We had to talk about so many things. Everything, really. The rules and the timeline and the expectations. Rather than doing a single thing to help myself and cut down on my confusion, I said, “Let’s do it.”
“Yeah?” I could hear the smile in his voice. I liked that I’d put it there.
“Yeah. Yes. Friday,” I replied. “What do you need me to do?”
He hesitated. “Do you trust me?”
“Unless you’re talking about us jumping out of an airplane or engaging in ritualistic sacrifice, I think you know I do.”
“Neither of those apply here,” he said. “Let me take care of everything. All you have to do is come home after school and we’ll go from there.”
I dragged the laundry basket toward me and started folding clothes. “It’s not that I don’t trust you but what the hell does that mean?”
He made an impatient noise. Iadoredthose sounds. Loved pushing him. “It means I’ll hire an officiant, get the license, and ask Wren to send over dress options for you. We can do this out on the deck. Sunset, how about that?”
“Do I have to wear white?”
“Wear whatever you want, Muggsy.”
The questions kept pouring out of me then. “What about cake? Don’t we have to cut a cake? It doesn’t count if we don’t have a cake.”
“My wife wants a cake, we get a cake.”
I shook out a sweater and then immediately abandoned it to ask, “Who’s going to be there? Is it just you and me? Or other people?”
He cleared his throat again. “That’s your call.”
I thought about Grace and my friends, and how they’d filled in the holes where family should’ve been. I thought about Danielle and how she’d be on my doorstep tonight if I asked.And I thought about Ryan’s family and how their grief was like a hand that held him underwater, even all these years later.
This one would be for us. We’d have the traditional ceremony and the big party, and that one would be for everyone else.
“Just you and me,” I said. “Oh—what about Ines?”
“She’ll be our witness,” he said. “And harpist for the big event.”
“What about rings? I need to find a ring for you, don’t I?”
“Don’t worry about that now. I want to get a band made for you anyway. Something to fit with your ring.”
For the millionth time today, I stared at my engagement ring. It really was lovely. “I don’t think my finger can manage much more than this.”
He laughed. “I knew you’d say that, which is why we need to design something for your child-like fingers.”
“Can we actually pull this off in two days?”
“If I wasn’t in Minnesota, I could pull it off tomorrow.”
“You’ve grown arrogant in your old age,” I said.
“I prefer realistically confident.”
I glanced down at the clothes I hadn’t folded. Most of it would have to be fluffed again. “I know you need this for your business deals and everything but I really don’t want to take anything away from Grace right now. They’re having their party this weekend and the wedding is right around the corner. This ishermoment.”
“Her moment is five weeks long?”
“It doesn’t matter to me if it doesn’t make sense to you. It’s important to me.” I started flinging clothes back into the basket. I’d tell him about Grace’s announcement after we got through this. I couldn’t mix the chaos in my life and expect to keep any of it straight. “All I’m saying is I don’t want to make this weekend all about us. Maybe we should wait.”
“Or we do it Friday and don’t say anything for a couple of weeks,” he said.
