Chapter 26 Lovey The Exact Man
Lovey
The Exact Man
A girl’s wedding day should be one of the most special of her life.
But I didn’t have any grand visions of my wedding day, no matter what Momma said.
I wasn’t expecting a cathedral full of socialites and out-of-season stems like Consuelo Vanderbilt.
I didn’t anticipate an orchestra or five-star food.
All I wanted was a beautiful day, in my mother’s lace wedding gown, in the church that I had attended my entire life. Afterward, a little champagne punch and showing off my new wedding band to my closest friends would do.
Katie Jo, sitting on my pink bedspread, looked at my engagement ring hesitantly, as though I was wearing a live snake that may jump off and bite her. She sighed. “I can’t say that I’m particularly excited that you’re getting married. But I am particularly excited you’re not marrying Ernest Wake.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Would you have really done it, you think? At the end of the day, could you have made yourself?”
I shrugged. “I’m not getting any younger, and I want kids, so I might could have if I had known for sure that Dan wasn’t coming back.” I felt a shudder run down my spine. “Although the idea of having to make a baby with him is like drinking snuff spit.”
We both laughed.
“So what’s it like?” I asked.
“What’s what like?”
“Sex, of course,” I whispered, though we were the only two in the house. I could feel my cheeks turning pink at the mere mention.
Katie Jo stopped and smiled. “Well, I guess it depends. If you just aren’t so nervous, then it’s wonderful.”
“Are you ever nervous, Katie Jo?”
She laughed. “Oh, no, darling. I think I was born without the ability to be nervous.” She winked. “Which is why it’s always so wonderful for me.”
I thought of Dan, that familiar heat, that pain of desire rising through me. I had waited my whole life to give myself to a man. And I just knew that he would be worth waiting for.
“Are you still waiting until you’re married?” Katie Jo asked. “I mean, I’m not ever getting married, so I couldn’t possibly have waited, but you’ve almost made it.”
I grinned at her. “I don’t think I can wait.”
She gasped and hugged me. “You have to tell me every detail!”
“Ew, Katie Jo.”
“Honey, that’s what best friends are for.”
And I was so grateful for a best friend because, only a few hours later, after telling my family about the engagement, I certainly wasn’t grateful for them anymore.
“Lynn, let’s just go back and talk this whole thing out,” Dan called from behind me as I stomped down the dirt driveway to nowhere in particular.
I crossed my arms, planted my feet in the dust and spun around. “I’m not talking to anyone. If they don’t want to be a part of our wedding, then they won’t be a part of our marriage either.”
“Sweetheart,” Dan said, finally catching me in a hug.
As I leaned into him, I thought of how nice it was to feel the strength of those gun-carrying arms around me. I inhaled his aftershave, imagining the shape of the bare torso underneath that starched white shirt.
“You know they have to be stunned. They were expecting you to come home and be engaged to this other man. Imagine how they must feel.”
I put my arms around his neck and kissed him again, this time more passionately.
Between kisses he said, “I’m sure if you just give them a little time, they’ll come around.”
Dan’s hand trailed down the back of my shirt as I contemplated a little more time. And, all of a sudden, I realized I was out of time. I wanted to feel the heavy weight of him on top of me. I wanted to put my lips on the skin underneath that crisp shirt.
I had waited twenty-five years. And I wasn’t waiting one more minute.
I threw my lips on his, my breath vanishing into his lungs, lost in the dream of his body and my body becoming one, of our lives and our hearts converging in a swift, passionate motion. “Can we go somewhere?” I whispered.
He smiled down at me. “Anywhere you want.”
I raised one eyebrow suggestively. “I mean alone.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “Lynn, but you’ve waited all this time.”
I smiled and shook my head. “I can’t wait any longer.”
I could tell the promise of a lusty evening was getting into Dan’s head, overtaking his rational thought. And feeling his desire for me made me want to do it even more.
But he stood up taller, straightened his shirt and said, “No. This isn’t right. I want to make love to my wife.”
I pushed my lip out into a pout. But then I lit up. “So do.”
“So do what?”
“Make love to your wife.”
He paused.
“Let’s go get married right now. At the courthouse.”
He shook his head. “This thing with your family will blow over before you know it, and you’ll always regret not having them at your wedding.”
“I’ll always regret not spending every possible second as your wife.”
We kissed again, and Dan took my hand and squeezed it. “I want you to have the exact wedding you want.”
“I have the exact man I want,” I said. “And that’s all that matters.”
I learned later that the wedding night is nothing like all those girls described it.
It wasn’t scary or painful. And, like Katie Jo had said, I wasn’t nervous one bit.
This was my Dan. And it was perfect. Giving my body to the man I’d pledged my heart to fifteen years earlier was the best feeling I had ever had.
I was finally a woman with the confidence to prove it.
And this life, this man, was going to be my forever. Love was grand indeed.