Gabby stands behind me with a curling iron, making fat rings of my hair and letting them hang down over my shoulders. I chose a simple white summer dress for today, and I think Jake will like it. Gabby frees the last ringlet and steps back. “You look really beautiful, Mom,” she says.

“Thanks, Gabby.” I have to blink the tears back yet again. This day is so emotional on so many levels. “Have you checked on Jake?”

She shakes her head. “Alex is with him. And Pop. And Freddy. I think he’s covered.” Gabby lays her hand on my shoulder and stares at me in the mirror.

I cover her hand with mine. “I love you, Gabs,” I tell her.

“I love you too, Mom,” she says.

A knock sounds on the door of the cabin, which is where I’ve spent the rest of the night and the morning. Laura, my only bridesmaid aside from Gabby, gets up to go and answer the door. “Yes? Can I help you?” she asks.

“We’d like to see the bride,” a familiar voice says.

I get up and run to the door. “Oh, my God.” I stop and cover my mouth. Apparently, I’m going to do nothing but sob all day. “I didn’t know you were coming!”

Mr. and Mrs. Stone, Jeff’s parents, walk into the room and take turns hugging me tightly. Mr. Stone hugs me the longest, and when he sets me back from him, he has tears in his eyes.

“Jake called and invited us,” he explains.

My belly drops down toward my toes. “Jake called you?”

He nods. “He wanted to tell us about the wedding, and he thought you might want us to be here.”

“I did,” I rush to say. “I do. I just…” I don’t know how to finish it. I don’t know how to tell them that I was afraid they wouldn’t approve. “I was scared,” I finally admit.

Mr. Stone chuckles and it sounds so much like Jeff that I have to look at him twice. “Jeff wouldn’t want you to die with him,” Mr. Stone says. “He’d want you to find someone wonderful like Jake. He’d want you to be happy.”

I can only nod at him. I couldn’t get a word out if I tried.

“Well, we’ll be here watching. Cheering you on.” He leans toward me and pretends to whisper. “And drinking your beer.”

I laugh and hug him before he leaves. Jeff’s mom steps closer to me. She has been very quiet. “I’d like to make a formal request,” she says.

“Okay…”

“We’d like to spend a little more time with our grandchildren. We can come to you, or you can come to us, we don’t care which, but we want to be in their lives.” She stops and clears her throat. “We want to be in all their lives. All four of them are special to us, and we want to know them.”

Emotion chokes me and I pull her to me. “You don’t have to,” I whisper to her.

“All four of them are important to us, so we’d like to see them all. We’d like for them all to know us as their grandparents, if that’s all right with you.”

I wipe my eyes. “It’s all right with me.”

She reaches into her purse and pulls out an envelope. She holds it out for me. “Jeff left this for you,” she says.

I don’t reach for it. She thrusts it toward me again. I don’t take it. In fact, I take a step back away from it.

“It’s just a letter,” she says.

“Have you read it?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “No. But you should.”

I take another step back. “Why do you have it?”

“You know the letters he left for everyone?”

I nod. Jeff left letters for everyone he loved, including me and his parents, and we got them when he died. He also left one for each of the children, for them to read on the day they get married. They don’t know about those letters, but I was left with strict instructions on how to distribute them. “I remember them,” I say. “I already read my letter.”

“Well, this was included in my letter, along with special instructions. I have another one to deliver too. You’re not the only one.”

“Who’s the other one for?”

“The other one is for the man you marry,” she says softly. “Jeff wanted to tell him some things.”

“What kind of things?” I whisper.

She laughs. “I have no idea, but knowing Jeff, it should be really good.”

“I don’t want it,” I say. “Take it with you.”

She sets it on the coffee table and walks to the door. She looks back at me. “We’d like to sit behind your parents. Would that be all right with you?” she asks. “Can we still be family?”

I nod emphatically. “Yes, of course.”

She goes out the door and leaves me with Laura and Gabby.

Laura walks over to Gabby. “Let’s give your mom a few minutes, okay?”

Gabby stares at me long enough to be sure I’m all right. Then they leave. They leave me alone with the letter.

I lift my perfectly manicured fingernails to my lips and chew on them, as I pace back and forth across the room. The letter seems to stare at me.

I pick it up. For Katie, on the day she remarries is written in Jeff’s chicken-scratch on the outside.

I put it back down on the table. I don’t want it.

I pass by it about a hundred more times, and then I finally pick it up, tear it open, and with shaky hands I pull out the single sheet inside. I sink down onto the sofa, because my legs are too wobbly to hold me up any longer.

Dear Katie,

If you’re reading this, then today is the day you’re marrying another man. Don’t worry—this isn’t a sad letter, and I have no sad intentions as I sit and write it.

Last night, the Hum-V in front of us went up in flames and we lost seven members of our team. Some of them were fathers and mothers, some were sons and daughters, and still others were husbands and wives. No matter who they were, they were loved by someone, and someone has suffered a great loss. It made me think about all the things I would want to say to you, if you were ever forced to go on without me. It probably won’t happen—I pray it won’t happen—but I want to be prepared.

If you’re reading this, you have trusted someone enough to accept his proposal, and you loved him enough to let him into our children’s lives. You are the best mother in the world, and you have good judgment when it comes to people. If you’ve gotten this far, you know you’ve made a good choice. If you ever doubt it, please know that I don’t doubt it for a second.

My suggestions to you:

1. Love him fiercely and with all your heart. The love you have for him will be different from the love you have for me. You don’t have to separate the two.

2. We have seventeen years of happy memories. Cherish them, but don’t let them smother the love you have for him. Don’t let them be the weeds that choke out the light. Let them be the fertilizer that will help your love grow.

3. Forgive easily. I know it’s hard, and I know your temper even better than you do. You get angry quickly. Forgive him just as quickly, and hopefully he will return the favor.

4. Let him lead our children when he can. Let him be more to them than a playmate. Let him be a father. He won’t take my place, but he can take his own place with you and with them—you just have to let him.

I love you more than you can ever imagine. And it’s my love for you that made me write this letter to you, because when I can no longer make you happy on a daily basis, I dearly hope that someone else can.

Love him fiercely, Katie, as I have loved you.

Until we meet again,

Jeff