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Granny pushed her away. “I haven’t seen a penis in twenty years… if he’s showing I want to see.”
A roar of laughter broke out all around.
“I would show you,” Darren said with a smile and backed away, “but I never brag at weddings.”
“All right then!” Gabriel clapped his hands. “Who wants a piece of cake?”
We did the mandatory thing about feeding each other cake before everyone else got a piece. The cake was a gift from Melody and tasted deliciously of vanilla and strawberry.”
“Uhhm, this is sooo good,” I told her and she lit up.
“I’m so glad you like it. It’s all vegan.”
“It’s super delicious.” Gabriel gave her a thumbs-up. “By the way, are you the one who bought us Cia’s paintings?
She shook her head. “No, I gave you a gift card to my store.”
“Thank you so much – I love your store.”
Gabriel and I had been by last week; it was a really cool place with high-quality, organic food and a great atmosphere.
“Mom got you at least one of the paintings,” Melody said. “I’m sure of it because I saw her hand her credit card to your friend that night at the gallery.”
Gabriel and I both looked at Katie, who was still calming Granny down and trying to convince her that Darren had been joking and that no man had five pounds of foreskin.
“Mom,” Gabriel and I made our way to her. “Are the paintings from you and Steve?” he asked.
She lit up in a smile. “Just from me. Steve has another gift for you.” She looked up. “Steve, come here for a minute. Why don’t you tell them about your gift?”
Steve came over and looked almost mild when he patted Gabriel’s shoulder. “No wedding without a honeymoon, this is for you.”
He pulled out an envelope that Gabriel opened. “Wow… jeez,” Gabriel stood baffled for a few seconds. “I don’t know what to say, Steve, that will make for a lot of honeymoons.”
I resolutely gave both Katie and Steve a big hug. “Those are the best gifts you could have given us. I can’t thank you enough.”
Steve actually kissed me on my forehead and Katie gave me such a genuine warm smile that it wasn’t hard to see why Gabriel had turned out to be such an amazing person himself.
“I thought you might like the paintings,” Katie said. “My idea was to give you one painting for each of your birthdays but with the marriage I figured it was better to give them to you as a complete set.”
Gabriel and I both hugged her again.
“Don’t I get a hug?” Granny said grumpily. “I bought you a present too, you know.”
Gabriel leaned down to hug her and I followed him. She smelled of old lady, a bit sweaty and with a too-sweet perfume.
“What did you give us, Granny?” Gabriel asked her.
She looked up at Charlie. “What did we get them?”
“A rocking chair,” Charlie said.
“Why would you buy them a rocking chair?” she complained.
“Because you told me to. Remember you said it will be good for Cia when she nurses the little ones.”
“What little ones?” Granny looked down at my belly. “Are you with child already?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
