“Never,” he said. “Never.”
When she put her hand on his arm, nothing else mattered.
“You look amazing, Gia. I think I had some sort of stroke when you walked in.”
She smiled. “You look pretty good yourself.”
“That’s enough,” Max said and nudged Rocky’s chair forward. “I thought you said you wanted to get started.” He paused to extend his hand. “Hi, Gia, I’m Max. That’s Kevin over there and that’s Shade with Candi. I believe you know the rest.”
Gia stood and shook his hand. “Hi, Max.”
“Stop pushing,” Rocky said.
“Fine, but c’mon. Uncle Asa wants you over there by the French doors that lead to the pool. He needs the light to see his notes.”
“Wait,’ Rocky said and yanked Max by the arm. “You tell Kevin I don’t want to hear one snicker when he hears my full name. Let him know I don’t have any problem smacking him during the ceremony.”
“Whatever you say, Nicolas Rockford Lionakis, but I think he got it all out of his system when Pastor Charles said it at your baptism.”
“I don’t want to hear anything from you either, Maxwell. I’ll pop you, too.”
“Have to catch me first, wheelie boy,” Max said and took off.
Rocky paused to allow Gia to walk ahead. She stood there with a slightly concerned look on her face.
“I’m marrying a teenaged boy, aren’t I?”
“Little bit, yeah,” he said, trying to be honest.
“I’m curious. How many people do you plan to hit during our wedding? Don’t answer that,” she said and brushed past him. “And for what’s it’s worth, I love the name Nicolas. I’m wondering how your parents landed on Rocky for a nickname and didn’t just call you Nick.”
“Who knows? They’re weird. You can ask them one day.”
Asa slipped into his suit jacket and lifted his Bible and glasses from his desk. “Bride and groom here,” he ordered and pointed to a spot on the floor. “Do we have rings?”
“Right here,” Max answered and patted his suit pocket.
“Good,” Asa said and opened his Bible. “I need someone to stand as a witness with each of you, and the spectators can find a seat.”
No one sat down.
Rocky glanced at Gia and entwined his fingers with hers until she let go to shuffle her flowers. To his knowledge she hadn’t called one person about the ceremony. He didn’t want her upset or uncomfortable but if she hadn’t called anyone, she hadn’t called anyone. If the others hadn’t shown up, he expected Max’s Aunt Delores would serve as her bridesmaid. But Delores was sitting in a chair at the entrance to the dining room, no doubt guarding the cake—and Gia looked painfully alone in a room full of new friends.
“Spectators can have a seat,” Asa repeated as if he weren’t accustomed to people not listening to him the first time.
“We’re all standing up with them,” Max said. “Candi is officially here for Gia—if that’s all right with her.”
Max waited while Gia nodded furiously.
“And I’m officially here for Rock, but we’re all prayerfully presenting them for marriage and we’re all standing with them in support.”
Max’s hand was firm on Rocky’s shoulder as he gave it a squeeze. If his friend had further reservations, he was setting them aside for the day.
Rocky turned and acknowledged his church family. They waited—smiling, hopeful, expectant. He could say the words thank you, but it would never be enough.
The next five minutes were a blur. He heard their names. Giavanna Francesca Rinaldi. It still sounded pretty and lyrical, despite coming from the lips of Max’s Texas cowboy uncle and his decidedly non-Italian accent.
Nicholas Rockford Lionakis. That sounded foreign and stiff and not like anyone he knew since no one had ever called him Nicholas.
When Asa settled into the traditional vows and the ring exchange with their informal names, the whole room relaxed, even laughed and sighed in the right spots as Gia bobbled the handoff while surrendering her bouquet to Candi, and Rocky struggled with her tiny gold wedding band.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Asa declared. “Rocky, you may kiss your bride,” he added with gusto and then followed with a boisterous “Kiss her, son,” when they didn’t move fast enough for him.
Gia smiled and dropped into his lap as they had planned. After a fast boutonniere-crushing embrace, he cradled her in his arms and tipped her backward for a big-screen-movie-star kiss in nineteen-fifties Technicolor style. Gia squealed and laughed and grabbed for her falling veil while Candi snapped pictures like some deranged paparazzi.
“Oh my,” Carol Ann said as the others whooped it up. “She’s going to need more lip gloss.”
“Let’s eat,” Shade called out and headed for the dining room.
“No,” Candi said as everyone congratulated the couple and dispersed. “We need some pictures of everyone together, and I need some formal shots of the bride and groom.”
“You go right ahead. But some of us are literally starving to death. We haven’t eaten since the doughnuts at church.”
“You are not dying, Shade.”
“Kevin might be. He’s young. He needs food.”
“Go ahead, Candi,” Rocky said. “I promise you’ll get your pictures. I need a minute alone with my bride anyway.”
Gia straightened herself in his lap. Rocky looked around for a place to talk. Asa’s house was spacious, but not exactly wheelchair friendly.
“We could try to ride out to the pool,” Gia offered, “but I’m afraid we’ll bake out there, and you can’t take that coat and tie off until Candi gets her pictures.”
“Wouldn’t think of it.” He rolled them to a corner that was neither private nor quiet, but it was all he had.
“Is something wrong?”
“No,” he said. “I have something to give you.” He pulled a small cream-colored velvet pouch out of his pocket. “It’s the token.” He dropped his grandmother’s ring into his hand. The three deeply colored opals separated by small diamonds glistened in a ray of sun from the nearby window. “I’ve wanted to give this to you, but since we bought the wedding bands, and I actually had your ring size, I thought it would be better to go ahead and have it adjusted to fit you.”
“It’s amazing. Now I see why you insisted on the yellow-gold bands instead of the white-gold ones.”
“Like I’ve been saying, sometimes I know what I’m talking about.”
“I don’t know much about opals, but those colors are incredible. They keep changing.”
“When I was little I’d sit with my grandmother in church—this was my mom’s mom. My dad’s people are all Greek Orthodox, but my parents didn’t go to any church. They still don’t go. I’d try to be quiet. She’d try to keep me busy. I remember watching that ring change colors as I drifted off to sleep in her lap. I think that’s why she left it to me.”
He slipped it onto her finger.
“I love it, Rocky, and I’m proud to wear it, but are you sure it’s all right? It might be too much if I have it on when I first meet your mom and dad. Should I wait?”
“No. It’s between us. It’s what my grandmother wanted.” He looked around at the crowd in the dining room. “Crazy day, huh?”
“Yes,” she said and touched his face. “Crazy day.”
“At least it’s over.”
“It’s not over,” she said and kissed him. “It’s just the beginning.”
11
Gia heard the whirl of a jet engine as she awoke.
Scratch that.
Maybe it was a blender that sounded like a jet engine because she was fast asleep in her husband’s guest room and was pretty sure he didn’t have a jet.
She stretched until her toes curled near the end of the bed and turned over to forget what she heard.
No such luck. The annoying blast started again on this her first morning as a married woman. She smiled. Married woman. Someone’s wife. Mrs. Somebody. It was surprisingly exciting and only a little weird they spent their wedding night apart. There’d been a lot of kissing, cuddling, and hand holding, but there was also an unspoken agreement that further intimacy would take time. That gentleman husband of hers seemed to be giving her a lot of room to work through her assault issues, and sheer exhaustion after their whirlwind wedding helped the day come to a calm, peaceful, and expected end. In true romance-when-pregnant style, she dozed off on the couch after composing a notification e-mail to her parents as Rocky sat nearby and ate another piece of wedding cake.
The blender whirled again.
“I give up,” she said and slipped the trusty quilt around her. “Guess I’ll go see how my husband spent the rest of his wedding night.”
She padded down the hall and paused to peek out the window. Rocky’s shiny new blue truck caught the morning sunlight and seemed to illuminate the whole cul-de-sac. A woman and her dog walked by and paused to take it all in. The animal backed away, probably because of the frightening glare from all the new chrome.
She wandered into the kitchen. “I still can’t believe you managed to get that truck and make it accessible in three days. I was shocked when I saw it yesterday.”
“It wasn’t exactly three days. The process was already started. I told Max and my buddy who installs hand controls that I needed help in a hurry. I had to have a new chariot to bring my beautiful bride home in.”
“It’s too early in the morning for you to be that corny, but thanks. Where is the car?”
“I’m donating it. There are organizations to help people with transportation when they suddenly find themselves in my position. An agency is going to pick it up from Max’s.”
She sat down at the table. “It’s still a good car. It’ll help someone.”
He put orange juice and some other things back in the fridge and pulled a couple granola bars out of a drawer. “What can I get you for breakfast before I go?”
“I’ll get something. Don’t worry about me. Where are you going?”
“I have an appointment at a hospital in north Houston.”
“Why are you going to the hospital? What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” he said and tossed a banana peel in the trash. “It’s for work.”
“I thought you worked mostly from home.”
“I do, but I’m trying to grow my business. I got a contract to install and maintain the computer system at a small medical complex building. It’s related to the hospital. I’ll be there all day doing preliminaries.”
“That’s great, but it sounds like a lot of work.”
“It is a lot of work. I’ll have to hire a tech to help me. If it goes well, it could open doors for more jobs.”
“I’m impressed.”
“If that impresses you,” he said and pulled a glass out of the cabinet, “this fruit smoothie I made you is going to blow your mind. I was going to leave it in the fridge with a note, but then I realized the blender would wake you up anyway, so here.” He set the glass in front of her.
“Looks great, Rocky, but you’ve got to stop spoiling me.”
“I’m not spoiling you. I’m investing in that kid’s cerebral cortex. According to all that reading we’ve been doing, this concoction is some super-duper brain cell booster magic fluid bomb of nutrients guaranteed to improve his SAT scores.”
“Really?” She had to laugh. “It’s guaranteed?”
“Yes. I have to get a tie and get out of here.”
“I’ll get it.” She hopped up and then stopped suddenly when she realized she had no idea where he kept such things. “Where are your ties and which one do you want?”
“Well, I only have the three and I’m sure two of them are dirty.”
“Can you wear the one from yesterday or is it covered with white buttercream icing?”
“I can wear it. It’s hanging on my doorknob.”
She darted down the hall and came right back with the tie. “Can I pack you a lunch or something? There’s plenty of stuff leftover from yesterday.”
“No, thanks. If you need anything, text me.”
“I won’t be bothering you at work,” she said and followed him to the door. “I have one request though.”
“What?”
“Can you do that thing where you list the stuff we’re supposed to accomplish today? I know we talked about it last night, but I was so tired. Not to mention how unorganized and forgetful I am. I love that you’ve introduced me to the joys of keeping a to-do list on my phone, but I have yet to successfully complete one.”
“You’re not unorganized and forgetful, Gia. You’re getting through trauma.” He took his keys from the hook by the door. “But here’s the re-cap. I’m going to talk to Pastor Charles first thing this morning and fill him in. I’m also going to talk to my parents and give them the story the way we agreed to.”
“Good because I’m feeling guiltier by the minute that they weren’t included yesterday.”
“No longer an issue, so stop worrying. As for you, you’re going to either call your parents or send that e-mail you drafted last night. You’re also going to talk to the police and see what you need to do to document the assault for future reference.”
“And I’m going to look for work.”
“And you’re going to look for work.”
“And we’re both going to get mentally prepared for the fallout when our parents hear the news.”
“Yes, but mostly you’re going to take it easy and save me a piece of cake.”
She bent to kiss his cheek. “Always. Now go and be brilliant.”
As soon as the door closed, she raced to the couch to watch him leave in his fancy new set of wheels. He caught her peeking through the blinds and waved. She jerked away and sank into the cushions like a nosy neighbor who’d been caught spying. Then she laughed at herself.
Her laptop sat open on the coffee table from the night before. She woke it up and clicked on the e-mail to her parents. Rocky made it clear he thought she should call them. The thought of that made her twitch as though about to break out in hives. There had been a fleeting second of remorse late yesterday. Her mom was still her mom and she would be crushed when she found out her only child married without her. When weighed against a face-to-face chat though, an after-the-fact e-mail was all Gia could handle. At least both her parents would get it at once.
She read it through again. All the pertinent information was there.
She hit send.
****
Gia set a heaping plate of meat and cheese on the table and slipped a batch of crescent rolls into the oven. Rocky texted. He was on his way home and hungry. Wedding leftovers sounded perfect.