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“Man! Look at the grip of those legs!” My cousin Martin says, drooling by my side.
“It’s my soon-to-be wife we’re talking about here, Martin!” I say, in a tone of warning. “Careful what you say!”
“I’m sorry!” he backs of immediately. “It was meant to be a compliment.”
“She doesn’t need that kind of compliment,” I say, angrily.
The grip of those legs, after all, is only for me to have.
“What do you wanna do now?” Liv says, out of breath.
“Where did you learn to ride a mechanical bull that well?”
She lets out a cackle that is pure gold. “In college,” she says, enigmatic.
“Wait…” I raise a finger in the air, confused. “What does that mean?”
Liv then take my hand and looks at me suggestively. “Let’s get back to the hotel and have some premarital sex for the last time before I change my mind.”
She doesn’t have to say it twice.
The next morning, I wake up alone. Liv told me she had to be up at 5 AM for makeup and hair, but I think I didn’t believe her until now.
Since all I need is a shower and a shave, that’s exactly what I do. After putting on my suit, I step out and peruse every hallway and every door of my parents’ already packed house.
I find Bella, wearing her bright pink bridesmaid’s dress and guarding the door to our parent’s bedroom like a bouncer guarding the VIP entrance.
Upon seeing me, she turns her back to the door and protects it, tooth and nail. “This door is off-limits for you!” she says.
“She’s in there, isn’t she?” I say, pointing at the door.
“Yes,” Bella nods emphatically. “But you’re only going to see her when the time comes. Now you go downstairs, mom is looking for you!”
She simply pushes me out as if I am an intruder. I protest, but there’s nothing I can really do about it, so I simply go downstairs to find another of the women of my life.
This ranch was my father’s single request when I lucked out into money: a place to raise horses and a few heads of cattle, so that he could retire in peace. I still remember how hard it was to get it out of him. For what it’s worth, he’d still be living in the same apartment in Amarillo he moved in with mom once Bella got out of the house. But when I finally forced it out of him, this was his one and only ask.
And it is beautiful. To cover the dirt, he found a grass resistant to dry weather to put around the house, and on that grass is where Liv and I will be getting married.
Everything is assembled in the backyard, beautifully. There are less people here than in the gender reveal party. That was a personal request of mine. It’s just close family and friends.
I walk to the beginning of the red carpet the wedding planner put in place to serve as the aisle and look at all the people taking their seats.
And my heart thumps in my chest, loud as a drum. I’ve been through all of this before, but this is starting anew.
I hear baby Iris crying in her grandma Lylah’s arms, and get ready to console her, right in the first row where they’re sitting. But my mother finds me first and grabs me by the lapels with an appraising look.
“You’ve always looked so handsome in a suit…” she says, pinning a pink carnation to my left breast.
“That’s not a fair… a suit levels out all men on the planet,” I say, inspecting her work.
“But my son looks more handsome than the others!” she says, resolute in her ideals.
“Even dad?” I ask, trying her.
“Your father is a whole different story!” and she waves the subject away. “Alex, I have a few words I need to tell you that do not befit a toast…”
She takes both of my hands and squeezes them, bringing them to her chest, and then looking at me in the eye with near desperation.
