You Saw Me

84

It took a while before we could actually leave the ceremony. Our parents were over the moon. Mom was completely out of herself with joy, and acted very differently than I had expected. Her calm, almost cold demeanor crumbled, as she hugged us and kissed my cheek, sobbing into my shoulder. Dad was crying and looked so proud and happy. They were just so surprised that they would be grandparents. 

Anne and Des were just as emotional as my parents. Henry had shared with them that I wasn't able to have children, so this was a huge surprise to them as well. We explained how we had found out and that we didn't believe it at first, but we loved her from the second, she popped up on the screen. Anne and mom fell into each other's arms, when they heard it was a girl, and cheered at getting a granddaughter. 

Eventually we were sent off to have wedding photos taken, while our guests had coffee and relaxed before dinner. Lloyd was taking our pictures, so we went to the beach to see if there were any good photo opportunities. We drove the black Range Rover and Lloyd drove ahead to see if the beach was too busy. 

Henry held my hand. "I love you, Mrs. Stiles", he said with a huge smile. "I missed you so much, I was scared I'd end up storming the house to see you". 

I chuckled. "I love you too, and I missed you terribly. Thank you for my necklace and the album", I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. 

He smiled and switched the blinkers on, drove to the side of the road and parked the car. Then he turned in the car seat and pulled me closer so he could kiss me. Not just a little kiss, but a deep, passionate kiss with so much longing behind it. "I wish we could skip forward to the hotel tonight", he said between kisses. "The things I want to do to you..." 

I felt the longing for him and his touch in my core. I kissed him a little more hungrily than intended and he put his hand on my cheek, ending the kiss and looked at me with wild eyes. "We can't do this, can we?" 

I shook my head. My mouth and body wanted to scream "Of course we can" and just crawl over in his lap, but we had photos to take and a party to attend. "Later", I said and kissed him one last time before we drove off to find Lloyd.

***

Lloyd had found a nice, secluded spot, where we could take some pictures. We were adamant that we didn't want the classical, staged wedding photos, but natural ones, where it was just us being us. Lloyd was the right photograher for those kinds of pictures, being a concert photographer, he was good at spotting the situations that would make a perfect picture. So we basically just hung out at the beach, doing things we'd do on a normal day, walking on the beach. Henry carried me, threatening to throw me in the sea, I kicked water after him, we held hands, kissed and joked so we both laughed until our stomachs hurt. He kissed my stomach and leaned his ear against me to listen. Lloyd's camera just went click, click, click. 

After about half an hour he showed us the rough versions on the little screen of his camera and every single one of them was beautiful. I hugged him and thanked him for being such a good friend, he had shot our essence in such a wonderful manner. He smiled shyly and thanked us for trusting him with it. Henry hugged him and assured him that we trusted him with everything. 

"Even Sarah", I said, a little cheekily to see how he would react. He smiled and blushed, nodding at me. 

"That's good, that's good", he said and tried to hide his cheeks turning red. I knew something was going on there... 

***

We were to arrive home at the house at 6 PM to have dinner and celebrate with our families and friends. We sat down at the table and had dinner and listened to speeches from those who wanted to say something. It turned out quite a lot of our guests had things they wanted to share with us. It was funny, embarrassing, lovely, personal and wonderful. Jeff held a speech for Henry, as his best man, and it was so moving, I needed several tissues. Hearing his friends and family talk about him the way that they did, was so wonderful, because they saw him, like I did. 

My dad got up and spoke to us as well. He started with an anecdote about me as a little girl. I had a dance recital and I wore a pretty white dress and danced around smiling at him. I was happy and free. He explained that he had had that same feeling, when he saw me in my dress on this day. Like I could twirl happily down the stairs and be free and joyful, like the little girl at the dance recital. And he knew he had Henry to thank for that. That he was thankful that Henry had helped me become free from whatever kept me from twirling. 

Both Henry and I cried and hugged dad. He was emotional, but he meant every word he had said. 

Gayle was the next person to speak. I made a grimace, much to her amusement. 

"Hah! Bet you thought I would let you slip out of this, huh?" She started. I nodded and shrugged. "No way, Elliepea, I have things to say! In college, I met this girl, who was bright-eyed and silly, she laughed all the time, made jokes, danced and sang. She was kinda magical. She cracked me up, made me love her. I was lucky enough to be part of her life, through thick and thin - you were thin always, I wasn't." 

She paused for laughs and everyone did. 

"Everything hasn't been easy, sometimes it's been kinda shit. But you are like a dandelion, my love. You may be blown away by strong winds, but you still find a way to flower again. You were lost for a while, a long while, but here you are - flowering. And this one - he loves you. I see that, Henry", she winked at him. 

"You asked me for my blessing to ask her to marry you, I gave it, because I know you see her. And I know that you'll take care of her. She always says that you are magic, and I think I speak for all of us, her friends, when I say that we are thankful, you brought magic back into her life."

The room was quiet, but there was sniffling and a lot of wet eyes. Gayle raised her glass. "To the bride and groom!" 

"To the bride and groom", everyone echoed and applauded Gayle.