing her mom to believe she meant it, no matter what.
    “It’s been a beautiful day,” Dixie said. “Everything a young bride could want. You could treasure up these moments,” her words began to trip over each other as she hurried to get them out, “and have a lovely June wedding. June is a beautiful—”
    “Mom,” Tori interrupted. She tried to stay calm. “A Christmas wedding is beautiful, too.”
    “Spring then,” Dixie pressed. “I’m not asking you not to get married. Just let us get to know him better, mak e sur e this will…”
    Tori knew her mom was going to say , make sure this will wor k . She gave her credit for not finishing the sentence, at least. Danny had said more than once that it wasn’t that they didn’t trust Tori’s ability to make sound decisions, but that a few weeks wasn’t long enough to know if you could make a fifty-year life together.
    Tori couldn’t explain how, but sh e di d know. “Mom, I appreciate your concern for me, but I’m marrying Joe on Wednesday.” She was trying to decide if she should say more, press her case, but they’d been over this a dozen times.
    Dixie took a deep breath and stepped back a step. “Okay,” she said, wiping a finger below each eye, “go get dressed. Fix your makeup. Have fun an d be saf e . And keep