by Peggy Dulle
Tom and I sighed together, then turned and followed Pedro.
The beautiful carriage was pulled by two white horses that were also decorated with red and white flowers. Charles, the driver, had his little beagle, James, dressed in a gray pinstriped tux next to him.
Tom got in and then he and Pedro helped me into the carriage. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded wearing a wedding dress.
Charles drove the carriage out the back of the Gardens and onto the street. The hooves of the horses clip-clopped on the road and it felt strange riding in a carriage with horses on a street lined by tract houses.
“This is very nice,” Tom said.
I smiled and thought horses and cowboys just went together, didn’t they?
James shook his head back and forth and I heard Charles say, “What the hell?”
Just as the two white stallions reared up onto their back legs and the carriage was jerked backwards.
Chapter 38
Tom caught me just before I flew off the seat and onto the floor of the carriage.
Charles fought for control of his horses.
James started barking which set the horses off even more. It seemed they just couldn’t get their footing stable.
Tom grabbed the dog and petted him saying, “Easy boy.”
Charles jumped down from his seat, grabbing the reins as he went. He started with one horse by bringing its head down, petting it and calming it. The other horse responded to his words to the first and was soon settled as well. Charles stroked both horses’ noses, continuing to speak to them in his soothing voice.
Tom set the dog back on the seat and said, “Are you okay, Liza?”
“I’m fine.”
A few seconds later, Charles climbed back into his seat, turned to us and said, “I don’t know what happened. Misty and Stone have never done that before. They are two of the gentlest horses we have.”
“What do you think spooked them?” Tom asked.
“I don’t know,” Charles said as he settled into his seat.
“James was shaking his head, could it have been a noise?” I asked.
“It’s possible. Both dogs and horses can hear sounds in a higher pitch than us,” Tom said.
“Maybe some kid with a dog whistle thinks he’s being funny,” I suggested.
“It wasn’t funny,” Charles said.
Both Tom and I shook our heads in agreement. Then we started down the street again.
I heard Joe introducing Kenny as we turned through the gates of the Gardens. Coming up to the twinkling lights, white hanging lanterns, round tables with white and red linens, the candy bar and all the beautiful floral arrangements made the scene magical. It was perfect.
The guests stood, clapped and cheered as we came down the driveway. My dad came over and helped me out of the carriage and then Tom followed.
We went behind the head table through a long garden arbor to the dance floor.
“Now, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Owens will dance their first dance as husband and wife,” Joe said.
Tom took my hand and pulled me in close. I wrapped both hands around his neck. The music began and I recognized the song immediately. I had heard it in a karaoke bar once. It was After the Loving usually sung by Engelbert Humperdinck. Then Tom’s beautiful voice came through the speakers.
I leaned back and looked at him.
He smiled and said, “I wanted to sing it to you but knew it would embarrass you, so I came early and Joe helped me record it. Now, I get to sing it to you and hold you at the same time. It’s a win-win situation.”
“It’s perfect,” I told him and we held each other tight.
After the dance, we went over and sat at the head table. My dad sat next to me, then Kenny, Jordan and Sam and Julie. Next to Tom was his son, Michael, then David and Doreen, and then Duane. It was a tight fit and now I understood Kenny’s comment about adding a person to the head table. He had added my dad.
When they set my plate down in front of me, I looked over at Tom.
He was eyeing his plate, too.
I glanced toward my dad who smiled and said, “I added to the menu, too.”
On my plate were two filet mignons wrapped in bacon and smothered with a béarnaise sauce, mashed potatoes, and baby carrots covered in a shiny glaze. All three are my favorite. The entire head table was fed the same meal, except Michael, who was given a burger and fries from In-N-Out Burger, his favorite. If there ever was a day to spoil a child, it was the day he was getting a stepmother.
The guests were released table by table by one of Amelia’s people to get their food at the buffet that was set up. They were served what Tom and I ordered which was also very good, but not quite the same caliber as our meal. Joe played lively but soft music that was a nice background to the conversations at the tables. Charles gave rides in the carriage to everyone. Michael enjoyed them the most, especially since Charles even let him sit on the top with him and James.
As soon as we finished eating, Tom and I got up and visited with our guests. The next hour was a whirlwind of wandering from table to table meeting people. Tom’s Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Henry were quite the couple. She was over six feet tall and thin as a model with huge platinum blonde hair, he was balding, shorter than me and just as wide. I could smell the alcohol when he kissed me. Their daughter, Stella, had the stature of her father and her mother’s beautiful face.
“Where’s the flask?” Tom asked.
Uncle Henry gave a sheepish grin and said, “It’s empty already.”
Tom shook his head and hugged his dad’s only sibling.
It was nice to see all my teaching friends. Usually we don’t see each other in the summer after spending every day together during the school year. We talked about having a standing lunch date, the second Saturday of the month, after I moved to Gainesville.
Tom’s cop friends kidded him about being married and not being able to work those late hours anymore. Then they realized that one of them would have to work them and they started backpedaling immediately; it was hilarious.
“It’s time for the father-daughter dance,” Joe announced, so Tom and I went to the dance floor. It was set up to the left of the head table. As I walked toward the head table, I stopped to admire the cake. It was gorgeous. Pedro made a beautiful arrangement for the top, adding a few real flowers to the sides of the cake. The placement of the table in front of where Tom and I sat was great. The floral arrangement at the head table looked like an extension of the flowers on the top of the cake.
My dad stood on the dance floor waiting for me. He extended his hand, and I took it. He wrapped his arms around my waist and whispered. “Are you happy, Bobby?”
“Yes, I am,” I told him.
They played I Loved Her First by Heartland while Dad and I danced. Then my dad let me go and Tom took my hand, as Jordan danced with our dad.
Joe invited everyone else to join us, just as Kenny cut in saying, “You’ll have her all to yourself soon enough, Tom.”
Tom rolled his eyes and he danced with his Aunt Charlotte. Soon the dance floor was filled with everyone dancing. There were enough singers in the group, including some of my teaching friends, that each song was accompanied by people singing. Joe encouraged us to sing. I think he hoped to avoid breaking out his karaoke music.
Pedro came to the dance floor and said, “I’ve got to go because I have another wedding this evening. Everything is on schedule. I added a few more small bouquets around the cake to spruce it up for the pictures, so make sure you cut the cake in thirty minutes, okay? I don’t want those flowers to wilt. And I think it will be a great picture if the entire wedding party, including your dad, is sitting behind the cake at their spots. They did that at another wedding I worked and it turned out to be the bride’s favorite picture.”
I gave him a big hug and said, “Thanks, that’s a great idea. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“That’s okay. Enjoy the cake and the rest of your lives together.”
After Pedro left, Tom and I wandered by the candy bar, which seemed to be very popular. I used a scoop to get a handful of peanut M & M’S and Tom got a piece of black licorice. It was nice that we liked the same candy.
I was tired of walking, talking, and standing so we walked back to the head table and sat for a few minutes.
“Everyone seems to be having a great time,” I said as I looked over at the dance floor filled with people dancing and singing Summer Nights from Grease.
“Cops and teachers seem to get along just great,” he said.
I put my hand on his and said, “It’s the uniform we know that you all wear, we just can’t get over the uniform.”
He laughed and kissed me.
My dad came over and sat down next to me, his two FBI guards within a few feet of him.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I am tired of having a shadow everywhere I go,” my dad said.
“When are you going to testify and be done with them?”
“They’ve got it moved up to early next month from the original court date six months from now.”
“The sooner the better.”
I looked over the table at the cake and said, “I’m ready for dessert, how about you?”
“Sounds good to me,” my dad agreed.
Tom glanced at his watch. “We’ve got fifteen more minutes, if we want to keep to the schedule before we can have cake.”
“I want cake,” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Then the woman will have cake. I’ll tell Joe.”
“I’ll find Ted and let him know, too.” Dad went in search of the photographer.
A few minutes later, Dad brought Ted over. Ted frowned at the cake.
“What?” I asked, looking over the table at the cake.
“I don’t like the lighting here or the background. Why isn’t the cake where it usually is placed?”
I shrugged. “Where does it usually go?”
“Amelia usually places it to the left of the head table between it and the dance floor,” Ted said, still frowning.
Then I remembered what Pedro said about the picture. “I’d like it here, Ted. That way all my attendants can be in the picture, including my dad. They’ll be watching Tom and me cut the cake. It will be a great picture.”
“That sounds nice,” my dad agreed. “Why can’t you just take the pictures here?”
“To be honest with you, I don’t want to take them here because of the large floral arrangements on the edges of the head table. Both your husband and you are not tall, so you will look like you have flowers coming out of your head. Is that the look you’re going for?”
“No, can we move it?” I asked.
“Let’s see what Amelia can do.” Ted left.
Tom came back and said, “Joe’s going to announce that we’re cutting the cake as soon as this song is over.”
“Go tell him to stop.”
“What? You changed your mind about having cake? I can’t believe that.”
“No, I still want cake but Ted says we have to move the cake.”
“Why?”
“Ted says in the pictures it will look like flowers are growing out of our heads.”
Tom looked at the cake and frowned, clearly as confused as I was.
“I don’t get it either,” I told him. “But go tell Joe not to announce the cutting of the cake until they get it moved.”
Tom huffed and walked toward the dance floor again.
A few minutes later, Amelia and four of her staff members dressed in white aprons came over. Two of them picked up the cake, Dad helped Amelia gathered the extra bouquets, and the other two moved the table.
When they set it down, Amelia said, “Let’s leave these extra bouquets off. I think it’s too much.”
She set the bouquets on the edge of the head table.
A few minutes later, Joe said, “We will be cutting the cake in a few minutes, if everyone will gather on the dance floor.”
Tom and I started toward the cake, as did the rest of the guests.
That’s when we heard someone scream. It sounded like Michael.
Tom and I turned to see what was causing the commotion. There was a little brown monkey jumping around the containers on the candy bar table. Michael was trying to catch it and screamed every time he got close to the monkey.
“Damn it,” Tom said. “Aunt Charlotte brought one of her monkeys.”
It was like a school of fish changing directions. Everyone, including Joe, wanted to see the monkey.
When we got close, Aunt Charlotte was cooing at the monkey, “Come on, Nelly, and don’t be scared.”
“I want to hold her,” Michael was whining.
“Then you have to stop screaming, honey,” Aunt Charlotte said.
“Why is the monkey at my wedding?” Tom said, using that tone of voice usually reserved for me. It was nice to see it directed at someone else.
“I brought Nelly so Michael could play with her, but when I went to put her in his lap, she saw the candy. She loves Peanut M&M’S, they’re her favorite.”
The monkey put her hand into the peanut M&M’S jar, grabbed one and then stuffed it in her mouth. She would run around the jars and then go back to the peanut M&M’S.
“I can understand that,” I told her, then chuckled.
“She’s got great taste in candy,” Kenny added and laughed.
Soon everyone was laughing and watching the monkey stuff her cheeks with peanut M&M’S.
We all stopped laughing when the explosion threw us to the ground.
Chapter 39
Something wet and sticky was on my head. Was it blood? Had I been hit with some flying metal? I ran my fingers through my hair and brought it around to see the damage. I expected to see blood, but what I saw was chocolate cake.
I turned back to see that our wedding cake had exploded into a million crumbs, taking out the table it was sitting on, part of the head table, the Garden’s arbor that we walked under when we first got there and several of the round tables that were nearest to it. Most of them were on fire!
Tom turned to me and said, “Stay here!”
As all of the FBI agents surrounded me, my dad and Jordan, Tom and his cop friends went running toward the fire, grabbing tablecloths from tables as they ran past, no doubt in an attempt to put out the fire. But within seconds, every one of Amelia’s workers, all ten of them, came running up with fire extinguishers. They made quick work of the fire and it was out within minutes. Tom sent several of the FBI men after Pedro, who was the one who insisted upon the placement of the wedding cake. The extra bouquets he added turned out to be the explosives.
When it was out, I walked over to Amelia and asked, “Do you always have that many fire extinguishers?”
“Nope, after your Jeep exploded, I brought them in and assigned every one of my workers to an extinguisher.”
“Smart woman,” I told her.
“I guess we’re not getting any dessert,” Kenny said.
“Oh, yes, we are,” Tom said, then turned to Amelia. “Did you get the shipment I sent you?”
“Yes. It will take me a few minutes to start heating them up, but we’ll start passing them out.”
“What are we having for dessert?” I asked.
Tom kissed me on the cheek and said, “Chocolate Melting Cake and vanilla ice cream, of course.”
“You knew this was going to happen?” I asked.
“No, but I thought the guests would enjoy them along with the wedding cake.”
“I love you, Tom Owens,” I squealed, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him.
And that’s what we did. Everyone enjoyed dipping the vanilla ice cream into the warm gooey chocolate cake and eating it. It was better than any wedding cake ever was.
While we ate, Amelia and her crew took away all the burnt tables and cloths, setting up new ones. The dance floor was scorched but none of Joe’s equipment was close enough to the fire to get wrecked. Joe started an en
tire set of songs with the word fire in them. He played: Light My Fire, Ring of Fire, Burning Love, She’s on Fire, Walking on Fire, Put Out the Fire and the list went on.
Everybody laughed and danced all around all of the tables. The dance floor expanded to include the entire reception area. Michael danced with Nelly.
Around ten o’clock, Jordan came over and said, “It’s time for the two of you to change and get out of here.”
“Yeah, we’ve got an early flight tomorrow,” Tom said.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a secret,” Tom said.
“I hate secrets,” I told him.
“No, you don’t,” both he and Jordan said together.
I blew a raspberry at both of them, then said, “I didn’t pack a bag because I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t know whether to pack a bathing suit or a parka.”
“That’s okay, Sis. I packed a bag for you. It’s already in Tom’s truck,” Jordan said.
We went back into the dressing room, changed and then went back outside. Everyone was still dancing. Tom and I joined them for one last song. Joe played We Are Family. Everyone sang as loud as they could and danced!
Then Tom and I left to cheers and clapping. Behind us a black sedan followed. I hoped they didn’t think they were going on our honeymoon.
We stopped at a hotel by the San Francisco airport. Tom checked us in.
When we got to the door, Tom slipped his hands underneath my legs and said, “It’s tradition to carry you across the threshold.”
I put my hands around his neck and leaned my head into his chest. This tradition I wouldn’t argue with.
We made love as husband and wife for the first time and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
In the morning, I said, “So where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise,” Tom insisted.
I crossed my arms and said, “I’m not getting on a plane with you unless you tell me where I’m going.”
Tom frowned.
“Please?” I wheedled.
“I tried to think of some place that Stretch and Liza would both enjoy. That wasn’t easy.”
“I’m the same person, I like lots of things. Where am I going?”