“Where would be the fun in that?” I protest. But I’m laughing inside. The look on her face was priceless. I didn’t tell her what I was planning because I wanted it to be a complete surprise. I had talked to Daniel about it and he said, “It’s worth a shot!”
Then we got started. Daniel got the braces and the forearm crutches. Then I learned to balance. My upper body is pretty strong, so once I was on my feet I was able to stay there. I did warn the Reeds that they might have to catch me if I fell over, and when she came down the aisle…damn…I almost lost my balance when I saw how beautiful she was.
I brush her hair back behind her ear. “Were you surprised?”
“Well, yeah,” she says. “I’ve never had to look up to look into your eyes before.”
I jostle her in my arms. “Do you wish I could walk? That I wasn’t injured?”
She looks at me intently. “I’ve never wished that for myself.”
I’m not sure I like that answer.
“I have wished it for you once or twice,” she says quietly. “Only because I see how you’re treated at restaurants and in public places. The way you have to work three times as hard to get things done.” She brushes her fingertips through my hair. “But I’ve never wished it for me. Not even once. I love you exactly the way you are.” She gets up from my lap. “Now come and dance with me.”
I take her out onto the dance floor and a slow song starts. I pull her back into my lap and she curls into me as I start to spin us slowly in a circle.
“Come a little bit closer. You smell good,” I tell her.
She laughs and wiggles her ass on my lap. Her lips touch my neck, and I can’t help but remember that first night.
“This reminds me of the first time I took you home with me.”
She groans into my shoulder, burying her face there. “Don’t remind me.”
“You were so warm and soft in my arms. And it had been so long since I’d had anyone that close to me.”
“I was so drunk,” she says with a laugh.
“You wiggled your ass in my lap and asked me if I was getting a boner, right in front of everyone.” I stop spinning so I can squeeze her to me. I whisper in her ear, “And I totally was.”
She snorts into my neck. “You’ll never let me live it down, will you?”
“Best moment of my life, Star.”
She sighs into my neck, and the warm, moist heat of it shoots straight to my heart. “I love you, Josh.”
“I love you too.”
I stop moving us in circles and just stare at her. “My whole life changed when I met you,” I tell her. I’m suddenly getting choked up and I didn’t plan for this.
She waits a beat. “I hope like crazy that you can forgive me for what’s about to happen.” She squeezes her eyes shut tightly.
Then I feel my chair move. “Oh, hell no,” I say when I realize what’s happening.
Paul and Logan have the front of my chair and Sam and Pete have the back. They pick me up and start toward the fountain in the middle of the party area.
“Oh, hell no,” I cry again. I point at Star. “If I go, she has to go too!”
Matt, the only one with his hands not full, shrugs and picks her up, cradling her gently but firmly in his arms. They know she’s pregnant, so they’ll be careful. But she will not get out of this without a dunking too. Payback’s a bitch.
“This is not how this was supposed to go!” she shrieks, but she’s laughing as she beats on his chest. “Put me down!”
“I will,” he says. “In just a second.” He laughs.
The four Reeds who aren’t holding my wife set my chair down beside the fountain and I think they’re rethinking their decision. But then one of them grabs me under the arms, and another takes my legs.
They swing me side to side. “One!” they shout. “Two!”
“Three!” Matt yells, and they all let go at the same time. I fly into the fountain, and they set Star gently on top of me. I go under the water, even though my ass is on the bottom and there’s no possible chance I could drown. I come up laughing, but Star doesn’t look nearly as happy. I grab her and pull her against me, holding her tight.
I reach down to the bottom of the pool and pull up a handful of change. “Care to make a wish?” I say. I remember the time we were at the hotel and she said she didn’t believe in fairy tales.
She brushes the change from my palm and it plunks into the water. “I already have everything I could ever want.” She laughs. “But it’s good to know that wishes work.”
“What do you mean?” I brush water from my face with my palm.
“That day at the hotel when you told me to make a wish,” she says. She looks into my eyes. “I totally wished for this. For you. For us.”
Her makeup is running down her cheeks and her dress is trashed, and she still looks happy. “I did too,” I say.
“I know,” she whispers back.
“I wished for more porn too. Just so you know.” She laughs and pushes me so that my head goes under the water again. I drag her down with me but she still comes up smiling. I hope she always does. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she always does.