by Cee, DW
“We’ll get you out of all your clothes soon enough, my jezebel. We never had that round two.”
The Pastor cleared his throat to gain our attention and had us say our vows. We finally said our “I do’s” and at last it was time to kiss my bride.
“A tame one,” my bride pleaded. I chose not to listen, and placed a scorching open-mouth kissed on my wife. A loud cheer rang in the church.
“Was that tame enough?” I whispered in her ear before we waltzed down the aisle.
My bride continued to be in awe from the Cinderella carriage ride to the transformed Christmas wonderland house and reception.
“What do you think?” Not that I needed to ask...
“You did all this with the two mothers?” Her jaw dropped with every detail of the reception.
“I did.”
“What a terrible person I was to accuse you of not caring. How on earth did you have your hand in the wedding when you were busy selling the company?” She showed penitence.
“Don’t cry.” I kissed her ruby red lips. “You’ll ruin your makeup and Gram will not be happy.”
“Speaking of, I’m told I need to go upstairs and change into my party dress. If you’ll excuse me?”
I had to kiss her one more time. “I love you Delaney Taylor!”
She squealed in delight as Bee led her upstairs to the rest of the Taylor and Reid women.
“Congratulations!” Jake hugged me with James in his arms.
“Thanks, Jake. I owe you and a few other people in this house many thanks for making me wake up to reality. I wish I could’ve done it sooner.”
“Better late than never.”
“True.” I held my godson and kissed him on the cheek and said, “You did a good job out there, James. Did you see your Auntie Laney? Doesn’t she look beautiful?”
“Yesh,” he answered, and nodded his head.
“Son, you made us proud today!” My two fathers took turns hugging me. “Where’s your beautiful bride?”
“She’s upstairs with the ladies, Pa. She’ll be down soon in her party dress.”
The chief had a sad smile on his face knowing his baby was now a grown woman, leaving his protective nest. I couldn’t empathize, but I knew I needed to help allay any worries he might have.
“Son.” The chief began, but couldn’t continue.
“Though your baby has left the coop, she hasn’t flown very far. She will be next door to you the rest of your life.” That didn’t bring him enough comfort. “I will love, cherish, honor, and adore her the rest of our lives together. And don’t forget the grandchildren. You’ll get your own Elizabeth and James times at least two more.” My father-in-law cracked a smile. “You trust me to take care of your daughter?”
“I do.” There was no hesitation in his answer.
“Then be happy today. You’ll make Delaney sad if she sees you mourning her loss.”
“You be the best husband to my baby, you got that?”
“I will.” I promised.
With that, the two fathers were convinced I’d make a good enough husband and left me to join the party.
“Congrats to my newest grandson!” Roland was next in the receiving line.
“Thank you, Grandfather,” I answered his term of endearment with my own. “And I thank you again for giving such a generous opportunity to me and my wife with the sale of your company.”
“You did all the work, and I received exactly what I set out to receive. It’s only fair you two get a handsome bonus. Your time apart earned you a home and a nice savings. I’m sure you’ll need plenty of money to fill that enormous house.”
“You didn’t have to give us anything, and yet you gave us the most perfect start any man and wife could ask for—Delaney will be thrilled when she realizes where she will live. And it’s all thanks to her grandparents.”
“You take good care of your precious wife. If I know anything of this family, it’s worth all the treasures in the world to be loved by a Reid woman.”
“Thank you for the advice, and I will do my best to live up to the standards of this family.”
No sooner had Roland left, than my radiant wife strolled down the steps in her second wedding gown. If it had been up to me, I would’ve said the hell with the reception and taken her on our honeymoon, immediately.
“Shall we go, Wife?”
“We shall, Husband.”
I fed my bride while Gram introduced the Reid tradition of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”
The sight of all my sisters going up to give my bride something new, scared the hell out of me. “Brace yourself, Delaney. This could get ugly. Damn! What are my sisters up to?”
“Your sisters are harmless and they love their brother!” Delaney had no idea.
Who would’ve known? Delaney was right. My sisters’ barks were much worse than their bites and we ended up with more “toys” than necessary from the younger faction of the Taylors and Reids.
That was only the beginning. The gifts kept rolling in. Roland and Gram gave us carte blanche use of their plane for something borrowed, and Jake and Emily gifted us with a return trip to the Big Island again, for something blue. Now it was my turn to gift my wife.
“Please pay attention, my lovely wife.”
“Will do,” she answered with a kiss.
I went up to the stage and started my long speech. “I have a friend who’s not only my best friend, but has been my biggest competition since birth. He was born earlier than I was, he’s slightly taller than I am, and he’s always gotten better grades. If I earned an A, he earned an A+, if I got a BMX bike, he got the BMX X-games bike. We were always competing—but in a friendly way...kind of…” I had to give kudos to my best friend who had had my back since we knew any better. “Of course he got married before I did and thanks to an over-the-top grandma, his bride received a six-carat diamond. Now how the hell does any man compete with a six-carat rock? Well, you don’t. You do something different and unexpected. So after much thinking about this something old gift, I thought I’d finally outdo my best friend.”
“Let’s keep it simple and sane!” Max was annoyed with me already. Wait until he saw what I got my bride.
“Just like my buddy, I also picked something old and something new, but unlike my buddy, I’ve got more than two diamonds to give to my wife.” None of the single guys were happy with me. I didn’t care, as long as my wife was happy. “Delaney Taylor, come on down!” I yelled out just like my sisters.
“My beautiful bride,” I spoke only to Delaney. “You are more beautiful than Aphrodite, possess the intelligence and wisdom of Athena, and are more desirable than Persephone. If I were Hades, I wouldn’t ever let you leave me. Every goddess and every princess have one thing in common—a crown. Since you are my princess, my goddess, my all, I thought it fitting to get a crown made for you.” I pulled out the velvet box that sat on the podium. “This gift was made from the generosity of your grandmother, grandfather, aunts, and parents, who gave you all their loose diamonds. The pink diamonds that dot the crown are from me. I love you, Princess.” Delaney touched the thin band of diamonds that was formed into a tiara for my bride.
I placed the crown on my sweet wife and explained, “Now, my Cinderella, I want you to recognize the practicality of this present. If you wear it this way,” I placed it on her head, “it becomes a tiara. But if you wear it this way,” then I laid it flat on her head, “it becomes a fancy headband.” It looked perfect on my princess.
Once the cake was cut, the DJ began spinning his tunes and we all got up to dance. No matter how fast the song was, we only slow-danced.
“Donovan,” she murmured into my neck, “this tiara is the most wonderful gift anyone has ever given me, and it’s even more special because all my family contributed to it. You are the most thoughtful, loving, handsome, generous, and sexy husband evahhh! I love you so much.”
I chuckled agains
t her head. “And you are the sweetest, sexiest, most hilarious woman I know. We will have a wonderful life together.”
“We will!” she agreed and stayed glued to my body. “When can we leave? You, Mom, and Ma did a phenomenal job on this reception, but I’m ready to be alone with you.”
“I thought you’d never ask.” I signaled to Max and Doug before leading Delaney back in the house and handing her a box. “Last surprise, Princess.”
“More?” She asked with a gigantic smile. Bee went upstairs with my bride while I, too, changed from my tuxedo to bike wear.
“Thanks, Guys!” I waved to Max and Nick who had parked the bikes in the driveway. I hopped on and waited for my bride to join me. When I saw the crowd part in half, I knew Delaney was near.
“No freaking way!” she yelled.
“Yes, freaking way! Come on, Wife. This is part one of our honeymoon.”
Yet again, she was dumbfounded as she followed my cue, got on her bike and put on her helmet.
“Donovan?” She suddenly got off her bike and walked over to me, looking tentative.
“What’s wrong, Princess?”
“I need to stop by two places. Will you humor me and follow along? I’ll explain in a bit.”
I saw no reason to say no. Our first destination was to the 24-hour drug store, and she asked me to hold her helmet while she went to purchase something. It was a complete mystery to me why we were here, but I knew I’d get an explanation soon. Our next pit stop was home.
“What are we doing back at our house?”
“Can you come in for just a minute? I promise, it won’t take long,” was all she said as she ran upstairs. What seemed like hours later, I heard her yell, “Donovan!”
Shit! I ran up those steps as though our lives were in jeopardy. “What’s the matter? What’s wrong?”
“This...” Her voice was soft and tentative.
From behind her back she produced a stick with a little peep hole that contained a + sign. What the hell?
“What am I missing here? Why am I having such a hard time understanding what’s going on?” Logically, I knew what Delaney was holding in her hand. However, logic was not a part of this equation at this moment.
“I think I’m pregnant...” she whispered carefully, apprehensive of my response.
“Shit!” Delaney flinched and that was not what I was trying to get across. Damn. What the hell was I thinking? I hugged her tight and took in what had just happened.
“Are you mad?” She was unnecessarily anxious.
“Princess, I’m thrilled you’re pregnant. I’m sorry for my initial response. You took me off-guard and I...I’m over the moon we are having a baby!” Oh my God! I was going to be a father. I went from one, to two, to three, now! “How can a man be this lucky to have gained a wife and a child all within the same day?”
“When I saw the positive sign, I didn’t know what your response would be.”
“Why would you think I’d be anything but thrilled?”
“You just got home from Europe, you have major adjustments at work, I’ve started school again...this isn’t the best timing...”
With my hands on her face, I assured her there was no better news than the news she just gave me. “I love you.” I kissed her lips. “I love you.” I kissed our baby in her tummy. “And I can’t wait to start life with the three of us. Work, school, life—we’ll figure it out.” With this news, I needed to scramble and make a few changes to my original plan. “You need to make a few decisions for us.”
“OK...”
“Originally, I was going to have us ride up the coast, and we were going to catch a flight to London, then to South Africa and I was going to take you surfing along their coast.”
“What a honeymoon! We can’t still do that?”
“We can, minus the bike ride and surfing.”
“But those were the best parts,” she complained knowing there was no fighting me. I was not harming our baby or the mother.
“With what’s happened, I’m thinking maybe we’ll head to the Maldives where we can relax and do nothing for a few weeks. Roland gave us his plane so we can essentially go anywhere.”
“That sounds great, too. Can we stop by Amsterdam before hitting the Maldives?”
“Your wish is my command, Wife. Let me make a few phone calls and we’ll be on our way to our honeymoon suite.”
Rearranging all our plans wasn’t as difficult as I imagined, and while I was on the phone, Delaney showered and got herself ready for bed.
“Let’s just sleep here. I’m so tired, I don’t want to move. Will we be charged for the unused room?”
“I just got off the phone with the hotel and I explained our situation. The gal on the phone was willing to push our reservation to tonight, rather than last night. She was very accommodating. We should probably get you checked by a doctor before we leave for our honeymoon and we should let...”
I looked over to a silent Delaney who was sleeping like an angel. How did I get this fortunate to have found a wife who was beyond any ideal woman I could have imagined for myself? Having her next to me for the rest of my life was heaven on earth.
It was still early, but I needed to take care of a few more details before we left for our extended honeymoon.
“What’s wrong? Is Laney all right?” A worried Jake greeted my call.
“She’s well and sleeping soundly. I need a favor.”
“Anything. How can I help?”
“We have a slight hiccup to my original plan and I need to get Delaney to a doctor.”
“Shit! What happened? Why does Laney need a doctor?”
“Donovan? What’s wrong?” Now Emily was on the phone, worried for my wife.
“Nothing is wrong with my beautiful wife. I don’t know if she wants this publicized just yet, but we found out about an hour ago that she’s pregnant.”
“Oh my gosh!” Emily yelled so loudly Jake got back on the phone.
“Shit, Man! Just spell it out. The suspense is killing me!”
“My wife and I are expecting a baby and I need to take her in to see an OB before we leave for our honeymoon.”
Jake laughed and conversed with his wife. “Damn. He works fast, huh?”
“He sure does,” she answered and returned the merriment.
“You finally outdid me in one night, huh? More diamonds, and a baby prior to the honeymoon. What’s next? You going to produce triplets?”
“Shit, I hope not. I don’t think my wife will be able to handle triplets and go to med school. Knowing this woman, she’ll see through med school with baby in tow.”
“Well, you’ve got good timing. The baby should be born right before school begins next year.” Jake laughed some more. “There’s never a dull moment in your life, is there?”
“Apparently not. I don’t think my wife will want to see anybody at General Hospital. Can you get us in to see someone privately? I just want to make sure that everything is OK for us to travel. I would feel much better if I got a doctor’s approval before we left.”
“I’ll get on it now, or in a couple hours when people are up, and I will call you back with some information. Congratulations, by the way.” I could tell he was still shaking his head at me. “When you decide to settle down, it’s with gusto. “
“Thanks! What’s happened in my life the past few months is better than any script, and a lot of it is thanks to you and Emily.”
“Welcome to bliss!”
Now that everything was taken care of, I needed to take care of one neglected wife. Though with the way she was sleeping, she preferred to be neglected.
“Wife,” I whispered, “you are not allowing me to my husband rights tonight.”
“You said our honeymoon suite will be ready tonight, so that’s when the honeymoon will begin.” She mumbled all that, but the message was loud and clear. “You’ve been taking your husband rights since Florence the second t
ime,” she added “in her sleep.”
I chuckled and slept with her in my arms.
We three made a family.
“Wife,” I woke her up with ticklish kisses on her neck. “We have an appointment with the OB in half an hour. You need to get up.”
Delaney giggled and squirmed. “I don’t want to go anywhere. Maybe we’ll start our honeymoon right now.” Before her hand went any lower, I had to grab it and pull her off the bed.
“Go. Shower. Get dressed. Do whatever it is that you women do in the mornings.” I slapped her rear end and got her up to begin our day.
My wife was in a fine mood, singing along to a song on the radio, butchering the words and the tune. “What?” she asked.
“You’re a terrible singer.”
“I know,” she agreed with a smiling face and continued singing. When I see her face, there’s not one thing I could ask to change, you’re amazing, just because you are...Bruno Mars would cringe if he heard how Delaney was changing his song.
“What will you do about school now that we have a baby on the way?”
I didn’t think this was an out of the ordinary question, but my wife stopped dead and asked, “Are you going to make me quit school?”
“Only if you want to stop attending. I told you I’d support you in your dreams of becoming a doctor. I was just curious to know if the baby changes any plans.”
“As much as I’ll love being a mommy, I need to finish what I started. If it gets to a point where I’m sacrificing the care of our child for med school, I’ll change courses. But until then, I’d like to go on.”
“Just know that I am willing to help you in every way, but I don’t want you to feel stressed.”
“I know, my dear husband. I thank you and I love you.” She leaned into me for a kiss. “You think the baby is a boy or a girl? What would you prefer?”
“After healthy, I want a little girl who looks identical to her mother.”
“I told you my wishes back at the beach. I want two sets of twins. Maybe the first set can be boys, and after they’ve grown a bit, we can have a set of twin girls. The boys can protect their younger sisters.”
“You’re a med student and you want a set of twins?” I married a nut!