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“Sure,” he said. “Not every day a friend gets hitched.”
“That settles it, then,” Wendy said. “We do it here next week. What do you say?”
I looked over at Dee, who was beaming, her hand clasping a glass of wine and her eyes glassy. It could have been the wine, but I knew it was emotion. Malia stood next to her, tears in the corners of her own eyes and smiling almost as wide as Dee. Dee nodded.
“I say let’s do it,” I said.
Immediately, the tone of the party shifted from jovial celebration to excited planning. Wendy, Lauren, Helen, Malia, and Desiree hovered around Dee while Harleigh and Rebecca took care of the kids inside and occasionally popped their heads out to keep up with the conversation and put out ideas. Slowly, I was pushed out of the conversation by the ladies, though I was happy to leave them to it. The ideas they were coming up with were a far cry from the measly plans I could make.
I spent the evening with Gerry and Aiden mostly, having a few drinks and finding a surprising connection in our mutual shared enjoyment of the same author. We geeked out for a bit, talking about our favorite novels, and as it got late, decided that we should all get together to talk books sometime.
The next few days seemed to fly by. Wendy and Dee spent a large amount of time together going over plans Wendy and the other ladies came up with. Dee kept making statements that inferred she was guilty about spending time that we had off together planning, but I kept telling her it was fine. I wanted her to have a reception she could enjoy and that we had a chance to celebrate our wedding together with everyone.
The phone call to her mother was something she had been dreading for a while but eventually had to happen. Malia had come over and hung out with us most of the day, talking Dee up for the call before she made it. It had been the only hesitation I had when I suddenly decided to ask her to marry me in the courthouse. I had vague memories of her mother being somewhat difficult to deal with.
It turned out that after Malia had reconciled with her, she had chilled out quite a bit, but this was still a big roll of the dice. Dee even briefly toyed with the idea of doing a second wedding and swearing everyone to secrecy about our first one, just to keep her mother happy. At the end of the day, we agreed that the best course of action was the truth, and she made the call.
Starting out as a regular phone call, it quickly morphed into a video exchange, and I got pulled into it when it seemed like it might not go as poorly as they feared. I felt awkward, but with my hand in Dee’s, I was ready for whatever might come my way. No matter how judgmental it might be.
It turned out, Dee and Malia’s mother was alright with everything, provided that we invite her to the reception. She had experienced a bit of a lifestyle change since attending a new church, and it had affected her for the better. She had nothing but sweet words to say to me and Dee, and when we hung up the call, the three of us celebrated by having a stiff drink.
As the day of the bonfire reception came, Dee was a mess of nerves and delight. She wanted to look nice for her friends and mother but mostly wanted me to be proud of her being my wife. No matter how many times I told her she could never disappoint me, she still went out of her way to go out of town and spend the day primping as if we were having a ceremony again that day.
I showed up at Carter’s house a bit early, letting Wendy and Malia handle getting Dee there. Putting Rose inside with the other babies and thanking the ladies who were going to go on rotation to take care of them, I went outside with Gerry and Finn to wait for our women. Finn produced a bottle of whiskey from about his person, and the three of us toasted the marriage as we waited on the back porch, overlooking the impressive display the ladies had designed and several of the men had helped build.
“How long did this take you guys?” I asked.
“Well, Carter and Deacon built that whole area over there themselves in one day,” Finn said, pointing to a stage area, where a DJ that was hired from out of town was setting up. “Then that area over there where you and Dee will be sitting with the best man and the bridesmaid took, oh, I don’t know, a couple hours?”
