I wanted to reciprocate, but saw Jake return with his sister. I turned to Jane. “Um, Jane? Do you mind changing partners with me? I’d like to be back in my husband’s arms.” With this, I leaned over and kissed Max on the cheek and whispered, “I love you too, Max. Debt repaid.”
I fell back into Jake’s arms and watched the happily surprised Max and Jane dance with one another. Jake looked at me with an appreciative smile.
“You are the most incredible woman in the entire world!” Jake exuded with joy. “Thank you for putting a smile on my sister’s face.”
The evening wore on, and we finally got to my wedding gift for my husband—the fireworks. Everyone sat in chairs laid out on the grassy field. The DJ announced to everyone to look out for Jake’s wedding gift during the fireworks display. Jake kept distracting me with his lips and I had to force him to watch the show.
“Honey, your wedding present is coming up. You need to pay attention or you’ll miss it.”
“What does that mean?”
I gave him a stern look and pointed to the fireworks display.
Toward the end of the display, I saw a happy face light up and this was my cue to have Jake watch his present on display.
“Here it comes,” I announced to everyone with excitement.
There lit the letter I,
Then came the shape of a heart,
Then the letter U,
Then they spelled out JAKE one by one.
Afterward, they shot off many more hearts and big explosions to end the display.
Our guests all clapped and cheered for us. Jake had an incredulous look on his face. This time, I leaned over and kissed his shocked lips and declared, “I love you, Jake.”
“How did you do that? That was the coolest present ever!” Jake said, as his family members gathered around us.
“It wasn’t easy. Once I got the name of the company in charge of the display, and after numerous calls, I finally got the name of the owner of the company. I called and begged him daily, asking him to add this to his show. He refused me for two straight weeks. Eventually, I wore him down and he agreed to do this for me under a few conditions:
I am to never call him again, and
I am to never give his information out to anyone.”
I also told Jake, “I also promised him excellent heart care if he ever needed it. I promised him just about everything, but our first child.” Everyone chuckled at this last comment and we all went out to the dance floor again.
By 10:00 p.m., Jake badgered me to leave the reception so we could get on to more pressing matters.
“Jake, we’re not leaving already. I’m only getting married once. This reception is amazing. I don’t want it to end yet.”
“Then, can we go upstairs to our bedroom for a little bit and come back and rejoin the party?” He looked like a child begging for candy. I waited for the “please, please, please” to happen.
“No. I can’t exactly get in and out of this dress easily. You’ll have to wait. What are a few more hours? We’ll be together for a lifetime.”
He let go of me and walked away pouting. I grabbed Nick and Doug and danced with them instead.
“What’s with Jake?” they both wondered.
“Oh, he wants to move on to the next portion of our wedding,” I answered giggling.
They both understood a little too well what I conveyed. By the end of our dance, all the cousins played keep the bride away from Jake the rest of the night. Everyone, man, woman, and child, wanted to dance with me to keep us from leaving for our wedding night. The aunts and female cousins also did a good job keeping Jake occupied.
By 3:00 a.m., I wanted to leave. Pretending to give into Jake’s pleas I whispered in his ear, “I’m ready.” He was more than ready.
Most of our guest started eating and drinking again. The party continued as Nick put our suitcase in Jake’s car and we showed our appreciation to Jake’s parents and Aunt Barbara.
“I don’t know how to thank you for this amazing wedding and reception. You two could go into the wedding business. We’ll make sure to bring back a huge gift for both of you from our honeymoon.” We kissed all three of them and sprinted from our house to the car without getting too much rice in our hair. I chose to stay in my wedding dress even though Gram brought me a trousseau from London. We hugged everyone good-bye and left for our hotel near the airport.
During the ride over to the hotel, Jake couldn’t stop talking about our wedding night.
“Which negligee did you bring?” Jake asked with a puppy dog look.
I decided to be coy and not give him any straight answers. “Oh my gosh! I forgot to pack the negligees. I only brought my flannel pajamas,” I answered nonchalantly. I also yawned and said, “I’m exhausted. I couldn’t sleep a wink last night. Aren’t you tired?”
Jake gave me a you can’t be serious look.
I turned my head toward the window and held back a laugh.