BRITTANY
“Suck it in, Britt,” Mom says as she pulls the dress together in the back to try again to zip it up.
“Mom, you can’t suck in when you’re pregnant! Damn it, I knew I should’ve bought another dress for this.”
My oldest sister comes into the dressing room, carrying a white shawl. “I took this off of Aunt Gertie,” she says as she places it around my shoulders. “Now no one will see the back of the dress. Presto! Maddie to the rescue. As usual, Pipsqueak.” She touches the tip of my nose and smiles like she’s the smartest person in the world.
“This sucks,” I whine. “I’m starving, too. Nothing is going as planned.”
The door opens as if on cue and in comes the next to the oldest sister, Sharon. “I’ve got a little snack for Your Highness. Cheese and crackers.”
Grabbing one, I scarf it down. “This kid is going to be just like his daddy, always hungry.”
Maddie makes a scoffing sound as she shakes her finger at me. “You're only four months pregnant, Britt. With my first baby, I didn’t even show at all until I was about ready to give birth. You’re eating too much.”
A voice comes from the dressing room next to mine, “No, she isn’t, Maddie. Let her eat,” my soon-to-be husband defends me through the thin wall of the old church.
“Thanks, baby,” I call out just before I put another cheesy cracker into my mouth. “You know, no one would ever believe two billionaires are getting married here today. Cheese and crackers and sparkling grape juice for refreshments. I think you guys should’ve taken some of our money to do this thing.”
Mom shakes her head. “No, ma’am. That’s not how we roll, missy. So you enjoy those crackers and later on after the ceremony, you can have a pimento cheese sandwich your Aunt Felicity brought and some lime sherbet punch your granny made.”
Jason calls out through the wall again, “Speaking of lime punch, I’m about to get me a cup of that. I’ll meet you at the altar, pumpkin.”
“I’ll see you there,” I call out to him.
Sharon sits in the chair in front of the large mirror and puts on a little bit more mascara. “Maybe John will ask me to marry him during the wedding. I hope so.”
Mom and Maddie roll their eyes as I blurt out, “Isn’t three marriages enough, Sharon?”
She narrows her eyes at me through the mirror. “Since none of them worked out, I’d say no to that question. Thanks for asking, though. And I don’t have any kids yet. Not like Maddie and her brood of six.” She moves her eyes to look at our oldest sister. “Don’t you and Paul have a television, sister?”
Mom laughs, then quickly stops as Maddie glares at her. “Mother! That’s not funny in the least. Say something to your daughter, please. Every single one of our children is a blessing straight from God.”
“Yes, dear,” Mom says, then pats Sharon on the shoulder. “Those kids are blessings, Sharon. Don’t make fun of your sister and how she and her husband procreate like rabbits.”
Maddie’s eyes go wide as she shouts, “Mother!”
A knock comes to the door and my father’s voice calls out from the other side of it, “Time to go, Britt.”
The music starts up as the old lady from the church plays the piano. It's ancient and out of tune and it sounds kind of creepy, but I like it.
Mom shoos my sisters out, then turns back to hug me. “I love you, Brittany. And for the record, I love Jason, too. He’s really changed a lot since he was a young man.”
“Thanks, Mom.” She lets me go and then my dad is looming in the hallway, waiting for me.
With a little wave, he says, “Well, come on, Britt-Bratt, let’s get you hitched.”
“Okay, Daddy.” I take his arm and out we go.
At the end of the short aisle stands Jason in a very expensive tuxedo. It looks a little odd in this old country church. It’s small and smells kind of musty, but the stained glass windows are pretty and it reminds me of home and simple times.
Each step I take toward him has my heart going a little bit faster. Things worked out for us both. The baby’s real father turned out to be that fry-cook and when my attorney threatened Elmer with a lawsuit and some serious charges, he backed off and signed some paper she made up, stating he’d leave me alone and never attempt to contact me or blackmail me again.
The sound of thunder makes the little wooden building shake, and the sizzling sound of lightning fills the air. Dad stops as the lights blaze then go out. Only the four slender white candles behind Jason give any light to the church as it’s nine at night and dark already.
“Crap,” my great grandfather shouts. He’s deaf and has no idea how loud he talks.
“Hush, Walter!” my great grandmother shouts at him. She can hardly hear either.
The woman playing the piano stops playing it and asks, “Does anyone else smell that?”
Dad takes a long sniff of the air then shouts, “Fire!”
All of a sudden there’s a stampede of nicely dressed people trying like crazy to be the first ones out the door. I’m frozen as my father tugs at me to go with him. “Come on!”
Looking over my shoulder, I see Jason with a big frown coming toward me. Letting Dad’s hand go, I turn to Jason, who puts his arm around me and pulls me to a side door no one else has seemed to notice.
“Some wedding huh, pumpkin?” he says with a little laugh.
“Do you think this is a sign, Jason?” I ask, as I feel very nervous all of a sudden.
He takes me out into the dark, pulling me close to his side. “A sign? Like for us not to get married? That kind of sign?”
“Of course. What other kind of a sign do you think I’d be talking about at a time like this?” I ask, as I try to read his expression in the darkness.
He pulls me along with him, away from the building, which I assume is about to burn down right in front of us. “I thought you might be talking about a different sign. A sign that says getting married indoors isn’t cool. You know that kind of thing. Not that we shouldn’t get married. That’s just crazy thinking, doodlebug.”
We all make it out and move away from the little church that doesn’t seem to be on fire at all. Everyone is mumbling and then some of the cars that are parked in front of the church turn their headlights on.
Several of the men walk around the church and call out randomly, “No fire over here.”
Jason’s mother grabs his arm. “Oh, goodness! We’ve walked all the way out to the cemetery! We’re treading on people’s graves. Hurry, let’s all move.”
Everyone starts moving away. Then I feel Jason tug on my hand as he shouts, “Wait! Wait a minute, everyone.” He steps to one side, allowing the headlights to illuminate the headstone we’re standing in front of. He points at it. “Gramps!”
His grandfather’s grave is what we’re standing on and then another flash of lightning goes sideways in the night sky. It crackles and pops as it moves from one vein of lightning to many veins. The entire graveyard is lit up by the lightning.
“Would you look at that?” his father says as he walks up beside Jason. “Guess the man wants to be a witness to your marriage, son.”
The preacher comes up and asks, “Would you like me to do the ceremony out here then?”
Jason looks at me. “Would you mind?”
“Me?” I ask with a high voice. “Of course not.”
The wedding isn’t going the way I had ever imagined, anyway. Why not have it outside, at night, standing on a man’s grave?
With a kiss to the side of my head, Jason says, “I knew I was marrying the right girl. Thanks, Gramps.”
The preacher moves behind the tombstone of Herbert S. Waldrip and starts the ceremony as our families look on. My mother and father stand behind me and Jason’s parents stand behind him.
I can hear my nieces and nephews running and playing murder in the dark somewhere on the other side of the church as we say our vows. The words that will hold us together through all the storms life throws at us.
As I say the words, “Till death do us part,” the rain starts to fall in heavy sheets.
Jason picks me up, gives me a very quick kiss, then runs with me to his old pickup truck that he kept all these years at his parents’ house.
It’s been a very long time since I sat in this truck. The cloth seat is still ripped on the passenger side. It smells like dirt and now a little like mold, too. “Wow, what memories we’re making, Jason!”
He laughs as he starts up the old truck up. Then he looks at me with worry. “Disappointed, baby?”
Looking into his big blue eyes, I gauge my feelings about this little wedding of ours. Then I answer truthfully, “Not one bit.”
The way he’s looking at me has my body tingling. He strokes the back of my left hand, then pulls it to his lips and kisses the rings he’s placed on my finger. “Here we are. The first place I ever kissed you.”
I nod and wonder what he’s about to do. We used to heat this truck up when we were younger. Another thought goes through my head as I recall he heated this truck up with more than just me.
But I’m the one who ended up with him, so I push that negativity away as I run my hand over my protruding tummy. He looks at my hand moving in a circle over the little bump.
“I like you looking like this, Britt. You look healthy and gorgeous.” He puts his hand on top of mine.
“You managed to get that extra ten pounds on me,” I say with a giggle.
“Yes, I did.” He pushes me back on the long bench seat and leans over me as he runs his hand under my off-white dress.
After a little wiggling, he pulls his hand back out with my white panties in it. I blush as he smiles. “You can still accomplish getting me out of my panties in this beast, can’t you?”
“Always will, baby.”
His eyes go dark as he moves in closer to me. His breathing gets deeper as his hands move over my dress. When his lips touch mine, I feel like crying.
So many years, I’ve waited to feel this. I’m married. I’m married to the only man I have ever loved!
I feel like I’m flying as he kisses me, running his tongue around mine and groping my tit like he used to do. He moves between my legs. I unbutton his slacks and set his erection free.
Hoisting my skirt up, he pushes his thick cock into me. Making love with our clothes on, just like we did when we had to steal moments when we were young.
I open my eyes as he makes easy thrusts into me. The windows are fogged up as the rain beats down on the old metal. The sounds and the smells are lodged in my memory bank.
Pulling his lips from mine, he looks down at me. One hand moves through my hair as he pulls it out of the updo and lets it fall around my face. “There’s my girl,” he whispers. “For the last hour, I’ve been looking at this woman with fancy hair.”
I giggle as he runs his fingertips along my waist. “I’ve also been looking at this strange man in an expensive tux. I was wondering where my rough and tumble good old boy was.”
“Right here, ma’am,” he says with a deep drawl. “Here to please you forever and ever.”
His mouth comes down on mine with a heated kiss as he thrusts harder into me. I go even wetter for him as he kicks up his desire. Our breathing echoes off the interior.
Ragged and harsh, we make the same sounds we did all those years ago when we found ourselves in this very truck on some lonesome dirt road out in the country.
I claw at his back as he moves between my legs. I pull him to me until our bodies can’t be any closer. My body starts to tremble as he brings me to a climax.
Wrapping my legs around him, I arch up as I come for him. He lets me have what I want from him as his hard cock pulses inside of me. Our bodies go still as we come off the high of the simultaneous climaxes.
“I love you, Mrs. Brennan.” His words send a flush through me.
“I’ve wanted to hear you call me that for a very long time. It makes me feel even better than I thought it would. If you can believe that.”
“It felt pretty awesome slipping off my tongue, too.” Another kiss punctuates his sentence.
I think I’m really going to like being married to this guy!