by Cee, DW
“It appears that decisions have been made in all the men’s minds. Let’s go convene with the women and see what they’ve come up with, Buddy.” Jake slapped my shoulder and pushed me toward the family room.
“But, no discussion has taken place,” I argued. “We haven’t discussed anything. You’ve all steamrolled me into accepting this marriage.”
Max answered, “You know as well as we all do that Rhys is a fine young man. None of us has anything negative to say about him. No discussion necessary—the men approve.”
“NO!” That was too easy. I had expected hours and hours of deliberation and scheming.
“Come along, Husband,” Delaney reached out her hand for me. “Let’s finish this conversation and vote.” My crazy wife was as eager as the men to be done with our daughter.
“I don’t think Rhys is good enough for my Delilah and thus, I think we should all vote no,” I stated my case.
“Donovan, I think we have to face reality. Our daughter brought home a fine young man and if she wants to marry him, I think we should support her.”
“Princess! How can you give in so easily?”
“He’s a good guy.”
“Good, decent, nice, whatever! It’s not enough for our baby.”
“But she loves him.”
“She’s so young. She just met him. How does she know she loves him? How does she even know what love is?”
“I knew I’d marry you at age eleven.” My sweet wife made me want to give in. “I loved you for as long as I could remember.”
I kissed my wife, my love, and reassured her, “I just want my little girl to know what it’s like to experience our kind of love. Right now, I think both kids are caught up in the emotions. It’s not possible for them to understand what they’ll face in marriage.”
“So what do you propose?” My father-in-law inquired.
“How about we make them wait?”
“How, Donovan?” Mom asked.
“Seeing that all of you appear to approve of Rhys, I’m going to stipulate that he finish school and postpone marriage for two years. They can have a long engagement. Time will test their relationship and if they can survive anything that comes their way, then I’ll approve.”
“So they just need to wait out two years?”
“No, Jake. They need to be productive during those two years with school or a job so they’re not together for most of that time.”
The grin on Jake’s face was unmistakable. “So if they’re too busy to meet, then when do they get to work on their relationship?”
I joined in the grin. “They can meet up the week before the wedding.”
All the women booed the idea. “You need to let them meet throughout the two years.”
“Momma Babs, if they can find a chaperone and take time out of their busy schedules, they are welcome to meet.”
“Donovan,” Mom disapproved. “Let them at least get together a month before the wedding. It’s not easy to get a wedding together in a week.”
I was feeling generous. “All right. They can meet a month before. Until then, they may not see one another unless one of us is with them. Delilah may not travel alone.”
The men chuckled while the women sighed.
Personally, I was feeling pretty damn good.
“Are we all in agreement?”
“Yes, Donovan.” A chorus of voices called in unison.
“Let’s vote, then!”
Delilah: Why?
“Why, Baby? Why so soon and why him?”
“Daddy. I can’t understand why you don’t love him like I do. What’s wrong with Rhys?”
“First of all, Delilah, his name is all wrong. What the hell kind of name is Rhys Kent? How do you even pronounce Rhys? I can’t trust any boy whose name I can’t say three times over without stumbling over it. Is he related to Clark?”
“Who’s Clark?” My father looked at me as if I was crazy for not knowing who Clark Kent was. I couldn’t remember any family friend by that name. “That’s not fair, Daddy.” I stood up for my fiancé. “He has no control over his name. You can’t dislike him for something so trivial. I see nothing wrong with Delilah Kent.”
Dad wasn’t convinced. “I also don’t like that he’s obnoxiously rich and that he lives in London. You’re my only baby girl. I don’t want to be apart from you.”
“But, Gigi was from London. You said great-grandfather Jerry was British. Grandpa Scott is part English. Our last name is as English as it gets. You’re not making sense, Daddy.”
“You’re only twenty-two, Baby. Reconsider. You don’t need to be engaged already. You have at least another ten years before you need to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.”
“Daddy...” I sighed and turned to the person I thought would help me. “Mom? Are you unhappy that I accepted Rhys’ proposal?”
“It is a bit sudden, Sweetheart. Like your father said, what’s the rush? How do you know you want to live with this person after one month of courtship? That’s the part that should be dragged out. Play hard to get. Run away from him. Torment him before giving in.”
Dad’s groan was comical. “Only listen to the first part of your mother’s statement. Don’t torture any boy the way your mother tortured me. It’s not humane.”
Mom rolled her eyes at Dad’s comment. “Listen, if you want to marry Rhys, I’m all for it. I do like him. What your father and I would like is a little time for you to get to know him.”
“How am I supposed to do that with the crazy addenda, plural to addendum, to the rules you’ve now imposed?”
Dad almost fell on the floor with delight. Before I explain the addenda, addendums, whatever, I need to shout from the mountaintop that Rhys passed the vote on his first try. After our family pow-wow, they voted the very next day and it was unanimous. Rhys had won over every Reid, Taylor, and Davis. At the end of the night, it was obvious he’d earned their affection. I knew our engagement would hold.
However, there were a few extra stipulations placed on our engagement. As my cousins and I learned, my parents’ generation liked to make up random rules to drive us nuts. These rules benefited no one but anyone over the age of forty.
Mom lamented, “Don’t misunderstand us. We like Rhys. We just don’t like you marrying so young. There are so many fish in the sea. Don’t you want to swim with different ones and find the one who’s most compatible?”
“How about you wait another decade, and your mother and I will find the perfect man for you?”
This was a no-win situation. “But, I already found the perfect man for me. Why wait a decade when he’s in sight?” I complained, “We agreed to your crazy addenda, to the already crazy rule.”
My parents gazed at one another as though I was the crazy one. Dad asked, “Which crazy is which?”
“What?” Donovan Taylor, aka Dad, drove me nuts at times. Now I finally understood where my brothers honed their skills. Dad knew exactly which crazy was which.
I clarified myself just in case my parents misunderstood. “It’s psychotic that your generation and our grandparents’ generation all have to vote our spouses into our family. That’s more people than I can count in one sitting without getting a headache.” There was much laughter in both my parents’ eyes. They knew they had all our numbers. “If that wasn’t bad enough, you,” I pointed to my dad, “and my uncles conspired against us and came up with a devil’s plan to keep us apart for two years.”
“Who, me?” UGH! Why was my father home so many hours of the day, these days? He was going to be the death of me and Rhys.
“Yes, YOU! You’re the one who suggested that after the engagement, we stay apart until the wedding. It was only when my two grandmothers came to our aid that you allowed us to meet a generous month before the wedding.”
Dad outright bellowed his delight. “Ingenious of me, huh?”
Mom nodded her head in agreement.
“How can you do that to us? How are we supposed to re
vel in the joys of our engagement if you’re ruining these precious moments?”
“We’re ruining nothing. You can still meet. None of us said that you couldn’t see one another during the two-year engagement.”
“OH MY GAWWWWWD!” I yelled. “That’s crazy number two. You made us promise not to marry until Rhys was done with his graduate program. You know damn well he won’t be able to come out and see me as often when he’s in school.”
“Language, Young Lady,” Mom warned.
“But, that’s so unfair. Not only did you make us promise to wait two years, you also made Rhys go back to school and I’m not allowed to visit him unless I’m with a family member older than forty. How are we supposed to see one another at this rate?”
My parents didn’t say it, but their smug faces hollered, “GOTCHA!” Then, they started to laugh—loudly.
As if I wasn’t annoyed enough, Dad asked, “Whose idea was it to suggest that Rhys finish school first?” He paused for an entire second before saying, “Oh yes, mine!” He was so proud.
“How are we to survive?”
“Love will conquer all.” I had had enough of Donovan Taylor for one afternoon.
Before Rhys left for London, tomorrow, to start on his graduate program, we were going to spend the last of our time together. Maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t come home tonight and see what Donovan Taylor had to say about that.
“Curfew is eleven if you’re away from Reid Place, midnight if you’re on the swing in front of our house.” How did he know what I was thinking? “I was a man of twenty-two once, Dear Lilah. I know the inner workings of a young couple’s mind.”
“UGH!” I yelled again. “Did you follow your own rules when you were dating Mom?”
That’s when Dad went silent and decided he had a conference call. Just the other night I thought we would be fine. Now, I’m wondering how Rhys and I will make it. God help me!
Delilah: How!
“How the hell are we transporting all these people to London for Lilah’s engagement party?”
“I’ve no idea, Donovan. Our baby, being the first in her generation to marry, has every family member excited about her nuptials.”
“Are we doing the right thing, allowing her to marry at such a young age?”
“I wasn’t much older when I married you. I don’t know that I was any wiser.”
“Yeah, but you were marrying me. There were no arguments against me.”
“Really?”
“Um, I can hear you. I’m in the same room as you both and you’re speaking as though I’m not present. I thought you liked Rhys. Why are we doing this again? Rhys and I are your best pupils in this Taylor School of Obedience.”
“Tell me, again, what it is about this boy that you like enough to marry?”
“Well, Dad. On the outside, he’s really handsome. He actually reminds me a lot of you.” It never hurt to stroke Donovan Taylor’s ego.
“Sweetheart, I’ve seen Rhys and he’s nowhere as good-looking as your father. Plus, you don’t marry a man because of his looks.”
Delaney Taylor would always be Donovan Taylor’s biggest fan. The two of them still behaved like newlyweds. Regardless of whether their four children were watching, they showed great affection toward one another. I loved that my parents adored one another. Growing up, I knew I wanted a man like my father.
“I want a man just like Daddy, and Rhys reminds me of him. He’s smart, kind, funny, good-looking, and above all, he loves me.”
Mom was now the one groaning while Dad donned a proud look.
“What can we say, Princess?” Dad asked Mom. “Our baby believes Rhys is perfect, just like her daddy.” Nobody did smug better than Donovan Taylor.
Mom was aghast. “Just two minutes ago, you were wondering why we were having this union.”
“I still am. But there’s a part of me that empathizes with my daughter. She wants the perfection you have, Princess.” He nuzzled her neck but Mom would have none of that.
“Whatever, Donovan. Life wasn’t so perfect when I was nursing twins in between med school classes.”
“It’s been perfect since I knocked on that door in Belgravia, on your twenty-third birthday.”
“Shit,” I muttered. I knew that “look.” We, kids, cleared out when that “look” happened.
“Language.” Dad said between kisses to Mom.
“Anyhow, are we all ready for London?” Mom changed topics.
“Princess, I think the question to ask would be, ‘Is London ready for us?’”
With that, we ALL, as in almost one-hundred-fifty of us, flew to London for mine and Rhys’ engagement party.
Rhys and his entire family welcomed us with a lavish engagement party at their posh hotel in the heart of the city.
“We love your daughter and can’t wait to make her our own,” was how Rhys’ father, Bennet, greeted the future in-laws. “I’m Bennet and this is my wife, Amelie.”
“Thank you for the gracious welcome. I’m Donovan and this is Delaney, or Laney, Taylor.”
The parents greeted one another while Rhys walked me to his brothers. “I’m happy you’re back here, Lilah. You look stunning! What are the chances we’ll be able to sneak away for a few hours?”
I laughed at the absurdity. “Slim to none, Rhys. Dad will have me under lock and key at the hotel.”
Rhys was a good-natured fellow. He, too, laughed it off as I was warmly greeted by his brothers.
After a sweet hug, Ainsley said, “What are my brothers and I doing wrong where the baby of the family gets all our parents’ love and attention? All we’ve heard is ‘Rhys this, Lilah that.’ Our wives are saddened that the grandparents are more excited about their newest daughter-in-law’s arrival than of their grandchildren.”
“Hey.” Rhys pretended to be territorial. “Hands off my fair lady.” He pushed his brother away and wrapped his arm around me.
“Rhys told us about your family and all their ‘rules.’ We loved them. I think Mum and Pops were especially pleased. They, too, were a little worried your relationship had moved so quickly.” Robbie informed us and hugged me for a long time to spite his brother. Once again, I was pulled back into my love’s arms.
“I guess that’s the sentiment of the old folks,” I lamented. “Since it’s done, we’ll make the best of the situation. I’m hoping you’ll come see me in Los Angeles. Our family would welcome you with open arms.”
All four brothers nodded their heads, but Rhys was done speaking with them. He pulled me into an alcove and asked, “Are you truly all right with our arrangement? If you’re not, I can speak with your father privately. I’m not above begging, if that’s what you want, Lilah.”
I thought seriously about what he was asking. As pleased as I was that Rhys would do whatever it took to make me happy, failure was a foregone conclusion. There was no need to put him and my father at odds with one another.
“I want to be with you, but a two-year wait won’t kill us. During that time, we can grow in all aspects of our lives. We can also look forward to our every reunion. Since I’m the first one to marry, Dad won’t back down. Even if he wavers, my uncles won’t allow it. It’ll set a bad precedence for their daughters. Let’s look at this as a time to work out all our differences, so when we marry, we’ll have a perfect marriage.”
