Page 67 of Mia Amata

“That won’t be necessary,” Karen said, smiling at me. “I would be happy to do that for you, with a pregnancy it is understandable that we may need to make some last-minute adjustments.” We worked out all the details, and I paid the deposit for the dress. “I will order it today; it should get here this coming week sometime. Once it gets here, I will have you come in for the first fitting. Try to bring the shoes you are going to wear with you so that we can use them to judge the length better.”

Telling Karen I would bring the shoes, thanking her for all of her help. I headed out for lunch with Jacob.

As we ate our lunch, Jacob tried to get out of me what my wedding dress looked like. I smiled, finally telling him he would just have to wait. He mentioned the pastor would like to meet with us some evening this week, I told him to set it up any time. We would be there. After lunch, we went to some craft stores and flower shops, trying to pick out the right decorations for the wedding. We went with fall colors, those flowers being the easiest to find, plus fall is my favorite season. At one of the flower shops, I ordered my bouquet, along with flowers for Randy, Nora, and Janet.

We made one more stop at our favorite restaurant, discussed the food, and made arrangements for the setup and then later cleanup with them. With the small party, we were having we didn’t need servers, but we did pick out some nice plates and silverware to dress things up a bit. We arranged for them to set up a larger table than mine so that we could all sit around it comfortably, Jacob and Josh would move furniture a little to make room for it.

When we finished there, Jacob said, “Anywhere else we need to go today? You look tired.”

I smiled at him. “I am tired. I believe we are done for today. We got a lot of things checked off our list for the wedding.”

“Good,” Jacob replied. “I’ll take you back to your car, then follow you home.”

It was late afternoon when we finally got back home. I changed clothes into a T-shirt and shorts. Jacob did the same. “You should lay down and take a nap.” He said, looking at me, concerned.

I shook my head. “I’d rather just get comfortable on the couch with you. I’ll have to make supper soon anyway.”

“I like the cuddling on the couch, but how about I fix you supper tonight?” Jacob suggested.

“That sounds great.” We sat down on the couch, I snuggled up with my head on his chest, his arm around me, while we watched some football.

“Mia, wake up,” Jacob said. “Supper is ready, you should eat.” I woke up to find I was lying on the couch covered with a blanket.

I stretched, sitting up. “I fell asleep? I’m so sorry.”

Jacob laughed. “Nothing to be sorry about, you needed the rest. But you also need food.” He took my hand, helped me up, leading me to the table. I could barely keep my eyes open at the table. I ate a few bites, until Jacob finally said, “OK, come on. Let’s tuck you in.” He took me back to the bedroom, tucking me into bed. He gave me a kiss, then went back out to the living room. I was asleep before he got out the door of the bedroom.

I slept really well, waking up at 3:30 in the morning. I rolled over, curling up on Jacob’s shoulder. His arm automatically went around me. “You OK?” he asked sleepily.

“Yes, I’m fine.” I leaned over, kissing him.

“Mm mm,” he said, kissing me back. He rolled over, so I was now on my back, kissing me again. His hands roamed my body under my shirt, I groaned, straining up against his hands. “Is this, OK?” he asked, as he kissed me again. “I know you were so tired.”

I groaned again, “Don’t you dare stop now,” I whispered. Afterward, we fell back asleep in each other’s arms until Jacob’s alarm went off in the morning.

***

The week seemed to go by really quickly. We met with the pastor on Tuesday evening and discussed all the arrangements with him for the ceremony. We worked on decorations as we could, some we made by hand, often Randy would join us to help make them in the evenings. I had a fitting for my wedding dress, which seemed to fit almost perfectly with some room for the baby to grow a little bit. Randy found a dress to wear, the guys picked some shirts, ties, and dress slacks to wear. Everything was coming along nicely for the wedding.

Finally, the weekend came for the shopping trip to the city for Nora, Randy, and me to go buy the remainder of the baby things. Jacob was to drive me to Nora’s house, then we would leave from there while the guys went fishing. We walked into Nora’s house, where both Jacob and I were surprised to find Nora, Donald, Randy, Josh, Janet, and Jack there. “Surprise!” They all yelled when we walked in.

Turns out they put together a small wedding shower and baby shower for Jacob and me. They had taken the list of things I needed for the baby and went shopping without me. There was only one present for the wedding shower, something they had all gone in together on, a honeymoon cruise to Alaska. I looked at Randy in surprise. She was the only one who knew that one day I would love to take a cruise to Alaska. She smiled at me; I gave her a hug. We had a fantastic time spending the day with family.

***

The day of the wedding arrived quickly. I had continuously argued with myself about going through with the wedding. It would never be legal, but I had a new identity, and that person was not married. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but I was trying to make it right in my mind. I would lose Jacob if I told him, I didn’t think I could handle that.

I had my final fitting of the wedding dress the day before. Jacob had gone to Josh’s the night before the wedding while Randy came to stay with me. The furniture had been rearranged to fit the table we needed, plus all the decorations were ready to go. Nora, Donald, Janet, and Jack arrived Saturday morning to help us decorate. They then took charge of the inside of the house for the reception while Randy and I went to my bedroom to get ready.

Things were pretty much ready for the caterers to bring the food later, so everyone else went back to Nora and Donald’s to get dressed for the ceremony. A friend of Randy’s came over to do our hair and makeup.

Nora and Donald soon came back, Nora knocked on the bedroom door asking if she could come in. Randy and I were not in our dresses yet. We had some time before we needed to put them on.

Nora had a gift bag in her hand. “Oh, Mattie, you look so pretty.”

I smiled, “Thank you.”

She gave me a hug before sitting down in the chair next to the bed. “Randy and I have some gifts for you. First,” she said smiling, “you need something blue.” She reached into the bag and pulled out a garter with a blue ribbon running through it. We laughed, I told them it was perfect, and I loved it.

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