Part 23
The couple faced their family and friends as they all cheered for the couple. Then they made their way out of the chapel into the fading sunlight where Howie took Sarah in his arms and held her close kissing her more passionately, the way he’d REALLY wanted to kiss her in the church.
"Howie, we’re married," whispered Sarah as he pulled away from the kiss.
Howie laughed, "Yeah…we are!" Sarah’s tears started again and he held on to her as he said, "Why are you crying, Angel?"
"I’m happy, you goof! We’re REALLY together…husband and wife….and you’ve been planning this all weekend!"
"Yeah…and I wasn’t sure we were going to make it. Thank god you aren’t one of those women who takes forever to get ready!"
Sarah laughed. "How did you manage to keep this a secret from me?"
The others had come out now and AJ said, "Believe me, it wasn’t easy!"
Brian added, "You almost caught us every time we tried to plan something."
Becca was there with Nick and Sarah looked at her, "How much of this did
YOU know about?"
"I didn’t know anything until last night," smiled Becca. "Sarah…." And the tears started afresh for Sarah and Becca. Howie let go of Sarah so that the two friends could hug and Becca whispered, "You deserve to be happy and I’ve never seen any man so determined to make sure you are."
Sarah let go of her best friend and moved back into Howie’s arms, a place that seemed to be the most natural place in the world.
Howie said, "I hate to do this on our wedding day, Angel, but we need to do some publicity stuff."
"What do you mean?"
"I promised Carson an exclusive in exchange for video taping the service."
That’s when Sarah realized exactly who was at the wedding. She spotted Carson with a cameraman taping everything and she asked, "What about pictures?"
"Anore was taking pictures," said Alison. "And he got some AWESOME ones. Sarah, Howie, everything was so…so…."
Vanessa finished, "Romantic. Serene. Perfect."
Howie hugged Sarah tight. "Thanks guys. Let us take care of this and the rest of you go on to the reception."
"Reception?" questioned Sarah. "You planned EVERYTHING?"
Howie grinned. "Yes! Believe me, it was NOT easy!"
"Okay, you’ve planned everything. What about the honeymoon?"
AJ cracked, "She’s just worried about the wedding night and not being disturbed."
Alison shot back, "With you around, can you blame her?"
Everyone laughed and Howie said, "We’re headed to Miami to the Delano. I’ve booked the honeymoon suite for the next four nights and when we get the chance, I’ll take you wherever you want to go. It’s not the honeymoon I wanted for you but it’ll have to do given our schedule."
"I can’t believe you!" said Sarah in amazement. "No wonder you were acting so weird all weekend."
"Weird? Howie act weird?" teased Nick.
"Don’t EVEN start…..NICKY!" warned Howie. "Go on and we’ll be there in a little while."
Becca said, "Nick, we really should go make sure everything is set before people start arriving."
The group gave Sarah and Howie their congratulations before heading to the rental cars to drive to Marathon for the reception. Then the happy couple went over to where Carson was standing. They took about fifteen minutes to talk to him about the wedding and their plans for the future. Howie did invite him to the reception as well and said he could use some of the footage from that as well. Carson promised not to use the song and asked when they could expect it to be released, if at all.
"We’re gonna release it but probably not until next fall."
"Are you gonna use this for the video?"
Howie laughed, "No, we’re not. We really haven’t discussed the video yet but it WILL NOT have anything from our wedding in it."
"Sarah, you look extremely radiant."
"Thanks. This was a complete surprise to me. When I saw you yesterday,
Howie hadn’t even proposed!"
"It was all very romantic."
"Do you know how to get to the reception?" asked Howie.
"Yeah, we got directions from Nick. We’ll see you there."
"Thanks, Carson," said Howie as he shook hands with him.
Carson left and Howie led Sarah back inside the chapel. The priest was still there but he left the couple alone. Howie led her up to the altar and then turned to face her. He put his hands on her waist pulling her close to him as he kissed her again.
Softly, he whispered, "Sarah, I’ve dreamed about this day for the last year and there was a point that I wasn’t sure we’d make it here. You are my heart and soul and I can’t live without you."
Sarah brushed his cheek softly as a lone tear ran down. "But you never gave up on us and I’m grateful for that, D. This has been a dream come true and now it’s time for OUR dreams to come true."
"Let’s go to the reception, Angel, and start OUR life together…as husband and wife."
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Getting into the limo, Howie and Sarah were both shocked to find Billy and Raoul waiting for them. The looks on the two men’s faces told Howie that something was wrong.