Starfire(115)
After the sun went down, Vern got the projection screen unfurled between two of the bigger trees, and images of both me and Dalton as children ran as a slideshow. Sometimes the image was just one of us, filling the screen, and other times it was a split screen with a theme, such as both of us dressed as pumpkins for Halloween.
One photo in particular, though, made me smile.
Dalton was lying on someone’s living room floor, covered in a mountain of pillows and cushions. A round-cheeked, round-bodied, happy-looking girl with brunette pigtails sat atop the mountain.
His story about the neighbor, Chelsea, was real. He hadn’t made her up after all. I wished I’d known sooner, but then again, all those little doubts were beautiful in their own way, because they made me look deeper into my heart.
Dinner was served under the biggest tent, and from where I sat at the head table, I couldn’t hear what Dalton’s father was saying to all my aunts and uncles. By the looks on their faces, they certainly weren’t bored. Not one bit.
Marita and her new husband made a very special toast, congratulating us, and then announcing the upcoming arrival of their first child. People clapped and cheered and generally pretended to be surprised. (My family is nothing if not supportive.)
Throughout everything, Dalton didn’t leave my side. He was either holding my hand, staring adoringly at me, or both. When nobody was looking, he’d drag me off behind a van or a tree and try to get his hands up under my skirt. I swatted him away every time, telling him to wait just a little longer. He threatened to take me out on the lake in a canoe, but I called his bluff. He hadn’t acquired a canoe… yet.
I tore myself away from Dalton just long enough to freshen up and reverse my dress to the colorful side, carefully transferring the blue broach to the bodice again.
By then, the music had started and the party was in full swing.
The band was a folk rock duo from out of town, but they took requests and played great cover songs, which made everyone happy, and isn’t that exactly what weddings are all about?
I danced with my father, who mentioned he might take flying lessons.
“Do you still think I’m too young to get married?” I asked him as he twirled me around.
“Not if it makes you happy,” he said. “You are happy, right?”
“Of course I am.” The song ended and I kissed his cheek.
He went looking for my mother, who he was afraid to let out of his sight with Jake around.
Dalton took my hand. “May I have this dance, wife?”
“Of course, husband.”
The band started the next song, and we danced under the twinkling lights strung between the trees, under the moon, and the starry sky.
~
After the last song had been played, and the caterers and tent rental people finished packing everything up, Dalton and I walked down to the edge of the water alone.
He’d offered me a dozen options for where we could sleep that night, and I chose the Airstream trailer. I didn’t care if we rocked it off its foundations, because choosing the trailer felt right.
Dalton and I had crashed into each other in a tiny bookstore, then shared intimate moments in the backs of limousines, and who could forget the canoe excitement?
“Mrs. Deangelo,” he said, gazing down at me as we stood in the loose pebbles near the water’s edge. “You married me on this spot, today. Any regrets?”
I picked up a flat stone and tossed it out onto the water, where it skipped seven times.
“No regrets. Everything that happened, good or bad, was a pebble that formed the path that brought us here.”
He looked down at the broach on my dress. “My father must have given you that. He surprises me sometimes.”
“He surprises a lot of people. Every time he opens his mouth. He’s kind of a loose cannon.”
“Well, it takes one to know one,” he teased.
“Don’t laugh. You’re the one who married me!”
“How about for our first anniversary, we throw a big party here, and we both jump out of the plane and parachute down?”
“Sure, baby. Anything you want.”
“This is going to be fun,” he said, looking solemn. “I’m going to share my life with you, forever and ever, happily ever after.”
He leaned down and sealed his promise with a kiss.
I gazed up at his loving face.
“I love you, too, baby. Let’s go get that trailer rocking.”
He grabbed my hand and whinnied like a horse. “Your Lionheart is ready for everything you’ve got.”
Giggling, we rushed up the path and into the trailer.
He whinnied once more, and then we stopped talking.
Slowly, gently, we undressed each other. We lay our nice clothes carefully across the little round table at the front of the trailer, and then he led me down the short distance to the elevated sleeping nook. I slipped off his shorts, and he removed my slip, bra, and panties, dropping them to the floor.