I Thought the Strangers in the Back Row Had Come to the Wrong Wedding

I had noticed them while walking toward the ceremony.

Nine people, maybe ten.

An older woman in a blue dress.

A heavyset man wearing a plaid shirt.

A couple around our age.

A thin man with silver hair and very polished black shoes.

A woman with a teenage boy beside her.

None of them looked lost.

They weren’t whispering to one another or searching for another wedding.

They were watching Reed.