Page 18 of Cupid
Which left many unattached.
So the fact that Arrow happened to end up in my house while I was stuck there with him was an almost unbelievable act of…fate.
“How are you handling all these changes, darling?” Mrs. Cupid put a plate of peppermint bark on the coffee table and sat down beside me. Arrow and his dad were next door, talking to the neighbors about a few projects while I relaxed after dinner.
“There’s a lot that I’ve learned about the world in the past few months, but I’m doing okay.” I patted my belly, my hand almost always resting there. “Just readjusting some of the visions in my head about how this would all happen for me.”
“In what ways?” She broke a piece of candy in half and handed me a piece.
I shrugged, not sure how to explain it. “Nothing serious. Like, I guess I imagined having a little wedding. And probably doing it before I was knocked up.” I chuckled, mostly joking. It wasn’t that I was highly traditional, but there were a few milestones that I expected to have in my lifetime that were not likely to happen now.
She cocked her head to the side and placed her hand on my forearm, over the soft cast I’d graduated to because my injury was healing faster than expected. “If you want a wedding, you will have a wedding. My knitting group is known for putting together amazing parties with practically no notice. We can do it next weekend, if you’d like.”
“Do what next weekend?” Arrow appeared at my side, smoothly lifting me up and dropping onto the sofa by his mom with me on his lap.
“Um…” I looked between Mrs. Cupid and her son, self-conscious about admitting to him what we were talking about. “A wedding.”
He furrowed his brow and shifted me so he could look into my eyes. “You want a wedding? I told you it’s not necessary.”
“Pfft!” Mrs. Cupid smacked his arm. “Necessary has nothing to do with it. If Jude wants a wedding, he’ll have one. I’ll check with the ladies, but I think we can do it on Saturday.”
My eyes were locked on my fingers that were intertwined with Arrow’s.
“Yeah, Saturday would be great.” He squeezed my fingers. “Thanks, Mom.”
My head snapped up, and I met his gaze. “Really? You want to do it?”
“Of course.” He bit the inside of his cheek and glanced at his mom. “I mean, I don’t have a ring or any of that stuff. But I can get one.”
“I don’t need a ring.” I leaned against his chest, inhaling his cinnamon-and-pine scent. “I don’t even need a fancy wedding. Just you and a few of your family and friends would be more than enough.”
“Done.” Arrow hugged me against him and rested his chin on my shoulder as he turned back to his mom. “And make it as simple or as fancy as you want. Just tell us when and where to be, and we’ll be there.”
Over the next few days, things moved fast.
Those knitting gals were firecrackers. Every time I turned around, magazines, Pinterest photos, and forks full of cake were shoved under my nose. I stopped trying to make informed decisions and pointed at whatever option they seemed to be most excited to run with.
When I said I didn’t care about the details, I was telling the truth. As long as I walked down an aisle, and Arrow was waiting at the other end to make me his husband, I would be happy.
Ecstatic.
The luckiest man in the world.
And when Saturday morning finally rolled around, everything was perfect. Especially the cake. I had a vague memory of telling one of the ladies that I liked the carrot cake. And the German chocolate. And the confetti. And some delicious concoction of strawberry jelly with moist yellow cake that had a cinnamon aftertaste that was similar to a snickerdoodle.
I assumed they’d choose one or two flavors and surprise us.
I should have known better than to assume.
What was waiting for us after the simple ceremony was a monstrosity of various round cakes in all the flavors I loved…and many others that I had never tried but were equally delicious.
“I’m gonna get so fat!” I added a fourth slice of cake to my plate before making room for Arrow to refill his as well. “I hope you don’t mind being married to a beach ball.”
My husband pulled me against his side, careful to avoid knocking my plate out of my hand, and kissed me. “I can’t wait for you to be a beach ball. I’ll love every minute of it. Like I love you.”
“Well, since you’re being so nice about it…” I swiped my finger across the cream cheese frosting and dabbed the tip of his nose. “I guess I love you too.”
My darling husband rubbed his frosted nose across my cheek and then licked it clean before slipping his tongue into my mouth, kissing me like we were the only two people in the room.
