“Oh, how wonderful. Congratulations. When’s the big day?” She beamed at us.
“March 21, the first day of spring,” I blurted out. Hunter gave me a look. I’d just pulled it out of my ass.
“How lovely. Well, we have a lot to offer when it comes to weddings, if you’ll just follow me,” she said, leading us to the left and up to a huge desk. I couldn’t stop staring at the ornate wooden latticed ceilings and the gilded mirrors. Some of the walls were covered in dark green wallpaper. It gave a cozy old-time study feel to the place.
“I’m Susan, by the way. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Hunter,” he said, shaking her hand. “This is Missy.”
“Missy. Is that short for Marissa?”
“Yeah,” I said, giving him a glare when she turned to grab a brochure.
“This has all our options and lists all of our vendors. If you want to do the complete package, we can provide you with everything. Food, drinks, chairs, the works. Would you like to take a look at a few of the rooms? What size wedding were you thinking?”
“Small. Definitely,” I said, beating Hunter to the gun. Neither of us had big families. You know, if we were getting married, which we weren’t, because this was just for pretend.
“Less than 25 people?”
“Probably. We hadn’t really sat down and counted yet,” Hunter said. “But it’ll be what, your parents, Tawny, my family, that’s eight, then Darah, Renee, Paul, Megan and Jake, and then Dev and Sean. And a few cousins. Right?” It was like he’d actually thought about it.
“That’s right,” I said with a sweeter-than-sweet smile.
“Okay, well that would be perfect. I don’t think we could accommodate everyone, but definitely the bridal and groom parties. Let’s go upstairs and see some of the rooms and then we can go over the grounds.”
“Sounds good,” I said with another teeth-hurting smile.
“Good job, Missy girl,” Hunter said as we walked up the spiral stairs to the rest of the inn.
“Bite me, Mr. Zaccadelli.”
“Anytime, Mrs. Zaccadelli.” I nearly tripped on the next step. Hearing him call me that made a strange feeling come over me that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
Susan showed us a few rooms that weren’t occupied. They were all quaintly furnished and had great views. My favorite was the library suite. I gasped when we walked down a set of narrow white stairs and came into a room furnished in dark green with red accents. It was a bit like a strawberry gone nuts, but with BOOKS. There was even a balcony with more rows of bookshelves. I nearly lost it.
“Hey, you’re going to squeeze the blood out of my hand,” Hunter whispered.
I looked down and saw that I was clenching his hand in excitement. Maybe a bit too hard.
“You can take it. Do you not see the books?”
“Would you have your way with me right now?”
Surrounded by all that literature? Oh hell yes. Damn Susan. She was still yammering, but I wasn’t hearing her. Too many pretty books were calling my name.
“Why do you think Beauty picked the Beast? It was the library.”
“I guess I’m the Beast in that situation.”
“Unless you want to be the Beauty.”
“Nope, that’s all you.” He pulled me toward him and gave me a kiss on the forehead. I thought I heard Susan sigh.
“Would you like to see the grounds?”
“Sure,” I said, taking one last, longing look at the library room.
“Hold on,” Hunter said, taking out his phone. “Would you take a picture of us?”
“Absolutely,” Susan said, taking the phone.
Hunter pulled me close and put his arm around me.
“Smile, baby.” I did, and Susan took a few shots of us.
“Perfect,” she said. Hunter grinned at me, and I wanted to slap it off his face and kiss him at the same time.
Susan took us around the back of the inn, which had a huge sloping lawn.
“Now we can do tents, or some couples prefer the gazebo.”
“What do you think, babe? Gazebo or tent?” I said.
“Whatever your little heart desires, my love.” He was laying it on thick. I hoped Susan couldn’t hear the sarcasm. She seemed oblivious.
“I like the gazebo. I’ve always imagined getting married in a gazebo.” Now I was the one laying it on.
Susan gave us the rest of the tour, barely stopping her torrent of words to take a breath. Hunter and I had a little battle, with me elbowing him and him trying to get me back. Susan was oblivious. We took some more pictures of the inn, and Hunter made Susan take some more of us.
“I swear to God, if you post these online, I will strangle you in your sleep,” I hissed while she took another shot of us in the gazebo.
“Noted,” he hissed back.
Susan gave us a bunch more brochures about all sorts of things and blathered on about catering. I was exhausted by the time we walked outside.
I turned around and looked one more time at it.
“Like your castle, princess?”
I shrugged. “It’s okay.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“I’m sorry it’s not up to your standards. Would you like me to call my private jet and take you to England to see a real one?”
“Well, if you insist.”
“You’re a demanding girl, Missy. You’re not going to want swans for our wedding, right?”
“Only a few dozen. And doves. We must release doves.”
“Oh, doves are a given. That’s why I didn’t mention them.” He turned on the car and swung around the circular driveway.
“It is really cool inside. Thanks for bringing me here.”
“Anytime, princess.”
We went downtown to The Camden Deli to get sandwiches and then we drove to the top of the mountain. Luckily, since it was the middle of the week, there weren’t that many people up there. The tourists had mostly left, but the leaf peepers were already out in full force, and there were always the birders to contend with. You could always spot them because they had huge binoculars.
We found a semi-flat spot and settled down to watch the boats come in and out of the small harbor and the bustling town. Hunter found an old blanket in his car, and we spread that down. Of course he’d brought his guitar.
“You never know when you might need it. What if our wallets were stolen and we ran out of gas? Then I’d have my guitar and I could play so people would take pity on us and give us gas money. So really, this guitar could save our lives.”
“Never insult Hunter’s guitar. Note made,” I said, tapping my head. “You didn’t have to go veggie for me. I don’t care if you eat meat, as long as you don’t shove it in my face or down my throat.”
“I like hummus; I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Since when?”
He rolled his eyes. “Since you made me eat it three weeks ago.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re cute when you’re smug.”
“Shut up.”
“Missy does not take compliments well. Note taken.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes and munch on my sandwich for something to do. We finished and then had double chocolate chip cookies for desert.
“You want to go up to the tower?”
“Sure.” The most prominent item on the top of the mountain was a stone tower with a winding staircase that you could climb to the top. I wasn’t much for stairs that you could see through, but I wasn’t going to tell Hunter that. I went first, and somehow made it to the top without freaking out.
“Can I tell you something?” Hunter said when we were both at the top. I nodded. “Your ass looks amazing from that angle.”
“I swear, I will throw you off this tower.”
“No you won’t,” he said with a smile as he picked me up and placed me on the edge of the wall that surrounded the tower. It had little crenellations, and I fit exactly between them.
“No stay still, I want to take a picture. Smile, baby.” He was still calling me baby, even though Susan wasn’t anywhere to be found.
I did, which was easy to do with him looking at me like I was the best Christmas present he’d ever gotten.
“Gorgeous. Okay, let’s get you down.” I begrudgingly let him help me down. “Let’s do one more. Smile big.” He held the camera out with one hand and put his face next to mine. “One, two —” Before he got to three he moved his head and kissed my cheek. I squished up my face in surprise.
“Hey, no ambush kissing.” I wacked his chest halfheartedly. He captured my hand and kissed my palm.
“Even if you like it?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
We heard voices on the stairs and in a moment we were joined by a mother, father, two kids and a set of what were probably grandparents. The top of the tower wasn’t that wide, so we had to squish in.
“Sorry, there’s not a lot of space up here,” the mother said as one of the kids begged his father to be held up so they could see over the wall.
“It’s okay, I think we’re going down soon,” I said.
“Oh, would you mind taking a picture of us?” the woman said, trying to gather her son so he wouldn’t throw himself down the stairs.
“Sure,” I said, taking the camera. They got themselves sorted, and I had to back up nearly to the other end of the tower and zoom all the way out to get them all in.
“Say Mt. Battie!”
“Mt. Battie!” they all chimed in.
“Thank you so much,” the woman said as I showed her the pictures on the camera. “Oh my goodness, what a beautiful ring. When are you getting married?”
“March 21, first day of spring,” Hunter said, putting his arm around me.
“Well, congratulations.”
“Thank you,” I said, trying to grind my heel into Hunter’s foot. He avoided me, and we said good-bye to the family and started back down the steps.
“You go first.”
“What a buzz kill,” he said, but he did go first.
I almost reached out and held onto his shirt as we went down, but I resisted and before we knew it, we were back down. Phew.
“You want to walk around a bit?” He didn’t let go of my hand, and we walked around the road a bit, making a loop and then back again.
“I’d love to come here at night to see what the town looked like all lit up. They close the gates, so you’d have to walk up with flashlights. Still, it would be worth it.”
I nodded, looking down at our linked hands.
“So is that how you’d see your wedding? With swans and all that?” he said.
“I never really imagined a wedding.”
“I thought that was something all girls did.”
“Well, like you said, I’m not a normal girl.”
“You know I didn’t mean it like that.”
“How did you mean it?”
“I meant it that you’re not just any other girl. You’re you.”
“Profound.”