Blind Kiss(61)

I looked over to a tear-soaked Penny and smiled. She smiled back, though she looked crushed. I tried to change the subject. “She’s a good friend and a good person. And from my family and hers, we wish you both many years of happiness. Congratulations! Please raise your glasses and toast this beautiful couple and the little one on the way. Cheers!”

I knew it was a pathetic speech, but I think I did what Anne and Kiki couldn’t. Everyone clapped and then the dancing began.

I danced with Anne and Kiki first. Kiki was in full rebellious preteen mode and had chopped off her hair, as well as part of her bridesmaid dress; it looked like a miniskirt in the front, with a long train in the back. Her mother wasn’t amused but she’d been giving Kiki more freedom since Liam had passed. Truth be told, Penny probably would have done the same thing if she weren’t eight and a half months pregnant.

Isabelle came to dance with me during all the fast songs. “You’re a good dancer,” she told me, so I turned goofy on her and did The Running Man, The Sprinkler, and The Bus Driver. I threw an imaginary fishing line out to reel her in and she played along, giggling. It’s not like I had anything better to do. I definitely didn’t want to count the number of times Lance rubbed Penny’s belly while posing for the photographer.

During the money dance, my father got into Penny’s line so I stood behind him. I watched carefully as he danced with her. They talked and smiled and laughed as though it were our wedding, and he was her new father-in-law. When I asked to cut in, he happily offered her hand to me. I tried to shove a twenty down the front of her dress, but she swatted at me, laughing and pointing to a little bag around her wrist.

“We’ll have to do some special maneuvering around your massive belly,” I said.

She punched me in the shoulder. “Thanks for the speech, by the way. It was really nice. Maybe a little too nice.”

“You’re welcome” was all I said. She nuzzled up to my neck. “You shouldn’t do that. It looks too intimate,” I told her. She pulled back a little.

As she looked up at me, I saw worry in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Gavin.”

“For what?”

She shook her head and looked away. “I don’t know.”

“Hey, after the garter toss, meet me in that little room. I wrote you a song, but it’s just for you.”

“Are you going to try to make me cry myself into labor?”

I smiled. “Wouldn’t that be funny if your water broke right now and you had to go to the hospital in your wedding dress? Amniotic fluid all over it? How would you explain that one to Milo?” She laughed. “Are you going to tell him the truth when he’s older?” I asked abruptly.

She pulled back for a second. “I don’t know, Gavin. That’s a weird question on my wedding day.” She flicked a glance behind us. “I’ll meet you in that room, but you have to move on. I have many gentlemen waiting to dance with me.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

I looked back at the long line. “Yeah, no surprise there.”


AFTER THE MONEY line dances and the garter toss, Penny met me on the dusty floral couch in the side room where I was already poised with my acoustic guitar.

“So this is an original?” she asked.

“Yes, just for you, Little P.”

I strummed a few chords and then went into the regular rhythm of the song. It was slow and easy to play.

Tonight as I watch you from afar,

I sit outside and pray,

Seeing all the things that made me love you All the things that made me stay.

A minute turned to forever,

A kiss left on your lips to remember.

I’m your lover, I’m your friend.

You’re mine.

You were always my lover, for a lifetime in my mind.

It’s all within our grasp,

No more longing, angst or anger.

Because you’re too afraid to ask,

We’ll let go, come back, imagine.

Our present becomes our past.

Growing old like this . . . letting go, coming back again.

Telling tales like this . . . of how it all began.

I’ll hold your hand and your babies, I’ll watch your children grow, And one day you’ll say, “Howdy, old chum.”

And I’ll say, “No, I’m your lover . . . remember? And you’re mine.”

It’s been this way forever. I’ve always been your lover . . . for a lifetime in my mind.

Penny was a blubbering fool by the time I was finished singing.

“Did I make you sad?” I asked. It was hard to tell because she was smiling and crying hysterically.

“Is that a song about longing?”

“No, it’s a song about lifetime friendship.”

“I loved it. It’s our song,” she whispered. Reaching up and hugging me she said, “So you forgive me? You’re still my best friend?”

“Always. Now let’s go get our groove on.”

“Deal.” She wiped away the tears.

I led her onto the dance floor just as the Talking Heads song “This Must Be the Place” came on. She wasn’t dancing goofily and neither was I. We were just kind of swaying to the music, bobbing our heads, circling each other and smiling at one another, thinking about the word home in the song, and what it meant. True to the lyrics, we would have to make up our story as we went along because we refused to let go.