"Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold..."

Nancy beamed at Ned.

"I do."

"Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold..."

Ned winked at Nancy, and she almost dropped the bouquet she was holding.

"I do."

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife."

Nancy and Ned glanced away from the minister at the same time, meeting each other's eyes. Nancy had misted up a little, but she laughed when Jeff lifted Bess, white dress and all, to him for a long, satisfying kiss.

"May I present Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Callahan."

Bess raised her fists in a gesture of victory, and Nancy could swear she glowed. Nancy handed her best friend the larger bouquet, took her own back from George, and waited to grab Ned's arm and head out for the recessional.

"I'm supposed to do this again in a month," Ned muttered to her, through the corner of his mouth.

She patted his hand sympathetically. "Yeah, but just think. You don't have to do it in heels."

He laughed at her as they finally made it out of the church, the doors swinging back to reveal bright Texas sunshine. "Guess you're right."

The wedding had been utterly gorgeous. Nancy sighed, still on Ned's arm, as they found the reception hall. The catering staff, all in matching livery, stood at serving stations, poised and ready to carve meat and pour punch. The Callahans really hadn't spared any expense for their son's wedding.

Nancy fought back a pang of jealousy. Jeff had gone to middle school with them, back in River Heights, and for the three years they had been classmates, he'd been teased about his Texan drawl. Teased by everyone, except for them, except for Bess. She and Jeff had managed to strike up their old friendship, and a year later Nancy was been on a plane to Texas, tapped to share maid of honor duties with George Fayne. It could all happen that fast. Now here they were, deep in wedding season, and Nancy opened every Morning Record with dread, wondering which of her classmates would be beaming from an engagement or wedding photo next.

"I'm sure you can take the heels off," Ned leaned over to say.

Nancy shot a grateful smile up at him. Transparent as he might find her, at least she had been able to successfully quash her feelings. "Thanks."

Mrs. Callahan, an elegant woman dressed in metallic lavender, came over to them, through the temporarily quiet hall. "They need you to sign as a witness, dear."

When she came over to the table, Nancy found Bess, her veil off, her feet bare, the hem of her dress just touching the ground, and grinning from ear to ear. "Wasn't it perfect?" Bess asked.

Nancy wrestled it all back into the box in her head and slammed the lid, then smiled. "It really was," she replied.

--

"You know, it's a shame we couldn't spend more time down here."

"Yeah," Nancy replied, distracted, as she and Ned shouldered their way through the crowd. Nancy had volunteered to handle turning the rental car back in, while George went ahead through the security checkpoint. The airport was a madhouse.

"It's been nice."

"Has it?"

Ned shot her a wry smile when she looked back at him. "Maybe not for you, then," he said, twisting to avoid a woman and her wide twin baby stroller.

Nancy gave him a brief smile in return. "It's just been," she shrugged, clutching the keys as she fought her way through a crowd of backpack-laden tourists. "Different."

"Hey, you caught the bouquet."

"Don't remind me," Nancy said darkly. She hadn't even been planning to stand in the crowd of girls, almost shaking with excitement, hands upstretched. George had dragged her over.

Damn her reflexes.

They finally reached the end of a very long line, stretched in front of the return counter, and Nancy shrugged her backpack off. Ned rested a hand lightly between her shoulder blades.

"You all right?"

She glanced back at him. "Yeah," she sighed. "Just tired."

And hungover, she didn't add. She didn't need to. She had no clear idea of when they had made it back to the hotel that morning, no clear recollection of how much she'd had to drink. Now Bess was married, and Nancy had smiled for all the pictures while she had watched Bess and Jeff pose, and Bess really had looked absolutely amazing in her white gown.

Nancy had tried to blame it on the hangover and the exhaustion, and the travel fatigue, but in the end it all came down to one, horrible conclusion.

Not that she'd ever tell Ned.

They moved forward a few steps and put their bags down again. "Are we cutting it close?"

Nancy glanced down at her watch and frowned. "I know we should be checking in, but they make you go right through security afterwards, and if we don't get the car turned in soon..."

"Yeah," Ned agreed. "But, it's not like they'd stop us, right?"

"How badly do you want to get back to Chicago tonight?" Nancy asked him, softening the words with a smile.

Even when she urged him to go ahead and make it to the plane, Ned stayed with her, offering to buy Coke and candy when a belligerant woman in a suit began a long tirade over exactly how long she'd had the car rented and how she was not responsible for the condition of the backseat. Nancy was almost asleep on her feet by the time they made it to the front of the line.

"Next?"

"Thank God," Ned breathed, following her up to the counter.

"You just need to sign here, and here," the agent said, handing over the printed form, and Nancy nodded, finally smiling in relief. Then she heard the announcement for their flight, that all passengers needed to check in.

"Go," she shooed Ned. "It'll just take me a minute."

"So give me your ticket and I'll go ahead and check us both in."

Nancy unzipped the back pocket of her backpack and felt around, then blanched. The agent cleared her throat and Nancy finished signing hurriedly, her signature a black meaningless scrawl, before they were dismissed. She made a beeline over to a bench and put her backpack down, rooting through it.

Then she stopped and brought her head up, slowly, her face drained pale, her eyes wide when they met Ned's.

"George has my ticket," she breathed.

--

"No, no," Nancy insisted, rubbing her forehead. "No, it's fine. Stay on the plane. We'll figure something out."

She sat next to Ned on the same bench, cell phone to her ear. Ned's stomach made a low rumbling sound. Without missing a beat, Nancy reached into her backpack and found Ned a granola bar, which he accepted with little enthusiasm.

"No, I mean it. They aren't going to let you off, anyway. We'll just catch a later flight."

Nancy hung up the phone and put her head down on her closed knees for a minute, then pushed her hair out of her face and sat up. "So we just need to sweet-talk one of the agents into helping us," she said, and put her hand down on the bench to push herself up.

Ned put his hand over hers. "Just wait a minute," he said.

"Why?" she asked, without moving away. "All we have to do is say we missed check-in, I'm sure they'll help us."

"Yeah," Ned replied. "I know. It's simple. We get back on a plane and go back to River Heights and see each other on dates every night for the next week, and then I go off to Camp Pocahontas and you get involved in some congressional scandal and that's it for the summer."

Nancy tilted her head, but didn't reply.

Ned sighed, then came to some decision. She could see it in his eyes. "Do you trust me?"

"Yeah," she shrugged, then laughed when he reached in to tickle her ribs. "Yes, I trust you, I swear, just no more of that."

"Then wait right here," he said, shouldering his pack off. He gave her a light kiss on the cheek before he left.