ANDIE AND SETH were huddled together on the sofa near my makeup table. I sat in my reading chair. This was their meeting. But why were we having it now?

“Mom, you know how all my life I’ve been waiting for something wonderful to happen to me?” Seth said.

“Oh, honey,” I said. “If you want to talk about not making the Stockbridge middle-school lacrosse team, let’s do it after the wedding.”

“Mom. Be serious.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I don’t want to hear any bad news right now. Go ahead.”

“Well, you know how I said we stopped in Worcester on our way up, and how we had dinner—the whole Taco Bell thing? Well, we did stop in Worcester. But we didn’t go to Taco Bell.”

My matrimonial clock was ticking. “Get to the point, please,” I said to Seth.

“Let me tell it,” Andie said. “We had made arrangements beforehand to stop at the city clerk’s. She promised to wait for us. And she did. We got a Massachusetts marriage license. And, well…”

“We were wondering if we could…” Seth broke off and started chewing on his lower lip.

Andie jumped in again. “We were wondering if we could get married today too. Reverend Browning knows about it. We told him we had to ask you. Gaby, we don’t want to mess things up.”

Why was I even trying to wear mascara today? The tears started all over again.

“Oh, you two. Did I hear the phrase ‘bad news’ come from somebody’s mouth during all that explanation? This is the polar opposite of bad news.”

We all stood and hugged. And I’ll tell you, hugging is a good thing to do on your wedding day. And on Christmas too.

“Who knows about this? Your sisters?” I asked. “Am I the last…”

“No. No one. Just you, us, and the minister,” Seth said.

“Good. Then let’s make it a surprise. Let me do something with my eyes, and then…well…then we’ll all get married.”