That Wedding (10 page)

We're at the stadium. I was so excited that I packed a ton of tailgating food and lots to drink. The Diamonds came too, but didn't bring the RV, and they're kicking themselves because Lori has to pee a lot. Mrs. Diamond says pregnant women always have to pee. She was gushing on about how Lori's glowing. And she is. Lori is beautiful, but her strawberry blonde hair looks thicker, her cheeks look slightly flushed, and although she's still her normal skinny self, she looks just a little fuller. Sexier. She looks amazing.

We drank beer in front of her, but I felt funny doing shots. I didn't want her to feel left out. So not bringing the RV turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While she waited in line to use the porta potties, I got out the Jaegermeister. Which was a good thing because I'm probably more nervous about Danny starting than Danny is.

We got to our seats early, so we wouldn't miss a thing. I'm expecting our conversation to be about the game. But the topic is not that Danny's starting, the fun tailgating, the 9/11 memorial silence, the blimp, the roar of the crowd, the gorgeous weather, or the stealth bomber flyover. The topic Lori wants to discuss is my wedding.

She questions me. "So how do you want your wedding to be?"

"I just want it to be nice. Pretty flowers, a pretty dress, a fun party. I love parties."

She rolls her eyes at me. "Yes, we all know you love partying, Jade. But this is your wedding, it's not supposed to be some drunkfest. Although, how about a New Year's Eve wedding? Confetti, hats, noise makers, and I won't be a moose yet."

"I like the idea, but that's way too soon! We're going to have a long engagement."

"So have you set a date?"

"No. You were at our party. We've been engaged for two days. Why does everyone keep asking me that? It makes my head hurt!"

Phillip leans over and whispers in my ear. "Or maybe it's the Jaeger." He pats my back and says, "I think we're gonna need a few more beers here."

He runs to get beer while Lori continues talking. "I'm not trying to pressure you, but we're thinking about taking a babymoon. I was trying to figure out when would be a good time to go...."

What the fuck is a babymoon? I was gonna interrupt her and ask, but she kept talking.

".....and I know you haven't asked me yet, but I assume I'll be your maid of honor."

"Matron of honor," I remind her. "You're married."

"Oh gosh. Matron? Really? That makes me sound so old. There needs to be a different name for that. We need to come up with something. Like you could really hurt people's feelings with those labels. I'm married, yes. But I'm not matronly, and I don't wanna be a matron. And what about the poor woman that's thirty-five and never been married? Are you gonna call her a maid of honor? You might as well call her an old maid because I'm sure that's how it'd make her feel. We seriously need to rethink this."

I wonder if I'm going to get a word in edgewise. Or get to watch the game.

"And here I was stupidly thinking my wedding day was supposed to be about me and Phillip's undying love."

"Oh hush," she says, "don't be such a whiner."

I stand up and cheer loudly. Danny just made a great pass, and they've moved the ball down to the red zone. "I promise to okay my date with you before we make it official. Now what the fuck is a babymoon?"

"It's a vacation that you and your husband go on before the baby's born. It's time to relax and connect while it's still just the two of you."

"That sounds like a vacation."

"Yes, Jade, it is a vacation," she says with a sigh. "They just call it a babymoon because of the timing. I mean, a honeymoon is just a vacation too."

"Yeah, I suppose. Can we please watch the game now?"

The game was so exciting. It was a purely offensive battle. Danny played really well and threw for over three hundred yards. It was back and forth scoring. You could tell it was going to come down to who had the ball last. Unfortunately, it was the other team. They lost by a field goal with only three seconds on the clock. Bummer.

We were supposed to stay at Danny and Lori's, but they're remodeling their house, and it sounds like it's a disaster right now. Mr. and Mrs. Diamond stayed there since one of the guest rooms is done. We didn't want to stress Lori anymore or have to sleep on the couch, so we got a hotel.

Phillip pulls me down on the bed. "Do we need to start talking about wedding stuff? My mom seems to think we do, and I heard Lori asking you about it."

"Eventually, we do. I guess it depends on when we wanna get married."

"I'd marry you right now if I could," he says while running his hands through my hair.

"Awwww, Phillip." I give him a big smooch. "I know everyone thinks we need to start, but I think we need to take our time. Enjoy this. Lori told me tonight that she's going to be my special bridesmaid and when I could and couldn't have the wedding."

Phillip laughs and says quietly, "Control freak."

I laugh too, and then I say, "I'm still seriously in shock that we're even engaged! It sorta feels like a dream. If it weren't for this ring on my finger, I don't know if I'd even believe it happened."

Phillip gets a naughty look on his face. "A dream, huh?" He quickly pins me down on the bed. "Oh Princess, you're definitely awake. Maybe I need to remind you of that."

He reminds me by recklessly kissing me and pulling off my shirt.

Later, we're laying here, exhausted and grinning at each other.

"Still feel like a dream?" he asks.

He's slowly running his fingertips up and down my leg which makes me kinda feel like I'm in a dream. "Yeah," I say, "a hot sexy one."

"Okay, so I saw you were flipping through the bridal magazines Mom gave you. Did you see anything you liked?"

"Phillip, the game was on. Do you really think I was looking at them? I was just flipping to make her happy."

"I heard Ash say we need a wedding theme. What does she mean? Like the frat parties we used to have? Like a boats and hoes wedding?"

"Not funny, but, yeah, I guess. Really, I have no idea what she means. I'm pretty sure all the weddings we've been to have just had a color scheme not a theme."

"Your favorite colors are turquoise, orange, and purple. Those going to be our colors?"

"They sound awful together. Turquoise might be pretty though. What color would you want?"

He kisses the top of my forehead. "Doesn't matter. This wedding is all about you."

"No, it's not! Hey, don't think you're gonna get out of helping me plan by saying that. This wedding, if we even have one," I tease, "is going to be all about us."

"I like us."

"You wanna talk about colors and wedding themes all night?"

"No, I think I can come up with something a little more fun than that," he says. He rolls on top of me, kisses me, and makes me forget about weddings again.

I'm back at work. Thankfully, my boss is a huge Danny Diamond fan and let me take off a few days to go see his first game. Okay, so I had to bribe him with an autographed football, but whatever works.

So far, the day has been a disaster. It's bad enough trying to get caught up, but now I'm frantic because the blueprints I sent with a courier first thing this morning have still not arrived at their destination. I've wasted so much time trying to track them down.

My phone rings, and I stupidly don't look at the caller id before I say "Jadyn Reynolds" because I assume it's the messenger service.

I hear Mrs. Mac's voice. "JJ, we really need to have a wedding planning meeting. Do you realize all that has to be done? Even if you don't want to get married for a year or more, we've gotta get started. I'm assuming, by now, you've had a chance to go through the bridal magazines and mark the things you like?"

"Uh, not really yet. We went to Danny's game, and I'm at the end of a project at work. It's like crunch time, and you know Phillip has been super busy at work too. In fact, we're both working late tonight."

She doesn't get the answer she wants to hear, so she snarls, "Fine. You have homework. I want you to go through the books I gave you and flag everything you like. And tell my son that he needs to go through them with you. Bring them to the house Saturday morning."

I say gently, "Um, that probably won't work because we're going to a Husker party."

She huffs at me and sounds a little pissed. "Fine. Be here early for dinner on Sunday. Let's say three o'clock. And tell Phillip to jot down ideas as well........never mind, I'll tell him. Oh, I'm also supposed to remind you that Pastor John wants you to call him right away. Something about couple's counseling."

I get off the phone and am like, HOMEWORK and COUPLE'S COUNSELING?

Seriously?

Planning a wedding sounds like no fun.