This = Love

Chapter 66

I was feeling nervous as we sat in the restaurant waiting for our mums to arrive. I was so excited about tomorrow but it suddenly hit me that the high I have been feeling for the past few days could suddenly come crashing down if our mums don't support what we are doing. Danny must've noticed my nervous fidgeting as we waited.

"It's going to be alright" he reassured me. As I looked at him I realised that everything would be alright. We are both grown adults and nobody can actually stop us from getting married, I just hope we can do it with our mums blessings.

"I know, I love you" I said as I forced a smile, trying to stop worrying.

"I love you more" Danny said with an effortless smile.

I looked up and saw my mum and Ailish coming into the restaurant.

"They're here" I said as I nodded towards the door. Danny stood up and went to greet them and I quickly followed suit.

I hugged Ailish first. "Well this is lovely" she said "but I thought you two would be out partying tonight"

"And miss the opportunity to catch up with you? Never" I replied as I moved to greet my mum while Ailish sat at the table.

"You look nice" my mum said.

"Thanks, so do you" I replied, hugging her tightly.

We sat down and started to look through the menu. It all sounded great but, if I'm honest, I didn't really feel hungry. I ordered a pasta dish and once our meals were ordered we started to chat at the table.

Both our mums said that they had enjoyed the last couple of days and then Ailish said "I can't wait for the wedding now" with a smile.

Danny gently squeezed my knee under the table, letting me know that he was going to tell them now.

"Neither can we" he started "But we actually wanted to have dinner with you both because we have something that we need to tell you, about the wedding"

They both look intrigued as they waited for what Danny had to say. I braced myself for what I knew was coming and hoped they would take this well.

"We have decided to get married here, tomorrow" Danny told them, smiling as he said it out loud.

They both looked shocked, Ailish spoke first "Don't be silly Daniel, everything's booked for your wedding in Dublin. You can't just decide to get married here and throw away all those months of planning. I know you two want to be married but it's only a few weeks away and then you'll get your dream wedding"

"You don't get it ma, do you?" Danny snapped at Ailish "This isn't a snap decision, we've really thought about this"

I stroked Danny's thigh under the table trying to calm him down and realised that I needed to start explaining.

"We have planned the changes to the wedding. We aren't talking about running down to The Little White Wedding Chapel in the morning for a drive thru ceremony"

My mum looked relieved at this, I suppose I can understand, when people talk about getting married in Las Vegas you always think of a really tacky wedding on the spur of the moment.

"So what are you talking about?" my mum asked as the waiter delivered our food.

Once the waiter had left, I continued. "I knew that I was coming here to marry Danny. We've been planning this for a few weeks" Again they both looked shocked at this revelation.

"Please try to understand" Danny continued "When George sold that story, we lost our perfect wedding day. That story nearly broke us and as we started to recover from it I had to watch as Kay started to really dread our wedding day. I felt so useless, like I had already failed her and that's no way to start married life. We talked about postponing the wedding but we would have to put it off until next year and neither of us wanted to do that. We were trapped"

I took over the story again. "The effect it had on Danny was awful. He wasn't sleeping and he ended up really ill because of it. I hated that I caused that" My eyes filled with tears as I thought back to how bad things got.

"You didn't cause it babe" Danny reassured me before he carried on "Anyway, we realised that what was important to us was to get married with all of our friends and family around us and without fears of press intrusion. So we decided to get married here. I'm sorry that we're only telling you this now but we just couldn't risk anyone knowing"

"So it will still be a proper wedding?" my mum asked

"We're getting married in the hotels wedding chapel and then we have a room booked for the reception, it's a proper wedding and it's a wedding that nobody knows about" I reassured her. "Please be happy for us mum, we have thought about this and it's definitely what we want but I want you to be OK with it"

"I had no idea how bad things had got for you both. I wish you had spoken to me about it. If it's really what you want then I'm happy for you" she told me. A smile filled with relief came to my mouth.

"Thank you" I whispered.

"What about you mum?" Danny asked.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm shocked. I always thought you could tell me anything and then I find out that you've been keeping something like this from me. But the fact that you have supported each other through it shows me that you will be grand together. If this is what you both want, then I'll support you" Ailish said.

We gave our mums all the details of the wedding and filled them in on the arrangements for the morning.

My mum was a little disappointed that Danny and I were staying together tonight. She kept telling me that it was bad luck for us to see each other on the morning of the wedding but I just told her it was worse luck to spend the first 3 weeks of married life apart but we are doing that so I'm not prepared to spend tonight away from Danny as well.

After our meal we headed up to our room. As we sat together looking out of the window I sent a text to Rina

Our mums know, you can deliver the invites now. X