by Ann Lister
“No. I want to marry her now.”
Brian shook his head. “Man, you’re crazy. You could be making the second biggest mistake of your life.”
“Maybe not,” Michael sighed heavily.
Michael stood and smoothed down his pants. “I was going to ask you to be my best man, but since you’re being such a prick, I think I’ll ask someone else.”
“Hey, I’m just trying to offer some advice!”
Michael shook his head. “I wasn’t asking for advice or your opinion,” he said moving toward the door. “By the way, we’ll be getting married sometime this week. After that, I’ll be moving to the Vineyard for a while. If you need me, we’ll be at my beach house.”
“What the hell does that mean? Are you quitting the band for this girl?” Brian asked defensively.
“No, I’m not quitting! But, I was told the band is off for the next few months before we start the writing process again. When that time comes, you’re free to come to the Vineyard and work with me there. My point is, it won’t matter where we jam as long as we’re working, right? And, I can commute to any recording studio when the time comes for that. It’s not a big deal unless you make it one.”
Michael could feel the heat from Brian’s glare and opened the door to the hall. Sometimes the man could be such an ass, Michael thought.
“I don’t want to talk about this now,” Brian said, walking off toward the kitchen.
Michael had his hand on the doorknob and beginning to leave when Barbara reappeared in the room. This time she was fully dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a shirt.
“Dare I ask what all the yelling is about?” she asked.
Brian walked back into the room. “The asshole is getting married!”
Barbara glanced at Michael. “Is that true?”
“Yeah, sometime this week and then we’ll be moving to the Vineyard for a while,” he replied in muffled tones, his hands stuffed nervously into the pockets of his worn jeans.
Barbara smiled and approached Michael, sliding her arms around his neck and kissing him on the cheek.
“Do what you have to do to make it work, Michael. In the end, I think Annie will be worth your effort.” She kissed him again before releasing his grip on him. “And I wish you luck. Is Brian going to be your best man?”
Brian laughed.
“He doesn’t approve of my decision,” Michael replied, ignoring Brian’s laughter. “Which is ironic, since it was him that brought her back into my life.”
“I never said I didn’t approve! I only implied that you might be rushing into it.”
“Whatever. You’re entitled to your opinion. Do you want to stand-up for me or not?”
“Yes, of course I will. I’ll even sing if you want me to,” he smiled.
“Thanks, but that won’t be necessary. Keep your week open for me and I’ll let you know when and where.”
Barbara looked at him in surprise. “ This week?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Wow, that is quick, Michael.”
“What’s the point in waiting? We’ve both got breaks in our schedules. The timing is perfect.”
“Okay,” Barbara sighed. “Let us know.”
“Thanks. I’ll be in touch,” he answered. Without looking back at Brian, Michael left the suite and shut door behind him.
“How’d it go?” Annie asked him when he returned to their room.
“About as good as I expected,” he answered, zipping up his garment bag in preparation to leave.
Annie sat on the edge of the bed with her shoulders slouched in defeat. “Michael, I don’t want to be the cause of some big fight between you and Brian.”
Michael stopped packing, looked toward her on the bed and smiled. “Annie, my relationship with Brian has always been, and will forever remain, a minefield of arguments. We either love each other or hate each other. It’s extremely rare that we find ourselves in any type of gray area. But those are the exact emotions that we feed from in our work. It keeps our creative juices flowing.”
He approached her on the bed and pulled her to her feet. “Bottom line, Annie: we’re getting married and Brian has agreed to be my best man.”
“Are you serious?”
He smiled broadly. “Brian loves to hate me but he would never let me down.”
“Wow, I hadn’t even thought of who I could get to stand-up for me,” she said.
“Why don’t you ask Barbara? I know she’d do it.”
“I suppose I could. I mean, we’re not talking about a big formal affair, right?”
He pulled her close against his body. “If you want a big wedding, then we’ll have one, but I thought we could just do a quick ceremony now and get the legality of it done. We can plan a big wedding later on, if you want.”
“No, I like the idea of something small and intimate.”
His face relaxed into a perfect smile. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s go tell Bonita the good news.”
Michael stopped his Porsche outside the gate to his house and pushed the electronic opener. Annie sat silent beside him, her eyes nervously scanning the house in the distance. Everything appeared as she remembered. It was still the most beautiful house she had ever seen.
She gulped hard as the front door swung open and Michael stepped inside. She hung in the back and allowed him to proceed first to the kitchen where Bonita was baking cookies. She closed her eyes when she heard Bonita’s excited welcome.
“Good morning, Mr. Michael! Your shows went well, no?” she asked, giving him a motherly hug.
“Yes, it was unbelievable. In fact, it went so well, I brought you home a little souvenir.”
“What do you mean?” Bonita asked in confusion.
Michael turned around and signaled Annie to approach. “Come here, babe.”
Annie slowly emerged into the kitchen and Bonita made instant recognition with a loud squeal of happiness. “Miss Annie, you’re back!” she shouted, pulling Annie against her ample bosom. “It’s good to see you - and so healthy, too!”
Michael laughed, completely enthralled with the sight. “She showed up at the first show and hasn’t left yet!”
“I’m sorry I upset you when I left, Bonita. You were the last person I wanted to hurt,” Annie said, embracing Bonita tightly, as emotion quickly collected in her eyes.
“Oh, you don’t worry about it, now. We all forget about that,” the rotund woman consoled. “The important thing is, you two are back together, no?”
Michael reached for Annie’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “Very much so, Bonita. In fact, Annie and I are getting married…this week. We both have breaks, so we figured we’d do it now.”
Another ear-piercing screech rose from Bonita’s body and she kissed them both again. “Very good then,” she said, clapping her hands in affirmation. “You go unpack and I prepare a huge celebratory meal for dinner! Wait until Manny hears the news!”
Annie’s eyes darted to Michael, their minds sharing the same thought. “Ah, Bonita, we’re only staying until the wedding. After the ceremony, Annie and I are moving to the Vineyard for a while.”
Bonita stopped her assault on the kitchen cookware and stared at Michael. “What do you mean, move?”
“Annie still has commitments on the Vineyard so I thought we could live at my beach house until, well, I’m not exactly sure. But at least we’ll be together.”
Bonita glanced at Annie then back at Michael. “But you two still stay together, no?”
He pulled Annie firmly against his body. “Yes, as long as she can stand to have me around,” he joked.
“Ah, okay then. I take care of things here for you until you come back. Now out of my kitchen so I can work,” she scolded, her arms flapping wildly in the air.
Michael guided Annie up the front staircase and into his bedroom.
Annie stopped in the doorway and took a deep breath. Her heart crashed loudly in her chest. Starting on one side of the room, her eyes slowly made their way to th
e bed.
“Are you all right?” Michael asked from the center of the room, worried by the look of distress on her face.
She nodded. “I’m fine. Just give me a minute,” she replied, dropping her backpack and coat onto the floor by the door. Then slowly she began to move about the room.
Basically, it remained the same. He hadn’t changed anything “that she could tell”, and that pleased her. Michael came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist.
“It’s still the same,” she commented.
He softly kissed her neck. “What did you expect?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m glad it’s the same.”
A few minutes later, Michael excused himself to make the arrangements for their wedding and subsequent move. The first call he made was to Bull.
“Hey, boss, how you doing?” Bull asked.
“Couldn’t be better.”
“Glad to hear it. Rumor has it, you and Annie hooked up again in Boston so, I figured you must be flying high right now.”
“For once, your rumor is correct. In fact, we’re getting married, but keep that bit of news to yourself. I don’t need the press showing up at the ceremony.”
“Excellent news, Mike.”
“Listen, I need you to do a favor for me.”
“Name it.”
“I need to have Annie’s bed and couch removed from the storage facility and shipped to my beach house on the Vineyard. I’ll give you directions, but I need it delivered before Wednesday. Think you can do that?”
“Not a problem. I’ll personally take care of it myself.”
“Great. Oh, and Bull, only a handful of people know I own a place on the Vineyard, so I trust you’ll be discreet about this.”
“Goes without saying, boss. Consider it done. So when’s the big day?”
Michael smiled to himself. “Sometime this week. It will be small and simple, maybe here with a justice-of-the-peace or something.”
“Sounds great.”
Michael gave Bull a few additional instructions before ending the call. Then he contacted his lawyer and gave him the news and asked him to take care of the legal issues behind everything.
“What about a pre-nuptial agreement, Mike?” his lawyer suggested.
“Not necessary, Arnie. Besides, I don’t want to wait.”
“Don’t be a fool.”
“I’m not.”
“Famous last words, Mike.”
His final call was to the caretaker of his beach house. Michael discussed arrangements to prepare the house for this arrival with Annie later on in the week. He also asked the caretaker to leave his jeep waiting at the Edgartown airport for their transportation.
The next day Annie and he obtained a marriage license at the town hall and had their blood tests done at the doctor’s. They circled Wednesday on their calendar, hired a minister that agreed to do the ceremony at Michael’s house, and invited a small group of family and friends. Later that day, Barbara took Annie into Boston and helped her select a beautiful cream-colored linen suit with matching shoes while Michael bought their wedding rings. It was all coming together so quickly it made Annie’s head spin.
That night in bed, Annie tossed and turned.
“What’s the matter, babe? Are you getting cold feet?”
“I don’t know, maybe I am,” she sighed.
He laughed. “Don’t worry. All you have to remember are the words, ‘I do’. The rest is up to me.”
“Aren't you a little nervous? I mean, what if we are rushing into this?”
“We’re not rushing into anything.” He pulled her close and kissed the hollow of her throat. “Do you love me?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Then that is all that matters.”
He left early the next morning and returned to the jewelry store to pick up the rings he had designed for them. When he returned at lunch he found Annie in the bathtub in their master bathroom.
“You’re not supposed to see the bride before the wedding,” Bonita screeched at him as he took the front stairs two at a time.
“I’ll only be a minute,” he teased.
Annie bolted upright in the water when he entered. “What are you doing? We’re getting married in three hours! Shouldn’t you be getting ready?”
He chuckled as he pulled out the ring box from his shirt pocket. “It won’t take me three hours to get ready, Annie.”
She rolled her eyes and sunk back into the water. He sat at her side and opened the ring box. “I have something for you,” he said, pulling out a diamond ring. The center stone was enormous - five carats of the highest quality money could buy, with two one-carat diamonds on each side. The ring sparkled beneath the lights of the bathroom, casting beautiful rainbow prisms of color against the walls.
He reached beneath the water and found Annie’s left hand. Her eyes brimmed with tears. Then he slid it on her finger and kissed the back of her knuckles.
“Still want to marry me?” he asked with a smile.
“Yes,” she blinked, spilling tears from her eyes.
“Don’t cry, babe. The best is yet to be.”
The wedding took place, on schedule, beneath a flowered trellis beside the pool in Michael’s backyard. A warm mid-day June sun bathed the entire area with golden rays of light. Their guests stood nearby, leaving a path for Michael and Annie to enter. Brian and Barbara proceeded to the minister first, leaving Michael waiting for Annie by the French doors.
Michael wore a casual double-breasted beige suit with a cream-colored silk shirt; unbuttoned and exposing most of his chest, and brown alligator boots. A single peach rose adorned his lapel. Hands clasped at his groin, he waited for his bride. When she came into view, she took his breath away.
Her long blond hair was neatly combed back on one side and held in place with several tiny rosebuds and baby’s breath; which matched the rose on Michael’s jacket. Her linen wedding dress was short sleeved and fell halfway down her thighs, perfectly outlining her feminine curves. She wore classic summer pumps and held a loose bouquet of peach roses tied together with a long satin ribbon.
She stepped out into the sunshine and reached for Michael’s hand. He swallowed hard and bent in to kiss her. “You look amazing, babe.”
“So do you,” she smiled up at him.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
She nodded nervously.
“Then, let’s do it.”
The ceremony lasted less than ten minutes before cheers erupted from their gathered guests upon the announcement of the new ‘ Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wade’. A light buffet followed, consisting of seafood salads and steaks grilled on the barbecue. Waiters served champagne flutes filled with sparkling cider as Brian prepared to give the bride and groom their first toast.
“Michael you are the brother I never had – nor wanted,” he said, making everyone laugh. “Nonetheless, I guess we're stuck with each other. Annie, welcome to the family and don't be too scared. Being part of this family will be the adventure of your lifetime! Al least you'll never be bored,” he chuckled and raised his glass. “On a serious note, I wish you many years of love, continued wealth and health, and – of course: rock 'n roll. Cheers.”
Their guests stayed long after sunset and were serenaded by Michael and Brian in the music room. But the highlight of the evening came at the end when Michael sang solo to Annie. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
After exchanging a tearful good-bye with Bonita, Michael and Annie set off for the airport. A couple of hours later, they were pulling into the crushed seashell driveway alongside Michael’s cottage.
Annie gasped when she saw it. “My God! It’s right on the water!”
Michael smiled, realizing she had never been there.
“And you have no neighbors?” she added.
“Nope. The closest neighbor I have is about a mile back down that dirt road,” he replied, stepping out of the jeep. Standing on the side steps of the house, he pointed off in the distan
ce. “See the house lights over there?” he asked, directing her attention beyond a man-made jetty. “Diane Sawyer lives over there, last I heard anyway. But it’s been so long since I’ve spent time here, she’s probably sold that place and bought another one.”
Michael unlocked the door and turned to face her. “Shall we do this the proper way?” he asked, scooping her up and carrying her into the back entrance hall.
“Welcome to your new home,” he said, setting her onto the floor.
“It’s perfect, Michael.”
Annie walked toward the fireplace and quickly scanned the open floor plan to the cottage. Then her eyes stopped. Set in front of a massive window and facing the ocean, was her old couch.
“Michael! You had my couch brought over here? When and how did you manage that?”
Grinning from ear to ear, he slid up beside her. “Hey. I work in mysterious ways.”
With her mouth still gaping in shock, Annie flopped onto the couch. Lovingly, she caressed the smooth, flowered fabric, as tears pooled in her eyes. “I can’t believe you did this for me,” she whispered.
“Don’t get too comfortable. I have another surprise for you,” he said, reaching for her hand. “Come on, let me show you the rest of the house.”
He pulled her back up against his chest and guided her around the large room. “Over there is the kitchen,” he said, still connected to her. “And back here are the bedrooms.”
He took her into the spare bedroom first, then directed her past the hallway bathroom. They inched slowly along the back hall, kissing with each step they took. He stopped outside the door to the master bedroom and covered her eyes with his hands. Then he gently pushed her into the room before removing them.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the bed - her bed. Like a familiar old friend, decorated with the same pastel-colored quilt and over-stuffed pillows, it lit the entire room up with its presence. Annie immediately burst into tears and covered her eyes up with her trembling hands.