She kept swaying her body to the music as she looked at him. When he just stared back at her like a deer in headlights, she smiled. “Why are you looking like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you need to shit.”
That was the courage he needed. Because he broke into a hearty laugh. Only Roz could make him laugh with such freedom.
And he said it: “I want to rededicate my life to you. Will you remarry me?”
As soon as those words left his lips, he thought he was going to regret it. Because her smile left. Her swaying side to side completely stopped. And she looked at him as if she could not believe her ears. His heart dropped. The last thing she probably wanted to do wasremarry him!
And just when he was about to say never mind, and that he was just joking, she flung her small body against his large body and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh Mick,” she said with tears of joy in her eyes. “Yes, I’ll remarry you. Oh yes, yes, yes!”
And they started kissing. And then they hugged each other tightly. And they made love. Right there in the backseat of that limousine, Mick entered her.
He loved her reaction. But he was terrified by what it all meant. Would he look like some wuss in public for this remarriage ceremony? Would his enemies take it the wrong way? Would Roz herself take it the wrong way and start treating him as if he was her boy toy? As if he was some lovesick puppy who couldn’t do shit without her?
And that song that had blared over the stereo system, the one she loved so much, didn’t help:
“Oh-oh here she comes.
Watch out, boy, she’ll chew you up.
Oh-oh here she comes.
She’s a man-eater!”
Mick wanted to shout for joy and scream for mercy all at the same time. What did he just do? What did he just get himself into?
Because as soon as Roz got home, the wedding planning began. And that was a nightmare in and of itself. Roz wasn’t acting exactly like a bride-zilla, but she was close. But she kept insisting that he was behaving like a true groom-zilla, which he thought was ridiculous. But it also meant that they both were in it to win it now, and there would be no turning back.
Now he was standing in his own decked-out back yard, with their entire family and roster of friends staring unwaveringly at him. And Charles “Big Daddy” Sinatra, his big brother and best man, wasn’t helping.
“You aren’t burying her, Mick,” he whispered in his ear. “You’re marrying her. At least look like it!”
But Mick couldn’t help it. He felt as if he’d been trapped into something of his own making and he couldn’t get out. Why did he do it???
That question, that had been plaguing him ever since that ride in that limo, was finally answered when Roz appeared and began walking all the way from the patio toward him. Everybody stood up in instant respect as Rosalind Graham-Sinatra made her way down the aisle. And Luther, singing the Gary Benson et al-pennedHere and Now,brought her to him:
“Here and now,
I promise to love faithfully.
You’re all I need.
Here and now,
I vow to be one with thee.
Your love is all I need.”
And suddenly, all those eyes and all those backstories didn’t mean a thing to Mick. All he saw was Roz. And by the time she made it up to him, and they were holding hands, face to face, he was grinning like a big, fat Cheshire cat. He was beyond happy.
And Mick’s happiness took Roz, already in space, over the moon. Everybody in that backyard were stunned.
Including Mick and Roz.
They were happy.
