Page 99 of Just Say Christmas
“I got something, too,” Zora was finally able to say. “I got the best thing.”
“The bell,” her mother said. “The bell for the bride. Maybe itdoesmean something after all, Isaiah, because your mum is getting married, isn’t she?”
Rhys said, “Yes, she is.” He asked Hayden, “What time do you and Luke have to leave?”
“Two-thirty,” Hayden said. “And it’s . . . one thirty-five.”
“Right, then.” Rhys stood up. “We’d better get our skates on.”
* * *
RHYS
It was one of those times that so rarely happened in life, those perfect moments when you got what you’d wanted most. It was winning the Rugby World Cup, and it was so much more.
Last night, he’d told Zora what he wanted for Christmas. “One thing. To marry you. Those rings on our fingers. Those vows spoken and taken on board, soul deep, so we can both believe them. I want to lie here again on Christmas night with the candles burning and you in my arms and know that you’re my wife. That’s my Christmas.”
Now, he told Hayden, even as the doorbell rang, “I printed something out this morning. The words Zora and I decided on. Willing to do that celebrant thing once more before you get on the plane?”
“Oh, yeh,” Hayden said, and he was smiling. “I am.”
“I wanted you to be my man of honor,” Zora said, “but this works, too.” She smiled, and it was shaky. “Fortunately, Rhys already had the license, and he put our house down as the alternate venue, so—we’re all good. Trust him to get it done ahead of time, and to think of everything.”
She’d saidour.
“Go answer the door, mate,” Rhys told Isaiah. “It’s Finn and Jenna and the kids. They’re coming for a wedding, and then they’re coming for a party, because your mum and I are getting married.”
Casey said, “That was my wish!” Actually, she gasped it, her eyes were wide, and her mouth was forming anO.Casey Moana, full-tilt invested. “I wished for you to have a wedding, and I wished for a baby. So maybe the baby wish will come true, too!”
“I think it will,” Zora said. “I think, if we wish hard, it will.” She was down on her haunches, form-fitting red dress and all, giving Casey a cuddle, and Casey was cuddling back. Isaiah was downstairs, fortunately, letting in the troops, so he didn’t get the chance to explain about the sperm and the egg and the fertilization process, and how wishing had nothing to do with it.
Rhys realized, suddenly, when it must have happened. On that morning after the night when Zora had fallen asleep, and woken up so sad about it. He’d made love to her after the kids had gone to school, had kept it slow and sweet and absolutely focused, and had done his very best to let her know how he felt about her.
And they’d made a baby.
This was another day he wasn’t going to get through without crying. Oh, well.
Zora’s mum didn’t say anything about suddenness or guests or cake or photos. Maybe because of all those inconvenient truths about marrying your sister-in-law, and maybe for another reason. Maybe because Zora was still smiling and her mouth was trembling and her eyes were as bright as the diamonds he’d put in her ears last night. Maybe because she wanted her daughter to be happy.
“Mum,” Zora said, “could you come with me, do you think? Help me to be beautiful?”
“Oh, my darling,” Tania said, “you’re already beautiful. And of course I’ll come. Of course.”
After that, the house was full. Finn’s size and voice took up about half the room by itself, and there were four more kids. Heaps of kids. And then there was Jenna, whose baby had to be arriving in the next week or so, because otherwise, she was having triplets. Rhys and Finn putting food back into the fridge, the kids carrying in dishes and loading the dishwasher under Rhys’s fairly distracted supervision as Hayden studied his lines. Luke on the couch with Jenna, blossoming in her warmth, at least as much as Luke Armstrong was ever going to blossom. Rhys didn’t think he’d ever seen Luke laugh before. Tania in the bedroom with Zora, doing something. Fixing her makeup and hair, he guessed. And telling her mum the news about Dylan, and Casey, and him.
Tania would tell Craig, and everybody else could wait. He didn’t much care. Dylan had been gone too long for his reputation to matter, and Rhys had built his own reputation day by day and deed by deed. Whoever he was now, it was all out there for anyone to judge.
You did what you did, Zora had said, and you got what you got. You couldn’t borrow mana, and you couldn’t buy it. You could only earn it.
Worked for him.
Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.He had the wings, and he had the reasons. He wanted the roots.
Finn said, “Can I have a word, mate?” Looking troubled, and Rhys said, “Sure,” and didn’t worry about what it would be. He was getting what he wanted, and anything else, he’d cope with.
When they were out on the deck, Finn said, “Lily told us something a bit concerning this morning. Seems she may have overheard Jenna and me talking about you and Dylan. And Casey. I told her she was confused, and not to talk about what Dad and Mum say, in that way you do that almost never works, so I wanted to give you a heads-up. Sorry, mate.” He put a hand on Rhys’s shoulder. “Clearly, we need to lock our door.”
“She did say something,” Rhys said, “and it’s over and done. It’s out there. At least, it’s with the kids, and Zora is probably telling her mum right now.”
