Julia took careful steps across the warped floorboards of the empty space the bar used as a dance floor and made her way back towards the table. She had been sincerely grinning, as she turned away from her brief conversation with the lounge singer who was nursing a beer through her break, but when Julia's eyes landed on her destination, the table where Tom, Jason, Charlie, Rachel and Miles awaited her, her true smile was replaced by a frozen one. Come hell or high water, her son would have a wonderful wedding day. It was hot and dry in Texas in June, the bride looked like a deer in headlights and Julia was the only one at this sorry excuse for a wedding reception not openly carrying a weapon. It wouldn't take too much more to convince her she was in hell.
She had almost paid off the minister to skip the line asking if anyone objected. Only the bride, the groom, Tom, Julia, Miles, Rachel, and the minister had attended the wedding and she still figured he was rolling the dice on half of them when he'd asked the question. For better or worse, they'd all stayed quiet. All they could do now was ride this runaway wagon and try to steer it to a safe stop. If by some unlikely miracle this story had a happy ending then she wanted to make a good impression on her new daughter-in-law. If it crashed and burned then she'd still be able to say she'd supported her son's dream.
"What did you do?" Tom asked as she settled beside him.
"You'll see," she said as she planted a kiss on his cheek. She reached for Jason, placing her carefully manicured fingers over his large, heavily veined hand and squeezed. He pulled his eyes away from Charlie, a rarity all day, and smiled at his mother. Of the six of them he was the most obviously happy, and for Julia that was, if not enough, at least a good start.
The group sat silently for a moment. Miles stared into his whiskey, and Rachel's carefully neutral expression didn't come close to hiding her true feelings. Tom was just bemused by it all, and his shit eating grin chafed Miles more than his betrayals ever had. This one was personal. Charlie's gaze was focused like a laser on unimportant things. It had been on the sign on the wall for a while, but she'd moved her eyes once asked what was so fascinating. She stared at her own hands, then at Julia's on Jason. When the band took the stage and the first notes of the wedding march began, silencing the low murmur of the bar, Charlie snapped to attention.
The music stopped after a few bars and the singer, Julia's recent companion in scheming, tapped a knife to the side of half-empty glass, the sounding ringing out over the small early evening crowd in the bar. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have newlyweds in our midst. I assume they chose this..." She let her eyes trail over the crowd of dedicated drunks and market vendors getting a bit in the bag before they headed back to their farms. "This exceptional wedding reception venue." She paused again to let the crowd chuckle. "Because we're the only place in town open after the market closed. But as we've all learned in the Blackout, limited options don't mean you made a bad choice. Please put your hands together and welcome them to the floor for their first dance as husband and wife. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Jason and Charlotte Neville."
Charlie blanched at the words and reached for her whiskey glass, but Jason grabbed her hand, pulling her with him as he stood.
"I'm not changing my name," she said.
"We'll talk about it," he answered. He strode towards the dance floor with big, proud steps, tugging Charlie along behind him. When he reached the center of the empty dance floor he draped her hands around his neck and placed his own around her waist. They swayed more or less in sync as the singer warbled along with the piano to a song that had been popular before they were born.
Charlie moved stiffly, unused to dancing and certainly unused to doing it while strangers stared. Jason was more fluid. His mother had made sure he knew the basics of ballroom dancing and Philadelphia's bars had taught him the rest. Heat and tension curled within him as Charlie's body pressed the length of his. She held herself as taut as a guitar string and he wanted to pluck her until she sang.
She tried to relax, to be the jolly bride, and put on a smile. Whatever other problems they had, the sex was great. She teased him, "I can't believe you're grinding that thing against me in front of our families."
He nudged her into a slight turn with his hip. "First, I'm not grinding. It's there. You're there. There's really no way to keep the two of you apart. Second," he ran his hand down her back, letting it rest on her bottom which now faced away from the watchful eyes at the table, "If it bothers you we can step outside and you can do something about it."
She laughed and rested her head on his chest. "Great. So single sex is pine sap in my hair and married sex is a stand-up in the alley behind the bar. We're living the good life."
He hugged her closer to him and inhaled the deeply, drawing in the scent of the flowers braided into her hair. He wanted to say something soft and romantic, something a groom says to the love of his life on their wedding day, but it wasn't what she needed to hear. "I figure we'll be sleeping in the back of the wagon between our mothers on the way back to Willoughby. We better knock one out while we can."
"So one woman on your wedding night isn't enough for you," she said. "You plan to take three to bed."
He moved his hand up to her lower back as their slow turn on the dance floor moved it into the view of their parents. "You're an amazing woman, Charlie. You know why?"
She heard the tease in his tone and said, "Do tell."
"Because you managed to mention having three women in bed and kill my boner at the same time."
She laughed outright at that. "If a bed full of women is a goal for you we probably should have discussed that before the wedding."
"You're the only woman I want," he promised. She tensed at his declaration and he continued, "You're so good at finding trouble I couldn't handle more than one anyway."
She looked into his eyes and let her hands thread into his hair. "You've always got my back," she said.
"Always," he promised.
She sighed deeply then. "You have terrible judgement."
"That's your opinion."
"I won't stop you from being wrong," she replied. That was the heart of it. He'd known what he was getting into with her and he'd done it anyway. There would be no turning back. For better or worse, she'd married him. She might as well enjoy it. She snuggled in closer and tried to feel like she thought a bride should: safe, happy, loved, and in love.
Charlie heard the words, "Can I cut in?" before she felt the poke on her shoulder. She reached for the knife hidden beneath the full skirt of her wedding dress before she looked up to see who'd asked. Julia's plastic smile had chased her like an aggressive clown all day. Here it was again, cutting in on her first comfortable moment. She needed to learn some mother-in-law jokes.
Miles was just behind Julia, and he wore the particular expression of boredom and irritation that he reserved for Jason's parents. To Charlie he said, "You're with me."
He took her hand as Julia took Jason's and led her several steps away from the Nevilles. He shuffled awkwardly from right foot to left for several beats before he spoke. "If you want out, I can knock him on the head and have you past the town line in under five minutes."
"Miles!"
"Don't worry. Tom and Julia won't even bother to throw out a leg to trip us."
"Stop," she said.
"I won't even hit him that hard, just enough to knock him out."
"No one forced me into this, you know."
"Which brings us to the day's big mystery. You ready to tell me what the hell is going on? Where did this come from? When?"
"Jason and I talked about it last night. Julia took over. I don't know why, but she started planning and I didn't stop her."
"She thinks you're pregnant."
Charlie didn't answer.
"Is it Jason's?"
She still didn't answer.
"Does he know that?"
"He's my Bass," she said quietly. "I need that right now."
"What does that even mean?"
"No matter what, he's always been there for me. I can count on him."
Miles' body continued to stiffly rock to the music but his head rolled away from her like it was on wheels. "He's your Bass? And that's a good thing? Have you met Bass? Oh yeah. You have. You were bent on killing him for a while."
"Whether you like it or not, Bass always has you in mind, Miles. Have you ever told him what you needed and he didn't go crazy trying to get it for you? You can count on him to take care of you. Jason's just as devoted to me as Bass is to you, but he's not crazy."
"Bass is a lot of things. Crazy isn't one of them. He just… tries too hard."
Charlie patted Miles' shoulder as the song ended. "Maybe if you'd thrown it down in bed for him like I do for Jason he wouldn't think he has to try so hard." She started making her way back to the table before Miles could get off an answer.