1
June might be the most popular month to get married, but nothing quite compares to a Christmas wedding.
Ianto Jones watched the newly wedded couple sway to the soft strains of their first dance. They made a lovely picture, set against the backdrop of a thousand twinkling Christmas lights. The soft scent of pine from the boughs of evergreen draped across the room, mixed with the delicious smell of cinnamon from the candles on the tables. Outside the Country Club, the driveway was lined with votive candles stuffed in white paper bags along with neat rows of trees decorated with still more Christmas lights.
Everything had a kind of storybook, fantasy quality about it. So beautiful. So perfect. So utterly depressing. Ianto gasped a little as the piercing thought winged through his mind like a bullet.
On the heels of the jolting sensation came the urge to bury his head on the table and weep or pound something, like a toddler who had missed naptime. The impulse to jump up and escape overwhelmed him, but he couldn't leave now. Everyone would want to know what was wrong, and Ianto hardly knew himself.
He should not be reacting this way. The needles of envy stabbing him in the chest were so un-Jones of him, and everyone in his hometown of Cardiff, Wales agreed, Ianto Jones was so very…Jones.
Ianto was the poster child for good boys. The sacrificial son and brother, who had put his entire life on hold at seventeen in order to keep the family together after losing their mother. He'd helped his older sister raise his siblings, and taken on his mother's role in the church where his father was the pastor.
He'd never minded the role or the sacrifice. Until everything changed. First, his older sister became married and took off. Then his younger sister decided to get engaged. Then Ianto's father announced he was remarrying and retiring from full-time ministry. When a twenty-one-year-old girl and a man who'd been a widower for over ten years tried to beat one another to the altar, it causes a rather seismic shift in the psyche. Which led Ianto to one sad conclusion.
"I need to get a life," Ianto said.
He didn't even realize he'd said it out loud until his youngest sister, Brianne, pulled her gaze away from the sister who'd been married for less than an hour.
"What?" she asked in a choked voice, her eyes misty with tears.
"I said, I need to get a life," Ianto repeated, with more force.
Brianne's eyes cleared, and she straightened in her chair. "What does that mean?
The stray thought crystallized into a surety, as Ianto finally understood the restlessness that had taken up residence in his life. "It means, I'm tired of life passing me by. I'm tired of always being the good boy. Of being so da…darn…Jones."
Ianto couldn't even swear out loud. Not without seeing his late mother's steely eye promising swift retribution. Jennifer Jones might have been gone for two decades, but Ianto would never forget that look.
"Don't be ridiculous." As the oldest child Rhiannon believed it was her sisterly duty to disagree with everything her younger siblings said. She settled in the other chair by Ianto to glare at him like he had just said he was going to run over the family dog.
"I'm not being ridiculous." Ianto swallowed as an odd feeling raced down his spine. "I'm older than mom was when she died. Did you know that? I am 28 … she was 26 when she left us."
"Oh, honey, I understand." Rhiannon reached over and clasped Ianto's hand. "I had a meltdown over the same thing a couple years ago."
"It's not the same," Ianto said, pulling away. "You have a husband and children. I'm twenty-eight years old, and I've never had one adventure or even one serious relationship. I'm afraid I'm going to die alone. I'm a church secretary, which puts me one rung above a librarian on the spinster ladder. Church secretary may even rate lower. At least men have fantasies about librarians. Let's face it… Lisa was the only woman who ever showed interest in me and all it did was make it more real to me that I did not like women!"
"Oh fiddle." Brianne had never gotten the hang of cursing either. At least not without sounding like someone trapped in a fifties television show. "There's no such thing as a spinster anymore. Thirty is the new twenty and all that."
"Please don't remind me that thirty is looming," Ianto said, with a shudder. "There's another reason I need to make a change. Now that Tad is retiring and a new minister is coming to take his place, I could be out of a job. The new pastor might not want me around reminding everyone about how much they liked Tad. So, I'll be alone and jobless. I'm so pathetic, I can't stand it."
"Honey, you are not pathetic," Brianne said. "Is it Tad's engagement that's bothering you? Are you jealous of Morwen?"
"Of course I'm jealous," Ianto burst out. He held up a hand. "Oh, not the way you think. I love Morwen, and I'm happy that Tad's found someone after all these years, but I want that for myself. I'm terrified if I don't do something now, I'll always be stuck on the outside looking in."
"There's still time, Ianto. It will happen, I promise. You just need to have faith."
Ianto's eyes narrowed with frustration. Didn't people realize how condescending they sounded when they said statements like that?
"Says the woman who went to college and got an M.R.S. Degree," Ianto returned.
M.R.S. as is in Mrs. Bill McCoven. Brianne had met her future husband in college and married right after graduation. She'd gone on to welcome twins Billy, Bonnie, and Bailey the "surprise" baby who'd arrived on Brianne's twenty-second birthday.
Yes… all Bs. Don't ask why, Ianto gave up trying to work that one out long ago. Poor buggers … is there a Brian or maybe a little Brenda still to come?
"Marriage and children doesn't guarantee happiness," Brianne said, pursing her lips. "There's a reason why so many couples get divorced."
"Would you give up Bill and the kids? Do you regret getting married so young and having a big family?"
"No, I wouldn't give up one moment," Brianne said on a soft sigh. "Listen, maybe you should hold off on making any big decisions right now. On top of all the changes, it's a bad time of year for all of us."
Yes, very bad. Policemen showing up at the door bad. A lump rose in Ianto's throat, threatening to cut off oxygen to his brain. "That may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that I need to make a move now, before I lose my nerve. Besides, it is almost Christmas and then New Year's. Isn't the start of a new year supposed to come with grand promises of making a change?"
Brianne sighed. "All right, if you're so determined, I think I can help."
"How?"
"There's a new doctor at Bill's practice. His name is John Henry."
"John Henry…seriously?"
Brianne rolled her eyes. "He recently moved to Cardiff. He's divorced, but she was the one who decided she didn't want to be a wife anymore. Apparently he has made it known that he swings either way. He's nice. If you want, I can arrange it. I know he's lonely."
"A lonely, possibly bitter, divorced man with two first names?" Ianto asked, with some misgivings.
"Hey, you have to start somewhere."
Ianto nodded. "That's right, I do."
Brianne smiled and held out her glass of water. "And who knows, maybe by Christmas you'll be the one unwrapping a special gift."
Ianto raised his drink, and toasted his sisters.
"Operation: Get a Date" was a go.