“You catching anything?” I asked after I composed myself.
“Sun. That’s about fucking it,” he growled. “But that’s the way of it, isn’t it?”
I agreed. I hated going fishing, just for the sheer fact that we never caught anything.
Or maybe we would had I any patience.
“Well, I just wanted to tell you that. Go back to catching your sun,” I said softly, as Pietro made his way into the room with his huge package of bobby pins, hair rollers, and other odds and ends to start fixing my hair.
“Okay, baby. Love you,” he murmured.
“Love you more.”
***
The moment I saw him as I walked down the aisle, a smile burst over my lips, and my hand came up to cover my mouth.
“Oh, my God,” I said, turning to Georgia with wide eyes.
Her eyes were filled with her own tears of laughter as she caught a look at my man as well.
“Jesus,” I said, shaking my head. “What the hell is wrong with that man?”
He wasn’t lying about catching sun.
He caught a whole lot of it.
Georgia snorted, and my father gave out a strangled laugh of his own.
“Let’s get you to him, honey. He’ll think you can’t handle him for better or for worse if you’re not careful.”
Georgia was the final one to leave, and I was left with my father.
“You look beautiful, baby,” he said softly.
I smiled at him, seeing the truth in his eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I told him. “I’ll still see you every Sunday for lunch after mass.”
He smiled. “I know. You’re just my first little bird out of the nest,” he said, running his hand over my hair and smoothing back a stray curl that’d fallen from a pin.
“Nico was your first little bird,” I said laughingly.
He shrugged. “Nico can take care of himself. You’re my first girl. And you’ll no longer have my name. You’re the first bird I’m setting free.”
Hugging him tightly, I let him go and turned to face the now closed door.
“Alright, I’m ready,” I said with a nervous sigh.
“He’ll be good to you, baby. You’ve tamed the beast,” he said before the attendants opened the doors to the church.
I looked up at him, and I caught the first flash of a camera as it captured the moment forever in time.
“I know. But he tamed my beast, too. Let’s do this.”
With a smile, he offered me his arm, and I placed my hand delicately on his sleeve.
“I love you, papa,” I told him.
He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Love you too, baby.”
I could already hear my mother crying, as well as my bridesmaids.
“Jesus,” my father said in despair. “It’s like an estrogen fest in here. It’s choking me.”
I brought my flowers up to cover my snorted cough at those words, and turned to face my future husband once again.
Man, these would be some horrible pictures.
But I’d cherish them for the rest of my life.
We finally made it to the end of the aisle, and my eyes connected with Michael’s.
I barely caught the words as the priest asked the words, “Who gives this woman to this man?”
My father’s deep voice said, “Her mother and I do,” and suddenly I was in Michael’s arms.
“Michael,” I said trying not to laugh. “Why wouldn’t you wear any sunscreen?”
He shrugged, grinning unrepentantly. “I was just worried about which fishing poles I was going to take. Not about anything like sunscreen.”
I raised a brow at him. “What exactly did you expect to happen?”
He shrugged and fell silent when the priest started to give us a blessing.
I looked shyly at the man I was seconds away from pledging my life to, and I knew this would forever be one of the best memories in the world.
“I love you, Michael,” I said soft enough so that only he could hear.
“I love you, too,” he replied back, uncaring that the pastor gave him a dirty look.
He didn’t have anyone to please except me, and the same went for me.
We no longer wanted to worry about anyone but ourselves and what it would mean to each of us.