“I’m so jealous,” Maria chimed in, “but so happy for the two of you.”
Jake raised his beer. “To a bright future for my big brother, who finally found the woman of his dreams. It took you long enough.”
We all laughed. “He had to wait until I was legal,” I said, with a wink.
My mom nearly spit her wine all over. “Tessa, really.”
Ian shrugged. “I don’t even want to do the numbers. Seriously, you were in kindergarten when I started my first year of college.”
“Stop it!” I said, wrinkling my nose. “When you put it like that it sounds terrible.”
“It took me that extra twelve years to get my sh—” He stopped and glanced at my mom. “To grow up so I can be the fine husband you deserve.”
My mom smiled. “I am very happy for you both.”
“And I will be the best maid of honor, ever, but I swear if you try and put me in some poufy, pink taffeta dress, I will not show up,” Maria said, in a voice that revealed she was serious.
“When we go shopping for my dress tomorrow, I’m going to make it a point to look for the ugliest dress I can find.” I winked at her.
“You have a very busy couple of months ahead of you, Tessa; are you sure you can do it all?” my mom asked with concern.
I smiled. “With Maria taking care of things I can’t do online, and you handling the other details, it will all be fine. But honestly, I don’t care if we get married at the courthouse.”
“No,” Ian chimed in. “I want a real wedding. I want you in the white dress and the whole nine yards. We aren’t skimping on this.”
We all laughed. He had turned into a bit of a Groomzilla.
“Yes, sir. You will have your dream wedding,” I teased.
Maria and Jake stood. “We’re going to head out.”
My mom stood as well. “Me too. So we’ll meet here at nine tomorrow, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, I made the appointment with the first bridal shop at ten. Hopefully, I can find the dress there. I don’t want to waste my last day in Florida searching for a dress.”
“And I’ll be here to help you close up the house,” Jake said to Ian.
“Sounds good, thanks,” Ian said, clapping his brother on the back.
With everyone gone, Ian and I both collapsed on the couch. It had been a long day. We were both exhausted.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes. I’m excited. I get to use my shiny new degree to do a job I love, and I get to do it with you while traveling the world. How could I not want to do it?”
“I want to make sure. We’ll be gone for five months.”
“Yep, and we’ll get to do our part to save a little tiny bit of the world. I’m excited to keep learning from you as your assistant.”
He leaned over, kissed me. “You’re more than my assistant. You’re my everything, and I could never do this without you. Thank you for showing me how to live and be happy again. I truly never thought it would be possible.”
I crawled on top of him, straddling him. “You showed me how to live. Together, we are going to be so happy that all the other couples in the world will be jealous.”
He laughed. “We’ll see about that. For now, can we discuss this little black dress you have on?”
I leaned in close to his ear and nibbled the lobe before whispering, “Okay, but you should know that it’s all I have on.”
He groaned, jumped up and carried me to our bedroom.