“Why did she wait until she was seven months pregnant before she said anything?”
“She said something about hearing from a friend he was about to get married. She must think he is getting married this weekend and she wanted to drop the bomb on him before he got married.”
“Oh my god what a bitch! Ari is going to kill her Gunner.”
“Yeah, I know. But hey, don’t let this ruin our day okay? Jeff will take care of it. You have to trust him Ells to take care of it all okay baby?”
I nodded my head. Oh god. He was going to ask Ari to marry him Saturday night after the wedding. Is he going to tell her?
“Is he going to tell Ari?”
“Yeah he just needs to talk to Rebecca first and then he is going to tell Ari.”
“Is he still planning on asking her to marry him this weekend?”
“YES! Of course he is sweetheart. He loves her more than anything.”
“He needs to tell her right away Gunner. I don’t think he should wait.”
Gunner nodded but I know he was just as lost as I was.
I started thinking about the conversation I had with Ari just yesterday. We were wrapping up party favors that Jenny had sent up for us to do and Ari was talking about wanting to start a family right away. How she couldn’t wait to see Jefferson’s face when she told him for the first time she was pregnant. Oh god…my chest was hurting.
Poor Ari.
CHAPTER SIXTY
Ellie…….
Saturday….the wedding…..
“Do you want to go and check everything out before everyone gets here Ellie? If so, now would be our time to go.”
Jenny was amazing! They way she was handling everything and doing such a great job at it! I had no doubt everything was going to look beautiful. She really needed to start a business doing this stuff with the way she made the cabin look when Gunner asked me to marry him; my heart was beating a mile a minute. She took us down to the wedding site first. It was a good thing my makeup was not done yet. It was exactly how I wanted it. The first thing I noticed was our tree. Hanging from the tree were about fifty small flower vases that we spent days making out of old bottles and mason jars. My fingers were almost raw from wrapping thin wire around and around the jars so that we could hang them in the trees. Daisies and other wild flowers were in each one. They looked beautiful. Then I saw all the hay bales. They were set in rows and had old quilts and blankets over each one. The way Gunner and Jefferson set them up there was a small back also so that people would be able to lean back while sitting down. Emma and her quilting club made pillows to put on the hay bales as well. The little fans on each row were perfect! They each had the letter M on them. I almost cried just thinking about how my name was going to be Ellie Mathews in just a few short hours.
The aisle that was made for the wedding party to walk down already had a few dozen red and pink flower petals spread around. Ari’s little Cousin Lauren was the flower girl and her little brother Matthew was the ring barrier. They would both look so cute walking down the aisle.
I wanted the wedding site to be very simple nothing more than the vases hanging in the tree. I did not want to take away from the beautiful location where we were getting married. I walked around and smiled. The memory of that night flooded back to me. The endless talking about our favorite movies, singers, songs, the beautiful stars……my first orgasm. I felt the heat rush into my face and I had to look around to see if anyone was watching me. I’m sure I was as red as those rose petals. This place was so special to me. Someday we would bring our kids here and show them the nighttime stars just like Gunner did for me.
“Is everything how you want Ellie?” Jenny asked as she walked around with a clip board and her cell phone ever present in her hand. I just smiled at her.
“I can never ever repay you for how wonderful you have made this day for me Jenny. It’s perfect. Thank you so much for listening to me when I said I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I just….I just love it.”
Jenny smiled her shy little smile and shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m so happy you like it Ellie. Do you want to go up and see the reception area?”
“Is it safe? Where will Gunner be?”
Jenny laughed. I’ll make sure that Aaron knows to keep him in the house and not to let him peak out the window.”
We headed up to the ranch house and to the main barn. Drake, Aaron and Dewey spent days cleaning out the barn so that the slab floor would be ready for the reception. I was going to have to do something special for them.
We turned the corner and I saw three large white tents set up right outside the house and the barn. I sucked in a breath of air.
“OH. My. God! It looks beautiful…..it all looks so beautiful.”
We got out of Jenny’s truck and started walking around. Ari grabbed my arm and we set off to explore. Each of the white tent legs were wrapped in white silk mesh tulle with soft pink ribbon wrapped around each leg. The white tables had white linen draped over the whole table with a smaller soft pink linen on top of that. I was so glad Jenny kept the white chairs plain though. She wanted to tie large pink bows on each but I wanted to keep it simple. I liked it simple and plain, it was more me I thought. Each table had a center piece of wild flowers in mason jars with a few small white votive candles.
I looked over to one table and they were setting mason jars all on it. That table would contain lemonade, sweet tea and ice water. Next to that was a giant trough that would have ice in it and filled to the max with beer. Last night Gunner was drilling holes and putting some tubing in it for the water that melted to drain out and away from the area. I smiled thinking about how handsome he looked last night. I looked back towards the house. I could not wait to see him.
The other table had the wedding cakes on it. The groom’s cake was a 4 tiered chocolate cake that had an orange longhorn on the front of each layer. There were chocolate covered strawberries on the edge of each layer and on the top of the cake. All along the bottom of the cake were small chocolate footballs and helmets. The bride’s cake was a three tier white butter cream cake with silver beaded accents on it. It was sitting on a piece of oak that Gunner had cut from a tree that had fallen in a spring storm. It was perfect! I wonder if Gunner had seen it yet.
Then I saw the fire pit that Gunner, Jefferson and Josh built yesterday. I smiled as I saw the table that had all the small pails with S’mores fixing’s in it. I laughed when I thought about how me, Ari, Amanda and Heather got so drunk while painting the pails with chalk board paint and then tried to write S’mores on them all. Gunner and Jefferson ended up having to finish them all. That was a fun night. The kids would have so much fun making S’mores and it reminded me of our first unofficial date at the coffee house.
The trees were all filled with white lights that would turn on right at dusk. I could not wait to see what it looked like! I looked around at all of the games that were set up everywhere. Horse shoes, croquet, washers…it was perfect. I had to giggle at the quilt on the ground with the chess set on it. That must have been Garrett’s idea.
“Ellie honey it all looks so beautiful.” Ari said as we started to walk towards the barn. Oh my god….this did not look like the same barn! I don’t know how Drake and the boys did it but the slab floor was cleaned and white lights where everywhere! The band was already setting up in the corner along with the DJ. I was feeling overwhelmed yet so happy. I couldn’t hold it back anymore. I started to cry. I was going to be Gunner’s wife in just a few hours.
“Ellie! What’s wrong?”Ari said as she took me in her arms.
“Nothing it’s all just so beautiful. More beautiful than I could have ever imagined…..” I was crying like a baby. Oh god…I was starting to hyperventilate. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Ellie, breathe! Sweets you have to breathe! Hum, Jenny…..can you come here?”