With Mimi doing the research on hospitals and maternity wards, Ike focusing on keeping the resort up and running while also in the black, it fell to Lauren and me to plan an event that would be fitting for the next first lady of the Miramar Playa. She recruited Judy who was well versed in event planning for the resort, even if she did constantly look at me as though I might start yelling at her for no reason at any moment.

She was showing me the flowers that were in season and easily available, and I was choosing from them, when she asked what she should do should my choices be unavailable.

"I trust your eye," I was staring at the photo prints she had compiled, not paying attention to her, but realized she'd gone completely still and silent. When I looked up she was staring open mouthed at me. "Judy?"

"It's just-" she stopped, took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "I'd rather you choose another selection, that way when the day comes, you won't be upset."

My head tilted as I studied her. "They're flowers, Judy." She was staring at me like I was planning on marching her into the ocean at gunpoint. "Should the ones I choose be gone or ruined, then another blossom will do, honestly." I smiled at her. "Things happen, beyond human control, none of them are worth losing our minds or our calm over. I promise you." I chose a backup for every choice, just to calm the young woman down.

Lauren helped, and by the end of the week, the details were almost entirely picked. Ike was needed for a few, however, and that's how the three of us ended up in the kitchen with his pastry chef offering us different flavors of cake.

"Liz," Ike admonished as I took up a dessert fork for the first tasting. I stopped, fork poised over the chunk of pastry, wondering how I could have made a faux pas. "Honestly, sweetheart," he was smirking and Lauren's dimples matched his from my other side. He took my fork from me and loaded it up with a healthy bite. "This is practice for the big day, Elizabeth," he leaned closer, "open up, sweetheart."

He fed me each flavor, then he tasted his own, while Lauren took a bite too. They were all decadent, delicious, and I was tempted to say that we should have all of them somehow, but this was our first wedding and the smaller one. Since it was a dual event, we chose to have two cakes. A small 'wedding' cake, and a larger cake celebrating baby Evans. With three of us, there were no ties, and we managed to choose two flavors.

The days seemed to speed past. The rest of my things arrived from Chicago with Selma, because she LOVED to travel. She was far happier in Miami than she'd been in Canada. My other aunts, and the extended family came in waves, the resort seemed to be half of my bloodline before long. Ike and Lauren, Arthur and the boys, all welcomed them as though they'd known them forever. In some cases, Minnie told me, it was true. She and Arthur had crossed paths once upon a time, when Sy was an upstart, when Ben was truly a nobody. The fact that they welcomed the women of my family after some of the things she told me about Arthur's past with my grandfather told me that I was lucky that the Evans' weren't as likely to hold a grudge as my own family.

I woke up the Friday I would finally become Mrs. Isaac Evans with his body wound tight around mine. There were no superstitions that would force Ike to allow us to sleep apart, not for one more night, after we'd been forced apart for so long. His fingers were dancing down my spine, the mosquito netting decorating our new bed swaying in the slight breeze from the crack we'd left in the balcony door. The sound of the waves was our backdrop and I couldn't ask for more, but he could.

"Good morning, Miss Diamond." I smiled, my face pressed into his chest so I could inhale the scent of his skin. "That is the LAST time I plan on calling you that, Liz, the very last time."

It was the first and only morning since I'd returned that he would consent to NOT helping me get dressed. He left, muttering about the very idea that he wasn't allowed to perform his long fought for duty, with his own wedding finery draped over his shoulder. He kissed me, promising that he'd be waiting for me at city hall, since I'd be driven by my own driver with Lauren and Selma.

Once he was gone, off to get ready with Stevie, Danny, Arthur, and a few of his friends, Lauren and I were joined by my aunts and Mimi. They kept me company while the beauticians from the salon came up to make sure we all looked gorgeous, room service brought us brunch and drinks for those who wanted to imbibe, and soon enough, Selma and Lauren were helping me into my dress.

I'd counted myself as extremely lucky when I'd found the dress. While it came to the knee, it also managed to look formal enough while not looking as though I were headed toward a shotgun wedding. With my dark hair twisted up, my engagement ring twinkling on my finger, and my makeup as subtle as normal, I was as ready as I could be.

A knock at the door made me assume it was my driver, but I had no clue that I was in for one more surprise. Judy had created a small, perfect and elegant bouquet. While it wasn't necessary for a civil service, she shyly told me that it seemed like I SHOULD have one. I blinked back tears, thanking her, and took it from her.

With Lauren wearing her Maid of Honor dress, Selma in her own bridesmaid dress, and me wearing my best effort, we made our way downstairs. A short ride downtown, to a building that wasn't necessarily where I'd imagined my first wedding would take place, but seeing Ike, wearing that same silvery suit that would always take my breath away, waiting for me made me think that city hall was a castle. Ike was a king. And I was destined to be his queen.

A civil service takes the same form as a wedding. The same words, the same procedure, just spoken by a judge or a magistrate instead of a rabbi or priest. We didn't have our Chuppah, but I knew we would at our 'real' wedding. My wedding band seemed as if it was trying to outshine my engagement ring, and Ike's? Ike's band looked like it was meant to never leave his finger from the moment I slipped it on his finger. And if the look on his face told me nothing else, it was that he agreed wholeheartedly.

We kissed, the certificate was witnessed and signed off, and then we left. While it was simple and seemingly anticlimactic, it was perfection because it did what it was meant to do. I was, from this day forward, Mrs, Isaac Evans.

When we returned to the hotel, me in Ike's car beside him with our hands linked, I was shocked by our reception. We were greeted, not only by our families, but by what seemed to be the entire employee roster and all the guests. Rice was tossed, well wishes offered, and I didn't have to be reminded to smile.

"Elizabeth Evans," Ike's voice rumbled against my earlobe. "Welcome home."

There were toasts, of course. Happy wishes for our marriage, and the impending birth of our little one. Lunch was enjoyed by all, as was cake, and the gifts. I knew that our families would give us things for our new life, the life we created, but the guests of the hotel? People I didn't know, people I may never know, gave us gifts and cards.

By the end of the party, I was tired, but so extremely happy that I felt like I was floating. Until I realized that I was being carried. Ike had lifted me and carried me to the elevator. Then through the door of our home and straight through to our bedroom. He didn't pause until we were at the foot of our bed, and then he set me safely on my feet.

"Now, Mrs. Evans," his smile would always take my breath away, always. "Since I was deterred from my purpose this morning," his fingers slid down the length of my dress to the hem. "I swear, it won't happen again."