I took her bouquet of white calla lilies with dark purple centers, holding it with my smaller matching bouquet. Colt…well, I was a happily married woman more in love with Jason every day, but Colt was so handsome it almost hurt to look at him. He’d had his usually long and messy hair cut short and neat, and he was shaved clean so his hard, rugged jawline stood out. His eyes were an electric, lightning blue so vivid they mesmerized even as I entered from the back of the chapel. His tux was perfectly creased, black and white and formal, and suiting his muscular frame as if he’d been born in it.
Jason stood two spots away from Colt, and it took every ounce of willpower I had to not drag him into the back of the church and have my way with him. Colt might have been stunningly good-looking, but Jason? He was a dream, a fantasy. His blond hair was freshly cropped and artfully messy and spiked, his green eyes catching the brilliant sun like cut jades. His arms bulged out the sleeves of the tuxedo coat, and his powerful neck strained the collar of his shirt. He was, in a word, statuesque. Michelangelo himself couldn’t have sculpted a more perfect specimen of a man. To me, at least.
The doors opened once more as Nell held Colt’s hands, and all eyes turned to the back of the chapel. Benny, now just turned two, stood in the doorway wearing his own little tux, shoes tiny and shined to a polish, a clip-on tie at his neck and his hair slicked back. I could feel him psyching himself up as he stood frozen in the doorway, the pillow with the rings held on his outstretched hands. He glanced over at the audience, frowning as he realized how many people were watching.
And then he proved that he was, above all else, his father’s son. He straightened his back, held his head high, and marched confidently down the aisle, his gaze never wavering. He fixed his eyes on Nell, whom he had come to absolutely adore. He knew she was his goal, as he’d been told over and over again that his job was to bring the rings safely to Aunt Nelly.
Nell, for her part, doted on Benny to the point of spoiling him. She even went so far as to rearrange the usual order of who came down the aisle when to feature Benny as a highlight, even though weddings were supposed to be all about the bride. Usually the flower girl and ring bearer came after the bridesmaids and groomsmen and before the bride, or something like that, but Nell was adamant that Benny be the last down the aisle, bringing the rings all by himself.
So there he was, marching all by himself down the long aisle, acting oblivious to the whispers and pointing and not-so-subtle accolades of Benny’s epic cuteness. I felt my heart squeeze at the sight of Benny in his tux, so grown up, so focused on his job.
Benny ascended the steps carefully, and then, unlike we’d practiced, he stood directly between Colt and Nell, holding the pillow with the rings up as high as he could reach.
“I got rings, Nelly. Here go.” He gazed up at her, and the crowd awwww-ed appropriately.
Nell smiled down at him, let go of Colt’s hands, and gathered her skirts up to kneel at Benny’s level. “Thank you, Benjamin.”
“I do good?” he asked her, apprehension in his voice.
Nell kissed him on the forehead, laughing. “You did perfectly, little man.”
“I have ’Raffey now?”
Nell glanced at me, not sure what he was asking. Nonno—the Italian word for “grandpa,” meaning my dad—came to the rescue, settling Benny onto his lap after the minister took the rings. Benny dug his stuffed giraffe, affectionately known as ’Raffey, out of his Nonno’s coat pocket and made a loud animal grunting/barking noise, hopping the stuffed animal across Dad’s shoulders. Everyone laughed at Ben’s antics, especially Nell. She sobered quickly as she turned back to Colt.
The wedding was beautiful, and Nell glowed with a happiness brighter than I’d ever seen in her. The reception was a huge, lively affair at a banquet hall not far from the wedding chapel. At the end of dinner, Nell seemed to be considering something, sipping idly on a glass of sparkling water with a wedge of lime, glancing at Colt and then away.
I was sitting next to her, with Colt’s best man, an attractive but hard-bitten black man named Split, on his right side. Nell sucked in a long breath and let it out, having made a decision. She leaned over to Colt, wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and whispering something in his ear. Whatever she told him had Colt’s eyes widening with surprise and then delight.
“You are? You’re sure?” he asked, not quite quietly enough.
Nell nodded. Colt glanced down at her belly, then up to her face, and I knew what she’d whispered. “I just found out for sure yesterday, and I wanted a special occasion to tell you.”
Colt wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close, whispering under his breath into her ear. I heard Nell sniffle, her arms on Colt’s broad shoulders, palms flat and trembling slightly.
“Can I announce it?” he asked.
Nell pulled away. “Right now?”
Colt grinned. “Hell, yeah. I’m ecstatic!”
Nell ducked her head to bump her cheek against his. “You’re crazy.” She glanced up into his eyes. “What if—”
Colt pressed two fingers over her lips. “No. Just…no.”
Nell nodded and opened her mouth to bite Colt’s fingers. “If you want to announce it, then go ahead.”
Standing at his chair, Colt waved at the DJ, who brought over a cordless mic. “I guess now’s as good a time to do speeches as any, right? I’ve got a captive audience, since most of you are still eating dinner. So, this is the best day of my life. I’ve had a lot of good days, and a few not so good ones, like everyone has. But today…today’s the best of them all. I got to marry Nell, you see. Yeah, you can go ahead and be jealous, fellas, because that beautiful, sexy, talented, amazing woman right there is all mine. I won’t bore you with the gory details of how we got together, since most of you know some version of the story by now. The point is, I’m the lucky one. She rescued me, and I’ll never be able to love her as much as she deserves, but I’ll sure as hell try.” He paused, and the crowd filled the space with raucous applause and cheers. “Yeah, thanks. So…this is also the best day ever because Nell just gave me some news. Stand up here with me, baby.” He held the mic in his hand and pulled Nell to his side, glancing down at her and grinning. “See, she just told me, just now, that we’re gonna have a baby.”
The cheers were deafening, but no one clapped harder or cheered louder than I did.