Page 118 of Crave

I climb in the bed next to my fiancé and kiss her shoulder. She’s naked under the sheet. I slide my hand over her flat stomach and pull myself closer to her. She tries to move out of my grasp, but I don’t let her. I kiss my way down her shoulder and kiss the top of her breast.

“He’s here, Mama, but I told you we have plans.” She listens some more and then hands me her phone.

“She’s going to ask you to come pick up the cakes. Don’t do it. Be strong.” I put a solemn look on my face and nod my head. Sandy crosses her arm, denying me access to her breasts as she watches me.

“Hey, mother-in-law,” I say. I listen to her explain that Steve can’t deliver the cakes to my parents' house, and she needs me and Sandy to do it, but Sandy is being fresh. She promises to make me one of her special desserts for tonight, just for me. She continues to talk, but I tune her out. Sandy’s eyes are now little slits as she looks at me, waiting to hear what I’m going to say.

I have a reputation for doing whatever her mother asks. If Sandy gives her any pushback, her mother asks me, and I always say yes.

And this time is no different.

“We can do it. We’ll be there in a few hours.” I end the call and turn back to my fiancé, whose arms are still crossed.

“I can’t believe you.”

“What? You know I can’t say no to her.” I shrug and offer her a smile, putting my dimple on display. She confessed one night that was one of the things that attracted her to me, but she wants no part of that today. I pull her back as she angrily tosses the sheets and attempts to get out of the bed.

“Come on, baby. Don’t be like that.”

“Like what? It’s our anniversary, Jacob! Our first! Isn’t it enough that we share this day with family since it’s also your mom’s birthday? You promised we could spend the first half of the day together. Just us. My mom could have gotten Tash and Chris to drop off the cakes since they’re coming to the party.”

“I know, but she asked us to do it. She said Chris and Tash aren’t picking her up until later. Steve is probably with his third girlfriend of the month, so that leaves us.”

“But you promised.” She practically whines the last word, and my girl does not whine.

“I’m not going back on my promise. Remember a year ago today she talked you into delivering a cake? How did that turn out? And, Dee, your mom counts on us. You, Tash, and Chris are the ones she can always count on. When I asked her to marry you, I promised her that she could count on me too. I’m not going back on my word.”

The fight goes out of her, but her arms are still crossed.

“I’m sorry,” she finally says. “I really want to be with just you today.”

“We’re both off tomorrow. We’ll spend the morning together, do the family thing the rest of the day, but tonight and all day tomorrow belongs to us. We’ll turn our phones off and spend the day naked. We can get a hotel in the city if you want. I can get Luke to spend the night so he can take care of the dogs.”

“Just us tonight and tomorrow, but I want to be here. I want us to wake up in this bed, naked and entangled in our own sheets.”

“Deal. So, you’re no longer mad at me?”

“No. I guess I can forgive you. I kind of love you.” She gives me a shy smile and plants a kiss on my lips. I’m hard, but I know she needs a break. We’ve been insatiable the closer we get to our anniversary. I slide my hand down her belly and stroke her most sacred place, and she lets out a soft moan, but when I sink a finger in, she winces.

“You kind of love me?” She nods. “I kind of love you too, and I can’t wait to marry you in three months.” She smiles again. She’s been stressed out planning the wedding, but the most excited I’ve seen her is when the women went to New York to shop for a wedding dress at a shop called Kleinfeld’s.

“Neither can I.” She rests her cheek on top of my head. “And my dress should be ready in two weeks!” I wait for her to speak, already knowing exactly what she’s going to say. Whenever the topic of her dress comes up, it’s always the same thing.

“I can’t wait for you to see me in the dress. It’s exactly what I want.” She bites her lip nervously. “But it’s so expensive. I feel really guilty about spending that type of money on a dress.”

“It’s the only wedding you’re ever going to have. Go wild. Get a second dress if you want. Don’t some brides get a reception dress too?” I know this because we’ve been watchingSay Yes to the Dressever since she told me about Kleinfeld’s.

“I can’t even fathom that, Jacob. I love that dress too much to even think about another. Your mom wants all the girls to go back to New York for the final fitting. She wants to make a weekend of it. My mother was the first one to say yes.”

“Yeah? You guys planning to get her drunk off champagne again?” Sandy’s mom insisted on paying for the wedding dress, and to distract her from the expensive price tags, Tash supplied her with champagne. It worked. Sandy told her mom the dress cost only a few hundred dollars. Too inebriated to stand, she simply handed Sandy her credit card. Sandy charged a few hundred on her mom’s card, and the rest on the black Amex I gave her.

“Hey, we did what we had to do.”

“And whatever Lilian Clark wants, she gets,” I respond. “I don’t know who is more excited about this wedding. Us or my mother.”

“I think our mothers and Tash have us all beat, but your mom has been amazing, baby.”

The moment I put the ring on Sandy’s finger, my mom went into wedding planning mode. From finding the right wedding planner, to picking out the flowers, she hasn’t missed a single step. She even tagged along when we went for the cake tasting, which was a funny experience. When we got there, she told us she already knows the cake Deedee likes and that the tasting was for me to choose a flavor.

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