His Bahamas Affair (The Albury Affairs) (27 page)

She was finally home.

* * * *

Loraine looked outside
her bedroom window in complete awe. Reno hadn’t been joking when he said
everything would be ready for the afternoon ceremony. The tents were already
going up by dawn. She had hoped to see more of the decorations, especially with
the army going in and out of the tent, but it was completely covered.

“Come away from there,
Loraine.” Gil took her by the shoulders and pulled her away, leading her to her
dressing table.

“But I want to see
what’s going on!” she whined.

“You’ll see it in two
hours when you walk down the aisle, now let me finish doing your hair.” He
combed his fingers through her hair and smiled at her in the mirror. “Jake told
me the person we met in Nassau wasn’t the real you. I didn’t understand then,
but I do now. Never lose yourself Loraine, you look beautiful.”

“Thank you for doing
this Gil, and for the dress. It’s perfect.”

“No, perfect was his
proposal,” he signed dreamily. “Tell me again what he said?”

Loraine laughed. “No
way. You think my proposal was dreamy, ask Riana how Allan popped the
question.”

Gil squealed like a
girl turning around to face Riana who had her legs stretched out on the couch,
her back supported with pillows watching him with raised eyebrows and a faint
smile on her lips. Loraine laughed at her wondrous gaze—some gay guys acted
more girly than girls.

“Come on Riana, spill!”
he prompted with another squeal.

Riana chuckled shaking
her head. “Fine just finish up her hair. We don’t have much time left before
the ceremony starts and the last thing we want is for Reno to come up here
because we are late.”

Loraine nodded. Reno
was never late for anything so he expects everyone to be on time as well,
something that was ingrained in him when he started working at age fourteen.
But what would he do if she was late for her own wedding?

“What would he do?”

Riana snorted shifting
her back on the pillows before she settled with a relieved sigh. Loraine could
see the discomfort she was in and yet, she couldn’t wait to be that big with
Reno’s baby inside her. Another child, this one from her own body would be the
icing on their happy life cake.

“He’d carry you down
there in your nightgown, then after the ceremony he’d bring you back here to
get finished dressing—”

“Only he’ll be helping
me out of the little I have on, then an hour later, he’ll help me completely
dress up,” Loraine nibbled on her lower lip, her lower belly already burning
with desire from the prospects. It had been too long since she had him inside
her.

Gil rolled his eyes and
huffed. “Okay, could we please go back to the fairytale proposal?”

“Fine,” Riana began
with a dreamy smile on her face. “He re-enacted one of my favorite memories of
us together. During our trip three years ago, in Venice, he took me on a
gondola ride. He gave me red roses and the gondolier sang to us in a beautiful
tenor voice. Then Allan began to sing with him, but from Allan it was more like
a whisper of promises to my heart in a language I didn’t understand as he held
me tight in his arms. It was so beautiful and romantic that I cried. I fell
even more in love with him that day.”

Gil sighed dreamily
dabbing nonexistent tears from his eyes. “That’s so beautiful.”

Loraine couldn’t deny
the story was romantic but Gil was too over the top!

“So, how did the
proposal go?” he asked jumping up and down.

Riana laughed. “Okay,
okay! We took the same gondola ride with the same gondolier. He gave me red
roses and the gondolier sang the same song and Allan sang with him again. But
this time, it rained red, white and pink rose petals every time we passed under
a bridge. At the last bridge a black velvet box fell into my lap. It hadn’t
clicked immediately what it was until I picked it up and opened it.” She stared
with reverie at the rock on her left hand, tears in her eyes and a wide smile
on her face. Then she looked up and held her hand up to us. Gil rushed to sit
beside her taking her hand in his. He oohed and
aahed
at the ring holding it close to his face.

“I was so shocked. All
I could do was stare at it. Then Allan whispered, ‘Now, I’m proposing but I
won’t be taking ‘no’ for an answer. I don’t want to live without you because
the years that I did, it was pure hell. I want you in my life, in my world,
tied to me in every humanly way possible because I love you with all of me and
as much as that frightens me that I’ve found my soul mate, I would rather have
your love than live without it’. Then he slipped the ring on my finger.”

Loraine blinked her
tears away, though she had to keep from laughing watching Gil openly cry.
Sniffing he said, “That’s a proposal for the movies.”

Riana wiped her own
tears away, “It’s not over yet. He cradled my face gently in his hands lowering
his face so close to mine I could feel his lips move against mine when he
whispered, ‘This is where you say yes’. Instead, I told him I was pregnant and
I was hoping for a son. It was his turn to be shocked. He just sat there
looking at me for so long that I got scared he’d gone into shock. Then out of
the blue he started to cheer and laugh. He fell into the river. I was so
shocked I started laughing too. He started yelling something in Italian as he
swam, then people started to yell something back to him, throwing more roses
into the gondola. I asked our gondolier what they were saying and he told me
Allan was yelling he was going to have a son and they yelled congratulations
back to him and to me. A week later we were married at my favorite restaurant
in Rome. It was wonderful.”

Gil fanned his eyes
with his fingers. “Ow, why didn’t Jake propose to me like that? That was so
beautiful!”

Riana nodded pushing
him off the couch. “Now go back and finish getting Loraine dressed before my
brother comes in here.”

He sighed. “Okay, time
to create another fairytale. I’m going to make you look like an angel, Loraine.
Reno won’t know what hit him, just wait and see.”

An hour later, Gil had
done just that. Loraine stood in front of the full length mirror, completely
dressed and tongue-tied. The gown was an umpire waist flowing chiffon gown with
a sweetheart cut. She wore no jewelry except for the string of beads that hung
over her forehead and disappeared into her hair, braided from both sides of her
head and meeting at the bottom of her neck with just wisps of it hanging over
her ears. She couldn’t remember the last time she wore so little make up.
Usually, when she did wear makeup, it was in different shades of bold colors,
but the natural look made her look almost virginal. But there was something
missing.

“What about shoes?” she
whispered, like she was afraid if she spoke louder she would raptor the dream
because all this just had to be a dream.

Amy, Melody, Riana and
Gil stepped into view of the mirror. They were all in lavender and white gowns.
Gil had a lavender shirt and white pants. They were also with no jewelry and
very light makeup. Gil was very specific on the ladies look—angelic.

Gil shook his head. “No
shoes, even the groom and his groomsmen aren’t wearing shoes either. I want
this day to be—”

“Angelic,” they said in
unison with a laugh.

There was a knock on
the door before it opened revealing her father. “Father of the bride coming in.
I hope everyone is decent.”

“Come on in, Daddy,”
she said turning to face him. She stood there, anxious for his reaction. He
didn’t disappoint.

He stood there staring
at her in reverie, his eyes filling with tears. “Rain, you’re so beautiful,” he
whispered hoarsely.

Loraine smiled, batting
back tears. “You called me that last night too, why?”

Her father approached
her slowly stopping a foot in front of her. “Because that’s what your mother
named you before my mother…before I changed it to Loraine. You came into this
world screaming and crying your lungs out, as if you were disgusted about being
born in the middle of a thunder storm. But the moment they placed you in your
mother’s arms you quietened down and so did the storm. Your mother saw that as
a sign from the universe and decided to name you Rain.”

Loraine laughed. “Yeah
that does sound like mom—the old mom. I’m a little glad grandma interfered,
going by Rain in high school would have been torture.” She shook her head.

Her father ran his
hands up and down her arms. “I’m not so sure I want to give you up to another
man just yet. You used to wear beads in your hair when you were little and
chase after butterflies all day long bare foot. Your mother would have to
distract you with yoga or something just so you would take a break.”

Loraine smiled up at
him, loving how soft his face got, unlike his constant hard expressions. It was
a wonderful change.

She went up to her toes
and kissed his cheek. “Daddy, you’d have to wrestle Reno to postpone this
wedding.” Then she looked down at his bare feet and laughed. “Gil got to you,
too?”

He rolled his eyes.
“Jake asked for a favor and we all complied.” He leaned closer and whispered,
“Why didn’t you tell me he was gay? I wouldn’t have pushed for you two to be
together.”

Loraine patted his arm.
“Consider it a lesson learned.”

“To never try to force
you into anything as much as I think I know what’s best for you?”

“That’s it, Dad. Where
is Mom, why wasn’t she here to help me dress?”

He kissed her temple.
“Don’t take it personally. She spent most of the morning meditating, trying to
find the woman I made her forget.”

Loraine felt guilty.
“Daddy…”

He shook his head. “You
were right and I’m glad you got us to this turning point. Anyway, she’s said
she was going to spend time with your husband-to-be and she wants to see you
walk down the aisle, kind of like a rebirth or something. I didn’t understand
her much the day I roped her into marrying me and I still don’t understand her
now.”

“But you never
questioned her then either?”

He shook his head,
grinning down at her. “Loving her was enough and I’m going back to doing that,
because the sex is way better. I haven’t had my world rocked like that in
twenty years—”

Loraine quickly covered
her ears. “Wow, Dad! TMI! Too much information! I can’t have that in my head!”

“Too late,” Melody
snickered making the others laugh.

Loraine glared at her
bridal party. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

The others preceded her
and her father out of the room and down to the living room. The ceiling to
floor windows was actually sliding doors and they were open, leading into the
tent. There were few guests, most of them from the resort. Up front, Reno stood
with Allan, Matthew and Ruiz also dressed in white pants and shirt, and of
course, barefoot. It did make sense considering it was a beach wedding and
shoes in the sand was obtuse. Gil stood at the steps with Tyler, Mark and
Aurora all dressed in white, Aurora was in a ballerina dress, with flowers in
her curly hair. Gil had really gone out of his way to plan a fairytale wedding.

Riana held a bouquet of
white roses to her. “Ready to become my sister-in-law?”

Loraine nodded,
tightening her grip on her father’s arm. “I’m more than ready.”

Looking at Reno as she
walked down the aisle, watching his lips break into a huge grin as his eyes
glistened with tears. She smiled back at him, with tears in her own eyes, her
heart beating a tattoo in her chest as she got closer to him. Loraine knew the
steps she was taking, her walk down the aisle, was the beginning of her happily
ever after. She was finally getting what she’s always dreamed of.

Chapter Twelve

Reno watched as Loraine
danced with her father. It was the happiest he had ever seen her. As she
laughed and danced barefoot in the resort’s ballroom where their reception was
held, she looked so free and light, the burden that had brought her to his
front door completely lifted from her.

God she was a beauty,
his beautiful wife. Reno looked down at his left hand, his thumb playing with
the platinum ring on his third finger. He never thought he would willingly wear
the figurative ball and chain again, especially after his encounter with
Georgia.

But
Lori was nothing like Georgia
, he thought fondly to
himself. Loraine was kind, loving, thoughtful, wonderful…and his.
Loraine Larson Albury is all mine and mine
alone.
When a song with a fast tempo began, he watched as Tyler ran up to
her, grabbing her hand and dancing by her side. He smiled at the two of them,
admitting to himself that Loraine wasn’t just his.
No, she’s Tyler’s and mine
.

“Isn’t she beautiful?”
Reno turned to the whisper voice of his new mother-in-law.

“Yes, she is. More so
as herself and not as the blonde and blue eyed lady that came to me with the
weight of the world on her shoulders.”