And when they opened, there stood my beautiful best friend, her arm tucked into her father’s, her mouth morphed into the biggest smile I’d ever seen.
Every wedding I had ever been to, while everyone was watching the bride, I always snuck a glance at the groom. When my eyes found Kline’s face, my heart damn near skipped a beat. Though a sight far more masculine, his smile mimicked Georgia’s in all the ways that counted. He looked like a man who had just received everything he’d ever wanted. And it was obvious that everything was Georgia, walking straight toward him without looking back.
I had never seen a man look so in love.
The woman started to sing, softly playing her guitar, and that’s when I put the pieces together. It was a slowed down, acoustic version of “Some Kind of Wonderful.”
Their song. The song Georgia would always associate with Kline. And he’d done it, knowing how much that song meant to her, to them. Somehow, that sneaky bastard had arranged it on the sly.
It took every ounce of strength for me not to start crying. I was overwhelmed by them. My best friend and the man who’d swept her off her feet. They were happy. They were in love. And God, they were so perfect for each other. The world wouldn’t be right if they weren’t together.
As Georgia got closer, she was mouthing the words to the song, gazing at Kline.
And when she reached him, Dick hugged them both, and Kline pulled her into his arms. She whispered something into his ear and he nodded, his face pressed against her neck. And then he leaned back, staring down at his bride, and said, “You’re so beautiful.”
I’m pretty sure every woman in attendance swooned. I sure as hell did.
They stood before the minister, hand in hand, ready to profess their love and the rest of their lives to one another.
The minister greeted the attendants and proceeded to say nice, beautiful things about the happy couple. He was actually one of Dick’s closest friends, which was probably a good thing, considering most of the people at this wedding tended to toss out the F-word more often than not.
And when the minister announced it was time for the vows, Dick cheered, “Hell yeah! Let’s do this!”
See what I mean? Good thing he knew the kind of room full of morons he was walking into.
Kline pulled a neatly folded piece of white paper from his inside jacket pocket while Georgia slid the balled up paper towel out of her cleavage.
They handed each other their vows.
He glanced down at his tattered version and started laughing. “You finished these about two minutes before you walked down the aisle, didn’t you, Benny?”
“I’ll never tell,” she said through a giggle.
He chuckled again. “God, I love you.”
“It’s not time for that!” Thatch yelled behind him. “Vows first!”
The crowd laughed.
“Okay, I guess I’ll go first,” Kline announced, unwrinkling the paper towel.
“Georgia Rose, I promise to trust you even when you deviate from our grocery list and convince me to buy six boxes of Dunkaroos and three bottles of wine I know you’ll never drink.
“I promise to give you all of the love and support that I don’t give Walter. Also, I promise to be nicer to Walter.” He paused, glancing up at her and shaking his head with a giant grin.
“I’m not saying that.”
She tapped the towel. “You have to. They’re your vows, remember?”
He turned toward the attendants, letting everyone else in on the secret. “We wrote each other’s vows, if you couldn’t already tell.”
“I warned you, Kline!” Dick shouted toward him. “Ballbuster.”
“Daddy!” Georgia scolded. “There will be no talk of balls during my wedding ceremony.”
The room filled with more laughter.
Once everyone settled down, Kline cleared his throat and continued, “He’s a really good cat. The best cat. Man, I sure love Walter.” He rolled his eyes, but said it nonetheless.
“I promise I’ll never keep anything from you because there are no secrets between us. I vow to love you through the difficult and the easy. I promise to never put you or myself in danger. This includes me never drinking lime juice with my scotch ever again.” He winked at her.
“I vow to never change from the amazing man that I already am. I promise to never lose my huge, strong, kind, and determined heart. I will never stop teasing you, making you laugh, or flashing smoldering blue eyes your way. I will always greet you with the smile that’s only yours. And when it’s just the two of us at home, I vow to only wear boxer briefs around the house. No matter what I’m doing, I’ll either be naked or just wearing boxers.” His blue eyes found hers, his brows waggling in agreement as a few women in the crowd hooted some catcalls.