> Julia smiled and admitted "Well, yeah."
>
> "But," she told him what she had found that day pointing with the index
> finger in his hand to her and her mother's hands which were looking in the
> shells "I ended up finding an actual oyster with a pearl in it."
>
> She traced along her mother's hair "I gave it to her and she had it added
to
> a necklace Dad gave her. Said it was a good sign about the wedding.
Ended
> up becoming a tradition with those two. He added a pearl to the pearl
> necklace he had given her that day every year."
>
> She ran the side of her thumb against the side of Derek's hand before
> turning the page. There was two men on the page - one a teen, which was
her
> brother, and the other being her father.
>
> "That's my father." she said, a soft smile touching her lips "He was
helping
> my brother with his tie."
>
> The difference in age between man and woman was obvious by looking at
them,
> but the love they felt, as was seen in two group pictures right after they
> had exchanged vows on the next page, was even more obvious.
>
> Julia set her chin on Derek's shoulder, remembering her smile a little
> wobbly. In one picture they were doing a pretty good formal pose - save
for
> the bare feet after having played in the sands before the photographer had
> ushered them over. Her brother was on one side, her father and mother in
> the middle and turned partially toward each other but still keeping their
> children on either side of them as they smiled at each other, and Julia,
> who's gaze was smiling and turned toward them as the breeze continued to
> blow at everyone's hair unnoticed.
>
> She turned the page slowly, only to stop and blink. There weren't any
> pictures but two envelopes, both addressed to her and handwritings of both
> of her mother and father each. And at the moment all she could do was
look
> at them.
>
Derek:
Derek couldn't help but smile as Julia told the story of her mother's
necklace. It was nice idea and he thought he might like to do something
similar for Julia. He was slightly shocked when he saw Julia's father. In
the pictures he was indeed much older than Julia's mother, however there was
something else too. It might have been his imagination, but Derek was quite
certain the man looked quite a bit older than he did, which once he got over
the surprise actually did help to ease his mind about his age. He wondered
vaguely if his father had loved his mother that much, at any point in their
lives. He wasn't entirely sure his father was capable of loving anyone, but
he hoped that if he loved someone it was his mother. She sacrificed so much
for him, things he never even knew about and often times things that Derek
felt he would probably never care about either. However, he liked the idea
of his mother having that kind of love bestowed upon her and the thought of
being able to give that to Julia.
He stared at the pages expecting to see more photographs, so the envelopes
were a surprise. Much more so for Julia though. After a moment he lifted
one of them from the book and handed it to her. "Special delivery," he told
her rolling over on his back and slipping an arm around her shoulders.
