Grace Under Pressure

Chapter Twenty-Four

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the film Beetlejuice.

"What are your qualifications?"

"Ah. Well. I attended Julliard. I'm a graduate of the Harvard business school. I travel quite extensively. I live through the Black Plaque, and I had a pretty good time during that. I've seen The Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it. NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT YOU'RE TALKING TO A DEAD GUY! NOW, WHAT DO YOU THINK?! You think I'm qualified?"

"Perry?" I got his attention. He had been doing the dishes while I sat at the table, checking the kids' Halloween candy.

"What's up?" He shut off the sink and turned to look at me while he dried his hands on a dishtowel.

"Are you sure the kids are old enough to watch Beetlejuice? It's a bit dark," I worried. I had been twelve the first time I viewed it, and I had been petrified of going near stair banisters for a month after that.

Perry looked over the top of my head to check on the kids. "Nathan's laughing and Jack's half-asleep. I think we're good." Jennifer had gone home with her mum after we had gone trick or treating.

"If you say so, love," I replied absentmindedly as I scooped Jack's candy off the table and back into his pumpkin bucket. "But you're dealing with any nightmares," I warned him in advance.

"We're very unhappy."

"What did you expect? You're dead!"

I couldn't help but giggle. That line of dialogue had long amused me.

Perry walked to the doorway that separated that living room from the kitchen and whistled to get the boys' attention. He waited until they were both looking at him to speak. "You boys can finish that tomorrow. Go upstairs and brush your teeth. Gracie put your pajamas on your beds." He stood and watched until the boys were out of sight upstairs, and then he joined me at the table. "Grace, I have an idea that I want to run by you." He grabbed a mini-Snickers bar out of Nathan's pumpkin bucket.

"I'm listening." I nodded as I nibbled on a Nerdz rope.

"I know you wanted to wait until after the baby came to get married, but I don't want to wait, sweetheart." He nervously took a bite out of his candy bar before he continued. "My sister will be in town with her family in December, and I was hoping you wouldn't mind marrying me while she's here. I was thinking of a courthouse wedding to my sister's Christian head explode and a church later that we'll never tell her about."

I laughed. "Yes, to the courthouse wedding. No to the church wedding later. The ceremony doesn't matter to me, and I only need one. I just want to be your wife, Perry."

I received a blinding smile before he leaned across the table and soundly kissed me.