Page 71 of Just Like in the Movies
"Tasia's bringing it," he whispered back.
I nodded and looked up to find our wedding planner standing by my side. "Everyone's here, it looks like. How much longer did you want to wait before we start the meal?"
Mike shrugged when I glanced in his direction. "We can start anytime."
"I'll go let the kitchen know," she said and disappeared.
Tasia appeared, the Moses basket in our wedding colors of blue and gold swinging from one hand. "Ugh, the traffic. You guys know there's photographers out there, right?"
"Uh, no." I elbowed Mike. "What's up?"
"It wasn't me," he muttered. "You want me to call the cops on them?"
"I don't think we can," I said. "That's going to make it hard to sneak out of here tonight."
He draped an arm over my shoulders and drawled, "Oh, I'll figure something out. I am, after all, an action hero."
Tasia rolled her eyes so hard I thought it should have hurt. "Yeah, I'll bet," she snarked. "Okay, here's the basket. Do you want me to take him for a little while?" she added hopefully.
I shook my head and cuddled River closer. "I've hardly held him at all the last couple of days. And he's staying with you guys tonight. Get your cuddles then."
"Darn," she said in mock disappointment. "I'll go find my seat, then. Your mom's heading this way with the baby bag."
"Thank heaven," I grumbled. "I was wondering where that had disappeared to."
Mike, the jerk, laughed at me again when Mom tried to take the baby from me. "No, I want to keep him for a little while. I'll let you know," I said grimly. "Damn you, stop laughing," I told my husband once I'd finally convinced my mother to go away. "It's not funny."
"It is. You're like a honey badger with that baby." He leaned in to kiss me, then the baby. "River Dean West, you have the best daddy in the world." He kissed me again. "And I'm the luckiest man in the world."
I was going to say something sappy back, but the hum of the microphone behind us started up, and we heard our wedding planner welcoming everyone and opening the stage for Mike's brother to come up and start the festivities.
"Afternoon, everyone," Colin said, grinning at the crowd. "For those who don't know, I'm Mike's older brother Colin. I'm the Best Man—unless you ask Lew, because he obviously thinks my brother is the best one."
The crowd laughed and I shook my head and shuffled around on my chair to make it easier to see him. If it also made it easy for me to lean back against Mike, well, that was a bonus.
Colin waited for the laughter to die down before he began speaking again. He did the traditional welcome to the family speech, talked about the baby and made jokes about the amount of 'intense discussion' we'd had about the name, and then ended with, "Most of you here know the story of Mike and Lew and their high school romance. And then their Hollywood style break-up." The crowd laughed and a low hum of commentary rose up above them.
I tensed—I did not want this story brought up again. Not at our wedding anyway. Mike kissed me gently behind my ear and whispered, "Relax. It's okay."
No, it wasn't, but all eyes were on us, so I pasted a smile on my face and pretended to fix River's tuxedo.
Colin grinned at me. "But gathering all that stuff up must have been an awful chore, and with a new baby and now Mike to look after—" He paused to let everyone laugh at his slight at his brother. "—I put together a little congratulatory gift for you, to save you time just in case." He turned away for a moment and Tasia walked up to him, carrying two fairly large gift bags in blue and gold, trailing ribbon and other decorations. "This one's yours," he said, handing me the blue bag. "Go ahead, open it now."
Damn. I gave him the stink-eye and glared at the bag. Not much help for it, though. Resigned, and determined to be a good sport about it, I picked apart the bows holding the top shut and pulled out... "A campfire starting kit?" I asked, incredulous. "Really?"
Colin grinned. "Look more closely."
I peered into the bag and... "Oh." I started laughing. I couldn't help it. Pictures of Mike's face, glued onto about a dozen of those big tongue-depressor sized Popsicle sticks. "Look, Mike. I can burn you in effigy." I held one up so everyone could see.
As the people around us chuckled, Colin handed the gold bag to Mike. "Just in case," he intoned darkly, then stepped out of the way and watched with a broad grin on his face.
Mike raised his eyebrows and opened the bag while I watched avidly. It had swung heavily when Colin had handed it over and I thought I had an idea what was inside it.
Mike pulled out a small fire extinguisher and held it triumphantly above his head. "Yes!" And we all laughed. Mike put the extinguisher on the table. "That's staying right there," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "You, come here." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for a dramatic kiss that brought out oohs and clapping from both our families.
The staff started bringing the appetizers out at that point, so I had to reluctantly hand the baby off to my mother so we could eat. He seemed happy enough to go though and I supposed it was a good thing that he was comfortable with his grandparents.
I'd only gotten two bites into me when someone started tapping their spoon against their wine glass. The ringing call to kiss was picked up by a few other people and spread across the room like a plague.
