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“But we live there.”
“We could live here.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
He thought about that one for a moment before he shrugged.
“So?”I asked.“What do you think?Would that be something you’d like?”
“Would I get to play on the paddle boards?”
I nodded.“Of course.”
He glanced up the beach in the direction of the pools.
“And the pools, too, of course,” I added before he could ask.
It took a moment for him to digest what I was saying, but then a smile crept across his face and he nodded.“I think that’d be cool.”I slapped him on the back and then spontaneously pulled him into a hug.It wasn’t often that he’d let me hug him these days.He was getting too cool and maybe just a little too old to be giving hugs to his old man.“What did Mom say?”he asked, his face lined with concern, when I released him.
He was a smart kid and no doubt he knew exactly what his mom would say, or possibly had already said.
“Well...I still need to talk to her about it.”
“Ah, man!I knew it.”Ben kicked his foot into the sand, hard.And turned away.“Mom’s never going to go for it.She hates it here.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”I caught up to him as he made his way up the beach.“In fact, we had a really fun night last night.”There was no point mentioning the near wedding and the subsequent tears.“Actually, that’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
Ben stopped and looked at me.I gestured to a bench nearby.I wanted to talk to Ben alone before I saw Lexi and even though the resort was big, I had a feeling it wasn’t big enough.
He sat and stared at me, no doubt waiting for some bad news.I wasn’t sure how’d he react to what I was about to ask, but just like with the last big question, I had my suspicions.“So I’ve been thinking,” I began slowly.“The other day you were talking about how some of the kids bug you that your mom and I aren’t married.”
He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head so I continued.
“Well, maybe it’s about time we fixed that.What do you think?”
Ben bit his bottom lip and took his time before he answered.“But if we move here, then I don’t have to worry about those kids any more, right?”
I hadn’t anticipated that.“True.But there might be other kids,” I suggested.“Besides, I think it might be a nice thing for your mom and me to do, don’t you?A nice dress, some flowers, a cake.”
“Cake?”
Boys really were too easy.“Yes.”I tried not to laugh.“There’s usually cake at weddings.”
His smile was wide and split his face.“Then I think she’d probably like that.”
I did laugh then.“I think so, too.You know what I think she’d like even more?”
He shook his head.
“If you would be my best man.”It was an idea I’d mentioned casually that night Ben told us about his troubles at school, and after our near wedding, one that had become much clearer in my head.Maybe a cheesy Elvis wedding on the Strip with two chain smokers for witnesses wasn’t the perfect way to get married, but one thing our near-miss nuptials had shown me was that I did want to marry Lexi.More than anything.And I couldn’t think of a better way to do it than with Ben at my side.He should have been there from the start.There was no way I could get married without my little man by my side.
“Really?”
The look on his face was priceless.A mixture of shock and joy.Perfect.“Of course.”
He let out a whoop and fist pumped the air.“This is so much better than being a stupid ring bearer.”I laughed, remembering when Lexi told me how disappointed Ben had been when he hadn’t been able to be the ring bearer in Nicole and Ryan’s wedding five years earlier.And he was right: it waswaybetter than being a stupid ring bearer.
