March 2nd 2022
Chapter 61
We Marvel With Love
"Hey, Lucky, what do you have there?" Maya smiled as her youngest daughter approached her with a small bunch of flowers grasped in her little hand. Aubrey held them out to her. "For me? Thank you!" Maya lifted the pair, the girl and the flowers together, and sat them in her lap.
"Can't be sad, Mama," Aubrey shook her head.
"Me? I'm not sad, what made you think I was?" Maya brushed a few fly away strands of hair from her daughter's face.
"You cry," Aubrey stated, held out the flowers again so she'd take them, so Maya did.
"I... Oh, baby girl..." she chuckled, finally understanding. "That wasn't sad crying, that was happy crying. That can happen sometimes. You get so happy that it makes you cry. It's not bad at all, more like the opposite, really. I was crying because I was happy for Auntie Lizard and Ben, because they got married, you understand?"
"Oh... Okay," Aubrey nodded. That was good then, her mother wasn't sad.
"Thank you for the flowers though, I..." Maya paused, wondered. "Where did you get them?"
"Auntie," Aubrey turned and looked, finally pointing over to where Nellie and Gracie stood with their boyfriends, talking, and laughing.
"She gave them to you?" Maya asked, and Aubrey nodded. "She put them in your hand?" Maya asked, and Aubrey nodded again. "That was very nice of her. Did you say thank you?"
"Yeah, yeah," Aubrey smiled.
"Of course, you did," Maya gave her a good little hug, topped with kisses, after which the girl immediately went to squirm her way down, back on her feet. "Alright, guess that's all I get, huh," Maya joked, even as she caught her daughter before she could run off, the better to pull the skirt of her dress back in place. "You're good to go," she smiled, and off Aubrey went. It pinched at her heart to think her baby girl was just a month off from turning two already, maybe the last of these they'd get if no one came to claim the position...
"Those are some nice flowers," a voice declared from behind her, making her grin even as her father dropped in across from her.
"Thanks, they're locally grown," she intoned. "I know the gardeners very well."
"I helped make the gardeners," Shawn replied, extending his arms in victory.
"Well, I appreciate the... contribution," Maya frowned and shook her head, laughing. That had not gone the way she would have intended. It amused him, too. "They are very nice flowers, aren't they?" she hummed, inspecting the lot.
The Hunter garden was so far from what it had been in the beginning, when the twins had been children. Over the years, they had become that much more knowledgeable on everything they grew, just as they were constantly seeking to add new things to their bit of land, their greenhouse... It left little in the way of a backyard, but no one minded it. They pitched in wherever they could, but it was definitely Nellie and Gracie's show to run.
Part of their garden was filled with flowers. They would sell them when they could, same as the fruits, vegetables, herbs, everything that they grew and didn't use themselves or give to people they knew. A lot of them would insist on paying them, and that was what Eliza and Ben did when they were planning their wedding. The Hunter garden wasn't prolific enough to provide for the whole of the wedding, but they did their part, and the results showed all around the reception space.
"I guess it's no surprise that they stayed in Austin for college," Maya told her father with a smile. "Couldn't abandon their garden."
"I'm not saying I encouraged the green thumbs for that, but I'm not... not saying it either," Shawn declared.
"Uh huh," Maya gave him a pointed look. "Well, they're free to give our garden a boost any day. Not that they haven't already. They're way too excited about the pumpkin patch."
The room buzzed with voices as they waited on the happy couple to make its entrance. Eliza had considered changing into a different dress for this part but had changed her mind in the end. Her reasoning went that she had worked so hard to find the right dress, to find her right dress, and there was no way she wasn't going to wear it for as long as she could.
Everyone was very happy to see her return in it still, none more than her new husband. Ben had been struck very swiftly with that hit that came to just about anyone seeing the one they loved in the instants before they exchanged their vows. It never ceased to be one of the best things to see.
"Hey there," Maya smiled when Lucas came and rejoined her.
He'd followed the rest of their small girls as one and then another let them know she had to go to the bathroom. Marianne insisted she could take the four of them on her own, but Lucas went with them anyway. Now, everyone was back, and time would tell if their patience lasted until dinner was served before they could eat. If all else failed, they could usually count on one grandparent or another to have something in their pocket for eager granddaughters.
"What are you thinking right now?" Lucas asked as he fell in at her side and she looped her arm around his.
"I don't know about you, but every time we end up at a wedding now, the words 'father of the bride' come to mind." He opened his mouth to reply, but then the full implication kicked in. He didn't know whether to laugh or have a panic attack, thinking of all their girls being married someday, one by one. They already had their big girl getting very close to her own wedding, and it was so much more overwhelming than they could have imagined.
"Who knows, they might all decide to stay single… forever…" he whispered, and she squinted back at him, an expression on her face that said just how much of a chance he had of that being the case. "Hey, I had to give it a shot, right?"
"I don't think you have to worry about any of this for a while," Maya patted his arm. "Look on the bright side. It might not be a boy that some of them end up bringing home," she smiled, and he chuckled.
"We should be so lucky."
"Or you can tell yourself that, whoever they do bring home, they will all make excellent choices."
"One can only hope."
The wait to dinner eventually came to an end, and everyone sat to eat. Back home, with just their family around the table in their kitchen, it would be so much easier for Maya and Lucas together to keep things under control despite there being several small girls full of energy to see to at the same time. They also knew what to expect when they all went to eat out somewhere, which was to say slightly less control but still nothing they couldn't handle.
They were handling things here, but it was clear that, as they all sat in the midst of Eliza and Ben's guests, all the talking, and clinking of dishes and glasses and silverware, the lighting, the music, and everything else that came with the setting… It had the Friar sisters fascinated, six blond heads on a swivel. They were particularly taken by the way everyone looked, for some reason, especially the people they knew well personally. These were their people, but they looked all fancy and beautiful today. That had been their appraisal of their mother and father, earlier, when they'd finished getting ready, back at the house, much to Maya and Lucas' delight. They'd been pretty happy with their own transformations, too. With the way they looked, they were only sorry they couldn't throw on their old fairy wings. According to them, it might have been the one missing thing to fully throw their wedding looks way up into perfection, but they would accept what they got anyhow.
Now as they sat to their dinner, even though they had seen everyone earlier already, especially as they waited to be sat there and eating, they all at one time – or several times – felt the urge to get up and go see this person or that one from up close. They all had to be reminded that it was now dinner time and they had to eat. The first of them to succeed and scamper off – really to no surprise if they thought about it – was Mackenzie.
"Runner…" Maya moved to rise, but Lucas was already on it. Their second youngest, now days away from turning three years old, was slippery enough that he wasn't able to catch up to her and, to her delight, she reached the table where her Auntie Lizard sat, resplendent in her dress. She didn't seem bothered by this. If anything, Eliza was delighted to see her niece, and she directed her to find her way around to her, which she did, landing herself in the bride's lap when she was lifted there.
"Hey, that's not your seat, is it?" Lucas joked. Mackenzie responded by leaning comfortably in her aunt's arms.
"It's okay, I don't mind, really," Eliza told him. "I can keep her here a while. Get me her plate, she'll eat. It'll be like the old days." Lucas smiled. He hadn't forgotten either. He could still remember the dinner times where Mackenzie had wanted nothing more than to climb and sit on one of her aunts' laps, when they still lived with them. She did it now with Wyatt sometimes, but it didn't feel the same by comparison. What she'd had with Eliza and Emma had been its own thing because they'd been there for as long as she could remember, for as long as she'd lived. Now she wanted it again, and fancy dress and special day or not, she would get it. Sitting by his new wife's side, Ben didn't look bothered at all. He smiled and made faces at the small girl, who watched him and laughed in between imitating him, to great success.
There was no fighting what Mackenzie wanted here, so Lucas did as Eliza suggested and brought the plate over, the better for the little blonde to eat, which she did, while the rest of them carried on at their table.
"Dad, we're going to dance, right?" Marianne asked.
"Oh, you bet," Lucas nodded, then, "You mean you and I together, yeah?"
"Yes, us," Marianne gave him a look like 'obviously.'
"Alright, good, good, just making sure." He could hear and see Maya very well, a couple seats away, the better for all of them to have access to everyone and their plates where they sat. He had a feeling she was barely resisting the urge to call him on his Huckleberry Dad routine.
"Us, too?" Kacey, Remy, and Lucy all asked at once, and they looked at each other, grinning. They loved when they all said something at the same time without knowing they would.
"Yeah, them, too, right?" Maya asked, goading him on merrily.
"All three of you, one by one or all at once, whatever you want," Lucas nodded, no hesitation. Maya pinched her hand in a solid 'good job' look before guessing and looking over to their youngest, who now sat perched at the edge of her chair and staring at him expectantly. "Goes for you, too, Lucky," he told her, and she beamed. She wasn't there to claim her spot, but no doubt Mackenzie would also get a turn, as would eldest sister Ella.
"What about me?" Maya innocently asked.
"Oh, definitely," Lucas tipped his invisible hat to her. They'd tried to talk him into wearing a real one today, for the occasion and all, but he hadn't taken the bait, to their 'chagrin.' The invisible one would have to do.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
