Begin Again

| Chapter Forty-Two |

"Do I look alright?" Ruth asked Terry, anxiously running her fingers over the length of her silky, blush-colored dress that kissed the floor.

Her bridesmaid dress lingered a little tighter in curves and places compared to the other girls, and she wasn't so sure if her make-up transformed her into another woman entirely. Her nails were fine, her shoes comfortable despite the heel, and the sleeves looped around her upper arms alright, she supposed. But shit, did her hair look good enough? She didn't get as much time as the other girls, considering she had an interview in the morning, but hopefully it didn't look rushed?

She went to run her fingers over the pinned curls the hairdresser spiraled in after blowing out her natural coils. She knew Raffo would miss her natural ones, but one day wouldn't hurt. Before she could mess up the bundle of hair circulating her lower back, Terry slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch," Terry warned, but then her hazel eyes softened. A beautiful smile touched her red-stained lips, and she brushed her thumb over Ruth's forearm, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You look gorgeous, Ruthie. And before you ask; no, the make-up is perfect and natural, your hair is amazing as usual, and the dress looks sexy on you. Maybe I should be asking you if you're getting cold feet."

Ruth waved her cousin off with a laugh. "I know I shouldn't be so . . . nervous. But Jana's got everyone within a thirty-mile radius coming to this wedding, and Raffo will be out there, and I'm never so done—"

"Breathe," Terry interrupted. Ruth stopped her panic mid-sentence and took a second to steady her breathing enough to her cousin's satisfaction. "Good. Now, yes, there's a lot of people out there. And yes, Raffo is one of them. But you'll do great out there, I promise. All you have to do is focus on not tripping and smiling, okay? Can you do that?"

Ruth nodded wordlessly. Terry squeezed Ruth's arm again and tugged it lightly toward where Jana was getting her dress on in the back room. "Good, let's go see what's taking the woman of the hour so long."

Ruth followed closely behind her cousin and continued to focus on her breathing. Terry was right; she just needed to focus on walking and smiling. There was no reason to be nervous. She graduated from college in front of thousands of people. Surely she could take on a little over a hundred-and-twenty people, give or take.

And Raffo. She was just laying with him a few hours before she got to the clubhouse. There was absolutely no reason to be nervous. None.

With that thought, Ruth pushed her worries away as best as she could and followed Terry into the room where Jana was getting ready. All anxiousness slipped away into the abyss of her mind when the radiant bride turned around to face them.

"Oh, Jana," Terry choked, removing her hand from Ruth's to fan her swelling eyes.

Ruth's own gaze filled with tears and she had to blink her fake-lashed eyes rapidly a few times to clear the gloss from her vision. A thick ball rested in the pit of her throat, but she hid it behind a wide smile and a choked laugh that Jana's mother followed with a hug around her shoulders.

Jana was absolutely stunning in her beaded wedding dress. The white lace twirled up the warm brown skin of her arms and across her smaller bosom in intricate designs. Across the expanse of her stomach was their tribe's colors in different beaded swirls, accentuating the peyote-stitch earrings dangling from her ears with the same colors and the bone-beaded choker around her neck. Her hair was pulled into a half-up half-down updo, almost mimicking Ruth's, but hers had a few braids wrapped into the ponytail part from the sides of her head.

Jana's wedding wasn't completely traditional to their tribe, but it had many of the Indigenous elements that still made it special. And her look was one of them.