Page 55 of I Do, or Dye Trying
Laughing at my idiocy dislodged the lump in my throat. “I do!”
“Do you, Joshua James Roman, take thee, Gabriel Allen Wyatt, to be your wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ’til death do you part?”
“I do,” Josh said proudly.
“May we have the rings?” Judge McDonnell asked.
I turned to Adrian and accepted the ring he held out for me. The man who’d become more like a brother than a friend winked and smiled happily. I placed the ring on the tip of Josh’s finger and said, “I give you this ring as a symbol of my commitment to love, honor, and respect you.” I felt tears sliding down my face as I pushed the ring the rest of the way home.
Josh’s voice cracked with the raw emotion he felt while reciting those same words to me before he slid the ring on my finger. I raised my hand to brush away his tears just as he did the same for me. There were audible sighs coming from our guests when we smiled at one another.
“By the power vested in me by the great state of Ohio, I now pronounce you husband and husband.” I had already planted my lips firmly against Josh’s before Judge McDonnell could finish saying “You may kiss your husband.” My eagerness earned whistles and catcalls.
I pulled back and stared into Josh’s smiling eyes until a peppy ukulele version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from theWizard of Ozbegan to play. It was our cue to take our first walk as a married couple. In keeping with the desire to do things our way, we stopped at each row of seats and shook hands or hugged the guests as they exited the rows rather than walk down the aisle and wait for them to converge on us.
Our guests walked over to the ornate marquee that was set up for our reception while Josh and I posed for photos with our families and the wedding party. I wanted to tell my husband three very important words, but I was interrupted by Josh’s photographer friend who kept saying, “stand here” or “look this way” or “smile.”
I snagged Josh’s hand to hold him back when the smiling and posing was over. “I love you.”
“Still?” he asked like he was surprised.
“Forever,” I promised then pulled him to me for a long, lingering kiss.
“I love you too, Gabe,” Josh said when we finally broke apart. “Now, we better get in there before those damn deputy marshals eat all the food.” At first, he caught me by surprise because I was so fixated on him that I forgot about the potential threat to both of us. Then I laughed because they did seem to enjoy the barbecue while they kept an eye on things at the rehearsal. Well, I thought his observation was humorous until he said, “I hope they didn’t find the apple tarts in the kitchen.”
Most men would question why two deputies from the Marshals Services office would be rummaging through his kitchen, but not me. “What apple tarts?” I asked as I began tugging Josh toward the reception.
“I got up after you fell asleep last night and baked tarts to take to the hotel. I knew you’d prefer it over the cake we ordered,” Josh told me.
“How well did you hide it? My dad can sniff out apple, cinnamon, and pasty better than a bloodhound,” I said, increasing my pace.
Josh tugged on my hand to slow me down and nodded his head in the direction of the marquee when I started to veer off toward the house to check on my tarts. “He already found them, but your mother threatened his life if he so much as stole a fleck of cinnamon sugar off the crusts.”
“I’m going to trust you on this, Sunshine.” I placed another kiss on his forehead before we entered the marquee.
“Let’s hear it for Mr. and Mr. Roman-Wyatt!” the DJ announced. Cheering and clapping erupted when we walked to our table.
I was eager to get Josh alone in our hotel room that night, but I didn’t want our reception to pass by too quickly. Our wedding was a once in a lifetime occurrence, and I wanted to savor every minute, every smile, kiss, and especially when we shared our first dance to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” I’d relive that moment until the day I died. When the song finally ended, our guests clapped, expecting us to leave the mock dance floor or invite them to dance also, but we had a surprise. Instead, we struck a pose in the middle of the floor until “It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock started to play. Josh had created a fun, easy dance that even I could pull off to entertain our guests. I had been nervous about it, but we laughed, and they cheered, not caring if I missed a step.
“It’s time for the grooms to dance with their mothers,” our DJ said once Josh and I finished busting a move. We had something more than a simple dance planned to honor our parents. As Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” began to play, the screen behind the DJ showed a video we comprised of pictures of us as kids with our parents. There were photos of them holding us for the first time, holidays, birthdays, sporting events, and spelling bees. As we spun our sobbing mothers around on the floor, our guests saw our prom, graduation, and pictures of us at college. As the song worked to a close, the individual photos turned into group photos of all of us taken when we visited them in Miami. I doubted there was a dry eye beneath the marquee by the time the song ended.
“Our greatest blessings,” my mom said to me. “I cannot wait until you experience it for yourselves.”
Later, I shared a dance with Bonita and my three beautiful sisters and so did Josh. I spun Meredith around the floor and then sweet, feisty Mama Richmond, who assured my mother that she watched over me like she did Josh. I was able to find moments with both fathers, my friends and coworkers, and even Captain Reardon. I smiled when I saw Kyle and Chaz take a few spins on the dance floor and the way Emory and Silver tried not to watch each other. It was the most precious night of my life, and I knew when it was time to steal my husband away to consummate our union properly.
We said our goodbyes to our guests and thanked them for being part of our special day then headed to Cincinnati in the back of a hired car. We decided to stay closer to the airport when we booked a flight that was scheduled to leave CVG at seven forty in the morning. I would’ve booked a room even if our flight didn’t leave until noon because I had no intention of being quiet or holding anything back and some things parents didn’t want to see or hear.
“Here comes your favorite part,” Josh said once we were inside our hotel room.
“Third favorite part,” I reminded Josh as I backed him up toward the bed.
“I brought something special for our night,” Josh said.
“Toys?” I asked in surprise.
Josh snorted and said, “Hell no. With our luck, we’d be ‘randomly selected’ for a luggage search and the TSA would have a grand ole time waving our dildos around.”
“We have dildos?” I asked.