March 16th 2020

Chapter 76
Their Day of Dancing

"I need to go and get changed before they come back out," Maya went to find Lucas, who was helping set up the food table. All of it had been brought by their guests, per Abigail and James' request. They weren't looking for gifts, so everyone was welcome to bring something for the meal, or a dessert, or drinks, and they were also all encouraged to make donations to any of the charities they had indicated on everyone's invitations. That had not stopped a few of the guests from also bringing something for the newlyweds, but on the whole their wishes had been respected.

"Wait, wait," Lucas caught her up as she went by and she laughed as she found herself in his arms.

"Other dress, remember?"

"But this one is already pretty great, does it have to go?" he lamented with just a flare of exaggeration that kept her laughter going.

"Pretty attached to it, are you?" she asked with a look on her like she was in the middle of an intense business deal.

"Yeah," he nodded and grinned. Taking this information under deep consideration, Maya absently dragged her index along his collar.

"Will you… ditch the bow tie?"

"It's gone," he promised, and she went about undoing it, sticking the thing in his coat pocket.

"Just going to…" she undid the top button on his shirt, inspected the effect. "Alright then, guess I'll keep this one on then," she finally nodded, turning a smile up to him.

"Good deal, good deal," he smiled back, kissing her sweetly.

"I do kind of need to go in there a bit and warm up before they get back out there to have their first dance. If I can just find the Hart-Lane Family Singers out there…" Maya turned her head back to scan the yard.

"Teddy's out there with Sam and Cecilia, raiding the corn chips," Lucas pointed before giving a whistle that got the trio to look up like deer in headlights. Maya pointed to Teddy and motioned for him to come toward her. The call managed to get Cara's attention as well, from where she'd been fixing Sadie Chen's hair after her bun had started to come undone. She finished this quick and hurried to join her big sister.

"You guys good for a warm up?" Maya asked her siblings and got a nod out of both. "Alright, come on, we'll go in the car."

The number was to be something of a surprise for Abigail and James, so they couldn't blow the effect by having the pair overhear from inside the house. It had already been established that Maya would sing them out into their party, to their first dance, but the rest had been quietly prepared by the kids. Cara had been singing for years, though nowadays she did it less and focused instead on other hobbies. As for Teddy, it had not been common knowledge in any way that he might have liked to sing. Maya wasn't sure anyone, not even his father and his sister Emma had ever heard him. But then on that day after the sleepover, after the engagement had been announced, Cara had mentioned to Maya how she might want to do this, and Teddy had been in earshot. He'd come up to the two of them and said he'd like to be part of this as well. There had been practice ever since, between the two here in Tucson and then also with their sister in Austin over calls. This would be the first time they tried it with the three of them in the same place.

"Where are they going?" Wyatt popped up now, and Lucas looked to find he was joined by his cousin Ginny Chen. Both of them had gotten their hands on all the cheese cubes they could make fit into their little hands and would eat one after the other.

"It's a surprise," Lucas told them. "And you two need cups, come on."

The singing trio had been back only a minute or so by the time Abigail and James returned into the yard to renewed cheers. Eliza and Emma emerged to lead their parents to the 'dance floor.' The music came up, and Maya took to the small stage which had been her idea, borrowed from all those years at the Babineaux summer parties. James gave his wife a spin and Abigail laughed as they started to dance and Maya started to sing. The newlyweds really made a beautiful pair as they swayed along, looking to one another.

It was on the second verse that the surprise came to be sprung. Out from the circle of guests standing around the dance floor and looking on, Cara emerged, microphone in hand, harmonizing with her sister, moving toward the stage. Abigail turned her head at the sound of her daughter's voice, and her already happy face grew happier. The girl had barely made it to the stage, to Maya's side, that from the other side another voice was heard, and there was Teddy, with his microphone, walking past his stunned father. He tapped James' arm on the way, giving him a smile and a nod as he continued on to join his new sisters. Now as the newlyweds danced on, they would be so taken with the performance happening before them. In the end, it had far exceeded the trio's expectations. Going off of the expressions on their faces, it could easily be only the beginning of Teddy's explorations into performance, him with his younger stepsister especially.

"I feel like I need to call you Theodore now," James declared as he and Abigail had met up with Teddy and the girls after the music had been relegated to the band again.

"No, please," Teddy laughed as his father gave him a quick embrace.

"Is this what the two of you have been up to all this time?" Abigail asked Cara, who proudly nodded. "You all sounded great together!"

With the performance done, everyone had moved to their tables, and by the looks on some of their guests – the younger ones especially – it didn't come a minute too soon. They had been told to wait before going at the food, and though they'd all managed to sneak in some little bits here and there, it was really nothing compared to all the offerings brought along by the guests. Some of the kids looked just on this side of insulted at being told they couldn't take anything yet, like the food was calling to them. It was a miracle that they waited their turns.

"Our mom was a singer, too," Emma told Maya and Lucas after they'd come back from filling their plates, indicating herself and her older brother.

"Yeah?" Maya asked. It had never come up once while she had practiced with Teddy and Cara over Skype, or today, but now to look at the boy as his sister made her revelation, she had to wonder if this had played into his decision to go up on stage today.

"She would sing at church," he explained now.

"And bedtime," Emma nodded.

"Our grandma sang at church, too," Eliza smiled.

"So did Dad, when he was our age," Cara told her. Before he got my mom pregnant and his dad kicked him out of the house, Maya thought.

"Is Grandma Lizzie their grandma now, too?" Wyatt asked, chewing on his bread roll with intent. He'd stuffed the thing with the last of his cheese cubes and seemed to relish his 'invention.'

"Do you know what, I think so," Maya smirked. Elizabeth Hart had spent so many years deprived of her son and his family, and now she looked ready to grandmother any and all who should need her to. She'd gone off to use the bathroom or else she would have confirmed this herself.

"She's going to come and look after all of us while they're on their honeymoon," Cara revealed.

"Five of you and one of her?" Lucas inquired, making the kids laugh.

"We're going to be good," Emma insisted.

"I don't doubt it," Maya nodded, offering her the pick of her cherry tomato hoard, much to her delight.

"They're going away?" Wyatt piped up now. He'd heard all about Abigail and James going on their honeymoon, but going by the look on his face he must not have connected this to mean that they would be gone for any period of time.

"Yeah, but only for a few days," Sam promised him. "Then they're coming back."

This must not have been enough for him, as his cheese-stuffed roll was dropped back in his plate to sink in his veggie dip and he took off running over to the table where his parents sat. Sam and Cara both looked to their big sister like they felt that they'd dropped the ball.

"He'll be fine," Maya promised, though she kept looking over to hopefully see that this would be true. Wyatt now sat in Abigail's lap, where she kept him locked in her arms as James spoke with him. Much as all the kids had come to really love their new stepparent, without a doubt Wyatt had been the one to take his one on the easiest. As his conversation with Lucas earlier would attest, James was Wyatt's dad now, simple as that. And now, as he listened to the man talk, the boy appeared to be growing more at ease again. He would stay with the pair of them for the rest of the meal though, and after a few minutes Maya had gone and taken his plate and his cup over to where he might eat it. He happily did this, standing next to his mother.

After the meal was over, the dessert table had been rolled out, and if the kids had been eager for what had come before, they were downright floored by this new offering. They were still just sort of hovering around the table, not even touching any of it, not after they'd had as much as they had been allowed to have, just sort of… eating with their eyes, when the guests had started having their own turn at the dance floor.

"Come on, let's go," Maya pulled at Lucas' arm until he had no choice but to follow or lose his arm. "They're distracted by all the cakes and cookies right now, but sooner or later they're going to hear the music, and they're going to see people dancing, and they are going to come for you."

"Yeah?" Lucas had to laugh for the urgency she pressed into the statement.

"Are you kidding? You're like tiny girl bait out here," Maya pointed out as they found a spot on the dance floor and he set his arms around her as she put hers around him.

"Is that right?"

"Tall, cowboy type, not about to turn a lady away… They're going to want to dance on your feet until the sun goes down."

"And then what happens?"

"Then they go to bed," she shrugged.

"Got it," he laughed. They swayed quietly to the music for a while. They didn't need much more than this, did they? "So, what did Abigail want to talk to you about earlier?" he asked. She'd come by their table, shortly before the desserts had come out, and Maya had gone with her for a few minutes. When she'd returned, she'd looked like she had things on her mind, not bad things exactly, just… things… He hadn't asked about it before, but now he had to wonder.

"Oh, well, she sort of wanted to discuss the whole name thing. Obviously, my situation is different from the other kids'. She and James, sure, they consider me one of theirs as much as the rest of them, but it doesn't change the fact that the name I have was my father's. Abigail didn't give it to me, neither did James. They're going for a hyphen situation with the others, but me, well… If I'm going to change my name anytime soon, it won't be because of either of them, you know?" she smiled up at him. He smiled back. They hadn't even come to any kind of decision on that yet. "Anyway, she just wanted me to know that, even if we didn't do it on any 'official' capacity, I'm still going to be considered part of both sides, Hart and Lane."

"That's great, yeah?" Lucas asked, smiling.

"More than I can even say," Maya smiled back, setting her head over his heart as they went on dancing.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners