Samson and Sunset (8 page)

  ***

What a time we had getting ready for the
wedding! We worked fast in a flurry of bridal preparations. I
wanted a small family wedding, which the Westovers agreed to. In
turn, I agreed to a large, two-hundred-and-fifty-person reception
following the wedding at the Holiday Party and Convention
Center.

  There was a lot to do. I designed my
own wedding gown in a light Wedgewood blue. It was fitted and
floor-length, with spaghetti straps, a six-inch long train at the
back and matching satin, Wedgewood blue three-inch heels. Over the
bodice I wore a top of Chantilly lace, with scallops at the bottoms
of the sleeves. I had a five-strand pearl choker necklace, pearl
drop earrings and a veil of the same blue in Chantilly lace; a
three-inch crown and matching blue gloves. The bridal bouquet was
blue and white, with four red roses scattered around the bouquet to
signify our little family of four becoming one.

  ***

I got to the church a couple of hours early
because I wanted some time alone with God. There was a thunderstorm
brewing on the horizon and I judged it would hit about the same
time as the service. I sat on the church steps and asked God how I
could be so blessed—to be marrying the man of my dreams, the father
of the child I was carrying, someone who loved Kelly and me so
much.

  “Thank you, God, I am so blessed,” I
said. Yet at the same time I had a creeping fear in the back of my
mind. What if the thunderstorm was a sign? What if he’d gotten cold
feet? It wasn’t like him, but as I never forgot (and if I did, he
reminded me): Shay was his own man.

  As the crowd gathered, I peeped down
the long aisle and saw him standing, dressed so smartly, waiting at
the altar.

  “Oh my gosh, he’s there, he’s there,
he’s there,” I whispered to my bridesmaids, who were all bustling
around me with last minute adjustments, teasing out the train of my
dress. Martha, my sister; Debbie, Shay’s sister, and myself were
all waiting in the bridal room for the music to start. Then the
music struck up and Debbie started down the aisle, followed by
Martha.

  I met Daddy at the entrance, where he
walked me down the aisle and gave me away for good to Shannon James
Westover. Shay had told me after giving me the ring that he had
asked Daddy’s permission the week before, and he had given his
blessing.

  ***

After the beautiful service, while Shay and I
were driving in his car toward the reception, he told me that at
the altar he had asked himself, ‘What am I doing? Do I want to give
up this great single life? The parties, the women… Am I ready for a
baby? Can I handle a high-spirited woman like Callie…?”

  I was a handful! (But, as he said he
reminded himself, I was
his
handful.)

  Right around this time he said he
looked up and couldn’t believe the vision he saw. There was a great
radiance of light around me, a glow. He said he had never seen
anything so beautiful in is life. And the second he saw me, all his
doubts melted away.

  He kept saying in the car, “You are so
beautiful, princess. You are so beautiful.”

  This sure was a far cry from Dane
saying I was a ‘pretty thing and it was too bad.’

  I knew if Shay was saying it, he meant
it. That was the thing I liked best about Shay; and also, at times,
the least. He always said it like he saw it.

  ***

Well, on this little trip to the reception I
got a craving for chicken noodle soup. I told Shay I just had to
have some.

  “No,” he said. “We have to get to the
reception. Everyone will be there.”

  Well, this got my dander up and I
said, “Well, then don’t speak to me the rest of the night and you
can go on your honeymoon alone.”

  We arrived at the reception a little
late, as I had a little brown bag with a container of hot chicken
noodle soup and crackers. I remember Shay saying as he handed me
the bag from the Long Noodle Cafe, “You’re spoiled and I spoil you
too much. You’re going to get over that.”

  Ha, I thought to myself, as long as
I’m getting my way, I’m going to keep milking it.

  The reception was wonderful. Shay and
I left about 10 p.m. so we could go change clothes and leave for a
week in Colorado. We wanted to drive as far as the Colorado state
line that night, but we made it forty miles up the road, to
Plymouth, Nebraska. Ended up getting a room at the Heritage Motel.
I was surprised to see our room had two queen beds. I guess we were
just lucky to get a room at all that time of night.

  Before the wedding, Shay’s mother had
gone shopping with me in Lincoln at a nice department store. Maggie
was a class act. She insisted I buy a black nightgown for my
honeymoon, a
peignoir
set. But I had different plans and
chose a beautiful white, pure silk, spaghetti-strap, floor-length
slip with a slit up the right thigh. The floor-length duster was a
matching silk lace. Oh, it was beautiful, but Maggie was
disappointed. She thought Shay deserved the best, which in her
opinion was the sexy black set. Well, I thought I knew Shay a
little better than his mother at this point—at least in the romance
department—so I went with the white. My hair at this point was
snow-white, platinum—my skin golden brown from the sun. The white
just popped.

  Before leaving on our honeymoon trip,
I had packed three candleholders, along with nine tall tapered
white candles. Each holder held three candles. We set the candles
up now and lit them. I sat one on the vanity that would be directly
behind me when I came out of the bathroom in my gown.

  I bathed, put on fresh lotions and my
new perfume Shay loved, then my white silk gown. The sleeves of the
robe tapered out wide like a triangle, falling fluidly. Shay had
called the motel office and requested soft music piped into the
room.

  I was ready to make my appearance, so
I stepped out of the bathroom. All the lights were out except the
candles. The song “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” was playing and
I raised both of my arms very slowly to about six inches above my
head with the absolute grace of a ballet dancer so my whole
silhouette was showing. I remember so clearly, Shay was sitting on
the bed with just gray silk pajama bottoms on—something I’m sure
Maggie had bought him, but he looked so sexy. I don’t think I will
ever forget Shay’s face in that moment. He looked completely
startled. As I started to walk towards him he stood up. I had
never, ever heard Shay stammer for words, but now he said:

  “I-I-I thought you were an angel. I
don’t mean you just looked like one, for a minute I thought I was
hallucinating, Callie. I looked up and I thought I saw an angel
standing in the room. You took my breath away. You’re still taking
my breath away!”

  “Well, Shay, I think this is where you
hold me in your arms and we dance to this sweet music,” I said
softly.

  Thinking back on that night, I realize
that when I was standing in front of the candles in the dark,
raising my arms slowly, the candle glow just may have given the
illusion of an angel for a second, especially since Shay was so
tired. I think maybe for a second he did think he saw an angel.

  He gently put his arms around me in
his usual way, one arm on my back, the other cradling my neck,
holding me ever so gently.

  “Would black have been sexier?” I
asked him with my head against his chest.

  He stopped dancing for a minute and
pulled his head back to look into my face.

  “Princess, you look like a real angel.
I would never have wanted to see you in black. That’s for common
lovemaking. I am so blown away by your beauty. You’re just like a
fragile china doll. I’m afraid to touch you because I’m afraid
you’ll break. How does one make love to an angel?”

  “Well,
are
we going to make
love?”

  “No, not just yet, I want to look at
you.”

  “Well, here, Shay, let me take the
robe off.”

  After I took off the robe, Shay just
gently held me. We weren’t even moving to the music anymore.
Eventually we made it to the bed, where Shay said, “Leave the gown
on for awhile, I want to hold you in that beautiful nightgown.”

  I lay in his arms and he kept gently
kissing me, running his hands over the soft silk gown. He must have
kissed me for over an hour, moving me into different positions.
Eventually we were lying so close you couldn’t have slipped a dime
between us. Shay was on his back, cradling me in his arms.

  I’ll bet he must have said, “Oh, I
love you so much, princess” at least fifty times, but I guess one
can never hear that enough.

  ***

We’d had a very long day and at 4:30 a.m. I
woke up in Shay’s arms. We had both been so exhausted that we’d
just slipped off to sleep. Shay was still sound asleep. Now I must
admit, I did sort of think we might make love that night, but as
luck would have it, we both fell asleep in each other’s arms. It
did seem very precious.

  After lying there for a few minutes, I
oh-so-gently slipped out of Shay’s arms without waking him. The
candles had burned down on their silver trays. I was still so tired
and, boy, did I ever need some good sleep, so, since there were two
queen beds in the room, I quietly opened the second bed, slipped
off my gown and crawled in. I was asleep in minutes.

  It was around 6 a.m. when Shay woke
up.

  “Hey, where’s my wife? What are you
doing over there, baby?” He crawled out of his bed, slipping off
his PJ bottoms, and crawled into my bed. “Now don’t you be doing
that ever again, princess. I plan on making love to you every night
for the rest of our lives, and, woman, I’m going to make love to
you every morning for the rest of our lives.”

  He gently moved his body across
mine—kissing and caressing me, until we were both completely
aroused. Then we made love for over an hour. I don’t think we would
have ever quit, except that we both climaxed at the same
moment.

  “Callie, you know what, you just blow
my mind,” Shay said as we lay back. “I am so lucky. You are truly
my dream come true. You satisfy me more than anyone ever has or
ever could. I love you, princess.”

  ***

We must have been in a hurry to get into our
room for our first night as husband and wife, because as we lay
there basking in the afterglow, the maid knocked on the door. When
Shay answered the door she said, “Sir, I think you left some of
your luggage out here on the sidewalk.”

  There they were, three suitcases,
sitting right where we had put them down while Shay opened the door
for me.

  The Threshold

After retrieving our luggage, I put on my
swimsuit and told Shay I was going swimming.

  “Wait, Callie, I’ll go with you,” he
said and hurried into his swim trunks.

  Now there was a gorgeous sight—that
body in swim trunks. This was a beautiful man. We went to the pool
and lay back on some lounge chairs. After a while I got up and went
over to the diving board, walked out and dove in.

  “No Callie!” I heard Shay call as I
sailed into the pool. “That’s twelve-foot water!”

  He jumped in right after me to save
me. I know what he was thinking. ‘Oh my gosh, she hates water,
doesn’t know how to swim, dives into the deep end, she’s not going
to make it!’

  “Don’t panic,” he said as he reached
me, “just don’t panic. I’ve got you.”

  Then he noticed I was easily treading
water, just looking at him. “Did I forget to tell you I was a
lifeguard at the city pool for several summers?”

  “Well, yes, smart mouth, you did fail
to tell me that. Who
are
you? What else don’t I know about
you, woman?”

  “Oh, I have lots of hidden powers,” I
grinned.

  We both swam to the ladder and climbed
out.

  “I’m going to the cafe for breakfast,”
I said, but Shay scooped me up in his arms and carried me toward
the room.

  “I have a much better idea, princess.
Just follow my lead. We can order room service for dessert.”

  Oh, I see, I thought to myself, I’m
the main course!

  ***

After another swim and some more lovemaking,
Shay loaded the car and we were off! Driving down the road in the
candy-apple-red Impala, I asked Shay if we really had to go to
Denver.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “I really don’t want to go that far
away from home,” I said. “I’m homesick.”

  “Well, for crying out loud, woman,
we’ve been gone for less than 24 hours!”

  “I know,” I said, with tears running
down my face, “but please can’t we at least stay in Nebraska?”

  “Callie,” Shay said, soft-voiced, with
a loving look on his face, “I want to show you the mountains. I
want to be the one who shows you things you’ve never seen! Please,
honey, please go to Denver with me. We’ll go for one day, and if
you’re one bit unhappy, we’ll go home the next day. I promise.”

  “We’ll, okay,” I said. “But I’m
trusting you to keep that promise.”

  Denver was much bigger than I’d ever
imagined! I was completely lost. I knew one thing: I didn’t like
big towns. Decided that right then and there.

  That night we stayed at the Brown
Palace Hotel. This was a beautiful and well-known hotel, where, I
learned, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” stayed only a week after she
survived the Titanic disaster. It was nice—very exclusive and
luxurious. After Shay put everything in our room (one king bed,
this time,) he was ready to take me for a late afternoon snack.
Then it was off for sightseeing.

  I remember he took me to the Coors
Beer Plant for a tour, where he bought me a set of twelve beautiful
Coors beer glasses. They were pretty fancy for beer glasses. I
wanted to go to a museum, but when I mentioned it, Shay acted like
I’d lost my mind.