“No, I think we should kiss,” she said. Her voice was a little too high, but Mason didn’t seem to notice.
“We’ll kiss then.”
“Okay then.” Xeni suddenly felt hot all over, Which was just silly. Her light sundress was perfectly breezy. “Um, I—I’m gonna go powder my nose. I’ll see you soon, at the end of the aisle.”
Mason turned and pointed to a large oak tree beyond the porch. “I’ll be right there waiting with our good friend Deborah.”
“Can’t wait.” Xeni turned and casually walked back up the stairs into the house. She managed not to turn back to see if Mason was watching her. Why would she? She didn’t care about Mason McInroy at all. Sure didn’t. Not at all.
* * *
Deborah arrived at five-thirty on the dot. They were still waiting on Bess and Lucy Pummel to arrive and Maya was closing things up at the cannery, but Deborah had no time for their lolly-gagging.
“Let’s get on with this and then you kids can party into the night. I can’t stick around. No one goes to weddings for the vows anyway. They come for the booze.”
Xeni wanted to tell her to give them fifteen more minutes, but had a feeling Deborah would leave if they didn’t get on with it. They needed her to work her legally binding magic.
“We’ll record it so my grandma and Maya can see what they missed,” Maya’s niece Sydney suggested. She’d popped up fresh from volleyball practice.
“Alright. I guess we should tell Mason we’re ready,” Xeni said to Liz.
Deborah chimed in before Liz could respond. “Tell him yourself. Come on, you look great. Let’s go.” She turned around and marched out of the back door and right down the back steps.
Suddenly, Xeni felt like calling on Deborah may have been a mistake.
“Right this way, I guess,” Liz said, pointing toward the Deborah-shaped cloud of dust. Xeni grabbed her bouquet of wildflowers off the dining room table and followed Liz and Sydney. Mason was waiting right were he said he would be with Palila and Liz’s husband, Silas. A few of the farm hands who’d stopped by to see if the rumors of the wedding were true were sitting at the tables, chatting, waiting for the festivities to begin. Mason straightened up as soon as he saw her. Xeni wasn’t sure how she felt about skipping a ceremonial walk down the aisle, but at this point, getting rid of Deborah seemed like the best way to preserve whatever mood they’d intended for the night. She followed their cranky officiant right to her husband-to-be.
“This is a perfect spot. Wanna do it right here?” Deborah said.
“Uh…” Mason looked between them.
“We’re getting married right now,” Xeni replied. “Deborah has to be somewhere.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Go stand next to the girl,” Deborah said, flicking her hand in Xeni’s direction. There was an awkward shuffle and just as everyone rearranged themselves, Lucy, Bess, Maya and a White woman Xeni didn’t know came around the side of the house. Deborah ignored them and kicked things off.
“We are gathered here today—”
“Wait. You’re starting?” Maya asked as she rushed over. Deborah didn’t skip a beat and she was doing it from memory. There was no Bible in her hand, no slip of paper, no iPad.
“If anyone present can show why these two shouldn’t be joined, speak now.” There was some grumbling about what the fuck Deborah was doing, but no objections. She kept right on, bulldozing through appropriate phrases. Xeni responded at the right moments, repeated the words she needed to say, and the whole time she could feel her anger growing. Fuck Deborah. This was supposed to be her day. Their day. The next thing Xeni knew, she was pronouncing them husband and wife. “You two may now kiss,” she concluded with no enthusiasm whatsoever.
A sudden wave of disappointment washed over Xeni. She should have expected this. She couldn’t have a single moment of peace now that her aunt was gone. The mess she had left behind felt cursed. Or maybe the ancestors were punishing her for rushing into this without talking to her parents or trying to make peace with her mother. Maybe this what she got for going through with a wedding and not even giving her step-dad a chance to walk her down the aisle. Her confident impulsiveness had led to some amazing experiences, but every once in a while it bit her in the ass. She just wanted a blip of happiness, just a taste. Somehow the universe and Xeni’s own stupid choices had managed to screw that up.
She registered Mason’s hand brushing against her neck a split second before he stepped into her space and then his lips were on hers. She leaned back, involuntarily. They’d agreed this kiss was going to happen, but she wasn’t expecting his lips to be so soft and warm. He didn’t pull away. He was waiting, waiting for Xeni to get with the program and join him.
Kiss him, that stubborn part of her ego urged her on.Fuck Deborah and kiss the shit out of this man.
She slid her hand up his large shoulder and kissed him back, soaking in his warmth as his other arm wrapped around her waist. She leaned into him further, stretching up on her tiptoes as her lips parted just enough for his tongue to brush against hers. Xeni swallowed a desperate groan, pressing closer and wishing the height difference between them wasn’t so great, just for a moment. And then his firm hand scooped her up by her ass and hoisted her in the air until they were face to face. She broke away for a moment, scanning his pretty brown eyes that seemed to be searching for the same happiness, craving that moment of peace. Maybe the height difference wasn’t so bad after all.
She pressed her lips against his again, until she heard Silas cough. When Mason finally set her down, Xeni could barely connect her head to her ass, but she could feel herself smiling. She opened her eyes and saw Mason gazing back at her, the same dazed look on his handsome face.
“How was that for a kiss?” he teased.
A joke about having had better died on her lips. Instead she just laughed and took Mason’s hand. She turned to face their small wedding party, raising their joined fingers in the air.
“Friends, family and farm folk, I now present you with my husband,” she said.
