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I kissed him before even realizing I was doing it. Part of me wanted to stay cool, or demand that he kneel down properly instead of delivering me the message in this casual way while we were in our pajamas, for God’s sake, but I just loved him so much that none of that mattered. I realized that this was the perfect way to do it. It was real, true, there as no bells or whistles, just me and him.
When we were done kissing and some sense came into my head, I said. “You’re serious about this?”
“I mean, I bought the ring,” he said. “There’s nobody else I could ever imagine being with. You’re perfect, and we have a perfect little baby. I want to lock this down and keep it for life.”
“Our perfect little angel is just one year away from being a two year old,” I noted. “And the way things go, it won’t be too long until she’s an eye-rolling teen. Things may not always be smooth sailing.”
He didn’t let the authenticity drain from his face for a second. As I was speaking, I realized exactly what I was doing: I was testing him. It had been a long while since he broke my heart with his inability to completely commit. He needed to prove to me that he was absolutely still on board, no matter what.
And he was passing with flying colors.
“Smooth sailing or choppy waters,” he said, “as long as we’re on this boat together, it’s where I want to be.”
I kissed him again. And again and again.
“So,” he said, “is that a yes?”
“Of course I’ll marry you,” I said.
“Good,” he said, “because I already booked the venue.”
At first I thought he was joking, but he was dead serious.
* * *
One of the great things about Leo being a doctor — and there were many great things — was that he had a lot of connections. Most people would say that two months is much too fast to plan a wedding, but with the people he knew, we got invitations out right away, a beautiful and delicious cake, a professional photographer, a live band (okay, that one was partially me — it was Kiefer and his jamming buddies), and the aforementioned venue, which was an outdoor country club. I feared that Murphy’s Law would result in the wedding falling on a rare rainy day in Southern California, but fortunately, Murphy spared us.
Even for California, it was a particularly beautiful day. A few scattered clouds covered nothing in the sky and the temperature offered us a high of 73 degrees. I could not have asked for better weather.
All of this led up to the ceremony, which Sloane begged me to officiate. This was, perhaps, the hardest thing to pull off in such a short amount of time, as she wasn’t licensed yet, but we managed to do so right in the nick of time.
Bagel and Dorothy served as the ring bearers and my brother-in-law, Wesley, dragged them down the aisle in a small red Radio Flyer wagon. Though Bagel was still a little overwhelmed by people, having Dorothy there helped her. It was almost as if Dorothy was her emotional support baby. The two of them looked absolutely adorable, and everybody in attendance was cooing at the charming sight.
Which was good, because I couldn’t get enough of my handsome groom. Naked, he was human perfection, but I’d never seen him dressed to the nines like this. His tux looked unbelievable on him. So much so that I wanted to stop the ceremony and just tear it off of him right in front of everybody. And while that would have made for a memorable occasion, I had another surprise in store that was much more appropriate, considering the family and friends in the audience.
I looked around at them and saw there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and, as my eyes drifted through the crowd, I noticed Kiefer sitting there, no doubt happy for both me and Leo, but with a slight sadness in his eyes. I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for him, attending our wedding without a guest. I guess the Matchmaker App never did find him his other half, but I had hope that, sooner or later, he’d find the right woman for his badass musician self.
Sloane read from her notes, and we’d done our best to cut the ceremony down to as short as possible. Still, there were certain parts that we refused to give up. For Leo, it was the vows. He was insistent on them, even though they seemed to cause him a lot of undue stress in the nights leading up to the wedding. All in all, he must have spent hours working on them. Even so, when we finally got to that part and he pulled them out, I could see the disappointment on his face.
He looked down at the paper he’d written and up at me, then shook his head.
“I tried,” he told me, “to put my thoughts down in words, but I’ve never been very good at that. This reads like bad poetry.” He put it back in his pocket. “But you brought that bad poetry out of me. I’m not a particularly schmaltzy guy, but that’s what you’ve turned me into, Mila. It’s all red, gushing hearts and love, love, love. I can count on my hand the number of people in my life that I’ve said ‘I love you’ to, but that’s the only thing I think of when I look at your face.” He looked out into the audience at our two ring bearers and smiled. “Maybe you’re not the only one who does that to me, but it doesn’t make you any less special.”
I couldn’t begin to tell you how adorable it was when he turned back to me and blushed, standing there in front of everyone, declaring his love for me and just winging it. It was pure authenticity, and I realized it didn’t matter what he said so much as how he was saying it. His eyes were full of love when he looked at me, and I’d never felt closer to another human being as I held his hand.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t know how much I was missing until I found you,” he continued. “And I didn’t even really know who I was or what I was capable of until you came into my life. And now, as we take our next step together, I’ve never felt more excited for the future.”
Neither had I.
“Vows,” he said. “These are supposed to be vows. I guess I just have lost my train of thought.”
The audience laughed.
“I vow to be there for you whenever you need me,” he said. “I promise to be the best father to Dorothy and to hold the two of you up when you’re falling down. You will never live another day of your life alone so long as I’m in it and no matter what happens, I’ll never take you for granted. Every day, I’ll wake up and count my lucky stars that I’m married to you. To you, the most beautiful, brilliant, and ever so loving woman I’ve ever met and ever will meet.”
Sloane wiped away a tear and turned to me. “Mila, would you like to share your vows now?”
I, for one, was in no mood to improvise my way through a speech like Leo just did. I’d written it beforehand and committed it to memory, which wasn’t especially difficult because I’d meant every word.
