I laughed when we ended up in front of The Mad Hatter.
“Minnie ears?” I asked.
“Yep, let’s go in,” he said, taking my hand.
We stepped in and made our way to the many rows of ears I could choose from.
“Okay, wow. I had no idea this would be so difficult.”
“I think you should get the ones with sequins,” a familiar little voice said.
I turned to see a young girl beaming up at me. Her eyes widened in excitement the moment she saw me, and she threw her arms around my waist.
“Abigail!” I cried out. “Oh my gosh! How are you here? Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in school?”
“We had a teacher workday today, and I have a season pass. Plus a certain someone mentioned you might be here today,” she smiled.
I looked up to see her mom standing nearby speaking with Jude. We exchanged waves as I mouthed, Thank you.
She nodded, smiling.
“I can’t believe you’re here!” I said, squeezing her tighter.
“Isn’t it going to be great? An entire day together! And I can’t believe you’ve never been here. I’m going to take you everywhere, and we’re going to ride every single ride!”
Jude coughed a bit, getting our attention as he joined back in the conversation. “Maybe not every ride?” he suggested.
“Oh, right.” She blushed, looking down at my midsection. “Well, most of them,” she amended.
To outsiders, I still looked like regular old me. But at nearly three months, when I stared at myself in the mirror, I’d begun to notice the changes, the tiny bulge beginning to form. I’d cup my hand over it, cradling that little bump, hoping it knew I was there, cherishing it.
I grinned down at her. “Want to pick out ears with me?”
“Sure!” she answered cheerfully. “Let me just say bye to my mom.” She skipped cheerfully over to her mom, giving her a hug and kiss.
“I’ll meet you back here around five?” her mother confirmed with Jude.
He nodded, and they chitchatted a bit more before she headed out.
“This was a very nice thing you did,” I said quietly to Jude as Abigail looked through the hats.
“I knew you missed her.”
Smiling, I watched her pick up a set of ears with a princess crown. I laughed. “I did—so much.”
In the end, Abigail ended up with a sequined set of ears, and after much convincing, both Jude and I walked out of the shop wearing matching bride and groom ears.
We had been Disney-fied to the max.
Abigail had been coming to Disneyland since she was barely able to walk, so she knew the park inside and out. It was like having our own personal tour guide as we strolled down Main Street, looking inside the various shops stuffed full of Disney merchandise.
“Where do you want to go first?” she asked happily, holding my hand.
“How about you pick?” I suggested, not even having a clue where to begin.
“Okay!” She tugged us both to the left through crowds of people standing around, taking pictures of Cinderella’s castle.
We continued through the park, walking past the Jungle Cruise and the Indiana Jones Adventure ride.
“This is my favorite ride in the park,” she announced as we came to the front entrance of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
Her eyes shifted to Jude. “But it has a bit of a fast part. Do you think she’ll be okay?”
He smiled, grabbing my hand, and he brought it to his lips. “Yeah, I think she’ll be just fine on this one.”
We quickly moved through the line, waiting only about ten minutes, before the three of us stepped into a boat. We wedged Abigail in between us as Jude rested his arm across the back of both of us.
“Do you think I can count this as a roller coaster, so I can scratch off number ten?” I asked.
The attendant pushed the lever to release our boat into the dark water.
“It’s your list.” Jude shrugged.
“Good,” I answered, smiling. “Number ten—done.”
Abigail pointed to the right where several people were dining nearby under twinkling lights. “That’s the Blue Bayou,” she said. “My mom took me there for my tenth birthday, and we sat right by the water and watched everyone float by. I waved.” She giggled as she did just that—waved at all the people as they ate.
We passed by the restaurant, and the mood of the ride turned somber.
The music became haunting, and Abigail grabbed my hand. “Are you ready?”
“Ready for wha—”
I screamed as our boat sped down a steep cliff into the caves below. Abigail’s laughter sounded in my ear as my shrieks died off, and I joined her.
“Oh my gosh! That was fantastic!” I looked over at Jude.
He was watching me with a happy warm glow. Even in his ridiculous Mickey ears, he was still the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
The ears might actually have made him even sexier.