Lana(29)

As Tutu had predicted, the day of the wedding dawned sunny and picture perfect, and she took full credit for it.

Tutu wore light blue to match the bridesmaids for pictures, and she fussed over me as I dressed for the beach ceremony. I couldn’t help taunting her a little as she worked on straightening the lei around my neck, her lips pursed.

“I told you so, Tutu,” I told her quietly, with a smug little grin. It felt smug, but a happy kind of smug.

Her eyes shot up to mine, one sassy brow shooting straight for the sky. “What do you mean by that?”

“I told you years ago that I would marry Akira, and you told me it would never happen.”

She snorted. “Silly girl. This was all my idea, the whole time. I was using reverse psychology on you, and you fell for it. You’re welcome.”

I laughed so hard that I had to have my eye makeup redone.

We had a short ceremony on the beach at sunset, with less than a hundred guests in attendance. We watched each other as we said our vows. Akira’s face was stoic, but I could see the strong emotion in his eyes, and I was certain that he could read the adoration in mine.

I’d spent a little time regretting all of the years we could have been together, if I had just been brave enough to come back sooner, or if he had just been bold enough to contact me, but I felt at peace even with that, as I looked with clarity at the good years ahead of us. I knew that we would never take each other for granted, or fail to appreciate what we had. Our time apart had been painful, but it had forever assured us of that.

Akira gave me the biggest grin as we were announced man and wife. He looked breathtaking, his hair pulled back to show off his starkly handsome face, dressed in white, with a maile lei draped over his strong shoulders.

We had only invited about one hundred close friends and family to the beach ceremony, but the reception/wild party was a whole different story. There was only a short list of people on the island that weren’t invited. The family estate was opened up and equipped for a hell of a party.

In a completely uncharacteristic move for me, I made no attempts to be a good hostess. I didn’t greet all the guests, and I didn’t make the rounds to mingle, or to share my time. I left that to…whoever. I knew my mother, father, my devilish brother, Camden, or hell, even Jackie, could take over those duties. This was supposed to be my day, and so I took that literally, doing the only thing I wanted to do. Akira and I danced, for hours and hours. We completely monopolized each other, stopping occasionally to chat and catch up with friends and family, but my goal was to spend as much of the magical night in Akira’s arms, and I thought I succeeded admirably.

We weren’t the only love-struck couple I caught mooning over each other that night. James and Bianca did much the same, dancing and sharing positively indecent looks for most of the night.

The party lasted into the next day, and we were dancing barefoot on the beach, out of sight from our guests, as streaks of dawn light began to color the sky.

Music from the party drifted to us. We were far enough away that we only caught bits and pieces of it, barely enough to keep rhythm.

Akira sprawled out on the sand at my feet suddenly, smiling up at me, as happy and carefree as I’d ever seen him. “Have you heard of the Hawaiian custom of wedding night beach sex?”

I gave him a rueful smile. I was long past the days of falling for all of the local custom shenanigans. Generally, any sentence that began with, ‘Have you heard of the Hawaiian custom?’ ended with a prank.

“No, I haven’t. And it’s past the wedding night. I’d say it’s officially morning now.”

“That’s what I meant. Wedding morning beach sex. It’s a well-known fact in these parts that if you have wedding morning beach sex you’ll both live to be a hundred, at least.”

“Technically, yesterday was our wedding morning. Today is the next morning.” I broke off, giggling, as he tickled me until I fell on top of him.

“I think you’re missing my point,” he told me with a grin, still tickling me mercilessly.

“What’s your point?” I gasped, trying in vain to tickle him back.

“We need to make love on this beach right now if we want to grow really, really old together.” He let up tickling my waist, burying his hands in my hair to kiss me. I was straddling him by the end of that long kiss.

I pulled back to smile into his eyes. “Well, as long as it’s really, really old,” I murmured, resealing my lips over his.