They met in it, dead center, halfway between his house and hers, where they had met so many times during the weeks when they were falling in love.

The sun lit his dark, neatly combed hair and put little flames into her red curls. It picked out the intensity in his eyes and threw it into hers.

He took her hands lightly, the single oversized gardenia falling back over her knuckles.

"Hello," he said softly.

"Hello."

"Happy wedding day."

"Happy wedding day to you, too."

"You look…" He searched for a word. "Radiant."

"I feel radiant. And you look exquisite."

"I feel like the luckiest man on earth."

They smiled some, then he asked, "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"So am I. Go ahead."

She dropped her gaze momentarily, composing her words, then looked up into his eyes.

"I, Tess McPhail…"

"I, Kenneth Kronek…"

"Take you, Kenneth Kronek…"

"Take you, Tess McPhail…"

"To be my beloved husband for the rest of my life."

"To be my beloved wife for the rest of my life."

"To love you as I love you today…"

"To love you as I love you today…"

"Renouncing all others…"

"Most definitely renouncing all others…"

"And we will share all that we have, and all that we will have… the joys and the sorrows, the work and the play, the worries and the wonders… and your daughter… and my mother… and all the love and commitment it will take to see them through the years ahead…"

"And we'll be kind to each other…"

"Yes. And respectful…"

"And I swear to love you, sustain you, be your strength when you need it and your ease when you need it."

"And I'll do the same for you."

They tried to think of anything they'd missed. He thought of something. "And I renounce all jealousy… of your fans and their demands on you."

She smiled, and said, "Why, Kenny, how sweet of you."

"That might be my hardest part," he admitted.

She rubbed his knuckles, and replied, "For me, too… being away from you."

They paused once again, adoring each other without smiles, because the moment seemed too sacred to diminish with smiles.

"I love you, Kenny."

"I love you, Tess."

"Forever."

"Forever."

He leaned down and kissed her lightly while bluebottle flies buzzed nearby and the white summer sun lifted the scent of her gardenia and mixed it with the dusty smell of the graveled alley.

When he straightened, they smiled fully, as they had not earlier.

"I feel as married as I'll ever feel," she said.

"So do I. Now let's go do it for everybody else."

It was, to the surprise of many, one of the most modest weddings ever held at First Methodist. Some expected luminaries from the recording industry to sing at the ceremony. Instead, only the First Methodist choir sang, directed by Mrs. Atherton, who was back as their leader. Some expected an entire chorus line of attendants, but there were only two. Some expected the attendants to be both male and female. But tradition was shot to the four winds when Casey Kronek and Mary McPhail, smiling fit to kill, each walked up the aisle solo. And when the bride appeared, everyone craned around, supposing she'd be decked out in several thousand dollars' worth of wedding finery shaped like a mushroom cloud. Instead she wore the simple white dress and the simpler ring of girlish flowers in her hair.

She smiled at Kenny all the way up the aisle. He was waiting at the chancel with Reverend Giddings, and when Giddings asked, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man," Mary answered first.

"I do."

Followed by Casey, "And I do."

Though smiles were exchanged behind them, and a soft ripple of amusement lifted from the congregation, everyone thought, how perfect that these two should give their public blessings to this match, because everyone in that church knew how Kenny doted on Mary, and took care of her, and how she'd practically been a grandma to the girl since Casey's own grandma had died. And who but the famous Tess McPhail would have had the temerity to have two women as attendants at her wedding and get by with it? She spurned tradition once again at the traditional giving of the roses. Normally the parents of the nuptials couple received them. But while Kenny gave one to Mary, Tess gave one to Casey, and as their cheeks touched, most eyes in the house got misty.

The wedding guests had one more surprise in store when, after the exchange of vows, the bride took a microphone and sang to her husband. They shouldn't have been surprised by the time Casey took another microphone and sang backup harmony. After all, what about this wedding ceremony matched preconceived notions? Furthermore, the word had spread that the song was co-written by the new "mother-daughter" duo, and that it would be released in the fall as the title song from Tess's new album.

There was, at the Kronek-McPhail wedding, one element of glamour. Among the guests were a bunch of Tess's friends who had flown in from Nashville. Their names were household words, and their faces were recognized in airports and restaurants wherever they went. They were the crème de la crème of the Nashville country music scene, the stars whom Tess numbered among her friends.

When the bride and groom swept jubilantly out of the church to form the receiving line, those stars took their turns just like all the other guests, being dismissed by the ushers and congratulating the newlyweds while the townsfolk from Wintergreen grew rattled, being elbow to elbow with them.

While their presence at the wedding was notable, the presence of another was even more notable. Faith had come. There had been a question about whether or not to invite her, but in the end Kenny and Tess had decided that, given how important she'd been in Kenny's life, she certainly should be asked.

She was every inch a lady, doing the proper thing as she came through the receiving line, taking Tess's hand and smiling. "Congratulations, Tess, you look lovely. Thank you for inviting me." She took Kenny's hand, too, and kept her smile intact, giving away nothing but pleasure in being here, no matter what heartbreak might be lingering. "Kenny, I hope you and Tess will be very, very happy together."

The bride and groom rode in a white limo out to Current River Cove where their reception was little different than hundreds of others that had been held there. The fried chicken dinner was geared for down-home tastes. The dance, however, turned out to be the talk of the year. Tess's own band played, and a slough of Nashville stars got up, one after another, and sang their hits for the dancers. In the middle of this spontaneous show, Judy got huffy and stalked off to the ladies' room to fluff her hair and fume.

"Showing off all her famous friends!" she hissed to two women who were in there freshening their lipstick. "It's sickening."

Judy would never accept the facts of Tess's life: many of her friends were famous, just as she was. Many of them were idolized on albums and magazine covers just as she was. Many were millionaires. But for Tess not to invite them today would have been a snub. And for them to adjust their schedules to be here was a measure of their affection for her.

Vince Gill and Reba McEntire were singing together on his old classic "Oklahoma Swing" when Judy came out of the washroom. From the dance floor, Tess saw her and said to her new husband, "There's Judy… in one of her jealous snits."

He smoothly turned her so her back was to Judy and said, "You know what, darlin'? You're never going to change Judy."

"I know that by now."

"And you're not going to let her ruin your wedding day, are you?"

She flashed him an honest smile without undertones. "Absolutely not." She had come to accept Judy's insecurities as the root of her jealousy, and to pity her instead of getting angry. For there, on the other side of the dance floor, was her sister Renee dancing with Jim, and Renee counterbalanced all of Judy's jealousy with a sure and constant love that looked beyond superficiality. And there, too, was Momma…

Flirting with Alan Jackson!

She was sitting at a table surrounded by her friends, who were all making a big fuss over him and gathering enough fodder for a year's worth of card-party table talk.

"Look at Momma," Tess said.

Kenny looked. And chuckled. "I think she's half-shnockered up on champagne again."

"Six months ago I'd probably have gone over and apologized to Alan, but now I don't see any need to apologize for anything on Momma's behalf. She is what she is, and I love her."

She told Mary as much soon after that when they went to wish her good-bye and sneak away without farewells to the crowd in general. Mary said, "Now, you kids come home soon as you can."

"We will."

"And I'll keep an eye on Casey while she's here." Casey was staying in Wintergreen for a week before driving Kenny's new Mercedes back home to Nashville.

"Thanks, Momma," Tess said as they exchanged a kiss.

"Thanks, Momma," Kenny said, and made Mary all emotional, calling her that for the first time.

She grabbed his face in two hands and planted a kiss on his cheek. "You dear thing," she said. "I'll bet your own Momma is smiling down from heaven at this very moment. Now go on, take your wife and go."

They found Casey and told her they were slipping away. Kenny handed her the car keys, and said, "Be careful with my new Mercedes."

She gave him a smooch on the cheek, and said, "Be careful with my new mother." Then she added, " 'Bye, Mother Mac, have a nice honeymoon."

On their way to the airport-lo and behold-the limo got caught behind Conn Hendrickson's lumbering fuel oil truck.