Dashing Through the No (Summersweet Island 3)

“You’re going to be perfect.”

Tess growls a little, and I quickly amend my statement.

“You’re going to be perfect for me.”

“Right on.” Tess smiles, making my heart dance a little Christmas jig inside my chest.

“All right then, are you ready?” Millie asks. Tess and I nod as we go back to holding both of our hands down between us, smiling like a couple of fools at each other. “Here we go. Short and sweet. Bodhi, do you want to marry Tess?”

“Fuck yes!” I quickly shout, making Jason and Allie chuckle from a few feet away.

“And Tess, do you want to marry Bodhi?” Millie asks Tess, smiling up at me and looking so fucking beautiful with her skin glowing from the snapping and popping bonfire next to us that I want to pinch myself just to make sure this is really happening.

“Fuck yes,” Tess whispers her reply, and I have to blink the damn tears away that just won’t seem to quit today.

“Could I have the rings please?” Millie asks, holding her palm out to us.

“We don’t—”

“Yes we do.” I interrupt Tess with a wink as she glares at me, while I pull the rings out of my pocket that I bought the day after our first date.

Tess gasps just as loudly as I did when I realized she was down on one knee proposing to me earlier, as I grab her hand and sip hers on her finger. Knowing it was meant for Tess as soon as I walked by the jewelry store on Summersweet Island and saw it in the window, the Oregon sunstone surrounded by red and orange sapphires looks hot as hell on her hand. And the huge smile on her face when she slips the matching ring I purchased on my finger—a copper-toned band with black flames engraved all around it, lets me know I’m forgiven for all these wedding extras she didn’t agree to.

“Then by the power vested in me from The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster dot com, which is totally a legit religion, you can google it, I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss—”

My arms are around Tess and my tongue is already halfway down her throat before Millie finishes telling me what to do. Allie, Millie, and Jason start clapping while I kiss the hell out of my wife, and out the corner of my eye, I can see everyone on the computer screen silently screaming and clapping right along with them.

Breaking apart, I smile down at Tess as I lift my foot and then quickly bring it back down on the other decoration from our room she let me bring down here.

“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!”

Tess groans as the hippo pillow sings beneath my foot that I just stomped on like glass, in honor of our Jewish friend and officiant, Millie.

And because it’s fucking hilarious!

“You’re telling our grandkids this story.” Tess shakes her head at me as I wrap my arms around her and kiss her again while she mumbles against my lips. “I want absolutely no part of repeating this story.”EPILOGUEBodhi

“Dashing through the no.”Christmas Eve

“Want some more of my hot beef in your mouth?”

I smirk at Tess while I hold up a forkful of the best pot roast dinner I’ve ever tasted in my life that she had Allie help her make for us tonight.

“You are ridiculous,” she groans, trailing off into quiet laughter while we finish eating.

Even though Tess spent most of her life protesting the idea of marriage, it suits her. She laughs easier, doesn’t threaten people’s lives as much, and she doesn’t reach for her lighters as often. I think coming to terms with the fact that she’s pregnant, and not blaming it on dying from a brain tumor like she’s been doing for the last two months, helped as well.

“I swear to God if you take one more potato off my plate, I will gut you like a fish,” Tess growls, smacking my fork away with her own.

She hasn’t gone completely soft though, thank goodness.

Not only did Tess surprise me a few days ago with things I wrote down on a list in a pot-induced haze in the back of a van twelve years ago, but she surprised me again by making all my Christmas wishes come true without even realizing it. I didn’t exactly write everything down on that list back then. I was high for the first time in my life. I’m lucky I could even spell most of those things.

It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m spending it eating roast beast, wearing matching Christmas pajamas, curled up by the tree in the Redingers’ private living room, as it gently snows outside through the windows, in front of a roaring fire currently burning my “you’ll log.” Just like I’ve seen on TV.

And best of all? I’m spending it with someone who loves me for me. Who lets me be whoever I want and doesn’t shame me for my choices, whatever they might be. And who will deal with the hour-long screaming wrath of the Bennetts when she informs them we won’t be home to spend the night tonight with everyone, because she extended our reservation. So we could have a quiet Christmas Eve with just the two of us, while the Redingers and Millie are over at Jason and Allie’s place, and all the guests are out in the barn watching a movie.