by Jillian Neal
Russian Winter
The next morning, Dan lay in the bed watching the clock tick slowly towards six. It was only the second night in many months that he’d slept alone. The last time had been the night Fionna had stayed with Garrett. The night he’d hunted down Wretchkinsides. That felt like a lifetime ago. It was a lifetime ago, he told himself. Everything was going to be different now. She was all that mattered.
Laying there breathing in the sweet Kauai-an air and watching the daylight begin to vanquish the dark, he knew he never wanted to sleep alone ever again.
He heard Garrett and Kai stir in the kitchen of the ohana suite that they’d been moved to the night before. The call of the roosters alerted them to the dawn of a new day.
Fionna and Malani were sleeping in the cottage that Fi and Dan had been sharing. They would be getting up very soon to get Fionna ready to become Fionna Kalani Halia Vindico.
Dan’s cell phone chirped from the nightstand. He sat up and grasped it quickly.
I miss you. I can’t sleep without you. Malani doesn’t cuddle me right, and I can’t wait to be your wife!
Dan chuckled. He felt his heart swell. He couldn’t wait either.
I’ll meet you on the beach in four hours. I’m counting the minutes. He typed his confession and sent it back quickly.
He stretched and yawned as he moved into the kitchen.
“Coffee, brah?” Kai offered kindly.
“Yeah, thanks.” Dan sank down in one of the mismatched chairs at the small kitchen table.
Garrett joined him. “Man, what the hell do they do to the beds here? That is the best I’ve ever slept in spite of those fucking roosters!”
Kai laughed. “It’s the Hawaiian cotton in the mattress, and Maylea’s papa builds all the beds so they’re made to help you relax. Tutu has a bamboo supplier on the Big Island that makes the sheets. It all makes the beds here better than anything anywhere else. The roosters you just learn to live with.”
Garrett looked impressed, but he began studying Dan’s back without his shirt on.
“You and Fi get those inked together?” He’d noticed Fionna’s ankle the evening before.
Dan shared a glance with Kai. “Yeah, we got them done several days ago.”
“It’s cool looking,” Garrett immediately complimented.
“Thanks, it means a whole lot.”
They drank the delectable Kona coffee that was grown just a few miles from where they were currently sitting.
“So since you’re getting married here without anyone at home knowing, save Mom and Dad, does that mean that you’ll be Dan and Fionna Vindico or Dan and Maylea Vindico?”
Dan smiled, “They are one in the same, man. Trust me.”
“Okay, I get that you two have this whole thing no one else knows about going on, but will you just tell me what Maylea means?”
“Wildflower, and if you think about it, it is the perfect description of her.”
Garrett grinned. “I don’t even have to think about it. She is that, and you are one lucky son of a bitch, my friend.”
“That I am,” Dan agreed as all of the men laughed.
Fionna’s papa arrived with breakfast for the men. He explained the meanings of everything that would be happening at Dan and Fionna’s traditional Hawaiian wedding. His tone carried the wisdom of generations that had come and gone, but left their traditions to be carried on.
Dan listened intently, as did Garrett. He seemed fascinated with what was taking place.
Papa left after giving Dan advice on how to care for Maylea’s spirit, which, according to Papa, was the combination of Fionna’s energies and her soul.
“One cannot exist without the other, and they must flow in equal parts. If one is off, the other is also,” her grandfather had elaborated.
Dan knew that everything he spoke was the absolute truth, and he made a vow to himself to care for all of her, to take care of her spirit, not just her energy.
Glancing at his watch before he got dressed, Dan sighed. He sank onto the sofa and stared at his cell phone like it had greatly offended him. Garrett offered him a sympathetic gaze as he joined him in the living room with another cup of coffee. They needed to get ready, so with a deep breath, he called his parent’s home.
The Senteon wasn’t hearing trials that day, and Governor Haydenshire wasn’t working at all. They were preparing for Rainer and Emily’s wedding.
There was a decent chance that his father would work from his home office instead of going into the Senate. Dan prayed that his parents would be together. He didn’t want to have to do this twice.
His mother answered on the second ring. “Daniel, is everything all right? I knew you shouldn’t have taken Fionna off to Hawaiʻi so soon after her surgery. Is she sick? Do we need to fly you home? You should have taken her to the Poconos, just like I told you,” she demanded without stopping to breathe.
Rolling his eyes, Dan tried to get a word in edgewise. His father, having overheard his mother’s freak out, picked up another line.
“Dan, what’s wrong with Fionna?”
“Nothing, Fionna is fine, amazing actually,” he insisted. “Well, I assume she is. I haven’t actually seen her since last night,” he confessed as Garrett chuckled.
“Why haven’t you seen her, son? Are you fighting?” the Governor sounded morose.
“No, Dad.” Dan tried to remember that no one in D.C. had lived through the journey of healing that Dan and Fionna had embarked upon since they’d arrived in Kauai.
He felt his face pull into a broad grin, “I’m actually not allowed to see her until the wedding,” he listened to the deafening silence. No one spoke for several uncomfortable moments.
Garrett laughed hysterically in whispered guffaws on the sofa.
“What did you just say, son?” Governor Vindico finally demanded.
“Uh,” Dan swallowed, “I’m not allowed to see Fionna until she walks down the aisle at our wedding, which starts in about an hour and a half.” He allowed with a quick glanced at his watch.
“Marion, sit down,” the Governor soothed. “You and Fionna are getting married in an hour?”
“Yeah, it’s just something we need to do, Dad. I’m sorry you and Mom aren’t here, but we didn’t want the big Senate affair. We need this to be just us. We don’t want to wait anymore.” Dan willed his parents to understand.
“But Daniel, I’ve already picked out Fionna’s gown, long sleeves, high collar, with a navy velvet bow, and I’ve just finally gotten Lillian to tell me which florists Emily and Rainer used,” Mrs. Vindico huffed fitfully. “We’re going to have a Russian Winter theme. I’m ordering brocade fabric!”
Shaking his head and drawing a deep breath, Dan knew instantly that having the wedding at Salt Pond that morning had been the perfect decision. He had no idea what Russian winter looked like to his mother, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wasn’t Fionna.
She was his island girl, with sunshining warmth and the breath of the coconut trees coursing through her veins. The ipu drums set the cadence of her heart. This island permeated her very essence. It was her spirit.
“Sorry, Mom, but we’re doing this here, now, and honestly, I couldn’t be happier.”
“Well, I’m just so glad you’re happy!” his mother shrieked in furious resentment.
“Marion,” the Governor sighed, “if this is what they want….”
“Well, what about what I want for them?” Mrs. Vindico demanded.
“I’m sorry you’re upset, Mom,” Dan admitted carefully, “but right now I need to take care of Fionna, and we need to do what’s right for the two of us, not anyone else.”
“Arthur, make him stop,” Mrs. Vindico ordered. Dan tried to hide his chuckle.
“Marion, he’s four thousand miles away, not to mention the fact that he’s thirty two years old. I cannot stop him.”
“Mom, if you want to be mad, be mad at me. This was all my idea,” Dan stated calmly, more and more pleas
ed with his decision with each passing minute.
His mother made an odd, muffled, screeching, shriek before she slammed down her extension.
“Was that your mom?” Garrett hissed, having heard the disconcerting noise. Dan nodded as they both tried hard not to guffaw.
“Well, I guess I’m happy for you, Daniel. Tell Fionna how pleased we are, and I’ll try to talk to your mother.” The Governor sounded thoroughly put out.
“Thanks, Dad. We’ll see you when we get back,” Dan managed as he hung up the phone.
“Wow,” Garrett drawled as Dan doubled over. “Wait ‘til she finds out I was here for it.”
“Yeah, you might not ever want to mention that.”
The Fire and The Water
Dan shrugged into a white, button-down, cotton dress shirt and white slacks appropriate for the beach, the traditional attire for the groom in a Hawaiʻian wedding.
“Hell of a lot better than a tux,” Garrett complimented as he pulled on a pair of khaki shorts and a polo.
Fionna’s Papa arrived to take the men to the ceremony. Dan felt his heart stutter as emotion settled thickly in his throat.
“Hey, can you let him in? I just need a minute,” Dan pled to Garrett.
“No problem.” Garrett closed the door to the bedroom and allowed Dan a moment with his thoughts.
He tapped into the rhythms of the island again. He closed his eyes in deep concentration, trying to discern how to let go and how to hold on. His phone rang in his pocket.
“Hey,” he offered Fitzroy.
“Just wanted to check on you, man,” Fitz explained.
“Thanks, I’m okay. I wish you could be here.” He’d called Fitz first, explaining that though Fitz was certainly welcome to come out that Dan really thought with everything that had happened that Garrett should be his best man.
Fitz had adamantly agreed, and his only request had been that Dan and Fionna make a trip to Paris in a few weeks to visit with Maddie and the boys.
“Hey, Dan, you know she would have wanted this for you.” Fitz said the words that Dan so desperately needed to hear.
“Yeah, I think in a whole different life she would have loved Fionna, you know?”
“Yeah, I do know, and she would have. Fionna’s an amazing girl, and you deserve a real life.”
A real life. It just still didn’t seem possible. “I guess I better go.”
“Yeah, and Dan, you have to let her go.”
He knew Fitz was right. He had to let Amelia go, just like he’d watched the lei’s disappear into the water so many days before. A part of the earth, always a part of his spirit, forever in his soul.
“Don’t freak out now, you’re almost there.” Fitz urged him on.
“Yeah,” Dan choked, “I really am.”
He exited the bedroom and took the first of many steps towards life.
“You okay?” Garrett grasped Dan’s bicep in a gesture of holding him up, even if it was metaphorically.
“I will be.” Dan kept his march towards the front door. He needed Fionna, and as long as he kept putting one foot in front of the other he was going to get her.
He stopped to allow Fionna’s grandfather to tie the red sash around his waist. It was the very sash he’d worn when he’d married Tutu, and that Fionna’s father had worn when he’d married her mother.
“You have fire in your soul, Dan,” her grandfather stated knowingly. “And my Maylea can tame the fire and soothe its burn. You were meant to be together, to live in accord so that the fire does not consume you, but rather glows brightly to give her light and protection. Neither can exist without the other, and yet you must understand that fire can never quell the water.”
Dan nodded, astonished at the truth as it settled on his conscience and soothed his soul. She was the only thing that could ever have doused his vicious flame, the only thing strong enough to tame the fire.
They drove the short distance to Salt Pond, and Dan felt the breeze blow through his hair as he walked beside Garrett down to the beach. He swallowed harshly as he took in the soothing sounds of the ukuleles playing and noted the circle of Hawaiʻian blooms set in the sand.
He shook the minister’s hand, the same man that had performed Fionna’s blessing when she was a baby. Dan remembered that his title was Kahu, a holy man in Hawaiʻi.
“Are you ready, Daniel Arthur Vindico, to marry our sweet Maylea?” he asked in his deep, gravelly, drumming intonation.
“Yes, sir,” Dan nodded, “I am.” He stood there on the beaches of Kauai and knew that he was ready to move on. He was ready to start again.
Malani’s parents were standing in the small area for guests along with a few other of Fionna’s family friends.
There were three girls dressed in traditional hula skirts and leis ready to perform the dance of the wedding.
Garrett studied Dan intently, “I don’t know how, man, but somehow this is gonna work. All of that shit is gonna be worth it.”
“As long as I get her,” Dan agreed in a choked whisper.
“Then let’s do this.” Garrett slapped Dan on the back and disappeared with Fionna’s papa.
Kai took his place in the audience and the ukulele music lowered slightly.
“Let us begin,” the minister soothed. Trying desperately to will his heart to remain inside of his rib cage, Dan walked beside the minister as he chanted up the aisle.
Keeping his gaze and his body facing the ocean and away from the guests, Dan waited. He saw Fionna’s grandmother take her seat from his peripheral vision and glanced to his left to see Garrett walk Malani to her place on the other side of the minister then he joined Dan at the front.
Dan felt his hands tremble as he focused on drawing breath. His stomach clenched tightly and sweat dewed on his neck but was cooled by the soothing ocean breeze.
He closed his eyes in a fervent prayer that he would be everything Fionna ever needed, and that what he was doing wouldn’t hurt Amelia in any way.
Suddenly the conch shells sounded loudly in a triumphant roar, and Dan felt his lungs beg for air.
“Damn,” he heard Garrett whisper. Dan turned, finally allowed to gaze out.
Fionna was breathtaking. She kept her gaze locked on his as she glided over the sand on the arm of her grandfather, dressed in a long, billowing, gauzy sleeveless wrap gown with a slit up her right leg.
Her head was adorned with a dizzying crown of Hawaiʻian wildflowers, and tears swam in Dan’s eyes. She was stunning. Her grandfather kissed her cheek and then placed her trembling hands in Dan’s.
“My Maylea,” he whispered. “Take care of her. For you hold her spirit and she holds your fire.”
Dan nodded, but was unable to take his eyes off of the most stunning sight he’d ever beheld.
“My God, you are so beautiful,” he whispered as she smiled sweetly with tender tears beginning to form in her eyes.
“Fionna Kalani Halia, our sweet Maylea, will now exchange leis with her bridegroom Daniel Arthur. The lei with no beginning and no ending symbolizes their eternal love,” the minister announced.
Drawing a deep breath and feeling the warmth, the serenity, the life flow through him from her hands, Dan kept one clasped tightly in his own as he turned to Garrett, who supplied him with an all white lei created the evening before by Fionna, Malani, and Tutu.
Dan breathed deeply of the white ginger lei as it combined in the steady billowing breeze that carried Fionna’s scent to his nostrils. She lowered her head and he delicately placed the lei around her neck as he continued to blink back tears.
Fionna gazed up at him with all of her love and adoration as she turned and took the lei she’d made for him out of ti leaves. He lowered his head in a bow to her as she draped it over him.
The ukulele began again, this time joined with a slack key guitar to play the Hawaiʻian Wedding song in soft soothing tones. The hula dancers began to dance.
As they swayed, Dan and Fionna pledged to love each other and care for
one another for the rest of their lives and to let nothing come between them. Not ever again, Dan vowed to himself as he pledged his love and devotion to her.
They watched as the minister dipped a deep brown bowl formed of koa into the mighty Pacific and then placed their rings inside of the bowl. Another ti leaf was also dipped and the rings were sprinkled with the ocean water three times as the minister began to chant.
They slipped the rings on one another and then closed their eyes, holding each other’s hands, joining their energy, letting it pass between them.
“Daniel Arthur, you have pledged to care for Fionna, for Maylea,” the minister urged. “You have alerted the earth, the sea, the air, and the fire to bear witness today to your vow to one another. So Daniel Arthur, as the elements of the earth celebrate with you, so do we, and I will now grant you tide to kiss Fionna Kalani Halia, your bride and our sweet Maylea.”
Dan swallowed the rock-like enclosure in his throat as he tenderly wiped away the tears streaming down Fionna’s beautiful face.
“I love you so much,” he whispered.
She nodded as he cradled her face in his hands. He leaned and brushed a tender kiss across her lips before he turned and devoured her mouth. He dipped her back in his arms, holding her safely in his embrace.
Garrett and Kai wolf-whistled loudly as the small crowd applauded. He stood her back up after several minutes with her laughing and giving him his smile.
They turned to her friends and family. “Maylea tells me I must now say: their spirits are tied and formed as one, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Vindico,” the minister announced proudly. “But I think they are forever Dan and Maylea.”
They walked back down the aisle with Dan knowing that he had every single thing he would ever need clinging tightly to his arm.
They sat out on the sands of Salt Pond, devouring kalua pig, poi, lomi salmon, and and other island delicacies. Tutu had prepared plenty of sex salad, and it was all delicious.
“Seriously, best wedding ever. I’m in a polo and shorts barefoot on the beach in Hawaiʻi,” Garrett vowed.