"I vow to kiss the center of your palm."
"I vow to give you long hugs."
"I vow to squeeze your hand twice." And he does.
"And I vow to always squeeze back."
After lots of "aww"s from our friends and family, Landon and I turn to the preacher.
"Do you have the rings?"
"Yes!" I shout, scaring Landon into Alec. But I didn't forget this one. Theresa leans over and slides the clearance ring I got him that says, "You are mine," because even though he said he didn't need one, he does. And this will have to do until I can afford a nice gold band.
He pushes the ring onto my finger-I mean literally pushes, because the heat in here has made my fingers swell. And I take his hand, and as the twenty-dollar piece of jewelry slides over his knuckle, something bursts in my chest.
I remember how it felt when Landon first kissed me. I remember the second kiss, the third, and I remember the first time we made love and the first time we fought and the first time we spent a night together. I remember moving in, learning to deal with living with each other, and overcoming all the Hurdles that were put in our path.
I remember how it felt when he put the ring on my finger. It was beyond words.
But nothing could've ever prepared me for how it feels to put a ring on his finger.
Tears are falling now, and there's no way to stop them. And through the blur I witness, for the first time ever, a tear crawling down Landon's cheek into his smile line.
"Landon, do you take this woman-"
"Oh yeah," he says on an exhale. My shoulders move with light laughter.
"Elizabeth, do you-"
"You bet I do."
"By the power vested in me by the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Landon doesn't even wait for the kiss line. He wraps a hand around my waist, one around the nape of my neck, and yanks me flush against him. He nips at my bottom lip, but then he's gentle, more demanding, and then actually embarrassingly passionate with all our friends and family sitting not two feet away. And because I'm such a smooth and hot girl, I start laughing in the middle of it.
I lean back, tasting the saltiness of his tears, and I can't imagine ever feeling better than I do right now. And the first words I say to my husband are "Did you see my ass in this thing?"
He grins, nodding against my forehead. "Did you see my ass in this thing?" He pulls at his tux and kisses me again. "We should be in magazines, picking pepper out of each other's teeth and wiping away mascara."
"So hot."
"I love you, Tumbles."
"I love you, husband."
I think I actually hear his heart kick up a couple beats, and we embarrass our friends and the preacher a little longer at the altar.
-
"You shaved," I tell Landon on the dance floor, running my manicured nails across his cheeks. He's never felt this smooth before. I can't stop touching his face.
"Yeah. You said something about bearded-guy nightmares, and I really didn't want you thinking about them when we're … "
"Having sex?"
"My mother is right behind you."
"And she knows we're having sex tonight."
"She doesn't know that."
I go to snort, but he grabs my nose, causing me to choke and make a really pretty grunting noise. I snatch his wrist and pull his hand away from my face, linking our fingers together. My smile twitches a little when I see the light catch on the words engraved in his ring.
"I'll get you a real one as soon as I can," I say, nodding at his hand.
"Do I need to tell you the fingerless-man story again?"
I shake my head, and the song switches up. I catch Theresa dragging Alec across the floor to Landon and me.
"My turn," she says, jumping between us and taking my hand. She spins me under her arm, but my hair clip knocks against her elbow because we're the same height.
"How's THE dress?" she asks.
"I haven't ripped it, so I call it a win."
She laughs, then squeezes me tight. "I'm going to miss you."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Yes, you are." I feel her head shift toward Landon and Alec, who are doing some sexy "Gangnam Style" moves. "But it's okay. I'm just jealous."
"Are you saying you want to fall in love and get married someday?" I pop my mouth open in mock shock.
"No … I'm jealous that Landon gets to be your best friend. And before you say 'I have two best friends,' he should be the only one. It's okay. But I am allowed to be jealous."
I hug her tight, stopping our dance movements. Theresa's been with me since middle school, and there is a bittersweet feeling that we'll be friends, but me getting married means that we won't always be around. If Landon's movie dreams take off, so will we. So she better bet her ass that I'm going to make the most of the time we have as neighbors.
My father-in-law steps up, asking for the next dance, and as scared as I am to make a fool of myself, I smile and say, "Yes!" a little too loudly. He's not the best dancer. We sort of just move side to side like middle schoolers at their first dance. I wave at Landon, who's dancing with his mom, and the warmest fuzzies latch onto my heart when I see them smiling and laughing with each other. I've never seen a real smile from my mother-in-law.
"They've butted heads his whole life," Mr. Wangford says, nodding at his wife and son. "Did you know she almost flew to New York and dragged him home by the ear?"
My stomach sinks, but I pretend to smile. "Am I really that bad?"
He laughs and attempts to spin me out. "No, this was when he first moved out. He told us he was going to make a name for himself, left with a hundred bucks in his pocket and nothing but fantasies in his head. He didn't want our help, and I was all for letting him learn the hard way, but his mother … yeah, I had to hold her back from going after him. And you know, he proved us both wrong."
"He's very talented. He'll make it big."
"I think he already has."
And my father-in-law looks down at me, half-smiles like Landon does when he can't quite find the words to say, and he squeezes my hand. Twice.
-
It feels like I've danced with every single guest. I have no idea where my shoes ended up. My ribs are starting to cramp because of the tightness of my dress, and as the hours turn into longer hours, I ask Mom exactly how much of the reception we have left, because I honestly want to lie down.
"Well, we've done the cake and bouquet toss," she says, ticking off things on her fingers. "Theresa and Alec gave their speeches. You danced with your father and your father-in-law. Let's see what else here … "
She starts pointing at things around the hall, and I catch Landon's eyes briefly across the room while he chats with his parents. Flutters awaken in the pit of my stomach. My wedding day is nearly over, and it's completely bittersweet because here comes the wedding night!
He winks at me, and I shimmy at him just as my mom turns around.
"Elizabeth Ann!"
"What?"
She shakes her head. "I'll get the microphone and announce you two are leaving."
Before she gets too far, I snag her arm and give her an airtight hug.
"Thank you for all of this, Momma."
She squeezes back, and we stay that way through half a song. When she pulls back, she dabs at her eye.
"Stop that," I say, fixing my makeup as well.
"You have fun tonight. And just remember, you have an entire life to have Operation Great Sex."
"Mom."
"I'm just saying … "
She fixes my hair, and then walks to the stage. Landon catches my wrist and pulls me through the dance floor and into a side hallway … where we find Jace with a wedding guest.
"Oh, hey," he says, the girl obviously not caring they were just walked in on, since she's still kissing his neck. "Uh, congrats, you guys."
Landon laughs and pulls me into another hallway.
"It's not a wedding without that, right?" I tell him, but my laughter stops when he pushes me against the wall. Fire licks up my stomach, heart beating in a race. His lips are close, and he smells like aftershave and frosting. He puts one hand above my head, leaning in only to look at me with his piercing gray eyes.
"Hi," he says.
"Hi," I say back, breath suddenly knocked from my lungs.
"I want you."
"Okay!"
"Shh … " He laughs and presses a finger to my lips. "I want to show you something."
"Landon, keep it in your pants."
He pushes his hand into his jacket pocket and pulls out a hotel key. "Gift from my mom and dad. The bridal suite."
"No." I yank the thing out of his hand to make sure it's real.
"Yeah. Couldn't believe it either."
The guests in the hall disappear from my head. All of them. I forget that Mom hasn't made our exit announcement, and I grab Landon's lapel and pull him to the elevator. I don't even have to wait till the doors close and his hands are all over me. I thought I was tired, but we're doing this. We are strawberries and whipped cream.
Chapter 35
The suite is bigger than our apartment, and there's a giant bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and the TV covers practically the whole wall, and the bathtub … Landon and I will have no trouble having sex in there.