“Since you’re already hosting the Winter Wonderland Dance on Saturday, why don’t we use that as the announcement?” I say to Jack, who raises an eyebrow at me.
“If that’s what you want,” he agrees, and just as Tinsel is about to interject, Jack takes her by the waist and leads her out of the office. “Why don’t we give the newlyweds some time alone? See ya later!” Jack calls over his shoulder before the two of them practically bolt out of the door.
“Is that okay with you?” I turn to Joy, and I see a million emotions pass across her face before she finally shrugs.
“Yeah, I guess we’ll have to get it over with at some point.”
“Get it over with?” The words taste sour after I say them, and I wonder what’s happened. She seemed happy during the ceremony as we said our vows, but maybe I messed up with the kiss. I didn’t want to embarrass her or push her to do more in front of everyone. I know she can be shy at times, and even though I wanted to take her to the floor and have her all over again, I held on to my control.
“Sorry.” She shakes her head and then looks around the room. “That’s not how I meant that to come out. It’s just been a long day, I guess.” She glances at her watch and then smiles. “I mean morning.”
“We’re closing the office for the day,” I say as I go over to the desk and grab her bag.
“Closing?” She glances around again like the answer will jump out at her. “You can’t just close a city office.”
“If being the mayor doesn’t get me a few advantages, like closing the office on our wedding day, I don’t really know why I’m doing this job,” I tease, and finally I see a hint of a smile as Joy lets me help her put on her coat.
“What on earth are we going to do?”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her all the things I want to do with her, but I decide that maybe she’s feeling awkward about last night and I should go slow. “How about we start with breakfast? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
Just then her stomach growls, and she covers her mouth to keep from laughing.
“Yeah, I think I could eat,” she finally says.
“Then allow me to feed my wife.” I hold out my elbow, and when her hand slides through it, I think to myself how perfectly she fits against me. It’s almost as perfect as how she fits in my heart, but I keep that to myself.
After we go to the diner in town, Joy begins to lose some of her tension from earlier. It’s nice being able to watch her now without having to make an excuse to do so. She’s my wife, and of course I get to stare at her and touch her when I want. People in the diner watch us, and I see a few people whispering, but I’m sure news of our nuptials has already spread like wildfire. The fact that when I got up to pay they told me it was taken care of led me to believe that the talk had already begun.
Once we finished with breakfast, I held Joy’s hand, and we walked to the jewelry store in town. I wasn’t kidding when I told her I was buying bands, and seeing the look of surprise on her face when I pulled her inside, she must have thought it was a joke.
“I didn’t know your size,” I say to her as I hold her hand out in front of me and trace her ring finger. “Will this one do?” I take the gold band with small diamonds going all the way around it and slide it on until it sits perfectly in place.
Looking up into Joy’s eyes, I see small tears begin to form before she clears her throat and nods. “Yeah, it’s great. Thank you.” Then she smiles as I hold out my hand and wait for her to pick up the gold band and put it on me. “Are you sure?”
“Are you really asking me?” It’s my turn to smile down at her. “I already signed the paperwork. I’m not backing out over a piece of jewelry.” The feeling of her sliding my wedding band on is warm and comforting, and when I look down at it, I’m filled with a sense of pride. “I think I like the look of it.”
I flex my fingers a few times to try it out, and a little while later, we leave the store hand in hand. My grandmother's ring is at my house, and although I have the urge to run home and get it, I don’t want to do too much to scare off Joy too fast.
“North,” she says a little while later when we’re in the car on the way home. I could feel her getting nervous when I turned into the driveway, so I shut off the car and face her. I see worry etched in her brow, and I take her hands in mine. “This is crazy, right? Do you feel like this might be the craziest thing any two people have ever done?”
“I’m not sure about that.” I reach up and tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Jack wanted to marry Tinsel, and I think that’s pretty insane.”
The corners of her lips turn up in spite of herself. “You know what I mean.”
“Did Tinsel ever tell you about my grandparents?” I ask, and she shakes her head. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll tell you.”
The task seems to calm her nerves, and when we go inside, I take her to the living room so we can sit on the sofa and talk. I start a quick fire and bring her some hot cocoa before I settle in beside her.
“My grandmother came to Troping when she was about nine years old. She was the new kid in a small school, and my grandpa was in the same grade as her.”
“Did she love him right away?” Joy asks, and I shake my head.
“Oh no, far from it.” I laugh. “She hated him, and it has to do with a game of marbles. She says she was beating him, and he got mad and messed it up. He never admitted to that, but that was always her story.”
“So what changed for them?” She sips her hot cocoa, and there’s a cute little layer of marshmallow on her lips. I watch her lick it off.
“Well, just because my grandmother didn’t feel love right away, that didn’t stop my grandfather. When he told the story, he said that she loved marbles and would challenge anyone in the school to a game. One day he got the courage to play against her, and after a while, she was winning. The problem was he had a shot he could have taken to beat her. So instead of taking the shot, he messed up the game so she would think he was a jerk.”
Joy laughs and furrows her eyebrows. “Why would he do that?”
“He said that he knew he could come back from being a jerk, but that he couldn’t come back from beating her at something she loved.” I shrug as I look in the fire and think about what I would have done in his place. “He said he knew the moment he first saw her that she was the one, but he had to work to convince her to feel the same.” I take her hand in mine and run my thumb over the band on her ring finger. “He told me that sometimes love takes a little time to meet in the middle.”