“I now pronounce you man and wife,” the justice of the peace declared. “You may kiss the bride.”
She flung her arms around her husband’s neck as he lifted her right off the ground to kiss her senseless to a soundtrack of cheers, applause, wolf whistles and what sounded like a few groans and gags from the juvenile male crowd. That was followed, naturally, by a very unhappy squawk from Lily, who didn’t particularly care for having her naps interrupted.
Kevin set Beth down, but Paulie—who wasn’t camping but had made the drive up with Sam—was already at the stroller, lifting the baby out. Kevin and Beth were hugged and kissed as they made their way down a makeshift receiving line—more like a gauntlet, she thought—and then she was able to take Lily.
“At least you know how you’ll be celebrating your anniversary every year,” Paulie said. “The Annual Kowalski family camping trip.”
“Of Doom,” Beth and Kevin said together and everybody laughed.
Then there was food and more food and then the cake. Or the cakes, rather, because there were three sheet cakes to accommodate the family, their friends and pretty much everybody in the campground.
Lily was fed and changed and eventually, after a round of pass the baby, she finally went back to sleep in Shelly’s arms. Stephanie plugged her iPod into a set of external speakers somebody had provided and a sweet country song drifted across the campground.
Kevin pulled Beth into his arms and they danced for the first time as man and wife. She laid her head on his chest, tears brimming on her lashes. She wasn’t sure how he’d managed to stumble across the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill duet, considering his taste in music, but it was perfect. His love definitely did something to her.
“I thought I’d never get to dance with my wife.”
She loved the sound of that. “You sure know how to show a girl an interesting time, husband.”
His hands slid down her hips—not far enough to be indecent in front of the family, but far enough to promise he’d get indecent later. Beth preferred to think the warm tingle spreading across her skin was the thrill of the moment rather than the high concentration of DEET eating her flesh.
“Are you going to be sorry someday you didn’t get the dress and the flowers and all that crap?”
“I’ll never be sorry. And I had flowers. Special flowers picked just for me.”
“Umm…were you able to identify all of them before you touched them?”
“No, but your mother checked them for poison ivy and bugs.”
She rested her head against him as he laughed and she felt the rumble through his chest. His hands slid up to her back and he rested his cheek on the top of her head as they swayed together through the rest of the song. As the last notes faded away, he tipped her chin up and kissed her again. Then he moved his mouth close to her ear.
“I can’t believe I’m going to say this,” he said so quietly nobody could hear him but her, “but I’m glad you made me wait. Made us wait. For this, I mean.”
So was she. This marriage wasn’t going to be chased by doubts. No staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night wondering if her husband had really wanted to marry her. “I love you.”
“And since you wrote it on a napkin, it must be true.”
True to his word, Kevin had framed the napkin she and Lily kissed in the middle of the night and hung it over the bar. She was hoping that, along with the wide and shiny gold band on his finger, would cut down the number of napkins in the basket.
“Do you want your present now?” he asked.
“Right here in front of everybody?”
“Everybody helped. Joe just finished up his part while we were dancing, as a matter of fact. I think they’d like to see you open it.”
She let him lead her over to the table set up for the gifts and she laughed when he handed her a flat package wrapped in newspaper and secured with what looked like an entire roll of tape.
“We either forgot the extra wrapping paper or it’s hiding in one of the campers,” Keri explained.
“I wrapped it,” Brian said.
Bobby shoved him. “I helped!”
“It looks wonderful.” Beth turned the package over in her hands until she finally found what looked like a weak point in the tape. It wasn’t easy, but she managed to get the flat box unwrapped without using her teeth.
When she lifted the lid and peeled back the tissue paper, her breath caught in her chest and tears sprang instantly to her eyes.