“Then I’ll have the rings, please,” Bolt said.
Indy hit him with her bouquet. “You can’t go straight to the rings, you doofus. You have to ask if we take each other in marriage.” She was smiling, but when she turned back to me she rolled her eyes as if Bolt was crazy to have forgotten.
He chuckled. “I know that. I just wanted to see if you was paying attention.”
“Of course, I’m paying attention, it’s my wedding day!” she cried dramatically.
Bolt pulled a face and then cleared his throat. “Cade, do you take my sister as your awfully wedded wife?”
Again, Indy rolled her eyes. “It’s not awfully wedded wife! It’s lawfully.”
“No, it’s not. It’s awfully. You ask anyone.”
Again, we all turned to look around the empty backyard.
“Whatever. Let’s move on,” I suggested. I turned from Indy to look at Bolt. “And yes, I do.”
Bolt turned to Indy. “Indy, do you take Cade to be your awfully and lawfully wedded husband?”
She grinned across at me. “I do! A thousand times, I do!”
I grinned back at her.
“Then let’s do the ring bit,” Bolt said.
I pulled the plastic skull ring out of my jeans pocket. It had come with the motorcycle model kit my Uncle Bull had given me last Christmas. It was painted grey and had two red eyes that looked like rubies.
Indy’s eyes lit up when she saw it.
“Your skull ring!” She gasped.
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to say anything as I put it on her finger because none of us could remember how this bit of the ceremony went, so I stepped back and watched Indy hug her hand to her chest with girlie excitement.
“Cade Calley, you are the best husband in the world!” she declared.
Bolt cleared his throat to get her attention, and then gestured toward me with his head.
“Oh, yes! Of course!” she said gaily. She dug into the ribbon wrapped around her flowers and pulled out a daisy ring.
I raised an eyebrow at her and then frowned. A daisy ring? What boy wears a daisy ring?
“I got it in the lucky dip at the school fete,” Indy explained, her face bright with pride. “It’s real pretty. It’s made of real metal, and look, it’s got a big plastic diamond in the middle. See? June Nicholls was real jealous when I got it because all she got was a set of coloring pencils. So I let her borrow it one afternoon at school and she broke off one of the petals. She said it was an accident, but I’m pretty sure she meant to do it because she can be mean like that. My mama had to use some smelly glue to fix it back together again.”
Indy could talk.
A lot.
“It’s real pretty,” I said, feeling bad about not wanting to wear a daisy ring. It obviously meant a lot to her and she had given it to me.
Her face beamed with happiness. “You think so?”
I smiled back at her. “Yeah. I do.”
She squealed. “And now it’s yours.”
She slid the daisy ring onto my right hand. Indy said we had to wear our rings on our right hand, because if we put them on our left hand then we would really be married and the law said we would have to live together. I would have to leave school and get a job so I could put food on the table. Wearing our wedding rings on our right hand showed people we were married but that we were too young to live on our own just yet.
“I suppose this is the bit where I say youse is husband and wife,” Bolt said. He shrugged. “I guess you can kiss the bride.”
Kiss?
I had forgotten about the kiss.
I tried to swallow but my stupid tie was too tight.
I glanced at Bolt who was grinning, and then looked back at Indy who was standing there with a big smile on her face.
Waiting for me to kiss her.
My heart went stupid in my chest. I stepped forward and rested my hands awkwardly on her hips. I could feel my pulse pounding against my neck. I had never kissed a girl before, but I wanted to kiss Indy more than anything in the whole world.
Quite suddenly, the unexpected sprinkle from a sun shower rained down on us. Indy’s face lit up in wonderment. She looked up and laughed, then dropped her big brown eyes to look at me again. Rain glittered in her hair like beads, and sunlight glinted on her lips just as she leaned in and pressed her mouth to mine.
I closed my eyes and my stomach tightened. Her lips were warm and soft, and I could smell the cherry flavor of her lip balm. The world seemed to stop, and all I knew was the gentleness of Indy’s lips on mine.