“Saybye bye.” Cassandra turned the tearful toddler to the birthday girl. “Can you saybye byeto Gwen?”
The sounds didn’t come out, but at least Patrick made a paltry effort to mouth the words in their direction. The poor boy wanted to go to bed.Can’t blame him. He takes after me, after all. Can’t be helped!James liked his bedtime and naps, too. Patrick had a long life of wanting to do nothing but sleep half the day away before him!
“Thanks for coming to my birthday party, Patrick.” Gwen placed a kind hand on his cheek. To his credit, the boy didn’t shirk away from her. In fact, he reached both hands out to her, and Cassandra struggled to keep the growing toddler from falling out of her arms. “I’ll make sure to come to yours soon, too!”
“I think he wants you to hold him, Gwen,” James said, careful to not pressure her. “He makes that gesture when he wants to be held goodbye.” It prided him to know that. He better damn well know what kind of things the kid meant with his gestures.
Gwen hesitated before opening her arms to him. Stiff arms, to be sure, but the fact she made the effort was what almost brought tears to James’s eyes. Cassandra carefully passed the boy to Gwen’s embrace. She stayed on standby until Gwen had her fill of bouncing the kid in her arms and saying her goodbyes. Patrick had stopped crying by the time he went to his mother.
“Have a good night.” Cassandra nodded to them both with a smile before taking her leave. Gwen was the last to turn around.
“Where were we?” she asked her husband.
The birthday party was arranged to Gwen’s tastes, from the food and drink to the music the DJ regaled them with. To the eternal sounds of The Cranberries, James continued to twirl his wife across the dancefloor and occasionally fielded cheeky questions from the guests who knew nothing about their relationship. Forever a secret except to a select few.
Until tonight.
James stopped dancing at the end of “Dreams”and held Gwen out at arm’s length. He fished into his pocket while the DJ cut the next song and everyone in the small ballroom turned toward them.
Gwen looked around as if she were about to be pranked.
“Gwenyth Mitchell,” James said, sweat dripping from his fingers and into her palm. “You are the most wonderful woman I have met in my life. Who knew that me stumbling into a random bar one night would bring my soulmate into my life?”
“That’s fate, bro!” an old frat brother yelled over the heads of the crowd. People chuckled. Gwen blushed.
“I think it’s a crime that the whole world doesn’t know what we really mean to each other.” When he got down on one knee and pulled out the ring they picked out for their elopement two years ago, Gwen nearly passed out. “Do me the honors of publicly being my wife, would you?”
Chuckles turned into awe. At first, James worried that he had committed a great faux pas against his wife. Not like he had run this by her first!
Gwen unleashed the most conniving smile he had ever seen grace her beautiful face. “Why, James,” she said with fake candor, “are you asking me tofinallymarry you? On my birthday? Oh, dreams come true!”
He picked up her cue and ran with it. “Yup! Gonna marry you on your birthday! How does next year sound?”
“Plenty of time to dump all your cash into the wedding of the year!”
James looked to his friends, who shrugged, then to his mother, who also shrugged. Nobody would save his ass tonight. “You want a wedding, huh?”
Gwen crossed her arms andshrugged.The tables had turned on James Merange, and he had nobody to blame but himself. “I want the world, James. We can start with a fancy little wedding. Now, come give me a big engagement kiss.”
Only a few people in the ballroom knew what was so funny about this situation. Honestly, it was the perfect prank for James to play on everyone, from his mother, to his best friends, to the woman now in his arms and sharing a kiss with him. Raucous applause erupted. The only sound they heard between the beating of their hearts, however, was Charlotte sneaking up to them and whispering, “If I’m not the maid of honor, you’re dead to me,” into Gwen’s ear.
“She… doesn’t know we’re already married, right?” Gwen asked as soon as Charlotte disappeared back into the crowd.
“I never told her.”
Gwen shook her head. “The girl ain’t right.”
James squeezed her closer to his body. Her arms flung around his shoulders, and their noses lightly rubbed together. James could have kissed her again. Instead, he said, “Good thing you’re the right one for me.”
They kissed to more applause. Gwen flexed her finger boasting her wedding ring against the back of her husband’s neck and whispered the naughty things she wanted to do with him that night. Funny. He already hadallof that planned.It’s almost like we’re on the same wavelength or something!
As soon as the music began again, he dipped her over his arm and looked deep into her eyes. He saw nothing but love… and the same curious expression she gave him that first night he walked into her bar.
If she never lost that look in her eyes, then James would know that they were destined for an eternity of bliss – probably with no dull moments.
THE END
