Read Online Marrying Daisy Bellamy by Susan Wiggs - Free Book Online Page B

“My lord, but you make me proud.”
    â€œMe, too,” said a deep, sonorous voice Julian hadn’t heard in years. Three others arrived from the direction of the parking lot.
    â€œUncle Claude! And Tante Mimi. Remy!” Julian laughed aloud. “I feel like I’m seeing things.”
    Uncle Claude was the brother of Julian’s late father. When he died, Claude and Mimi had offered to take Julian in, but there was no room and no money in theirtiny, southern Louisiana house. Remy was their youngest of four and developmentally disabled.
    He and Julian were the same age. As kids, they used to be fast friends. “Hey, Remy,” he said, completely elated. “Remember me?”
    â€œâ€™Course,” said Remy, “I got me a book full of pictures of us.” He still sounded like the cousin Julian had known, speaking slowly and hesitantly, as always. The speech impediment was muted now, and his voice rang with a deep resonance, like his dad’s.
    When the two of them were young, Julian had gotten into many a fight, defending his cousin from the teasing of other kids. Fully grown, Remy looked like an NFL linebacker, and it was doubtful he suffered from teasing anymore.
    â€œI’m real glad you’re here,” Julian said. He turned to his brother. “Is this your doing?”
    â€œYou can thank my lovely wife. She made it happen. I think she might have been a genie in a past life.”
    Julian gave Olivia a hug. “You’re the best.”
    He glanced at Daisy and caught her eye. Other than Connor, she’d never met any of his family. She didn’t know the world he’d come from, how different his upbringing had been from hers. She seemed at ease with them, however, walking alongside Remy as they made their way to the auditorium for the ceremony.
    â€œYou’ll have to tell me stories about you and Julian, growing up,” she said to his cousin.
    â€œI got stories.” Remy offered a bashful grin. “I can tell you stories ’bout me and Julian, for sure.”
    â€œWe’re going to dinner after the ceremony,” said Connor. “He can fill you in then.”
    Even with the extra family members, they were one of the smaller groups to attend the commissioning. Hespotted Tanesha Sayers with her mother and a whole entourage of aunties and cousins, a colorful garden of black ladies wearing fancy hats. A beaming Sayers waved at him from across the yard. “Good luck, Jughead,” she called.
    â€œSame to you.” Where she was going, she’d need it. To her disappointment, her plan to attend med school had been deferred because the air force needed her elsewhere. The good news was, she was headed to a posting in the Pentagon to work in protocol. With that sharp tongue of hers, it would be a challenge.
    â€œFriend of yours?” Daisy asked.
    â€œSayers is in my detachment.” He was dying to figure out if Daisy was jealous. He kind of wanted her to be, because of what that would mean.
    â€œShe calls you Jughead.” She laughed. “I like it.”
    â€œHey, how about some family pictures before we go in,” Connor suggested.
    â€œI’m on it,” Daisy said.
    Julian’s family didn’t resemble anything people pictured when they thought of “family,” but they were all connected, and it meant the world to him that they had come. Daisy took photos of him and the others in every possible combination. They were definitely a picture of diversity. Connor, whose father was white, looked like Paul Bunyan in a new suit. Their mother, who these days called herself Starr, was as blond as Olivia and Daisy, while his aunt, uncle and cousin had the same fine ebony coloring as Julian’s late father. Julian himself was a mixture of dark and light, and was sometimes mistaken for Latino. Which, where he was headed, was not necessarily a bad thing.
    He was dying to tell Daisy what he could of his