“Ready, Freddy,” I teased.
He narrowed his eyes at me, stopping me before I would’ve opened the door.
“You know your daddy was always real proud of you, right?” He asked, touching the tips of his fingertips to my face.
I smiled, cupping his hand with my own.
“Yeah, grandpa. I do,” I whispered, a lone tear threatening to spill over.
He leaned forward and kissed my nose before turning back toward the door and thrusting it open.
The door banged against the side of the wall, effectively announcing our entrance just as well as the music that was now playing throughout the church.
Instead of waiting for the music to get to the right point, he started to yank me down the aisle as fast as his arthritic knees would allow.
“You know, right, that you’ll have to spend the rest of your life with him?” Grandpa asked once we were half way down the aisle.
I giggled. “Yes, I do know that.”
I passed Pauline and gave her a little wave before I, once again, got yanked for not keeping up.
“Come on, slow poke. Your man’s a-waitin’,” he urged.
I looked up into Foster’s amused eyes, so freakin’ happy that I barely contained the urge to run down the aisle towards him.
“Go on, you know you want to,” my grandpa said, giving me a slight shove.
I stopped and pulled him to a stop next to me. Then gave him a loud smacking kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, grandpa.”
He blushed. “Get on with it. If you don’t hurry you’ll be givin’ birth in front of the entire God forsaken town.”
I laughed, then started to run towards the man that made my dreams come true.
His overprotective self, of course, started to freak out that I was running when I should clearly be taking caution in anything I did.
And running definitely wasn’t taking caution.
But I enjoyed seeing the panic in his eyes as I launched myself at him.
I had no doubt that he’d catch me.
Something he did effortlessly.
Even going as far as to cushion the impact by hunching his shoulders to allow more room for my belly.
He spun me around once before turning with me in his arms to face the priest.
A priest, who enjoyed the display of affection, just as much as the rest of the audience.
“So…I can see that we’re all excited to be here,” he laughed.
I nodded enthusiastically.
“Alright,” he nodded his head. “I was told I had to read this before I began. So here it goes.”
My daughter and the man that holds her heart,
I gave this note to your uncle on the off chance that something ever happened to me. He was to give it to the preacher on the day that you married. I only assume that he followed directions, because if you’re hearing this note read aloud, it means that I am no longer of this world. And Darren always was a shithead who refused to follow orders.
The crowd laughed, my eyes, now watering, turned to Uncle Darren.
He smiled at me fondly, nodding his head, encouraging me to listen.
The day that you were born was the happiest day of my life. I never thought that I would ever have something so precious that was made by me. Of course, your mother had a hand in it, too. Yet, I knew, the moment you were born that you’d be my little girl. I’d teach you everything you needed to know to succeed in life. To mold you into the perfect person who’d make some man extremely happy one day.
And I did. And I know that man standing beside you is extremely happy. In fact, if he has any brain in his head at all, he’s thanking the good God above that you were given to him.
Foster’s arms tensed around me tightly. “He’s right. I’m fucking ecstatic that I have you. And always will be.”
From this day forward, you will forever belong to this man. There’ll be days that you fight. Days that you can’t stand the sight of the other. Yet, you’ll forget about it, because you love each other. You will have a fight, and the next thing you know you’re cooking dinner together and neither one of you will remember what you were fighting about twenty minutes before.
A word of advice to my son- in- law, she’ll bring up things that happened a year and a half ago in a fight about what you want for dinner. It’ll happen. Trust me. Blake is a shit when she’s in a bad mood. Stick with her, though. She’s worth it.
I laughed, wiping the tears from my eyes, thankful that I’d worn waterproof mascara.
To my Blake, I hope you realize just how much you meant to me. How much I regret not being there to walk you down the aisle. To give you away to the man that I know will take care of you for the rest of your life.
You’re the beat to my heart, and I’m so proud of you.
I love you with all my heart, and I will always be watching over you.
Dad.
I hiccupped a sob as I turned my face into Foster’s chest, grieving once again for the man that I missed with all my heart.
“The priest said ‘shit,’” Foster said into my hair.
I laughed into his chest before I leaned back and stared up at the man I was about to marry.
I knew one thing for sure, and that was that I was one happy woman.
I was marrying the man of my dreams. I was pregnant with his baby. We had a house that was beautiful, and we both had jobs that we loved.
I couldn’t ask for a single thing more than I already had.***6 months later
Foster
I walked into the room, tired as hell from a shift that went from eight hours to twelve.
I’d just started heading to a call when the pager that I was forced to carry for any SWAT callouts went off.
Now, after a four hour long hostage negotiation call was over, I was finally getting home to my family.