Chapter 10-Annalisa & Nessa say YES!
All of the brothers were happy for us. Mr. Willard called us two days after we had looked at the house and we met him at the bank and signed the contract that same day. The 60K took a huge chunk out of my savings account but the smile on Annalisa's face was worth every penny of it.
Many of my club brothers volunteered to help us get Mr. Willard moved out the next day. He was amazed at how well we packed everything up and had him ready to go to Florida so quickly. He drove away in his old pick up truck, which we tuned up for him before he left and he was on his way with a big smile on his face.
The brothers came and helped us get the roof replaced, we gutted and redid the main bathroom and the kitchen. Opening up the walls of those rooms made us realize that we had to put in insulation to the entire house or our utility bills were going to be through the roof, so we bit the bullet, pulled down all of the drywall and put in good quality insulation on all of the walls.
Since we had all the drywall down, we decided to upgrade the wiring as well and when our electrician came in, he said it was a good thing we were doing this now because he said that some of the old wiring was about to give out and we could have had a fire. It gave us both great peace of mind to know that now the house would be safe from that danger. Doing it also saved us a bundle on our homeowners insurance.
Annalisa spent a lot of time at the hardware store picking out paint samples, new plumbing and light fixtures and she got online and found the appliances at Home Depot that she wanted, which ended up meaning adding gas service to the house but it was going to be so worth it in the long run. We drove down to Dallas one day and picked them up and a month later, we were ready to move in.
But the night before that happened, Hulk and I took our old ladies out to dinner. We told them to celebrate that tomorrow we would be able to move into our new place. We got all dressed up and sure enough, as soon as the waiter took our food order, the ladies said they were going to go wash their hands.
Hulk and I grinned at each other and as soon as they were out of sight, we placed our little boxes containing their rings next to their drink glasses where they couldn't miss seeing them as soon as they sat down.
When they came back, Hulk and I stood up and helped them with their chairs and then bent down on one knee. We had flipped a coin earlier and it was agreed that I would go first so I said "Annalisa, the very first minute I saw you, I knew you were the one for me and I love both you and Carmella with my whole heart. You are my world now. Will you please marry me?" I said and pointed at the little box. She picked it up and opened it and I saw tears in her eyes and she nearly knocked me over as she screamed "YES!".
Then Hulk said to Nessa "I can't really improve on what Eagle just said because I also knew the moment I saw you that we belong together. I love you, Nessa! Will you marry me?" And pointed to her box. Nessa picked it up and without even looking at the ring, she knocked Hulk flat on his back as she launched herself at him. Many of the people in the restaurant had been watching the whole thing and everyone began to clap and call out congratulations to both of us.
All four of us had huge smiles on our faces all through dinner, even if we didn't taste a thing we ate. We talked and both women agreed that they wanted to do a double wedding. There was no reason to go through double the expense or have to wait for one to be over before the other could be done. Hulk and I didn't really care. We would have been happy with a simple ceremony in front of a judge or something but both women stood strong.
"No way. I'm only going to do this once in my life and I want a pretty gown and flowers and music." Nessa said, being the more outspoken one of the two women but Annalisa nodded in agreement with her.
"When?" Both Hulk and I wanted to know.
"As soon as we can find our dresses and get all the arrangements made." Nessa said, leaving the date open for now.
We paid for our dinners and took the girls home. We were back at the club house now and everyone was still up when we pulled up.
Rooster had had the bar built on the side of the main entrance instead of just walking right into the bar to get into the club house, like it had been before, there was now a separate entrance for the bar away from the house as well as an entrance from inside the house.
When we got back, the music was playing and the new disco ball was shooting light all over the room. As soon as we stepped into the room, it got quiet and we held up our old ladies' left hands and yelled "They said YES!"
The old ladies rushed at our women to congratulate them while the brothers lined up to shake our hands or bro hug us with congratulations. We stayed and drank a couple of beers and then we went up to our rooms. Kaylee had agreed to watch over Carmella for the night and she was already asleep in their room so we had our room all to ourselves.
Annalisa and I stayed up almost all night, making love and talking. We finally fell asleep about an hour before the sun came up but only managed to sleep for about 4 hours before a knock came at the door and I could tell it was Kaylee with Carmella.
"Morning Eagle. I'm sorry to bother you but Carmella woke up with a bit of a fever and she keeps crying for Annalisa." Kaylee said. "I think she's just cutting another tooth but nothing I do seems to console her. She just wants her mommy."
"That's okay, Kaylee. Thanks for watching her last night. I'll take her." I said and put my arms out to Carmella. She came right to me and Kaylee was right, she did feel warm. I closed the door and carried her over to Annalisa who was now awake and pulling my t-shirt over her head.
I told her what Kaylee had said and Annalisa took her daughter and put her cheek next to Carmella's. "Can you please get me the thermometer in her diaper bag? It should be in the inside pocket." She said as she rubbed her finger inside of Carmella's mouth.
"Yeah, she's cutting a new tooth, maybe two. Feels like two more bottom teeth are going to come in soon." Annalisa said. There's some baby orajel in there too, can you pass it to me?"
I found the thermometer and the orajel and passed it over to her. I watched closely as she took her temperature (this was one you put on the forehead) and when it read 100°, Annalisa opened the orajel and squeezed some onto her finger and rubbed it over the baby's gums where she could feel the roughness of the tooth trying to come through.
"I wonder if Charlie has any baby tylenol? The bottle I bought got burned up in the fire and I haven't replaced it yet. Could you go find out? I'm going to give her a bath to hopefully bring her fever down." Annalisa asked as I pulled on a pair of jeans.
"Sure. I'll be right back." I said. I know very little about babies but Carmella being sick or hurt in any way had me worried. I left our room and walked down the hall to the new room Cruise and Charlie had moved into. I knocked but there was no answer and I figured they were downstairs. I quickly walked down to the new kitchen and found Charlie, Kaylee and Nessa standing around the kitchen counter drinking coffee and cooking breakfast.
"Good morning!" They greeted me.
"Good morning. Charlie, do you by chance have any baby tylenol? Carmella is definitely cutting a new tooth and she has a fever of 100. The bottle we had bought got burned up in the fire." I asked.
"Yeah, sure." She said and followed me back upstairs, leaving Crystal, who was sitting in her highchair, with Kaylee and Nessa. She entered her room and quickly retrieved the bottle of medicine and handed it to me.
"Thanks." I said and hurried back to our room.
Annalisa had Carmella in the bathroom sink and was scooping cool water over her body. Carmella wasn't crying but whimpering and pulling at her left ear.
"I think this may be more than just her cutting teeth. She keeps pulling at her ear and the whole side of her head is pinkish and warmer than the other side. I think she may have an ear infection. Is Doc here?" Annalisa said in a worried voice.
"Yeah. Come on. I'll put some clothes on her while you get dressed." I said, taking Carmella from her and drying her off. Annalisa ran to get dressed while I powdered and diapered Carmella. I pulled a shirt over her head and she insisted on taking her teddy bear. I smiled at her. It touched my heart that the bear I had bought for her gave her comfort. I picked her up and wrapped a light weight baby blanket around her legs and we left the room.
We hurried down to the clinic and found Doc enjoying his new clinic as he put away supplies that had been delivered the day before.
"Hey Doc. We've got a sick little one here. Can you take a look at her?" I asked.
"Sure. Sit her down over here and let me see what's going on." Doc smiled at us.
"She's cutting a tooth for sure but she's also pulling on her ear and that side of her head is pink and hotter than the other side. She had this happen one time before when she was about 9 months old." Annalisa said.
Doc took a tool out that allowed him to shine a light deep into her ear and soon was saying "You're right. Her ear is all inflamed inside. Take this to the pharmacy and get her some antibiotics and she should be right as rain in a few days but keep her out of the wind and be careful about getting water in her ear. Put a cotton ball in her ear before you bathe her and remove it as soon as you are done. DO NOT stick Q-tips in her ear." he told us as he wrote out a prescription for the antibiotics Carmella would need.
I grabbed it and practically ran out to my bike. I raced to the pharmacy and handed in the prescription right away. While I waited, I picked up two bottles of baby tylenol and some more orajel then returned to the counter. My impatience must have been evident because the man behind the counter practically ran from one end of the counter to the register so he could ring me up.
The medicine was a liquid and the pharmacist suggested a dispenser that looked like a hypodermic without the needle part. "Makes it easier to give babies medicine using one of these." He said and I told him to add it to the total. As soon as I had paid for my purchase, I grabbed the bag and ran out of the store and raced back to the house. This incident was teaching me how fast things could happen with little ones and how you really had to pay attention to what was going on with them.
We stayed very close to her that day. We didn't have much to pack up left at the club house, since we had been slowly moving our stuff over to the new house every day but we still had Carmella's crib to move along with a suitcase full of all of 0ur clothes and a duffle bag of toiletries. We were only leaving a few things behind so that when we stayed here overnight, we would have clothes to change into.
The way the women acted you would think we were moving to another state or something when in reality we were only going to be about 5 minutes from the compound.
We loaded up the SUV and Annalisa got behind the wheel while I was going to follow them on my bike. As soon as we pulled up, I ran up and unlocked the door and then ran back to help Annalisa with Carmella. We walked up to the house and just as we reached the door, I scooped them into my arms and carried them both across the threshold. Annalisa and Carmella laughed and Annalisa said "You are supposed to wait until we come home from the wedding for this part."
"Oh, I'll do it again on our wedding night and every time we bring a new child into this house." I said as I put her back on her feet, then kissed her soundly.
Carmella giggled at us and gave us both big sloppy kisses on our cheeks. She obviously liked that we loved each other. Annalisa and I were just happy to get on with our lives together.
The next month was spent mostly on wedding planning. The ladies spent a full day cruising the bridal shops looking for dresses. Hulk and I weren't allowed to see them but we overheard all of the ladies saying how beautiful they were going to look on their wedding day. As soon as the dresses were found, invitations were ordered and sent out.
It took a lot of talking but Nessa finally convinced Annalisa to give her parents a call and invite them to the wedding and now I wish I had told Nessa to mind her own business since Annalisa had finally given in and called. Her mother had been so rude to her on the phone, telling her what a disappointment she was to them and that they considered her dead to them and not to call again.
Annalisa cried for hours after that and all I could do was hold her and tell her how wrong they were, that it was their loss if they missed their daughter's wedding and tell her over and over again just how much I loved and cherished her. She finally dried her eyes, straightened her back and told me she was going to ask Rooster to walk her down the aisle in place of her father.
Nessa on the other hand did not take the news as well and without Annalisa knowing about it, called Annalisa's parents house and this time her father picked up. All prepared to rip him a new one, after she explained who she was, he calmed her down immediately by apologizing for his wife's actions and reassuring her that he did not share her sentiments. Together they planned a surprise for Annalisa.
Apparently he had been trying to reach Annalisa for a long time but had not had her number or knowledge on where she was or how to get in touch with her. He was fed up with his wife and her "high society ways" and wanted to divorce her and even though divorce was against his religious beliefs, he was fed up with her. They seemed to fight constantly nowadays and he had begun to notice how she treated his staff and he did not like it one bit.
"It's long overdue and something I should have done when Annalisa left Dennis. I agreed with my wife that Dennis was bad news but that didn't mean I wanted to cut my daughter out of my life and my wife was wrong in her reaction. I was not aware until recently that Isabella had actually kicked Annalisa out of the house because she lied and told me that she had run away with him. I also didn't know and I definitely didn't agree with her idea of a prearranged spouse for my daughter either. The man was too old for her and it turned out he was also abusive to the woman he did finally marry.
I'm so glad that you contacted me, Nessa and you just let me know when and where and I will be there. I'm hoping she will allow me to walk her down the aisle because I know I would be proud to do just that." Her father told Nessa.
Nessa wanted to tell her father that he now has a granddaughter but felt that was Annalisa's place to tell him, not hers. She figured it would be a wonderful surprise for him.
Our wedding was set for November 2nd at 1 pm. Since the weather was too cold to hold the wedding outside and the local church wasn't big enough to hold all of the people that would be attending, we decided to have it at the club house. The new layout allowed for over 200 people. The girls had all of the prospects busy all week long decorating the dining room, meeting room and living room and all the open spaces in between for the wedding. The house didn't have a spec of dirt anywhere and it looked like the inside of a flower shop with all of the silk flowers and satin ribbon they hung everywhere.
"Man, I sure hope we don't get any drop in visitors from other chapters or this is going to be embarrassing." Rooster complained a couple of days before the wedding as we sat at our table and looked around. Even the bar had been decorated for the wedding since the majority of the reception would be held there.
"Why did they decorate the meeting room again?" Hulk asked.
"Because they can open the bifold doors between it and the dining room and the sit down portion will be in the dining room and the formal dancing part while outside guests are here will be in the meeting room part. Dixie and Marley have had the boys running speaker wires from the bar into there all week. That's why all the flower garlands are all over the place. They don't want the wires to show. She's hired a DJ and they are going to communicate through coms when she wants the music to change" Rooster explained. He had heard more about this wedding than he did about his own.
Dixie loved having parties and had been totally focused on it since Nessa and Annalisa had announced they were going to do a double wedding. Dixie was pulling out all the stops for it. She had hired outside caterers to use our kitchen to prepare all the food and the bartenders from Bernie's were going to serve the drinks from our bar and the wait staff from both Bernie's and our diner were going to serve the dinner. All of the wait staff had to wear black slacks and white shirts with bow ties and she rented the uniforms from a company in Wichita Falls.
The Friday night the weekend before the wedding, Dixie and Marley had a bridal shower for the girls at the clubhouse bar and it was a night of women drinking, dancing and going a bit wild, even though there were no men allowed anywhere near the bar that night.
The next day the women were all seriously hung over until well into the afternoon but right after dinner they took the kids up to Dixie and Roosters house to stay overnight while we men had the bachelor party. Even though sweet butts had been allowed to come for that, neither Hulk nor I had anything to do with them no matter how hard they tried to hit on us, saying it was our last night of freedom.
We didn't feel as if we were going to be tied down so their arguments fell of deaf ears. But we did drink until we could barely stand up. Prospects were assigned to keep any sweet butts from following us to our rooms to try and sneak in our beds while we were out. The prospects told us the next day that several of them had tried too.
We had a rehearsal a few days before the wedding and the wait staff and bartenders were instructed on how they were to act that day. We had a chance to "practice" where we were going to enter from, where and how we men were to stand and the women on how they were supposed to walk. Rooster looked pleased as punch to walk Annalisa down the aisle. Boomer was going to walk Nessa down the aisle, or so was the plan for the rehearsal.
As far as Nessa was concerned, she never wanted to hear from or have anything to do with her "family" again. Apparently she had not had a good homelife even though she apparently came from a well to do family. No effort had been made to contact anyone from her family and she seemed fine with it.
She had told Rooster about Annalisa's father and he had agreed that he would step aside if the man showed up but he had fun being the "pretend" father of the bride for the rehearsal.
The women had chosen not to have bridesmaids or a maid of honor mainly because it would have hurt feelings to choose one of the remaining old ladies over another so they were going to be the maid of honor for each other. We men had decided that was a wise choice and followed suit.
Hulk and Nessa were going to go first to exchange vows and then Annalisa and I. My heart was racing as we practiced and when the minister explained that he would say the final prayer blessing our unions and saying "I now pronounce you husbands and wives. You may kiss your brides. Then he would announce us as Mr. & Mrs. Wadsworth for Hulk and Nessa and Mr. and Mrs. Walker for me and Annalisa and we would turn to greet our friends as married couples for the first time. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest as we stood together to the top step of the "altar" that Dixie had the boys build for us. I was getting so excited and couldn't wait for that day to get here!
The night before the wedding, Hulk and I stayed at the club house while Nessa stayed at our house with Annalisa. Marley took Carmella for the night and Dixie paid for a hairdresser and nail person to go to our place the morning of the wedding to do the girls hair and nails. The women all left the club house early that morning and the limo was set to pick them up at 12:30 to bring them to the club house.
Neither Hulk nor I had much appetite the next morning and just stuck to coffee and danish. Hulk admitted that his stomach was full of butterflies that felt more like bats and I had to agree. I had no doubt that I wanted to marry Annalisa but I think instead of nervousness, it was more the anticipation of getting the whole wedding thing over with.
The caterers had been here since 5 am cooking for the meal that would be served later. They had brought with them all kinds of horderves, cookies and handmade chocolates as well as pastries and plenty of coffee for the men this morning.
The wedding cake was delivered right on time at 10 am and set in place on a table set up in the dining room on a special table. They had gone back and forth about having just one cake or two and it had finally been decided that one large, multilayer cake would be plenty in addition to the other pastries and cakes that would be served. Hulk and I each got our own sheet cakes with pictures of our bikes painted on top. And the ladies had their own sheet cakes beautifully decorated to compliment the wedding cake.
As the time grew near, Hulk and I took off upstairs to take a shower and get dressed. We were wearing our cuts, which had been professionally cleaned, but we had on new dress slacks and dress shoes. I always kept my face clean shaven, I guess it just became so much of a habit when I was in the Marines. I had tried a beard once but it itched too much so I shaved it off. Hulk always kept his face clean shaven too but he came out of his bathroom with several small pieces of toilet paper stuck to his chin and I couldn't help but laugh when he came to me for help.
"Dude, I am so nervous that I cut myself all up trying to shave. I should have bought an electric razor!" He said in panic. "I can't get married with all this toilet paper on my face or bleeding like a stuck pig."
"Calm down dude. Pull the toilet paper off and put a small dab of vaseline on the cut and rub it around. It will make the bleeding stop and make your skin smooth." I told him with a chuckle but was glad I owned an electric razor and chose to use it instead of ending up in his situation.
At 12 pm, Hulk and I were dressed and ready to go. We headed downstairs. The next half an hour was spent meeting guests and directing them where they could go for refreshments and where they would be seated for the ceremony. I was surprised that so many people showed up for the actual service but half the town was showing up. By 12:30 the gift table was overflowing with wedding presents.
At 12:40, Annalisa's father showed up with two other people, whom he introduced as Greggory and Helena. "They have been a part of our family for years and Helena was probably more of a mother to Annalisa than her own mother ever was. I shook hands with all of them and thanked Mr. Perez for doing this for Annalisa. "She was very upset after talking with her mother but Nessa told me about her contacting you and what you had to say. We haven't told Annalisa you were coming, so you need to stay out of sight until she gets here and is ready to go down the aisle."
I motioned for Rooster to come over and meet them and Rooster told him what we had practiced and let him know that when it was time for him to take Annalisa's arm he would just say to her that we have a special surprise for her and then her father would step out from hiding. Greggory and Helena would be seated on the front row of the bride's side.
"I just hope she's not going to be mad at me. I don't want to spoil this day for her." was her father's only concern and my respect for him increased ten fold.
At 12:50 the limo holding the women pulled into the compound and Dixie chased us away from the windows and told us to go stand next to the altar. "Peek and I'll poke you in the eye with my finger!" She threatened us.
She led Annalisa's father to a place where he would be out of sight until Rooster could motion for him to come out. Dixie put a white rose in his lapel and told him how much this was going to mean to Annalisa and that she was so glad that they had come.
The limo driver helped the girls out of the car and Rooster and Boomer escorted them into the club house. Marley handed them their bouquets, kissed them on the cheek, wished them good luck and then went to take her seat.
When the music changed to the song Nessa and Hulk had chosen, Boomer came and took her arm and led her down the aisle in her traditional Cinderella gown. She looked so beautiful!
Annalisa had chosen a simpler Mermaid style gown that hugged her body to the knee in satin and lace, from there it was a large ruffle down to the floor that allowed her to walk at a natural pace. The heart shaped strapless top showed off her beautiful, smooth olive skin and accentuated the shape of her heart shaped face. She wore a tiara instead of a veil with her hair piled high on her head giving her small stature some height. When Nessa was almost all the way to the altar, Rooster signaled Annalisa's father and he stepped out of hiding and Annalisa couldn't believe it at first. "Daddy?"
"Yes, baby girl. I'm here. Do you really think I would pass up on the chance to walk my princess down the aisle? You have always been and will always be my princess. I love you, Annalisa." He said with tears beginning to fill his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her warmly. "I'm so sorry for what your mama said. I just want you to know, I do not feel the same as she does but we can talk about that some other time. Today is your day and I want it to be everything you have always dreamed of. I met your young man and he seems like a good person. I hope you will always be happy together."
"I love you daddy and thank you!" Annalisa said as she looked up at the man who had always been her childhood hero.
Rooster stepped forward then and said "I hate to break this up but they are waiting for you."
"Oh right! Come on, baby girl. We can talk later. Let's get you started on your new adventure." Her father said, taking her arm and walking forward. He had not seen his daughter in over 4 years and now he was here to give her away but the smile on her face told him that she was going to the man she loved and for him that was enough.