Page 97 of Dreams and Reptiles

That sounded heavenly. I wondered where Kendall would let me take him.

He turned to me and smiled. “We’ll have to discuss our options.”

“I have some ideas,” I said, thinking I had the absolute perfect idea, but it would likely take some time to set up.

“I love your ideas,” he said, scooping me up in his arms and kissing me.

“Oh, ew. The HR rules still apply here. We’re in a workplace event.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Kendall said. “But it can’t be helped. How about Francis lets you off the clock, so I can kiss him silly, and we can make googly eyes at each other for the rest of the night?”

She groaned. “Fine. Go ahead, and be gross. I’m still on the clock, though. Francis, you can go do whatever. I’ll handle everything. You set this event up so well, I barely have anything to do.”

“Thanks, Shay. Love you.” I held my arms open for another hug, and she came enthusiastically.

“Love you, too, Francis. I’m so glad you’re my family.”

Her words had a heft behind them that I wouldn’t take for granted.

“I’m honored to be your family. Thank you.”

She stepped back, smiled at me, raised an eyebrow at Kendall, and then stomped off in a huff.

“So much drama,” he said.

“Yeah, but you heard her. She’s really happy for us.”

“I’m so grateful she’s here. Thank you for taking her on. Thank you for supporting us both as we worked on living in the same place again. You really are pretty great at this whole dream-granting thing.”

I rolled my eyes and linked my fingers behind his neck. “Oh, just wait ’til we’re done here. I have so many dreams to grant you, my love.”

Kendall groaned, and his next kiss was downright sinful. I didn’t know if we were going to make it through the rest of the festivities. We might not be married in the eyes of the law, but I was ready to consummate this marriage in all kinds of barely legal ways.

We finally started to climb the steps to my bedroom around one in the morning. Mom and Judy moved back to their cottage, since it wasn’t needed for the bridal suite—thank God—and we miraculously had the house to ourselves. The best thing about it being a local wedding was that there weren’t a bunch of out-of-towners who needed places to stay.

“Oh! Your surprise! With all the chaos, I almost forgot. Come on, we have to go.”

His crestfallen expression let me know he was just as anxious as I was to be alone and in bed, but too many things had gotten in the way of me being able to show him.

“I’m all for surprises, but are you sure this one can’t wait until we’re rested?”

“I’ve waited long enough,” I said, not sure where I was getting the energy, either.

I turned off the alarm and took him out the back slider and down the path toward the gazebo.

“What is happening?” Kendall asked, the exhaustion evident in his voice.

Thank goodness I’d been able to get Kimo to come out here and set this up while we were in the tent dancing our hearts out. He’d left it open just in case we happened to be over here before I was ready for Kendall to see it.

“Where are you going?” he asked when I went to the opening in our lovely, custom-made fence. I reached around and pulled the gate closed, straining a little under its weight. He’d used lightweight materials, but it was still a big piece of metal. I locked the gate in place and turned to grin at him. I stepped to the side, held out my hands, and gave a big, “Ta-daaaaa. Oh.” I switched on the flashlight on my phone. “Ta-da!”

He stared at the gate for a long moment until recognition hit him—and he absolutely melted.

“Oh my God… It’s John Wayne!”

I’d asked Kimo to recreate our first encounter, the tortoise breakout, followed by our reunion, the bananas… it was all there. Us on either side of John Wayne, with me holding out the bunch of bananas to Kendall.

“He did such a great job with the rest of the fence, with the flowers and palm fronds on the metal panels, but for the gate, I wanted you to have a bit of art dedicated to Chez Warren. See?” I did a Vanna White hand gesture to the words Welcome to Chez Warren, Pardners at the top of the gate, amongst the palm fronds.