My Real (28 page)

Everyone on the ride is silent and watching me, waiting for my answer. I can’t speak. It is a moment that truly takes my breath away. I lean down to hug him and whisper “yes” in his ear.

He jumps up and screams, “She said yes!”

Emerson starts jumping up and down screaming, and everyone on the ride starts clapping. My hand is shaking as he puts the ring on my finger. Ella grabs me, spins me around, and hugs me while Emerson is hanging on my leg. I look over Ella’s shoulder to see a beaming Andrew taking it all in. Slowly the ride starts to spin and make its descent. Everyone around us sits back down.

Emerson jumps in my lap and Andrew puts his arm around my shoulder. I rest my head on Andrew’s shoulder. Ella grabs my hand to look at the ring.

“You did good Lover Boy,” Ella compliments.

“Thanks, I was hoping you’d like it Ella,” Andrew smirks.

We get to the bottom, and the doors open. Everyone outside is cheering as we walk out. Everyone who was holding one of the signs walks up to me and hands me a different bag of candy with a love note attached from Andrew and a single star gazer lily. It smells heavenly, even more than the chocolate scent that permeates the air in Hershey. A man in a suit and tie walks up to us, and everyone gathers around to hear what he has to say.

“On behalf of everyone here at Hershey Park, the sweetest place on Earth, I’d like to congratulate you on your engagement. We hope you will come and join us at the Hershey Spa for your honeymoon.”

My eyes get as big as saucers, and I slowly turn my head toward Andrew, my smile getting bigger and bigger. The Hershey Spa for a honeymoon. Why had that never crossed my mind? Chocolate at every meal, chocolate baths, chocolate mud masks, I’d be in heaven.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll be visiting there soon. Thank you so much for all of your help with everything,” Andrew says shaking his hand.

“You are very welcome. Enjoy the rest of your day at Hershey Park.”

Andrew pulls me in for a kiss. As he pulls away from me, I see his mom walking up to us. She grabs Andrew for a hug.

“Congratulations Andrew, you did a great job son. I’m proud of you,” she kisses him on the cheek then turns to me.

“Thank you for being here Mrs. Cooper,” I say.

“Oh please child, call me Judy, or mom now if you’d like.” Judy takes my hands. “Bailey, I know Andrew hasn’t brought you around too much, but I hope that will change now. I think you are a wonderful woman to love my son and Emerson so completely. Thank you for taking care of them,” she gives me a motherly hug that I can’t say I’ve ever even gotten from my own mother.

“It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it,” I joke, nudging Andrew playfully.

She laughs and steps aside. I see Jake standing in the back of the crowd collecting the signs from everyone. “Did you help with all this?” I ask walking up to him and giving him a hug.

“A little.” He smiles and kisses me on the cheek, causing me to blush. We don’t spend a lot of time with Jake, because he lives so far away. Hopefully that will change now that he is moving into my house. “Congratulations,” he says as he takes a step back. “I’m really happy for both of you.”

“Aww. You’re just happy that you get to move into my house.”

“Well, there is that,” he laughs.

Jake turns to Emerson and picks her up.

“Hey Emerson, how do you feel about going on the bumper cars with Ella and me?”

“Yeah! I’m going with Ella.” She yells and points to Jake. “You’re going down.”

Ella, Emerson, and Jake walk off telling us they’ll meet up with us soon. Bailey and I decide another ride on the Kissing Tower is in order.

“How long have you had this planned?” she asks once we are settled in our seats.

“Well, that’s a tricky question. How long since I’ve known I was going to ask you to marry me? Since you told me you were single at Skye’s. How long have I had the ring? Since I chased you all the way up to State College.” He explains as he rubs the finger where my beautiful ring is now placed. “When did I come up with this plan? After all the fun we had with the Hershey’s syrup last week. Were you surprised?”

“I had no clue. I can’t believe you pulled this all off without me knowing anything at all.”

“It was all planned in less than a week. That was my only hope of surprising you.”

“Well, you certainly succeeded.”

“I tried several times to contact your mom, so she could be here too. She never called me back. I’m sorry,” he apologies.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. That’s how my whole life has been with her. When I was a junior in high, I went to the hospital with a concussion and a nasty cut on my head from a soccer game. It took the hospital two hours to get a hold of her, and she didn’t come in to see me until the next day.”

“Wow. I had no idea. You never really talk about her,” Andrew realizes.

“That’s because there really is nothing to say. My relationship with both of my parents is why I have such a hard time showing emotion. That was a no-no growing up. Even if I ever did show any emotion at all, there was rarely anyone around anyway. It’s also why I have been pushing Jessica so hard to have a relationship with Emerson. I know the results of having a mother who doesn’t show her love for you.”

“Well, that’s not a problem, because she has two parents who love her very much.”

That explains so much. Her mom was never there for her, and her dad left them both for a much younger woman to start a new family. I now understand why Bailey has a hard time expressing her feelings. Growing up, my mom told me she loved me every day, and she was always there for me. She came to every game I played in. I can’t imagine not having someone who was there for me at all times.

When we get to the top of the ride, I lean in and give Bailey a sweet kiss and ask her, “What’s your wish?”

“It already came true.”

We spend the rest of the day riding every ride as many times as we can. When I’m not watching the interesting interactions going on between Ella and Jake, I’m constantly looking down at the new bling on my finger. He did such a good job picking out a ring. It’s a silver ring with a brilliant cut round diamond. It has stunning diamonds going all the way around it and through the three bands that intertwine into each other.

Andrew comes up behind me as we wait in line for the Chocolate Experience Ride in Chocolate World. He wraps his arms around my waist and puts his chin on my head.

“Do you like it?” Andrew whispers in my ear when he sees me looking at my ring.

“I absolutely love it. You did a good job,” I coo.

“The three bands are supposed to represent you, Emerson, and me. How our lives have intertwined,” he explains as he rubs my left hand with his thumb.

“Did you have help picking it out?” I ask as I glance to my left where Ella and Jake are standing with Emerson.

“Nope, I did that all by myself,” he boasts with pride.

“This was all his idea, Bailey. He even had the idea of getting you to invite me to Hershey, so that I could be here for it,” Ella explains to me. I turn in his arms and lay my head against his chest and sigh.

“I was thinking a Christmas wedding.” Andrew mentions as we waddle up in line still hugging.

Ella looks at him in disbelief. “This Christmas, as in less than six months away?”

“Sure, why not?” Andrew asks innocently.

“Well, let me tell you why not. First, five months is not enough time to get a venue, a church, a DJ, or a photographer. There is no way we can find anyone who will get dresses ordered and fitted in that timeframe. Then, you have to think about favors, and invitations.” She is shaking her head emphatically. “No. Five months is not enough time to get everything done.”

“How about Labor Day weekend, on the beach?” I look up at Andrew as I ask.

It’s my turn to get the seething look from Ella.

“You’ve got to be fucking …”

“Language Aunt Ella.” Emerson chimes in as she raises her palm toward Ella. “You owe me a dollar.”

“I’m going broke around you kid,” Ella says pulling a dollar out of her pocket and hands it to Emerson. “Seriously though, Bailey, Labor Day is only like three weeks away. There is no way we can get a wedding pulled together in three weeks.”

“Sure we can. All we need is the five of us, our parents, and someone to marry us.”

“I’m the best man?” Jake asks sarcastically as he fans himself with his hand acting like he is going to cry. I punch him in the arm and look up at Andrew again. “What do you think?”

“Are you sure that’s what you want? You don’t want a big wedding in a church and all the fixings?”

“We’ve both been there. I hated planning that wedding. It’s all to impress everyone else.” I smile when my plans start turning in my head. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks.”

“Three weeks? Geeze. Ok. I’ll accept the date if you agree to some of my terms.” Ella crosses her arms in front of her ready to negotiate.

“Terms? This outta be good,” Andrew mumbles.

“You need flowers, a photographer, and nice dresses. Not something you can find at Wal-Mart. We can go out to a nice restaurant afterward for the reception,” she states.

I look up at Andrew again waiting to hear his opinion. He hasn’t even answered me about the beach idea yet. It’s our turn to get onto the ride. Ella, Jake, and Emerson sit up front together with Emerson in the middle. Jake looks like he is not very pleased about Emerson sitting between him and Ella. Emerson and Ella are becoming fast buddies. Emerson will be good for Ella because Emerson’s already making her think twice before she swears. Ella will put Emerson though college with all the swearing she does.

Andrew gets into the car after me and squishes me to the side putting his arm around my shoulder.

“What do you think about my beach idea?” I ask him nervously. I have no idea if he wants a traditional wedding or not. We’ve never even talked about our first weddings, so I don’t know what that was like either. Although, knowing Jessica, I have no doubt it was the event of the year.

“I think it’s a perfect idea. I don’t want to wait any longer for you to finally be my wife, so the timetable is perfect. The only problem I can see with it is the honeymoon. You can’t take off the first week of school, can you?”

“No, I can’t. I thought of that but I don’t want to wait until next summer to get married. I’m fine with having no honeymoon.”

“Absolutely not. You have a four-day weekend for Labor Day, right?” he ponders. I nod, seeing where he’s going with this. “We can go down to the shore and get married Friday night at dusk, have dinner, and then spend the rest of the long weekend together. I’m sure my mom would love to take Emerson for a long weekend.

“Then maybe at Thanksgiving we can take Emerson to Disney World.” I whisper into his ear, so she wouldn’t hear. His face lights up.

“I’ve wanted to take her there for a little while now,” He leans in and kisses my forehead.

The ride ends, and Emerson starts pulling my arm, running up the ramp to the free chocolate. “Oh honey, it’s just a little snack size piece.” I say not wanting her to get her hopes up. “But the real treat is coming up next.”

We walk to the bottom of the ramp after we all get a piece of chocolate, and Emerson stops dead in her tracks. I look down at her, and her jaw drops. “That’s the most chocolate I’ve ever seen in my whole life.”

“I know honey, isn’t it wonderful!” I hand everyone their own basket, and we all start loading up. Five bags, and an hour later, we all walk out with milkshakes and giant cookies the size of Emerson’s head.

“That’s was the best day ever Daddy! Can we do it again tomorrow?” Emerson asks, wired on sugar.

“I don’t know about tomorrow, but I’m sure we will be coming back often if Bailey has anything to say about it.”

“I see season passes in our future,” I mention though sips of milkshake.

We walk the rest of the way to our cars when I hear Jake and Ella behind me.

“I can drive you home Ella. It might be more comfortable than sitting in the back with Bean here,” he says gesturing to Emerson on his shoulders.

“Uncle Jake. You said you’d stop calling me that. You promised,” she whines.