Chapter 20
Ali’s POV:
“It’s beautiful”, I said.
“Yes, it is”, she agreed. We were standing on a bridge, looking at the nighttime lights dance over the water. Back home, and in many other places in the northern hemisphere it was cold right now, but here, warm island air blew across our faces. We were in Hawaii, a few blocks from our hotel in Waikiki, overlooking the Ala Wai canal as it lead into the city. Behind us the canal fed out into the Pacific Ocean. I was holding Ashlyn from behind, and she was leaning slightly back, resting her head on my shoulder. “Isn’t this how it all began?” she asked. “Like, ten years ago, in Paris?”
“Yup”, I said. “God, ten years ago…” I trailed off, thinking about everything that had transpired since that day.
“Yeah. Wow…we’ve lived in multiple cities, played all over the world, met so many people…” she said, continuing my thought.
“And fell in love”, I said. She laughed lightly, then turned around in my arms. She put her arms around my waist, and my arms went around her neck. We gazed at each other for a moment, and then I leaned in to kiss her. We stayed like that for a moment, our lips locked, tongues dancing, and then I felt her take my bottom lip in her teeth and nibble on it lightly.
“Babe”, I breathed.
She nibbled for a few more seconds and then released my lip and said, “You wanna head back?” I nodded emphatically, and she took my hand and lead me off the bridge and back towards our wedding suite at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel…
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Ashlyn’s POV:
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you wife and wife!” The minister exclaimed. “You may now kiss as brides!”
Applause erupted as I pulled Ali in tight. We were on the beach out back of our hotel. The sun was shining, and the water sparkled a brilliant blue in the late afternoon Hawaiian sun. I looked at my baby, glowing on our special day. She looked radiant in her traditional wedding gown and lei Hawaiian flower necklace. I was wearing a traditional tux, a lei around my neck as well. Both of us were wearing indoor soccer shoes, as was our entire bridal party. My princess and I held each other for a moment and then pulled back. I looked into those beautiful brown eyes, tears of joy streaming down her face, and I planted the most glorious kiss ever right on her lips. I closed my eyes and lost myself in the moment as the applause grew even louder. We stayed locked like that for a moment, and then I felt something hit my leg. I broke the kiss and looked around and then down. There, on the ground at my feet, was a soccer ball. I looked around, and I saw Pinoe wink at me. Our bridal party was staring at us in anticipation. I looked out at our wedding guests, a hundred deep, our families and friends, casually attired in aloha shirts and Hawaiian-style dresses. Everyone was smiling, laughing, applauding. Ali and I looked at each other, grinning like idiots, the two happiest people on earth. Then I picked up the ball and spun it on my finger.
“Have some drinks and enjoy the game!” Ali announced to the guests. We had set up a little makeshift field on the beach with two small goals fifty yards apart from each other. Time for a short celebratory 6-vs-6 game featuring some of our closest family members and some of the best players in the world. Wait staff were bringing out fruity drinks with umbrellas to the guests.
“Alright, game on!” I yelled as I tossed the ball into the middle of the field.
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Ali’s POV:
I heard silverware clinking against glasses, and I looked over at Ashlyn. She looked over at me, smiled and kissed me. That must have been like the hundredth time since dinner had been served that I had heard silverware clink on glasses, but I was A-OK with that. They could clink a thousand more times tonight. I could keep kissing my stud forever.
“Speech!” I heard someone yell.
“Yeah, speech!” someone else yelled.
“Kriegs – looks like you’re up”, Pinoe said with a smile. She was my maid of honor, sitting just to my left. Dinner had been served on the beach, luau-style. We had the table closest to the water, facing back towards the hotel, Our guests were at tables facing us. Whitney Engen was Ashlyn’s maid of honor, sitting just to Ashlyn’s right. I smiled at Megan, then looked at my stud, gave her a quick kiss, and then stood up.
“Well, first of all, on behalf of Ashlyn and myself and our families, thank you all for coming”, I addressed everyone. “I know it’s a long way from home, and I know we invited everyone on pretty short notice.” I paused and looked down at Ashlyn, who smiled at me. I got the sense that she was about to cry, although this time, everything was right. “You know, I’m sure in a lot of ways it seems like this whole thing”, I said, motioning around me, “well, everything, I guess, has come together all of a sudden. I mean, it was just five months ago when most of you found out about Ashlyn and me being together when that picture of us kissing came out on the front pages of the Vancouver Sun, and then got blasted all over the internet.” I smiled as I remembered seeing the newspaper the day after we had won the World Cup, and how I had laughed when I had seen it, knowing what would happen. “As an aside, somehow I got the feeling that not everyone was surprised when they saw that picture”, I said light-heartedly, and everyone laughed. “Anyway, I guess that’s probably when the rest of the world found out about us as well”, I said, and everyone laughed again.
I paused for a moment and then continued, “You know, in a certain sense, I guess that’s kind of how this whole thing has gone. By that, I mean that, well, things haven’t always gone for us as I think we both would have wanted them to go. I mean, we wanted to tell all of you about us before the rest of the world found out, but I guess circumstances and timing ended up having things work out otherwise.” I looked down at Ashlyn again. It was weird – being able to talk about circumstances and timing, things that had at one time been such touchy and even downright depressing subjects, but now, now that we were together, they were things we could smile at and talk about lightly. It was weird, but it was great. To be able to now talk lightly about things that used to be so painful was such a liberating feeling. “I know everything seems sudden, and in many ways it has been”, I continued. “I mean, we really just started dating right before the World Cup, then we got engaged pretty much right after we got home, then we moved in together, and then we started planning this wedding and invited all of you.” I paused for a moment. I was starting to get choked up, but I collected myself and continued. “But, this whole thing really started over ten years ago, at the U-21 training camp. I guess it was love at first sight, for both of us.” I heard a collective “Awwwww” come from our guests, and I looked down at Ashlyn, who had a tear in her eye. “But, for the next ten years, we ended up ping-ponging back and forth, somehow never connecting, even though we both wanted the same thing – to be with each other.” I was welling up, and now I had tears in my eyes as well. “A-a-and now we’re here”, I squeaked out. “Getting married...”
The room was silent. I turned to Ashlyn. I put out my hands, she grabbed them, and I pulled her to her feet. I looked into her eyes, which were wet with tears of joy, and said, “I love you, Ashlyn Harris. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me”, I choked out, crying my own tears of joy, and then I threw my arms around her. “I love you, babe!”
“I love you too, baby”, I heard her breath into my neck as she hugged me tight. I heard another collective “Awwwww…” from the room. I held Ashlyn tight for another moment, and then I took my left arm and pumped it in the air while I continued to hug her with my right, and I heard the “Awwwww” turn to cheers and applause.
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Ashlyn’s POV:
“Hi stud”, Ali said.
We had finished dinner and were now dancing on the beach, under a starlit Hawaiian sky. A band played traditional Hawaiian music against the sound of waves gently lapping on the shore. Ali had ditched her shoes. I had ditched mine too, as well as my jacket, and I had put on the fedora that my princess had bought me.
“Hi princess”, I said back.
We danced facing each other for a few more minutes, and then Ali turned her back towards me and backed up into me. I held her close as we danced, nuzzling into the back of her neck. We danced like that for a while and then she turned around to face me again. She took the fedora off my head and placed it on her own, and then put her arms around my neck. She pulled me in close and gave me a long kiss.
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The tiki torches were out. The guests were gone. The tables and chairs and food had been cleared away. It was just me and my baby, lying naked on towels on the sand. I was on my back. Ali was laying on her side, her arm draped over me, her head nuzzled into my neck. After all the guests had left I had snagged a couple towels from a cabana stand near the beach. Then we had walked down the beach to a more secluded section and then had stripped off our clothes and had gone skinny dipping. We had started kissing in the water, then had come up to the beach and had laid on our towels and made love under the stars. Now we were lying together, enjoying the tail end of our first night as a married couple.
“Hey”, I whispered.
“Hey”, she breathed back.
“Guess what?”
“What?”
“We’re married”, I said with a smile. I touched her nose with the tip of my finger. She giggled and then kissed my neck.
“I know”, she whispered. “It’s amazing.” She exhaled a contented sigh.
“Ten years…” I trailed off.
“Took us long enough,” she mused.
“But we’re here now.”
“Yes, we are.”
We were silent for a minute, and then I said, “Hey princess?”
“Yeah?”
“Guess what?”
“What?”
“I love you”, I said, and kissed her softly.
She picked her head up and smiled at me in the island moonlight. “I love you too, stud”, she said. She kissed me again and then nuzzled back into me. I kissed her hair and then looked up into the starlit sky and let out a deep, contended sigh.
The princess and the stud. You’d think we were together.
And guess what?
We are.