Ari’s fingers tremble as she fusses with a few pieces of loose hair from her updo; the side braid is perfect but she just needs to occupy her fingers for a little longer. She looks up into the full length mirror in front of her and starts picking apart her makeup and now her dress.

Will he like it?

Will he think I look pretty?

“Are you nervous, Pumpkin?” her mother asks as she comes up behind her and places her hands on her shoulders. “You look absolutely perfect. So beautiful…” Her voice falters for a moment and Ari looks up to see in the mirror that her mother’s eyes are filled with tears.

“Aw, Mom. Thank you.” She smiles and turns to hug her mother tightly. “I don’t know. Well…I’m not nervous about marrying him. I just…I just want to look perfect.”

Her mother smiles and reaches up to frame her face gently. “You do. He will love it. He loves you.”

Ari nods, smiles and then kisses her mother’s soft cheek. “Do you have grandma’s earrings?”

Annie nods and reaches for the little box she had set on the counter when she’d come into the room. “Here. Now you have something old.” She takes the drop earrings from their case and hands them to Ari who puts them in. “Your something new is your dress; your something borrowed is your bracelet…what is your something blue?”

Ari blushes and bites her lip. “Um…” She hesitates but gets cut off by a loud voice.

“Her lingerie under her dress is blue.” Sami smirks as she steps behind Ari in front of the mirror. “It’s super sexy too.”

“Samira!” Annie says in a chastising voice but then chuckles and shakes her head.

“Yeah, yeah. She’s going to be a married woman in less than an hour; she can be sexy for her husband.”

Ari rolls her eyes at her and they both laugh. “Where did you go anyway?’

“I went back to my room to get something. Close your eyes.”

Ari feels some soft tugging on her hair and soon opens her eyes at Sami’s command to find a cluster of delicate white mayflowers pinned into her hair behind her ear. She feels an overwhelming amount of emotion at the sight and looks at Samira with watery eyes. “Thank you.”

Sami smiles and leans forward to kiss Ari’s cheek. “I just thought you’d like a little bit of home here with you.”

All of them turn at the sound of shuffling near the door and see Karen and Heather walking into the room with large smiles. Heather reaches toward Ari and gives her a tight hug.

“Are you ready?”

With a smile and a deep breath, Ari nods.

“Let’s do it.”

*

JC slips past a few people on his way to the back of the reception hall trying to be as discreet as possible. He had just told Ari that he had to go use the washroom but had headed the opposite way and toward the stage set up at the back of the room. She has no idea what he has planned for her and he smiles to himself, already picturing the look on her face when she realizes what he’s up to.

It’ll probably be a face somewhat similar to what he imagines his was like when he’d watched her walk down the aisle earlier. He remembers the way she’d lifted her eyes to find his as she’d walked forward accompanied by her mother and father with an uncharacteristic shyness in her expression. He’d literally taken a step forward towards her in response, wanting to go to her and whisper in her ear how absolutely beautiful she looked, but thankfully he’d caught himself before he’d done just that. Her dress had been light and flowy, the lace overlays making it seem so feminine and delicate and he’d smiled again when he’d noticed that she was barefoot in the sand. It had seemed to take forever for her to get close to him when finally she had made it to the end of the aisle and she’d turned to kiss her mother’s cheek. When she'd turned to do the same to her father’s, he noticed the small cluster of white flowers tucked behind her ear and the fishtail braid that snaked up into her hair.

I like it when you braid your hair. It reminds me of the day we met.

His words from what seemed so long ago now had come back to him and his heart had begun to beat even harder.  

Finally. Finally he had found her.

And as her father had shaken his hand and then pressed Ari’s hand into his, he hadn’t been able to help but think that he’d do anything and everything in his power to keep her.

He’d finally found her.

He'd written an entire album about her. Only she'd had another name.

He'd finally found her.

“Here you go man, everything is set. You ready?”

Joey’s familiar voice breaks through JC’s thoughts and he returns to the present. He nods and grabs the pack and ear pieces Joey holds out to him. “Yeah, for sure. Let’s do this.”

JC grins at Joey before he turns and nods at the DJ currently playing some music as people mingle before dinner starts. When the music fades, JC hops onto the small stage and makes his way to the piano already set up there for the live band later that evening. He takes a seat at the bench and adjusts the mic as he turns toward the crowd who seems to have noticed that he’s there. It’s a small crowd, less than fifty people and he feels comfortable in front of them as it’s mostly family and close friends.

“Hey everyone.” The chatter dies down and everyone turns to look at the stage, including Ari who is watching him curiously.

“Hi.” He grins and speaks softly when the room is finally quiet. “First off I’d like to thank everyone that came out tonight to celebrate with Ari and I. I really hope everyone has a good time.”

He clears his throat and turns a little more toward the audience. “When I first started to get to know Ari, I quickly realized that one of the things that made her the happiest was to hear me sing. Whether it was me just humming a stupid theme song or rocking out like a crazy man in my car, anytime a note comes out of my mouth she gets this huge smile on her face.  So early on in our relationship, I told myself that if I could do one thing for her, I would sing to her as often as I could because seeing that smile and the pure joy and love in her eyes is worth everything to me.”

He scratches the back of his neck and continues. “As all of you know, I am a total open book when it comes to what I’m thinking and my emotions…” he trails off as people in the crowd chuckle and he smirks sarcastically. “So I think you may appreciate the title of this song.”

He takes a breath and finds Ari’s eyes in the crowd. “So earlier this evening honey, I promised that I would love, cherish and honor you for the rest of our lives. Now, in front of all these people I also promise to sing to you every day as long as we both shall live.”

He pauses and sees Ari press her hand over her heart as she smiles at him. He shifts on the bench and arranges the mic one last time before he starts playing a melody on the keys. “Starting with today.”

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before he starts to sing, the band that had quietly made their way on stage while he spoke chiming in with his piano.

When your legs don't work like they used to before

And I can't sweep you off of your feet

Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?

Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?

Maybe we found love right where we are

As the guitarist steps forward to play a solo, JC speaks softly into the microphone. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to sing to my wife,” he says as he gets up off of the bench and steps off of the stage. He reaches a hand out to beckon Ari forward and when she’s pressed against his chest, her ear near his lips he continues softly.

So, baby, now

Take me into your loving arms

Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars

Oh, darling, place your head on my beating heart

I'm thinking out loud

Maybe we found love right where we are

Oh, baby, we found love right where we are

And we found love right where we are.

*