To Those Who Wait (gxg)

Chapter 16

"Sammy, no! Absolutely not!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, come on Abby, you know you want it!" she whispered into my ear and causing goosebumps to run rampant over my neck.

"Come on Sam, it's beautiful, but you're not spending $45 thousand on a ring! Our budget is $5 thousand, because that is all I have and you're not allowed to spend more than that on me," I pouted. The pout always worked on mom, so I had to see if Sam would fall for it too.

She sighed deeply, and then nodded. "Fine. But I get to pick out the matching wedding bands and you're not allowed to complain about the cost."

"I won't complain if you keep it modest. I'm not doing this for your money, I just want you." I assured her.

"I know you're not, but it doesn't mean I can't spoil you!" She added with a wink.

"Spoiling doesn't have to be with money." I turned in her arms and kissed her lightly. "On our wedding night I'll show you other ways I can spoil you." I hoped. Honestly, I had no idea how I might do that, but I was sure as hell going to try!

"Ahem!" interrupted the salesman. "Did you come to a decision?"

"Yes, we did. This one is just too big," Sammy told him. Could you show us some rings that would pair well with matching bands? Perhaps in the 2-carat range?"

"Of course!" The man directed us to a different display, and I was happy to see a more reasonable price on the rings.

I would have married her with a secret decoder ring though, as long as she was my wife. This was just the cherry on top! By the end of our trip to the jeweler, we'd each picked a beautiful ring that we were happier with. We'd settled on slightly smaller rings with better color and clarity, which Sam had done research on and assured me it was a good thing, and a pair of matching bands. We did go a little over budget, but it turns out that Sammy can pout too, and I was helpless in the face of her lip sticking out and begging to be nibbled on. How could I refuse this girl?

The rings needed to be resized, which was fine with us. We could go buy some nice dresses for our little wedding while they were being done. Again, we didn't need anything fancy, just nice. Neither of us wanted to go all out, but we did want some nice wedding pictures. I also wanted something easily removable, because the more time I spent with Sam, the less willpower I had to keep myself from giving in to all my impulses.

We were down to two more days, I could make it.

"Abby, should we go to Victoria's Secret to find some post wedding items?" Sammy asked while we were enjoying our lunch.

Alright. Maybe I won't make it.

I stopped chewing for a moment and looked at her with wide eyes. This shouldn't be hard, I'd already seen her in nothing but underwear, so why was I suddenly freaking out? How come my mouth was dry even though I had a mouthful of fries? Was that even possible? They were drenched in ketchup, there was no way it was really dry!

"Yes. We should do that!" I finally choked out once I was able to swallow the food. "Maybe we should get a few spares. Just in case we decide we want to consummate this marriage for a few days in a row."

"I don't think I'm going to be able to stop once we start," Sammy acknowledged while trapping her lower lip in her teeth. She was driving me insane with that!

"Why would I ever want you to stop?"

"I really can't wait to marry you, Abby. This seems so surreal, but yet so right. I do love you, and I think that I would have ended up married to you no matter what." Sammy reached across the table, intertwining her hand in mine, then stole a fry while I was distracted. In her haste, she got ketchup on the corner of her mouth, and I leaned in, giving her a gentle lick to clean it off.