Rhiannon Lee (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} rhiannon_lee) wrote,@ 2009-07-07 17:19:00 |
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Til Death Do Us Part
Nervous didn't even begin to describe the way in which Joseph felt as he and Rhiannon walked along the sidewalk, just like they did every other time, but he was a bundle of nerves. Hell, even Rhiannon had noticed something was wrong, he was being that obvious about it.
He supposed he should apologize, but he couldn't bring himself to say the words, given what he intended on doing as soon as they reached the end of this particular street.
How many times did a guy ask the woman he loved to marry him?
"Hey," he said after a few moments of silence. "Can we swing in here quickly?" Joseph caught Rhiannon by the waist and leaned down, pressing a kiss to her temple. "My aunt's birthday's coming up soon, I wanna take a look at something for her."
"Sure." As they stopped in the midst of sidewalk traffic, she played with Joseph's hair and pushed it off his forehead. Rhiannon studied him. "You look a little green to me. You coming down with something?" In the years since they met, she'd never known Joseph to catch colds or come down with stomach viruses. The guy had a killer immune system. Today, he looked motion-sick.
"We don't have to go out," she said for the third time. "We can go back and lay down. I'll pretend I'm culinary and heat up a can of soup." She put her arms around his neck. Rhiannon's right wrist was in a splint, her leg still bruised and sore. It felt good to get out of the apartment and walk around, but she'd go back and crash if he needed it.
Joseph's arms found his way around Rhiannon's waist and one hand even went so far as to creep underneath the top she was wearing. "Nah," he said with a shake of his head. "I don't think so." He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, drawing back enough to offer her a reassuring smile.
His nerves were literally turning his stomach inside out, but he was doing his best to ignore them. Easier said than done.
"C'mon beautiful," he muttered softly as he pushed open the door and held it open for Rhiannon, catching the eye of the man in the well tailored suit. He immediately vanished into the back and Joseph took another steadying breath.
He rubbed at the back of his neck and cast his eye to the various display cases, trying to figure out how to keep Rhiannon distracted for long enough so he could take the black velvet box from the assistant without her noticing. "I kinda like the looks of those necklaces over there." He gestured to the display case in the far left corner. "What do you think? I'm gonna take a quick look at a couple bracelets."
"What color does she like?" Rhiannon unwound herself from her boyfriend and went to the display case. She didn't spend much time in jewelry stores. She always had this feeling she was underdressed for them, which was kind of ridiculous; it wasn't a restaurant. She hadn't been in a dedicated one since she bought that silver ring for Joseph a few years back. She stood there, rocking on the outside of her boots, thumbs in her back pockets. The collection was both gold and silver with a variety of gemstones, bits of turquoise, and a few other minerals. "Wait, her birthday's in July, yeah? So maybe ruby."
She imagined Joseph's aunt and scratched her nape. "But nothing too fancy. Gold would look nice with her skin." A few of the necklaces had diamond and ruby combinations. One pendant with a rose design struck her as pretty and maternal, like his Aunt.
Joseph watched Rhiannon for a few moments before he turned back to the counter, willing the suit to come back out already. He'd spent hours picking just the right ring and the guy had promised that by the time he came in with the woman in question the ring would be ready and the perfect size.
"Gold would work," he answered over his shoulder. "My aunt never treats herself to anything nice." He let out an audible breath when the suit appeared with the box in question. Joseph reached out and collected the box, taking a quick look inside at the ring before nodding. It was perfect, absolutely perfect.
Now for the hard part.
He'd rehearsed what he was going to say in his head a hundred times and yet he found himself at a loss as to what to say. Joseph curled his fingers around the box and figured he'd just have to speak from the heart and hope for the best. Joseph turned back round until he was looking at the back of Rhiannon's head
"Hey, Rhi?"
"Yeah?" She was bent over and staring into the glass box. Rhiannon tucked her hair behind her ears and studied the rose pendant from closer range. God help her not to suggest a piece of jewelry his aunt didn't like. Picking out an item for a person she only knew from a few shared meals wasn't easy. Her toe tapped against the floor, expending the restless energy of being in a place so quiet and empty. They were the only people there.
"What's up, baby?" She straightened and turned around.
Joseph wet his lower lip and cleared his throat, wondering if it was just his imagination or if his grip had suddenly gotten tighter around the small black box?
"You know I love you," he began. "More than anything or anyone on this Earth and I... God, it's hard to put what I feel for you into words." He looked up at her through a long strand of dark hair. "But, I know a couple things for certain. One of which is that I can't and I won't live without you again, it nearly killed me the last time. The second is that you make me the happiest man in the world and that I'd do anything for you." Joseph took a couple steps closer. "And I know for certain that I want your face to be the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning and the very last thing I see before I go to sleep."
He let out a nervous laugh, the sort of laugh Rhiannon had probably never heard from him before. "I've been thinking about everything for a really long time now and I know that I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to give you everything, Rhiannon. A home, a family, a future, all the things that I know we both thought we couldn't have because of everything that goes on in our lives."
And with that all said Joseph stopped and then eased his weight onto one knee, opening the box to reveal the ring nestled safely amongst the light velvet lining. "Rhiannon Lee, il mio cuore, will you marry me?"
While he talked, Rhiannon's expression grew more bewildered by the second.
At first, she didn't know why he was saying those things. He felt them, but why declare them in the middle of a date in a public place, while his face drained of all color? But then she began to get a feeling. It started as a flutter of insect wings in her stomach. Then she felt her cheeks flush. The closer he came, the tighter Rhiannon's arms wrapped around her torso, and she shuffled her feet on the floor. Her eyes never left him. As Joseph got on one knee and proposed, the silence hung between them, heavy and full. She kept staring.
She began to smile and covered her mouth with one hand.
Then, around her fingers, "Are you serious?" Rhiannon looked at the ring. Silver and simple, with the smallest of diamonds, just as she loved them. "Joseph... are you serious?" She reached out and touched his forehead, subtly checking his temperature, in case he'd gone delirious. She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, not at him, but out of surprise and happiness.
Joseph kept his eyes on Rhiannon and nodded. "More serious than I've ever been about anything, beautiful." He breathed out slowly and then wet his lower lip. "So, will you marry me?" His grip remained tight around the box and his nerves continued to twist his stomach into knots, it was a miracle his knee wasn't shaking.
Rhiannon smiled and touched her forehead. "Oh my god."
Just the sight of him there. The nerves chewing him up, as if he actually thought she'd say no to him, this man she'd given her whole heart to. The first time she saw him, her world flipped end over end. She knew. Every cell in her body recognized him. He was going to be the one who stunned her. Without him, she was one-dimensional, but when he kissed her and put his arms around her, she was a whole person. Nothing could touch her. Her head was in the stars.
"My whole life, I've never wanted anything the way I want to be with you." Rhiannon didn't know what to do with her hands. She clutched the shoulders of his shirt. If she twisted the fabric hard enough, maybe she wouldn't shake. "Yes. I'll marry you."
Joseph's lips pulled apart into a very happy smile and he rose up smoothly, plucking the ring from the confines of the box to slide it onto her ring finger. "God, I love you." He immediately sunk both hands into her hair and pulled her into a long deep kiss, the sort of kiss where you got so caught up in it that you forgot that you needed to breathe.
Eventually he remembered.
Not that he went very far, resting his forehead against Rhiannon's before murmuring a soft endearment in the low tones of the Italian language that he knew so well. "You've just made me the happiest man alive, baby."
Rhiannon kept squeezing his shirt. She was shaking. All her attention was focused on the unfamiliar weight of a ring on that finger. It felt just right. "God, I think I'm in trouble," she said and laughed. "I can't breathe." She kissed him again. She didn't want to let go. The moment had an air of unreality to it. Every little girl thought about getting married. It was in the social breeding. As they grew up, plenty of them changed their minds about it, but in childhood, they imagined the person, the way it would happen, and nothing matched up with the actuality of having a person ask. The right one.
"You completely had me thinking you were sick!" she said, rocking on her feet in tandem with Joseph. "I thought you were gonna throw up." That was the thing of it. No one expected a man to pop the question in the middle of a jewelry store. It was like missing the nose on her own face. It was obvious, but incredibly not.
Joseph let out a small laugh and dropped another kiss on her mouth. "Sorry, beautiful, couldn't have you guessing what I had planned." He smoothed his hands through her hair and smiled at her, brushing his thumbs over the sides of her neck.
He dropped his gaze and then picked up her newly ringed hand and brought it up to his lips, pressing a kiss to the silver band that now wrapped her finger. Joseph knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Rhiannon.
"Congratulations, then." She watched him kiss her hand. It felt like fireworks kept exploding in her chest. "Poker face." When she thought about that, it made her smile, considering his prowess at anything gambling related. "I love this ring, it's perfect," she said and meant it. A big stone wasn't her style and he knew it. "Hey..." She pinned him in place with her eyes. "Is your aunt even having a birthday?" For all Rhiannon knew, he could've pulled that excuse out of thin air.
Joseph looked up and met her eyes, lips tugging in the corners. "It's not for another couple of months." He shrugged and pulled her closer for another kiss. "Had to get you in here and keep you distracted for long enough to get my hands on the ring." The very same ring he'd picked out several weeks ago.
"You wanna head back to mine and we can either stay in or go out for a meal to celebrate?"
"Yours," Rhiannon said and combed his hair into place. "I don't know if I can stare at you across a place setting all night. I'd be grabbing you under the tablecloth the whole time." She thought about it and her eyebrows quirked. "Although that might be a fun kind of torture." His eyes looked warm, like home. She wanted to save the way he looked and smelled, keep it on tap in her memory.
"I need a couple of minutes alone with you, Vegas. Then I promise I'll let you come up for air." She leaned back. It hit her all over again. A lot of times, her friends teased her about this kind of thing. Her and Joseph and domestic bliss. Household appliances, picking out curtains, or some other 'ha ha, look at the tough girl being stupid-happy' joke of the day. She always flipped them the middle finger and laughed it off. She could imagine the reaction to this.
Joseph laughed softly and stole another kiss. "I'm not going to complain, gorgeous." He slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, loving the way she just seemed to fit perfectly against him.
He turned and pressed an intimate kiss to her temple, murmuring that he loved her. He'd been planning this for weeks and he was glad it had gone as smoothly as it had.
"Good, I'm glad you're game." Rhiannon pushed open the door and stepped over the threshold a little ahead of him. "Because we've got a lot to talk about. We might as well start tonight. I mean, there's dresses, tuxedos, bridesmaids and groomsmen, invitations, floral arrangements... cake." She bit the inside of her lip and sneaked a look at his profile, wondering if he thought she was serious. The idea of all that made her want to jump off a cliff. She wondered if it did the same to Joseph.
If so, it'd be a one-of-a-kind facial expression.
"I know it's kind of cheesy, but I always wanted a harp player." Rhiannon tucked her fingernails into her palm. The pain might keep her from laughing.
It was as she strayed ahead that Joseph came to a stop, lifting his eyebrow at some of the things she was saying. "Please tell me that you're kidding." And if he sounded a little desperate then so be it. He was having some rather interesting visions of their wedding day.
He was praying that she was joking, he really was.
Rhiannon swung around to look at him. She tilted her head. "What do you mean, which part?" Ignoring the people strolling past, she crossed her arms and kept up the befuddled face. It wasn't easy. She tried to think of non-funny things, but an image of Joseph in a white tuxedo with tails kept popping up like a whack-a-mole game. Then she imagined a horse-drawn carriage. Quick, shift gears.
She registered understanding. "Oh, about the harp player? It is kind-of over the top." Chewing her cheek, she looked past him.
"Uh huh," Joseph drawled as he approached her slowly. "See, I was kinda thinking more small and intimate, with the more important people in our life." He leaned in and dropped a kiss on the side of her neck. "And I was kinda hoping that I wouldn't have to wear a suit." He paused for effect before he passed her with a deliberately slow smile. "Not so hard to take off at the end of the day."
He rummaged out his cigarettes and slid one between his still smiling lips, winking at his fiance.
Either he was onto Rhiannon's joke, or Joseph was trying to charm her into what he wanted.
She pivoted and followed him down the sidewalk, sliding her arms around his waist. "What'd you have in mind, ripped up jeans?" Left foot, right foot, she walked along behind him, impeding their progress. Her chin touched his shoulder. Rhiannon's voice drifted sweetly into his ear. "Justice of the Peace instead of a Priest? Drinking shots instead of champagne?" Now she was smiling.
The idea of parading down an aisle in a huge, white dress while a hundred people stared did not appeal. Did she even know a hundred people? "Because I could marry you anywhere, any time, and any way. The easier the better."
Joseph exhaled smoke and turned his head, offering Rhiannon a smile as she practically wrapped herself around him. "Something like that, beautiful."
He pressed a lingering kiss to Rhiannon's temple and lifted an arm, curling it around her shoulders. "All I know is I want to marry you and I'm happy to do whatever way feels best for us, y'know?"
Joseph took another drag and blew the smoke out and away from Rhiannon.
"Right there with you." Rhiannon caught up to Joseph's side and looped an arm around his hips. They walked along easily. She laced her fingers into his where they rested on her shoulder. "I wanted to see how your face looks when you're caught off-guard, which happens never. Survey says... pretty damn funny." There were a lot of things to consider, but they'd come later. Right now, she wanted to be happy. People said good things happened in batches. If that was the case, she was on a roll with her art, with Deanna, and now this.
"What do you want for dinner tonight? Are you even hungry?" The breeze blew pieces of hair across her cheek. She watched Joseph through them.
Joseph squeezed her hand and shrugged. "I could either cook or we could order in. If we do order in my vote is for Chinese or Cantonese." He pressed another kiss to her temple. "Of course I'm not really thinking about food right now." His voice dropped and his lips brushed over her ear. "I'm thinking you, me and my bed and maybe even the couch. Kinda depends on how far we get before I feel the need to rip off all your clothes."
His teeth nipped at her ear and his lips touched the edge of it with a smile. "What do you think?"
An answering smile curved her mouth. Rhiannon watched the sidewalk pass beneath their feet. "I'm thinking... why aren't we jogging?" With her chin tucked like that, her cheeks flushed, and Joseph whispering secrets in her ear, it was obvious what was on the brunette's mind. "Along with couch... and Cantonese... and I hope we remember to kick the door shut first." If she kept feeling as she presently did, Joseph would take the last few steps to his door with jeans tangling around his ankles.
Rhiannon's Ring:
http://www.greenlakejewelry.com/gal
Nervous didn't even begin to describe the way in which Joseph felt as he and Rhiannon walked along the sidewalk, just like they did every other time, but he was a bundle of nerves. Hell, even Rhiannon had noticed something was wrong, he was being that obvious about it.
He supposed he should apologize, but he couldn't bring himself to say the words, given what he intended on doing as soon as they reached the end of this particular street.
How many times did a guy ask the woman he loved to marry him?
"Hey," he said after a few moments of silence. "Can we swing in here quickly?" Joseph caught Rhiannon by the waist and leaned down, pressing a kiss to her temple. "My aunt's birthday's coming up soon, I wanna take a look at something for her."
"Sure." As they stopped in the midst of sidewalk traffic, she played with Joseph's hair and pushed it off his forehead. Rhiannon studied him. "You look a little green to me. You coming down with something?" In the years since they met, she'd never known Joseph to catch colds or come down with stomach viruses. The guy had a killer immune system. Today, he looked motion-sick.
"We don't have to go out," she said for the third time. "We can go back and lay down. I'll pretend I'm culinary and heat up a can of soup." She put her arms around his neck. Rhiannon's right wrist was in a splint, her leg still bruised and sore. It felt good to get out of the apartment and walk around, but she'd go back and crash if he needed it.
Joseph's arms found his way around Rhiannon's waist and one hand even went so far as to creep underneath the top she was wearing. "Nah," he said with a shake of his head. "I don't think so." He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, drawing back enough to offer her a reassuring smile.
His nerves were literally turning his stomach inside out, but he was doing his best to ignore them. Easier said than done.
"C'mon beautiful," he muttered softly as he pushed open the door and held it open for Rhiannon, catching the eye of the man in the well tailored suit. He immediately vanished into the back and Joseph took another steadying breath.
He rubbed at the back of his neck and cast his eye to the various display cases, trying to figure out how to keep Rhiannon distracted for long enough so he could take the black velvet box from the assistant without her noticing. "I kinda like the looks of those necklaces over there." He gestured to the display case in the far left corner. "What do you think? I'm gonna take a quick look at a couple bracelets."
"What color does she like?" Rhiannon unwound herself from her boyfriend and went to the display case. She didn't spend much time in jewelry stores. She always had this feeling she was underdressed for them, which was kind of ridiculous; it wasn't a restaurant. She hadn't been in a dedicated one since she bought that silver ring for Joseph a few years back. She stood there, rocking on the outside of her boots, thumbs in her back pockets. The collection was both gold and silver with a variety of gemstones, bits of turquoise, and a few other minerals. "Wait, her birthday's in July, yeah? So maybe ruby."
She imagined Joseph's aunt and scratched her nape. "But nothing too fancy. Gold would look nice with her skin." A few of the necklaces had diamond and ruby combinations. One pendant with a rose design struck her as pretty and maternal, like his Aunt.
Joseph watched Rhiannon for a few moments before he turned back to the counter, willing the suit to come back out already. He'd spent hours picking just the right ring and the guy had promised that by the time he came in with the woman in question the ring would be ready and the perfect size.
"Gold would work," he answered over his shoulder. "My aunt never treats herself to anything nice." He let out an audible breath when the suit appeared with the box in question. Joseph reached out and collected the box, taking a quick look inside at the ring before nodding. It was perfect, absolutely perfect.
Now for the hard part.
He'd rehearsed what he was going to say in his head a hundred times and yet he found himself at a loss as to what to say. Joseph curled his fingers around the box and figured he'd just have to speak from the heart and hope for the best. Joseph turned back round until he was looking at the back of Rhiannon's head
"Hey, Rhi?"
"Yeah?" She was bent over and staring into the glass box. Rhiannon tucked her hair behind her ears and studied the rose pendant from closer range. God help her not to suggest a piece of jewelry his aunt didn't like. Picking out an item for a person she only knew from a few shared meals wasn't easy. Her toe tapped against the floor, expending the restless energy of being in a place so quiet and empty. They were the only people there.
"What's up, baby?" She straightened and turned around.
Joseph wet his lower lip and cleared his throat, wondering if it was just his imagination or if his grip had suddenly gotten tighter around the small black box?
"You know I love you," he began. "More than anything or anyone on this Earth and I... God, it's hard to put what I feel for you into words." He looked up at her through a long strand of dark hair. "But, I know a couple things for certain. One of which is that I can't and I won't live without you again, it nearly killed me the last time. The second is that you make me the happiest man in the world and that I'd do anything for you." Joseph took a couple steps closer. "And I know for certain that I want your face to be the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning and the very last thing I see before I go to sleep."
He let out a nervous laugh, the sort of laugh Rhiannon had probably never heard from him before. "I've been thinking about everything for a really long time now and I know that I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to give you everything, Rhiannon. A home, a family, a future, all the things that I know we both thought we couldn't have because of everything that goes on in our lives."
And with that all said Joseph stopped and then eased his weight onto one knee, opening the box to reveal the ring nestled safely amongst the light velvet lining. "Rhiannon Lee, il mio cuore, will you marry me?"
While he talked, Rhiannon's expression grew more bewildered by the second.
At first, she didn't know why he was saying those things. He felt them, but why declare them in the middle of a date in a public place, while his face drained of all color? But then she began to get a feeling. It started as a flutter of insect wings in her stomach. Then she felt her cheeks flush. The closer he came, the tighter Rhiannon's arms wrapped around her torso, and she shuffled her feet on the floor. Her eyes never left him. As Joseph got on one knee and proposed, the silence hung between them, heavy and full. She kept staring.
She began to smile and covered her mouth with one hand.
Then, around her fingers, "Are you serious?" Rhiannon looked at the ring. Silver and simple, with the smallest of diamonds, just as she loved them. "Joseph... are you serious?" She reached out and touched his forehead, subtly checking his temperature, in case he'd gone delirious. She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, not at him, but out of surprise and happiness.
Joseph kept his eyes on Rhiannon and nodded. "More serious than I've ever been about anything, beautiful." He breathed out slowly and then wet his lower lip. "So, will you marry me?" His grip remained tight around the box and his nerves continued to twist his stomach into knots, it was a miracle his knee wasn't shaking.
Rhiannon smiled and touched her forehead. "Oh my god."
Just the sight of him there. The nerves chewing him up, as if he actually thought she'd say no to him, this man she'd given her whole heart to. The first time she saw him, her world flipped end over end. She knew. Every cell in her body recognized him. He was going to be the one who stunned her. Without him, she was one-dimensional, but when he kissed her and put his arms around her, she was a whole person. Nothing could touch her. Her head was in the stars.
"My whole life, I've never wanted anything the way I want to be with you." Rhiannon didn't know what to do with her hands. She clutched the shoulders of his shirt. If she twisted the fabric hard enough, maybe she wouldn't shake. "Yes. I'll marry you."
Joseph's lips pulled apart into a very happy smile and he rose up smoothly, plucking the ring from the confines of the box to slide it onto her ring finger. "God, I love you." He immediately sunk both hands into her hair and pulled her into a long deep kiss, the sort of kiss where you got so caught up in it that you forgot that you needed to breathe.
Eventually he remembered.
Not that he went very far, resting his forehead against Rhiannon's before murmuring a soft endearment in the low tones of the Italian language that he knew so well. "You've just made me the happiest man alive, baby."
Rhiannon kept squeezing his shirt. She was shaking. All her attention was focused on the unfamiliar weight of a ring on that finger. It felt just right. "God, I think I'm in trouble," she said and laughed. "I can't breathe." She kissed him again. She didn't want to let go. The moment had an air of unreality to it. Every little girl thought about getting married. It was in the social breeding. As they grew up, plenty of them changed their minds about it, but in childhood, they imagined the person, the way it would happen, and nothing matched up with the actuality of having a person ask. The right one.
"You completely had me thinking you were sick!" she said, rocking on her feet in tandem with Joseph. "I thought you were gonna throw up." That was the thing of it. No one expected a man to pop the question in the middle of a jewelry store. It was like missing the nose on her own face. It was obvious, but incredibly not.
Joseph let out a small laugh and dropped another kiss on her mouth. "Sorry, beautiful, couldn't have you guessing what I had planned." He smoothed his hands through her hair and smiled at her, brushing his thumbs over the sides of her neck.
He dropped his gaze and then picked up her newly ringed hand and brought it up to his lips, pressing a kiss to the silver band that now wrapped her finger. Joseph knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Rhiannon.
"Congratulations, then." She watched him kiss her hand. It felt like fireworks kept exploding in her chest. "Poker face." When she thought about that, it made her smile, considering his prowess at anything gambling related. "I love this ring, it's perfect," she said and meant it. A big stone wasn't her style and he knew it. "Hey..." She pinned him in place with her eyes. "Is your aunt even having a birthday?" For all Rhiannon knew, he could've pulled that excuse out of thin air.
Joseph looked up and met her eyes, lips tugging in the corners. "It's not for another couple of months." He shrugged and pulled her closer for another kiss. "Had to get you in here and keep you distracted for long enough to get my hands on the ring." The very same ring he'd picked out several weeks ago.
"You wanna head back to mine and we can either stay in or go out for a meal to celebrate?"
"Yours," Rhiannon said and combed his hair into place. "I don't know if I can stare at you across a place setting all night. I'd be grabbing you under the tablecloth the whole time." She thought about it and her eyebrows quirked. "Although that might be a fun kind of torture." His eyes looked warm, like home. She wanted to save the way he looked and smelled, keep it on tap in her memory.
"I need a couple of minutes alone with you, Vegas. Then I promise I'll let you come up for air." She leaned back. It hit her all over again. A lot of times, her friends teased her about this kind of thing. Her and Joseph and domestic bliss. Household appliances, picking out curtains, or some other 'ha ha, look at the tough girl being stupid-happy' joke of the day. She always flipped them the middle finger and laughed it off. She could imagine the reaction to this.
Joseph laughed softly and stole another kiss. "I'm not going to complain, gorgeous." He slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, loving the way she just seemed to fit perfectly against him.
He turned and pressed an intimate kiss to her temple, murmuring that he loved her. He'd been planning this for weeks and he was glad it had gone as smoothly as it had.
"Good, I'm glad you're game." Rhiannon pushed open the door and stepped over the threshold a little ahead of him. "Because we've got a lot to talk about. We might as well start tonight. I mean, there's dresses, tuxedos, bridesmaids and groomsmen, invitations, floral arrangements... cake." She bit the inside of her lip and sneaked a look at his profile, wondering if he thought she was serious. The idea of all that made her want to jump off a cliff. She wondered if it did the same to Joseph.
If so, it'd be a one-of-a-kind facial expression.
"I know it's kind of cheesy, but I always wanted a harp player." Rhiannon tucked her fingernails into her palm. The pain might keep her from laughing.
It was as she strayed ahead that Joseph came to a stop, lifting his eyebrow at some of the things she was saying. "Please tell me that you're kidding." And if he sounded a little desperate then so be it. He was having some rather interesting visions of their wedding day.
He was praying that she was joking, he really was.
Rhiannon swung around to look at him. She tilted her head. "What do you mean, which part?" Ignoring the people strolling past, she crossed her arms and kept up the befuddled face. It wasn't easy. She tried to think of non-funny things, but an image of Joseph in a white tuxedo with tails kept popping up like a whack-a-mole game. Then she imagined a horse-drawn carriage. Quick, shift gears.
She registered understanding. "Oh, about the harp player? It is kind-of over the top." Chewing her cheek, she looked past him.
"Uh huh," Joseph drawled as he approached her slowly. "See, I was kinda thinking more small and intimate, with the more important people in our life." He leaned in and dropped a kiss on the side of her neck. "And I was kinda hoping that I wouldn't have to wear a suit." He paused for effect before he passed her with a deliberately slow smile. "Not so hard to take off at the end of the day."
He rummaged out his cigarettes and slid one between his still smiling lips, winking at his fiance.
Either he was onto Rhiannon's joke, or Joseph was trying to charm her into what he wanted.
She pivoted and followed him down the sidewalk, sliding her arms around his waist. "What'd you have in mind, ripped up jeans?" Left foot, right foot, she walked along behind him, impeding their progress. Her chin touched his shoulder. Rhiannon's voice drifted sweetly into his ear. "Justice of the Peace instead of a Priest? Drinking shots instead of champagne?" Now she was smiling.
The idea of parading down an aisle in a huge, white dress while a hundred people stared did not appeal. Did she even know a hundred people? "Because I could marry you anywhere, any time, and any way. The easier the better."
Joseph exhaled smoke and turned his head, offering Rhiannon a smile as she practically wrapped herself around him. "Something like that, beautiful."
He pressed a lingering kiss to Rhiannon's temple and lifted an arm, curling it around her shoulders. "All I know is I want to marry you and I'm happy to do whatever way feels best for us, y'know?"
Joseph took another drag and blew the smoke out and away from Rhiannon.
"Right there with you." Rhiannon caught up to Joseph's side and looped an arm around his hips. They walked along easily. She laced her fingers into his where they rested on her shoulder. "I wanted to see how your face looks when you're caught off-guard, which happens never. Survey says... pretty damn funny." There were a lot of things to consider, but they'd come later. Right now, she wanted to be happy. People said good things happened in batches. If that was the case, she was on a roll with her art, with Deanna, and now this.
"What do you want for dinner tonight? Are you even hungry?" The breeze blew pieces of hair across her cheek. She watched Joseph through them.
Joseph squeezed her hand and shrugged. "I could either cook or we could order in. If we do order in my vote is for Chinese or Cantonese." He pressed another kiss to her temple. "Of course I'm not really thinking about food right now." His voice dropped and his lips brushed over her ear. "I'm thinking you, me and my bed and maybe even the couch. Kinda depends on how far we get before I feel the need to rip off all your clothes."
His teeth nipped at her ear and his lips touched the edge of it with a smile. "What do you think?"
An answering smile curved her mouth. Rhiannon watched the sidewalk pass beneath their feet. "I'm thinking... why aren't we jogging?" With her chin tucked like that, her cheeks flushed, and Joseph whispering secrets in her ear, it was obvious what was on the brunette's mind. "Along with couch... and Cantonese... and I hope we remember to kick the door shut first." If she kept feeling as she presently did, Joseph would take the last few steps to his door with jeans tangling around his ankles.
Rhiannon's Ring:
http://www.greenlakejewelry.com/gal