We stopped at the door and waited for everyone to line up. They were all opening up the small bags that contained the rice.
Emma and I both said at the same time, “Oh, great.”
Emma had begged her parents to skip this part, but they wouldn’t have it. Their little girl would not be sneaking off. She deserved a proper send-off.
“Are you ready?” Maria asked as she looked at Emma and then me.
We both nodded our heads, and before we took off, I leaned down and said, “Take off your shoes.”
Emma snapped her head and looked at me. “What? Why?”
I was looking at everyone smiling. “We can run faster if you’re not running in damn heels.”
“Oh, smart thinking!” Emma reached down and slipped one shoe off and then the other.
I leaned in to her and said, “I have a plan. Before your dad gets done talking, we take off running. We’ll catch everyone off guard that way.”
Emma laughed. “I knew I married you for a reason.”
Charles walked up. “It’s time to send off the bride and groom! May I—”
I pulled Emma’s hand, and we both took off running. Everyone began scrambling to throw the rice.
“Um…well, there goes Mr. and Mrs. Garrett Thomas Mathews!” Emma’s dad called out.
We were more than halfway to the car when the first rice pellets began hitting us. Once we got to the car, they were still pelting us.
“Shit! Why aren’t they stopping?” I yelled out.
Emma laughed uncontrollably.
“Ouch! Son of a bitch! Who threw the whole bag at me?” I shouted. I looked up and saw Billy smiling from ear to ear. I pointed at him and said, “I’ll get you back for that, you bas—”
“Garrett! We should go,” Emma said as she pulled me back.
I quickly opened her door as her mother walked up, and we helped Emma into the truck. I ran around to the driver’s side and waved. “Thanks, everyone! See y’all in a week!”
I attempted to get the rice out of my hair before I jumped into the truck. Emma was still laughing, and she grabbed my hand as I took off down the road.
“Bastards! I think some of those people purposely hit me with full bags of rice,” I said.
Emma began picking rice out of her hair. “Garrett, pull over, so I can let my hair down and get this rice out.”
I looked over at her. There was no way in hell I was letting her take her hair down. That was my job. “We’ll be home soon, and I’ll get it out. I want to take your hair down.”
She turned, and from the corner of my eye, I could see her staring at me.
“I thought we had a flight to catch. You told everyone—” She stopped talking and put her hand up to her mouth. “You lied to everyone!”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Yes and no. I won’t deny it. I needed an excuse to get you out of there and in my arms. Technically, we do have a flight waiting for us in Austin…tomorrow. Do you know how crazy I’ve been, seeing you in that dress?”
Emma laughed and then let out a gasp. “Our dance. Oh my God, Garrett…we never had our first dance.”
I slammed on the brakes and looked at her.
“How did we not have our first dance?” I asked.
She looked at me like I was stupid.