That Wedding (64 page)

Phillip laughs. It's good to see him smile. "Okay, good. So I made a pros and cons list."

I laugh too. "Like the one you made me in high school when you wanted to talk me out of sleeping with Jake?"

"Yep. And like the one I made when I decided to tell you how I felt about you."

"You made a list for that? Can I see it?"

"Let's stick to this list, okay? So, the pros. First one is that we solve our conflicts with sex."

"Phillip, that's supposed to be a bad thing."

He flashes me that sexy grin. "Yeah, I know, but I respectfully disagree with Pastor on that one." He touches my cold cheek with his warm hand. "Next on the list is that you know how to manipulate me."

"What? That should be a con too. I'm not supposed to manipulate you."

"That's where you're wrong. I love that you can. I love that sexy little pout. I love letting you think you got your way. You didn't trick me into buying the house. I wanted it just as much as you did. I was being stubborn about the money part of it, trying to wear the pants. You knew what was best for us."

"I hope the pants are on the cons list."

He looks deep into my eyes. "Princess, there's nothing on the cons list." Then he smiles at me and says, "Moving on. The next pro is that you have a past."

I squint my eyes at him. "That makes no sense either."

"You're the single biggest part of my past. I love that. And the last pro is that we spend too much time together. I love that we do, so maybe that means we're both a little screwed up. And that stupid questionnaire, so we answered the questions differently. So we haven't figured it all out yet. We will. We're different people, and we have different ways of thinking. We aren't the same. We compliment each other."

"Two messed up halves that make one perfect whole?"

"Exactly," he says.

"I wanna marry you, Phillip. I don't care what anyone thinks. In fact, tomorrow, we're going to our last couple's counseling session, and we're going to tell Pastor John his counseling sucks, we're getting married, and he can kiss our asses."

"We're also going to burn those chairs. Do you not hate those stupid checkerboard chairs?"

I told you he can read my mind. "I love you, Phillip. So, I'm in, like if you still are."

Phillip gets an excited look on his face. "Speaking of that. I found us a song."

"You can't just find us any song. We have to have a song."

He puts his finger up to my lips, shushing me, then puts an earbud in my ear. He loads up a song on his phone. "This is a country song by Keith Urban. I know you don't really like country, but just listen to it."

As I listen to the song, my mind is transported back to Phillip's spring formal.

He walks up to me, grabs my hand, and leads me out onto the dance floor.

He looks so incredibly handsome tonight. His broad shoulders in a black suit, the silver paisley tie he bought to perfectly match the silver dress he helped me pick out. The one he told me I looked so hot in, every guy in the room would be jealous of him.

He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close to him.

The song is slow, and we're barely moving, barely swaying.

My face is nuzzled into the corner of Phillip's neck.

The spot where I feel like I've died and gone to heaven.

The spot that I once kissed trying to make another guy jealous.

The spot that I'm dying to kiss right now.

OH MY GOSH!

I rip the earbud out of my ear.

"Phillip!! Is this that song? That song we danced to at your formal? When you sang in my ear? Something about being a lover and a friend? Is this that song!!?"

Phillip grins at me. "Yeah, it is."

The tears come rushing back, but these are different tears. These are happy tears. Our marriage isn't going to fail. We're going to be just fine. "So we already had a song?"

"Yeah, Princess, we already had a song."

He puts an ear bud in his ear, then one in mine, restarts the song, pulls me into his arms, and dances with me. I cry happy tears through the song. All the words so sum up our relationship.

When the song is over, I wrap both my hands around Phillip's cheeks, look him straight in the eyes, and kiss him slowly.

A long, slow, amazing kiss.

The kind of kiss that feels like the stars.

The kind of kiss you want for infinity. Forget happily ever after. I'm going to be happy with Phillip for infinity.

"You know, I was going to bring you to this exact spot to ask you to marry me. Then I felt like it wasn't enough. Like it wasn't big enough, like it wouldn't impress you. I went way overboard. I'm gonna fix that. Do this right. The way I should have." He drops down on one knee in front of me, takes my hand, and says, "Will you marry me, Princess?"

I drop on my knees and throw my arms around his neck. "The answer to that question is always going to be yes."

Last night, Phillip held my face in his hands and looked me straight in the eyes. It was a little unnerving at first, but then he would kiss me, and run his hands through my hair, and tell me over and over how much he loved me.

And I wouldn't say we had sex. I wouldn't say we had make up sex. I would say for the first time in my life, I really understand the difference between having sex and making love.

Because I'm pretty sure that's what we did.

Like pretty much all night.

Slow, tender, amazing.

Phillip walks into the bedroom, coffee cups in hand.

He grins at me. "I love what you're wearing."

"Phillip, I'm pretty sure I'm not wearing a damn thing." I can't help but laugh.

Cuz I'm completely naked.

Shame on me.

He gently puts his finger on mine and tips my left hand up, so I can see that he snuck the engagement ring back on my finger while I was sleeping.

I smile what may be the biggest smile of my life. "I like what I'm wearing too."

He sits on the bed next to me and holds my hand up. "I want you to take a good look at this ring. This ring has nothing to do with the wedding, nothing to do with our commitments, none of that. This ring means one thing. That I love you. Promise me that no matter what, no matter if we fight, no matter how hopeless things may feel, that you will look at this ring and know that when you love someone, that's all that really matters. That we'll always figure it out together."

"I promise," I whisper as I pull him back into bed with me.

We walk into Pastor John's office. I squeeze Phillip's hand tightly. I'm gearing up mentally for a big fight.

We don't sit down in his stupid chairs. We stand in front of his desk and rapidly take turns telling him all the reasons why we don't give a shit what he or anyone else thinks.

"We know all our answers are different," Phillip says as he tosses our questionnaires on his desk.

"And we know we solve our conflicts with sex," I say.

"And we know we spend too much time together."

"And we know we're not perfect. We might even be a little messed up."

"But when you put us together, we're a perfect match," Phillip says.

"And we love each other," I say. "Deeply and passionately. And we don't care what you or anyone else thinks. We're getting married."

Pastor John leans back in his chair and claps his hands slowly three times. "Bravo. Bravo."

I'm instantly pissed. "Bravo?"

"This isn't an act. We're serious," Phillip says. He's pissed too.

"I know you are," Pastor replies. "And don't move. I want you both to remember this moment forever. How it feels. The two of you. Hand in hand. Fighting against something you think is trying to tear you apart. I was playing devil's advocate a bit. And honestly, after last week, the way you argued, your body language, I didn't think you'd make it. Thought you'd call off the wedding. What you're going to face in life is going to be a whole lot harder than facing what you did with me. My job is to try and prepare you for that. I remember your parents' funeral, JJ. It was the hardest one I'd ever done in my career. I was the same age as your parents, and fresh out of school when I married yours, Phillip. I'd become friends with them. Watched you both grow. They were so proud of you both. I didn't think I was going to make it through the service, but I looked out and saw you, JJ, standing there in the pew. Your eyes were dry. Your chin was up. I saw such strength. I wondered what your parents did that made you so strong at such a young age. But then I noticed you were holding Phillip's hand tightly, just like you are now, and I knew where all that strength came from. It's from each other. You get strength from each other. Whatever you face in life, I hope you face it like you are now. Hand in hand. United. If you do that, you'll make it. You'll have a wonderful marriage."

I turn my head into Phillip's chest and cry with relief.

"It'd also be my extreme honor to marry you." Pastor grins at us and holds up our save the date card. "I mean, you did give me an STD a couple months ago, you kinda owe me."

I squeeze Phillip's side, and we can't help it. We both start laughing.