by Brittle, D M
“I’m just high on life Blakey; I am just high on life.” She took both my cheeks between her fingers and squeezed before hopping off the bed. “Is dinner ready? I am starving and really really looking forward to dinner.”
“Hang on a minute,” I stood and shook my head in confusion. “Blakey?”
Jo shrugged as she too was trying to hide her smile. She walked back over to me slowly and grabbed my shirt between her fingers as she tugged my mouth to hers kissing me slowly. As she pulled away she took a deep breath and looked into my eyes.
“Just in case I don’t get to tell you this at some point, I just want you to know that the night you came to the airport to stop me from leaving … that was the night that you saved my life.” I opened my mouth to speak but Jo placed her fingers to my lips. “You saved my life Blake, and no matter what life throws at us, no matter what happens with the trial, I will love you unconditionally until the day that I die.”
Her words touched me so deep but I couldn’t help smile at her, “You are one very hormonal pregnant lady do you know that?” Jo laughed as her eyes glazed over with unshed tears. “And just so as you know,” I reached down and linked our fingers together. “The night that I proposed to you on that tiny little boat in the middle of the lake? When you said yes, that was the night that you saved my life.”
“You always have to go one better don’t you?” Jo replied smiling as she sniffed back her emotion. “Right, let’s go eat, there’s something very important that I need to do once dinner is over.”
“And what would that be exactly?” I asked confused.
“You will see,” she replied with a wink, and with that she turned and left the room, leaving me looking forward to her silent promise of what I could only assume was going to take place in the treehouse.
*~*~*
I sat back in my seat and watched in awe at the conversations that surrounded me at the dining table. Dad was grilling Diana about her acting career whilst telling her over and over again what a big fan of hers he was in the Carry On movies; Diana fortunately seemed to be enjoying him fanning over her. Mom was busy talking to Jo about her scan that we would be having with DR. Greene when we arrived back in the US, I heard Jo ask her to come with us so as she could see the babies on screen to which mom seemed very overjoyed. Alex and Casey thankfully seemed a little happier than they did this afternoon, he was whispering closely to her ear as she giggled in response; I was really hoping that they had managed to talk at some point today, it was sad seeing them so uptight and upset with each other so soon after getting married. Then there was Jasmine, Robert, and Fraser; Jasmine’s food had barely been touched as she sat trying to convince Fraser that just one more spoonful of potato and vegetables would make him big and strong. She would also throw in the occasional “don’t forget that Santa’s elves are watching you, and if you eat just one more spoonful you may just get everything that you asked him for.” It seemed to work like a treat as every time she said it, he would take that one more spoonful.
Jo stood suddenly and began tapping her glass with her knife in order to get everyone’s attention, which was strange; Jo didn’t do speeches in front of people, I had to bribe her to say a few words yesterday at her birthday meal, and even then she only did it so as she could get her birthday present. She smiled at me briefly before checking that she held everyone’s full attention before beginning her speech.
“Hello,” she said shyly before moving her focus onto the table where she began fiddling with her napkin. “Erm, I have a few things that I would like to say to everyone, I hope you don’t mind me interrupting the dinner but if I don’t do this now, I will chicken out and then I will regret it and then I will be annoyed with myself and ….” I stood from my seat intent on walking around to Jo to help her through whatever she wanted to say to everyone.
“Sit,” she said louder than I think she intended to, her eyes darted to me. “Sorry,” she laughed nervously, “please, can you just stay there? I can’t do this if you leave your seat.” I slowly lowered myself back into my seat feeling the confusion thickening between everyone as the silence grew.
“If you’re about to tell us that your pregnant I think you’re about six months too late sweetheart.” You could always rely on dad to lower the tone, but his comment seemed to relax Jo somewhat as she laughed along with him before taking a long deep breath.
“Right.” Jo straightened her back and began making eye contact around the table. “I’m not sure that everything that has happened to me this year is in fact a dream or if I am so lucky that this really is my reality. Maybe I’m in a coma and when I wake up, none of you will be there, maybe this house will be gone, my bump and everything else that I have been rewarded with; or maybe my life finally did decide that I had taken enough shi… erm, nonsense, yes nonsense, sorry Mum.” I looked to Diana who was trying her hardest to mask a smile. “Maybe this is my life now, and as hard as I am struggling to believe it, I bloody well deserve it. Sorry, again, Mum.” By now, Jo was relaxing more and more and so were all of the family.
“Thank you all for making that long journey to spend Christmas with us, this is exactly how I wanted it to be, and I can’t believe that you really are all here. My lovely Mum who I love so, so much, my best friends and my new family; well they will be my family, at some point; which brings me to Blake.” As Jo’s eyes locked on mine, I could see some sort of fear in her gaze. “There’s something that I need to ask you.” Jo’s eyes fell to the table briefly as she mumbled something under her breath that I couldn’t hear before she looked up at me again. “Blake Mackenzie, will you marry me?” The table fell silent as all eyes focused on me.
“Of course I am going to marry you,” I smiled, “we talked about this just this morning, remember beautiful?”
“Yes, yes we did, and if you remember, I told you that I wanted us to get married when everyone that we love could be there to celebrate it with us. Look around us Blake, everyone who needs to be there, is sat amongst us right now.”
“What are you saying Jo?” I asked. Slowly I began to realize exactly what she was trying to say.
“I suppose I didn’t ask you in the right way; let me try this again. Blake Mackenzie, would you do me the biggest honor of my life by becoming my husband on New Year’s Eve, as in THIS New Year’s Eve in one weeks’ time?”
“Can you marry here so soon like that? I mean you’re an American citizen son, surely there’s paperwork to fill out and arrangements to be made.” Dad’s voice echoed around us and everyone remained silent.
“Oh,” Jo said quietly. “I never gave that a thought.”
“Well I did.” I said firmly as Jo’s eyes darted to me.
“You did?” She asked as her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
“I did,” I smiled. “I kind of prepared myself for this happening once I knew that everyone was going to be joining us for Christmas; after all we do like to do things quickly don’t we? When I brought the house, I asked Theo to sort out all the paperwork and everything that we would need, just in case.”
Jo’s confusion disappeared as a huge smile spread across her face.
“But,” I said firmly causing Jo’s smile to falter slightly. “We’re going to struggle to get anyone to marry us at such short notice beautiful; otherwise you know that there is nothing that I would want more than to marry you on New Year’s Eve.”
“What if I told you that the wedding is already booked?” she said with a nervous smile on her face. “Reverend Matthews has kindly offered to marry us on New Year’s Eve at 6pm.” Again all eyes shot to me.
“You booked the wedding?” I asked in shock. Jo began nibbling at her lip which she did a lot when she was nervous.
“Yes,” She answered nervously. “But if you don’t want to then I understand, it was just spur of the moment anyway, you know my baby brain has me doing all kinds of weird things these days, so if you don’t want to, then like I said, I understand.” Her gaze lowered back to the
table. Did she seriously think that I wouldn’t want to marry her as soon as next week? Hell, I would marry her in ten minutes if we had invited Reverend Matthews to dinner.
“Jo,” I said bringing her attention back to me.
“Yes?” she asked nervously.
“Am I allowed to stand from the table now?”
Jo shrugged slightly, “If you want to.”
I stood and headed around the table as quickly as was humanly possible until I was stood in front of Jo. “Look at me,” I placed my fingers under Jo’s chin and lifted her gaze to mine. “I can’t believe that you booked the wedding,” I let out a small laugh before placing my lips to Jo’s. “I didn’t know that it was even possible to love you any more than I already do, but right now in this exact moment,” I took a deep shaky breath. “Of course I am going to marry you on New Year’s Eve.” I couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across my face as relief flooded Jo’s face.
“You will?” she asked excitedly.
“Jo, I have wanted to marry you since the very first time I asked you. I would marry you this second if I could.”
“Really?”
“Really. And I know that its short notice, but I am going to give you the best wedding you could ever wish for.”
“I don’t want a big wedding,” Jo said quickly. “I don’t need fancy cars or a big party Blake, the only thing that I want and the only thing that I need, is you, standing at the alter waiting for me when I step into that church.”
“Oh, you are getting a big wedding my darling just you try and stop us,” Diana announced.
“I love you so much Miss Summers.” I held Jo’s face as our lips crashed together, everyone cheered and whistled as I kissed my bride to be. “Were getting married!” I yelled as our lips parted. Suddenly everyone was up on their feet as they took turns to congratulate us. As much as I couldn’t believe that Jo had managed to book the wedding without me even knowing, this was the best Christmas present that I could have wished for. We were going to be starting the New Year as Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie, no present under the Christmas tree could ever beat that.
Jo
(New Year’s Eve)
The week had flown by in a complete daze.
From the moment that I re-proposed to Blake on Christmas Eve, I had been well and truly sucked into a wonderful tornado of wedding preparations.
I had insisted on a simple and cozy wedding, I hadn’t exactly given us enough time for anything else, but I maintained that all that mattered to me was that Blake was there, nothing else would make my day as special as it was going to be knowing that Blake was stood waiting for me; but both of our mothers had taken control of all arrangements and any idea that I had given to them to keep the wedding simple and cozy were quickly quashed and replaced with whatever the both of them deemed appropriate. Somehow, mum had managed to convince a dressmaking friend of hers to make not only my wedding dress, but also three bridesmaids’ dresses and a pageboy outfit for Fraser. Mum said that she didn’t take much convincing once she knew that it was Blake Mackenzie’s wedding and that sooner or later the photos of her creations would be featured in one or two glossy magazines. With that said she had gathered quite a crew together to insure that all of the dresses would be of exceptional quality and would be made with plenty of time to spare.
On Christmas morning, mum had presented Blake and me with both hers and dad’s wedding rings. As much as I insisted to mum that it didn’t feel right taking not only dad’s ring but hers too and that Blake and I were going to be buying our own rings the next day; she was adamant that we would not be giving each other a wedding band that held no sentiment whatsoever, her argument was backed up by every other person in the house that morning which made it even harder to resist.
In her own words she told us both; “by accepting these rings from your father and I, you will therefore have us with you every single day for the rest of your lives…” Of course there was no arguing with that.
Everything was just simply perfect; there were no other words to describe what I was fortunate enough to have been blessed with. I was about to marry my soulmate, the man who had taken me at my lowest and walked beside me through the storms to get to where we were today.
I stood at my bedroom window watching the preparations for the wedding reception taking place in the garden, nervous butterflies slowly began to dance around in the pit of my stomach as I watched staff that my mum and Julia had employed quickly dashing around making sure that everything was exactly as it should be. Both of our mothers stood like Sargent Majors picking at every tiny detail that they deemed un-acceptable. My attention was fixated on the marquee that had been erected in the garden, which is where we would all enjoy a party and music once we were back from the church. The marquee looked amazing and even more so because we had experienced more snowfall over night; it made the marquee look even more magical.
Blake had been banished to Tim’s house along with Alex, Robert and Marti giving the ladies all of the space that we needed to get ready in peace and quiet.
One tradition that my mum was adamant on keeping was that I would not be allowed any contact with Blake before I walked down the aisle this evening; she had even confiscated my mobile phone to ensure that this rule was not broken.
I laughed to myself as I remembered the Skype conversations that I had shared with Blake for most of last night and this morning on my IPad, mum had been none the wiser thank God and I was already looking forward to speaking to him again shortly, providing that we didn’t get busted like two naughty teenagers.
“Twenty-five minutes I have been stood here and during that time I have seen you laugh, cry and sigh about a million times whilst looking out of that window, you’re either telling yourself some pretty lame jokes or you are having second thoughts about marrying me later on today.” I gasped as my eyes immediately shot to Blake who was stood in the doorway to our bedroom smiling at me.
“What are you doing here?” I hurried over and pulled Blake into the bedroom closing the door firmly behind him. Blake was laughing as I leaned against the door and turned the lock.
“If mum sees you here she is going to flip.” As I turned to face Blake his body pressed against mine as he kissed me like we hadn’t seen each other for weeks.
“I missed you,” he whispered against my lips as his hands moved down my body, desperately untying the belt on my robe and letting it fall open. Our mouths continued their battle against each other as we desperately tried to get as close to each other as possible. “Do you realize that we haven’t had sex since Christmas Eve? Do you know what that does to me, laying in that bed with you night after night and not being able to touch you because we are surrounded on every wall by our family and friends?” Blake’s mouth moved down to my neck as his hands began kneading my breasts, the ache for him to be inside me was vastly growing as he teased my body with his hands and mouth.
“You really shouldn’t be here Blake, it is bad luck to see each other before the wedding,” I panted.
“I think we have had all of the bad luck that were due beautiful, and I am craving you right now.”
“Someone could hear us,” I panted as Blake’s hands moved down my body, his mouth moving to my breasts, sending every single one of my senses spiraling.
“Do you want me to stop beautiful?”
“No…. no please Blake, don’t stop.” I felt Blake’s hot breath as he laughed against my nipple.
“Good because there is no way I could stop now even if I wanted to.” Blake’s mouth worked back up to my neck before his lips left my body and his gaze lifted to mine. “I can’t believe that in just a couple of hours you are going to be my wife.” He lifted his fingers to my face gently stroking my cheeks as his expression softened.
“I still can’t believe that a week ago we didn’t have a date for the wedding or this house and now there are people running around like headless chickens trying to make our day perfect,” I smiled.
“Well th
at’s us beautiful; we certainly don’t like to hang around do we?” Blake’s eyes stayed on mine as his hands rested on my ever growing bump. I placed my hands around Blake’s neck and pulled his mouth back to mine.
“We don’t have long Blake, I need you, please.” I pushed away from the door and walked Blake towards the bed, my hands working shakily on his trousers as our lips locked together once more. The house was deadly silent; the only noise filtering in was from the garden where people continued to rush around to get our special day ready. Blake turned me and lay me down gently onto the bed as he kicked off his trousers and lifted off his shirt before climbing over me, he parted my legs, placing himself between my thighs as his eyes roamed over my body.
“You are more and more beautiful every single time I look at you.”
“Please Blake; I need you inside me, now.” Blake positioned himself over me, hovering, teasing my entrance; he was so close but not near close enough to soothe the ache that was thickening within me with every minute that I waited for him.
“Jo? Jo, are you in there? Why is the door locked?” Our moment was over before it even began as mum’s voice echoed through the silence as she tried over and over again to open the door.
“Shit!” I pushed Blake off the bed before we both leaped up and began dressing.
“Just a second!” I yelled shakily.
“Are you okay dear? Can you open the door?” I threw Blake’s shirt at him before pointing to the bathroom, Blake was struggling to contain his laughter as he hopped across the bedroom on one leg, trying in vain to pull his trousers up as he moved. As I fastened my robe I took a deep breath and unlocked the door.
“Mum,” I said a little too enthusiastically, “what’s up?” I held the door with one hand as I placed my other hand to my hip in a desperate attempt to look casual.
“Why did you lock the door? Those locks have been there since before we brought the house the first time around, you could have got yourself locked in, now that wouldn’t have been a good thing to happen on the day of your wedding would it dear?” Mum stepped past me and into the bedroom where her eyes roamed the room as if she were looking for something.
