"Doesn't Jill look pretty, daddy?" Aislinn whispered to Mark. He smiled, as he nodded and looked on. Mark had walked Jill down the aisle, since her father was gone. She wore a white silk gown, not too gaudy. In fact, it looked a lot like the gown that Courtney Cox wore when her character, Monica, married Chandler. She decided not to wear a veil, and chose a diamond tiera instead.
Michelle wore a baby pink dress, that touched just past her knees. It had a small sleeve, that barely went past her shoulder blades, and the ends of each sleeve were ruffled nicely. She wore her hair up, with white flowers placed neatly around.
Mark and the children sat in the front pew, on Jill's side, alongside her elder mother, Jane, and Jill's younger sister, Nancy. It had been three and a half months since Andrew came out of the closet, so to speak. He and Mark were working on their relationship as father and son, and trying to understand the other's point of view.
Aislinn would be heading back up to Michigan State in three weeks, and Mark wasn't looking forward to watching his baby girl leave him again. She promised to come down more often, like on long weekends.
Marcus and Jessica had gone back to their home for a few weeks, but had just recently came in for the wedding. After much convincing, they finally agreed to stay in the house with Mark, until after the baby came. Jessica liked it better there anyway. The arrival of their first child was about a month away now, and they were both anxious, but very excited at the same time.
Andrew was getting ready for law school. He hadn't been out with anybody since he told his family about being gay, and he had no intentions of it as of right now. He wanted to focus on getting his career started. He had been accepted into Texas Weslyan's School of Law, and started in exactly one month. He was excited about that too.
Jill and Michelle's wedding went smoothly and they both looked beautiful. Mark had never seen his best friend so happy. He used to wonder why she insisted on waiting so long to get married, but now he understood why. He was actually glad she did. Jill was just waiting for the right moment, and she wanted to be sure that it would work, and that this was what she wanted for herself.
Mark's children had been pushing him to get back out there, and try dating. He had nothing stopping him, since he retired. Mark was skeptical however, and he was afraid he could never be with a woman as wonderful as Elizabeth was. He thought that with his luck he would end up going on a date with some terrific woman, and blow it all by talking about nothing but Elizabeth.
"It's like I always say dad; You'll never know unless you try," Aislinn told him, as they discussed it at the reception later on, "You want big rewards, you gotta take big risks."
Big risks. That was what he was afraid of. It had been so long for him, and he was so used to the same old routine. Maybe he would meet someone, though. And maybe she would end up widowed or at least divorced, and have a couple of her own kids. That would have been nice if he could at least find someone he could relate to.
TBC
