Throwing my arms around her neck, I kiss her first on one pudgy cheek, then on the other.
“I’m just so delighted you’ve finally come to your senses. And my little Ellie…you’ve made her so happy…look at the way she keeps smiling over at the two of you.”
She’s right. Ellie is gazing this way, her face filled with so much pride it makes me queasy.
“Mami,” I grit. “You know this is only temporary. What were you thinking, doing all of this?” I look around the room at the outlandish decorations and flowers lining every surface. It’s all way too much. “A cake!” Oh, dear God of all that is holy, there is a three-tier wedding cake on a fancy cake table, complete with champagne and a photographer set up waiting to take pictures.
“Of course, there is a cake. What’s a wedding without cake? The first time you and Liam eloped, we threw tradition out the window. That union was cursed from the start. Not this time. This time we dot all of our Ts.”
“You mean dot our I’s.” I giggle at her error. “You cross Ts.”
“Huh?”
“Nevermind… You know you’re just going to make this harder on your granddaughter when this bogus marriage ends.”
“You won’t throw a perfectly good man away a second time, mija.” She tightens her fingers around mine. “You always were a stubborn girl, but not stupid. I believe you’ve learned a valuable lesson. I have faith in you to do the right thing.”
As she walks off, the man in question reappears by my side, having wandered off to raid the punch bowl. “It was awful nice of your family to do this for us.”
That is not at all what I was thinking. My body tenses up when he lays an arm across my shoulders. Then I force myself to relax, remembering all of the eyes fixed on us, including our daughter’s.
He gives me a little shake. “What’s that?”
I turn in the direction Liam’s pointing to find Papi guiding Father Juan to the center of the room, with my godparents, Tia Ana and Tio Frank following closely behind… carrying a lasso of flowers. Oh, please no.
Why are they doing this to me? Isn’t your family supposed to love and support you? This is the opposite of being supportive…this is complete sabotage.
“As most of you are aware, it is tradition to celebrate a new marriage with el lazo.” My mother addresses the crowd, pausing to allow Tia and Tio to drape the string of flowers around both Liam and me, twisting the center so it forms a figure eight, or infinity sign. “This is usually done during the wedding ceremony, but my Nya never does things by the book, so Father Juan has graciously agreed to stop by and say a blessing over the happy couple.”
An intense sense of obligation toward this mockery of a marriage threatens to overwhelm me as the old man speaks of our duties to each other as husband and wife. Hearing similar words spoken by an Elvis impersonator just didn’t have the same effect as they do coming from this man. A man I was brought up to love and respect. “This lasso signifies your union. It is a symbol of your responsibility to love and support one another through good times and bad.”
My mother catches a coughing fit behind him, making sure I’m paying attention to that last bit about the bad times. She and my father made no secret of the way they felt about me running away when things got tough. They are firm believers that a marriage can survive anything outside of adultery and abuse… and even then, it’s dicey.
“Now the moment you’ve been waiting for,” Father teases. “You may kiss your lovely bride.”
Liam’s lips curl into the slightest hint of a smile as he places his warm hands on my cheeks to cradle my face. Skilled fingers thread into my hair, melting away the last of my resolve. His handsome face draws nearer to mine, and my heart begins to pound fiercely in my chest, the steady sound echoing in my head and throbbing through my veins. Our surroundings fade away. Time and distance seem to evaporate into thin air. All that remains are two lonely souls desperate to reconnect. Pillow-soft lips envelop mine, leaving me so weak in the knees that I have to take hold of his broad shoulders to keep from dissolving into a puddle at his feet. The short kiss we share hardly seems enough for