All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are solely mine.
"Did you happen to say 'I told you so'?" Steph asked me.
"No. That would be unprofessional, Babe."
"Can I say it?"
I grinned as I buckled the second small shoe that Steph had picked out to match the pink embroidered flowers offsetting the black ones decorating the top of Olivia's white party dress.
"You've already told Raphael and Aubrey that we'll buy their new backyard a swing set for when Olivia and Angelique come to visit them. Why would you suddenly turn shy about saying we knew he and Aubrey would get married sooner than they claimed?"
"Good point. But maybe I'll wait to say it until after the J.P. does his thing so they don't decide to uninvite us."
I finished shoeing our daughter and lifted her off the changing table so she can get used to walking in two pounds of dress. Our Halloween part-time party-caterpillar morphed into something far more beautiful than any butterfly.
"We can't be uninvited," I said to my wife. "Olivia is acting as their informal flower girl."
"But Tank will just remind them that they can kick us out of their now officially-owned home and he'll Tank-sit Olive in our place."
"I'll fire both Raphael and Tank if they conspire against us. Does that make you feel better?"
"Yes ... because I know you'd never do that to them, but you'll say you would for me."
"I'll do anything for you, Steph, even let you be seen by others in that dress. It's not polite to upstage the bride."
"That's why I'm not doing it. I just picked something simple to put on."
She may believe the gunmetal gray material plastered to the body I wish I had time to love all over again is not attention-stealing, but I beg to differ. The monochromatic lacy overlay had me thinking more of taking her in our bedroom, rather than us walking past it and out of our building. The fact that half of her legs are completely bare, and so are her arms all the way past her shoulders, isn't helping with my current preoccupation on baring the rest of her.
Lucky for the engaged couple, my daughter decided to engage my face once she gave up on attempting to tug off one leg of her tights.
"Dab-bee, fissy faze," she instructed from her seat on my forearm.
She didn't wait for me to move, Olivia took two fistfuls of my skin, puckered up, and I would say stole a kiss from me, but I would've gladly handed one to her on a silver platter.
"This is the only time I don't get jacked-up jealous of someone other than me making eyes like that at you," Steph said, causing me another moment of distraction when she put a little extra sway in her hips as she walked over to us.
"You have no reason to be jealous of anyone ever, Babe. Some mornings I still wake up shocked that you're my wife."
"I know the feeling. I'm still shocked you married me too."
I stared at her. "I always appreciate your humor, but not when it's at your own expense. You've come a long way in a short amount of time, but you still need to work on accepting compliments that are frighteningly genuine."
"Yeah, I know. Before you, the only time somebody had something nice to say to me, they were either being sarcastic and going for a cheap laugh or were just about to ask me for a favor. I honestly was just trying to be funny. Even I can admit that no one can love you like I do."
She paused and just took in the sight of our daughter diligently trying to work the button off the collar of my black dress shirt that I had left undone. Not only have I welcomed every facet of Steph's personality, she no longer suggests I pick a color other than all-black-everything to wear whenever we go out. She doesn't see or say 'funeral attire' anymore ... she only sees me.
It was as if she were reading my thoughts as she watched Olivia and I together. "I really want this for Raphael and Aubrey."
"I know you do. They're well on their way to having what we do today."
After feeding and quickly playing with the Range-mutts, I drove my ladies just outside of Trenton to the wedding locale, Raphael and Aubrey's small, gray stone and siding ranch home. It's so new, currently the only furniture inside are the wooden folding chairs opened and placed close together for their friends and the men who got today off, plus their family ... which includes Kenzie and now Cal, Harper, Kane, and Angelique ... plus Steph, Olive, and myself. Julie is still not happy that she has school and couldn't come.
An aisle wasn't factored into the seating arrangements. Aubrey decided not to have anyone walk her down one. She and Raphael plan to escort each other into the room and up to the altar. It wasn't a surprise to me that they wanted to wait until after Halloween happened, but be married and fully settled into this home before the start of the holiday season, which they've already begun issuing invitations to. Looks like the end of this year is going to be busier than the last.
Not only are they getting a jumpstart on a happy holiday season, they also have a running start when it comes to holiday decorations. Although the couple wanted to keep this wedding relatively casual, Aubrey, Harper, Kenzie, banded together once again and decorated the living room with strung-up mini white lights, strategically-placed greenery, and white rose-filled vases.
The fireplace is the obvious focal point of any room that has one, but this one in Raphael and Aubrey's living/family room is even more so, acting as the wedding altar today. They continued with the green and white theme, but treated the mantle to evenly-spaced white rose topiaries that were all laced with lights. Candles were placed in-between them and above the evergreen bows gathered with gold-trimmed ivory ribbons. The span of time between Halloween and Thanksgiving is typically bleak, when all the colorful leaves have fallen off the trees and begin to decompose into the ground and no snow to soften the barren landscape, made even more desolate-looking by a recent rain and wind storm. But the atmosphere and lighting couldn't have felt any brighter inside this home on this particular day.
As we all waited for Harper to return from her recon mission to say that the couple is on their way down, I felt an elbow inserting itself between my eighth and ninth ribs, a hazard of wanting to keep one arm around my family any chance I get, which left my side vulnerable to attack. I cut my eyes to Steph who used hers to direct me to where Kenzie was standing by the base of the stairs in the circle Cal's arms made around her, the two of them acting as another set of bride and groom lookouts. Kenzie put her left hand up and had her right index finger pointing at the extremely-recent gold and diamond addition to it that we can clearly see from our front row seats. Once she and Cal each got a smile and a nod, or a huge grin and a thumbs up in Steph's case, Kenzie moved her index finger further up to her lips in a 'Don't say anything to the bride and groom until after Raphael and Aubrey tied their knot' gesture.
It's clear that Kenzie - and also Cal if you look close enough - is excited and wants to share the news with everyone, but no one is going to take away from today's main event. As my mother would say, there is always enough hours in a day when it comes to celebrating something or someone. And celebrate we did when Harper, Kenzie, and Cal, all rushed to their seats only seconds before Aubrey and Raphael made their appearance.
The bride looks beautiful, but that has less to do with the hint-of-pink, mid-length satin gown that is likely the definition of 'a simple dress' Steph was talking about earlier, except for the slightly exaggerated ruffles in lieu of sleeves on the chosen wedding dress. I gave Steph a raised eyebrow when I noted that Raphael had also gone for the familiar ... as did Cal, Tank, and half the men present, and opted for a black-on-black-with black tie suit.
Aubrey's glow is clearly being caused by the man whose eyes never left her as they walked with entwined arms to the fireplace and the Justice of the Peace standing in front of it. After each one smiled at those of us making up the small crowd they got down to business.
Thankfully Angel remained sleeping securely against her Daddy's shoulder wearing a pound of pale purple lace herself. And Olivia was busy playing 'GodTank loves me, but Dada loves me even more' with one of the sacrificial roses that is systematically losing its petals as she sat contently in Steph's lap occasionally blowing kisses to the Uncles she spotted. So the ceremony wasn't interrupted and no one had to miss any portion of it. Even Tank appeared invested in the service, likely because it wasn't a long wait until we reached the vow portion of the program which signaled that the end is near.
"Aubrey, I vow to be your forever-ally and your biggest fan," Raphael said with a faint tremor in his voice. "I promise to be your ever-present protector and your loudest supporter. I swear today - and every day after this one - that I'll love you with everything in me until there's no breath left in me."
Before Aubrey even began reciting something similar, Steph's cranberry-colored nails sank into the muscles of my thigh as every one of the emotions that I'm feeling about her simultaneously gripped her. When Raphael pulled Aubrey close to kiss the love of his life and now wife, I turned my head and met the lips of mine.
