Chapter 41

 

Back in the orchard, Rico found that Sam was deep in conversation with some lady he didn't recognize. Mitch was standing with his grandmother, and Rico went to join them. Mitch looked so good with patched of sunlight landing on him here and there. Nearby, Sammy was using an old iPhone his grandmother had given her to take pictures. From what Rico could tell, she was taking lots of pictures of trees.

"Take some pictures of your dad. Until the official photographer gets here, you're the wedding photographer on duty," Rico told her and she took a picture of Mitch and Rico together. Then she took a picture of another tree.

"Was everyone behaving?" Rico asked Mitch.

"As far as I can tell. Your grandmother said that lady is Wyatt's aunt."

"Oh, her. She told Wyatt that he and Sam should wait to get married," Rico remembered and he frowned at her. He hoped she wasn't upsetting Sam.

"What does she know?" Grandma jumped in to say. "I mean she's a good enough sort, I guess. She stayed here with the boys after they lost their parents until Wyatt came to take care of them. But make no mistake, that woman is uptight."

"Everyone is uptight compared to you, Grandma," Rico told her.

"Poor Sam was worried that she didn't like him. That right there isn't in her favor," his grandmother declared.

"Impossible. How could she not like him? Everyone loves Sam from little children to..." Rico paused and turned to his grandmother.

"If you're looking for the right way to describe my type of person, the words you're looking for are beautiful woman in her sexual prime."

"No, those are definitely not the words I am looking for," Rico told her.

"Well, if Wyatt's aunt finds any fault with our Sam, I'll be glad to keep him for myself," Grandma said just as the other woman was walking away from Sam.

Mitch nudged Rico, and he could see why. Sam look pale, and Rico would swear that he was turning paler by the minute.

Going over to him and taking his hand, Rico asked, "Did she say something?"

"No. She was nice. She told me how dear Wyatt and the boys were to her. She thanked me for taking good care of them and wished me the best. I just started thinking about my grandmother and the boys' parents. How people can slip away." Sam's voice was shaky and his hand was turning cold.

"Whoa. No. No one is slipping away," Rico assured him.

"I know," Sam said but his voice was even weaker and he looked really pale.

"OK, lean on me and take it easy," Rico told him.

While Grandma and Sammy were strolling around, Mitch came over and looked from Sam to Rico questioningly.

"I'm OK. Really," Sam said but his words were broken up as he started to gulp air.

"Hey, don't try to talk. Just breathe," Rico told him.

He tried to get him to sit down, but he refused. "I can't. I'll... mess up my suit," Sam said haltingly as he tried to regain control.

"Lean on me as much as you need to," Rico told him. "That's what I'm here for."

"This... This is a good thing. I want... I love... Wyatt," Sam gasped, struggling to breathe.

"I'll get Wyatt," Mitch said, but Sam shook his head and looked even more panicked.

"No, please." Pulling in a breath with a lot of effort, Sam forced himself to speak more steadily. "I can do this. I'm fine."

"Wyatt would want to be here," Mitch told him, and he sounded so absolutely sure of that.

"No. I can't ruin this day," Sam pleaded. "Don't tell Wyatt."

"Too late," Mitch said, and Rico saw that Wyatt was already on his way.

He was rushing over and then taking hold of Sam. "The boys told me I better come here and give you a hug," Wyatt said.

"How did they know what was going on?" Rico wondered.

"Lara and Gloria were on their way over here to let you know the justice of the peace had arrived," Wyatt said and stroked Sam's face. "Sammy told Gloria about Sam, and she told the boys and they told me."

"Those kids are like a spy network," Rico said. He saw his grandmother and Sammy on the edge of the orchard with Lara and Gloria, and he gave them a thumbs up to let them know everything was OK. Or it would be now that Wyatt was there.

"Tell me what you need," Wyatt said to Sam, his voice deep and steady and full of love.

"I feel better. All I need is for you to hold me," Sam said and leaned his forehead against Wyatt's.

"I can hold you like this through the whole ceremony," Wyatt offered.

Sam accepted immediately. "OK." But then he pushed away from Wyatt. "No, I can do this. I just got overwhelmed. Everything hit me all at once."

"I know what you mean," Wyatt said with understanding. "They formed a line back there to slap some sense into me."

Laughing shakily, Sam kissed him. "I feel much better now. Let's go get married."

He had perfect timing. They could see the justice of the peace making his way to them. He was a dapper, older guy. When he came over, he was introduced all around as Ron Jasper.

"Jasper? Like the fisherman guy?" Rico asked.

"Ben is my older brother, and he does like to fish. Too bad he wasn't up to getting up the hill. He really wanted to be here," the other Mr. Jasper said.

"You're getting married by a Mr. Jasper. That's great. You love that guy," Rico said to Wyatt and Sam.

"Yes, we do," Wyatt agreed.

"Everyone kept calling him Judge Ron," Rico said to defend his ignorance. Mostly it was his grandmother. Now he knew why she got that Cheshire cat look whenever she said it. He wasn't bad looking for an older guy.

 

As the ceremony was about to start, the guests lined up to form an aisle among the trees. Mitch was trying to keep Sammy from getting nervous, and Rico was doing the same thing for Sam, or trying to. The best thing for him was being able to see Wyatt. He was just across the way, waiting for them to walk down the aisle together.

They were doing that first. There was no music except the singing of birds. To that tune, Sam and Wyatt walked toward each other, linked arms then walked as one toward the justice of the peace. Seeing them like that, Rico felt like they were already married. In their hearts they were.

They weren't going to commit themselves to each other in the next few minutes. They had already done that. Now it would be official, stamped and sealed. Rico never felt that two people needed something like that to be together, but now the thought of it made his chest hurt.

The flower girls went next. Sammy got to walk right next to Gloria, so she wasn't too nervous. Then DJ and Riley followed with Wyatt's aunt between them. DJ looked kind of petrified, while Riley looked like he was using superhuman effort to keep himself from sprinting over to Wyatt and Sam.

Rico escorted his Grandmother down the aisle. Sam wanted her to stand in for his family, and she looked ready to cry as she gazed at Sam as proudly as any mother or grandmother.

"Hold steady, Grandma," Rico whispered to her. "Don't fall apart on me now. Wait for the vows."

She stepped to the side, and Rico went up to stand with the groom. He found that Mitch wasn't standing too far away, and he gave him a wink and a smile.

It was kind of hard to look at him right now and not feel overwhelmed, but Rico couldn't help it, couldn't tear his eyes away from how gorgeous he was.

The ceremony started and forced Rico to pay attention. After the justice of the peace spoke about the meaning of marriage, it was time for the vows.

Hoping he would be less nervous if he got through his part, Sam was going first. Rico got the ring out and noticed that his hand trembled. Looking up from the ring, his eyes went to Mitch. Mitch and a wedding ring—Rico didn't need to put those things together. He better not, or he would lose it.

Rico resisted the urge to loosen his tie. It was fine. Focusing on Sam's vows, Rico listened for his cue to hand over the ring.

Tentatively at first, Sam started speaking in a low but steady voice. "Wyatt, I feel like I didn't start hoping or dreaming until I met you. It's like I didn't even start breathing until you came into my life, and my heart only started beating when I first saw you. Now I have a whole life that's more wonderful than I could have imagined. I want to be with you forever." He took the wedding ring from Rico, held his breath for a moment then put it on Wyatt's finger while biting his lower lip. "With this ring, I promise to love you and cherish you even after forever ends." Sam's voice broke, and Wyatt took him in his arms and looked so happy that he would cry.

"Break it up, you two," Rico whispered to them. His voice sounded kind of rough, but it wasn't like he was going to cry or anything.

Sam and Wyatt pulled apart. It was Wyatt's turn, but first he looked at the ring on his finger, smiled, and took a deep, shaky breath. Clearing his throat, he looked into Sam's eyes and started speaking.

"Sam, today I feel painfully, indescribably happy and that's thanks to you. I feel like I'm marrying an angel and that I couldn't possibly deserve you, but I'll try to earn every moment of happiness I've found with you. I promise to make you as happy as you've made me. I love you so much."

They both looked teary eyed as they gazed at each other, almost like they had forgotten anyone else was there. Then Wyatt held Sam's hand and kissed it before continuing.

"I promise to never stop teasing you," Wyatt said and everyone groaned, but Sam laughed. "I'll never stop showing you how much I love you, how much you mean to me."

As Wyatt turned, DJ held out the ring to him very carefully while Riley whispered, "Don't drop it, Uncle Wyatt."

Taking the ring, Wyatt smiled and nodded. He held the ring reverently then kissed Sam's ring finger. As he started to slip the ring on Sam's finger, he said, "With this ring, I promise to cherish you and honor our vows, and love you and only you forever."

The justice of the peace declared them husbands and there was cheering and kissing, and Rico's chest hurt and his throat was tight from the effort of not letting himself burst into tears. He hugged everybody and saw plenty of people wiping away tears including his grandmother.

"I knew there would be waterworks," she said and dabbed at her eyes, careful not to mess up her makeup.

Sammy was looking worriedly at DJ while Wyatt wiped tears from his cheeks. "DJ is crying," Sammy whispered. Riley had been letting off some steam running in circles around trees, but now he went over to DJ and put his arm around his big brother while also jumping in place.

"He's just happy," Riley told her.

"I'm not crying," Rico claimed though no one was accusing him.

"I'll put my arm around you anyway," Mitch told him then he kissed him on the cheek.

"OK. Let's go eat some cake!" Wyatt said and everybody cheered, the kids the loudest.

Hand in hand, he and Sam led the way through the orchard and down the hill with the kids following closely behind them then the rest of the guests.

"I'll never look at this hill the same way again," Sam said to Wyatt as they walked down the path and put their arms around each other. Their wedding rings shining in the sun, they were a picture of happiness.

To actually get any pictures, the photographer had to run to get in front of them, but barely managed to overtake them. The kids took this as a challenge and started racing downhill. As Wyatt and Sam joined in with the guests following them, it was like the newlyweds were trying to make their escape early.

Rico wouldn't have blamed them. He couldn't imagine wanting anything more than to be alone with the man he just married. Except he wasn't getting married. Why was he thinking like that? Is this what they meant by wedding fever?

Though his suit was light, Rico did feel overheated in it while running around under the midday sun. The sun wasn't the only thing making him hot. His hand in Mitch's was burning hot, but he wouldn't have dreamed of pulling it free of that strong grip.