“Just as soon as he asks,” Lindy said laughing.
Neil and Aaron got back close to midnight. “We managed to roll him inside and get him in bed,” Neil said. “I doubt he’ll remember anything tomorrow.”
“I hope not,” Cathy said.
“Babe, let’s leave these people to themselves,” Neil said to Lindy.
“Before you go,” Aaron said. “I’d like you to be witnesses for me.”
Neil and Lindy looked at each other. “Okay,” Neil said. Lindy looked at Cathy and mouthed, “He’s asking.”
“Cat,” Aaron said. He pulled her up from her seat at the table and looked into her eyes. “I know we’ve got a lot of talking to do, but I can’t go another second if you won’t agree to marry me again.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and started taking the sapphire ring off of the key ring he had kept in on all this time. Around and around it went, until it fell off in his fingers.
“Will you?” he said, holding the ring out. But then he pulled it back.
“Before you answer,” he said. “I need you to know that I spied on your house a few times. Just to make sure you were all right!”
She laughed.
“And another thing,” he said still holding the ring away from her. “I don’t want to go back to Atlanta or start my own company. I want to stay here and maybe sometimes near my family.” He started laughing then. “I guess we can work all of that out later,” he said.
“You’ve got two seconds to put that ring on my finger before I change my mind,” she said holding her hand out. He slipped the ring on her finger for the second time in their relationship.
“I love you,” he said. They began to kiss, oblivious to the fact that Neil and Lindy were still standing there. Cathy finally realized it and pulled away, laughing.
Lindy clapped her hands, her blonde hair swaying and shining in the kitchen light.
“But I can’t wait for any plans,” Aaron said. “I don’t want to wait another day. Will you marry me tomorrow? At the courthouse?”
Cathy nodded.
“No!” Lindy said. “You can’t do it at the courthouse. Do it in our courtyard. I’ll take care of everything.”
Aaron grabbed Cathy and swung her around and around.
*************************
They were married by two the next afternoon. Eileen, as a notary, was authorized in the state of Florida to perform the ceremony. She also provided a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, an assortment of appetizers, and several bottles of champagne, which Lindy put on a table in her little courtyard. Cathy’s expensive wedding dress was in storage, but she didn’t want the dress anyway. She found a long white dress in the closet that had belonged to her mother, and carried a bouquet of pink and white roses from the grocery store in Fort Walton that Lindy picked up. Lindy put a pair of aquamarine earrings in Cathy’s ears and hung a matching necklace around her neck.
“That’s your something new,” Lindy said. “Your dress is your something old and your ring is your something blue.”
“What’s my something borrowed? Cathy asked.
“This courtyard, of course!” Lindy said.
Grandpa escorted her to the back of the courtyard, down the brick pathway that Lindy had marked with white and baby-blue ribbons. Aaron and Cathy spoke the vows of marriage and exchanged wedding rings they’d picked up in a little jewelry store after they got the license. The rings and the license were the only costs of the wedding, a far cry from the one they had planned in the gardens near Atlanta. It was a quickie wedding, and it was beautiful. The only thing missing was Aaron’s family.
Aaron had called his mother first thing in the morning to tell her they were getting married and he was sorry they couldn’t be there. “I can’t wait any longer, Mom,” Aaron told his mother. “Not one more day.”
“Go,” his mother said tearfully. “Go for it.”
He went for it.
Jennifer Ransom is the author of Runaway, Love Weaver, Hand-Me-Down Love, Come Down in Time, and Serena’s Choice.
This is a work of fiction. References to actual people, places, and events are used to lend authenticity to the novel and are used fictitiously. All characters, dialog, and events are from the author’s imagination and are not real. Any resemblances to real people, places, events, or dialog are coincidental.
This book may not be copied, scanned, or reproduced in any way without permission from the author.
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