That's Amore! - Janelle Denison [20]
Tears welled in her eyes and she shook her head.
"What a mess this is!" she choked out. "You know this is all my mother needs to see to believe it's a sign from the Hawaiian Gods that we shouldn't get married."
"Honey, your mother would use any excuse she can find to convince us not to get married," he teased lightly, even though there was too much truth to his words. "I don't care whose name is on those wedding favors, or what they are, it's not going to change my mind about making you my wife. And that's all that matters."
She gave a great big shuddering sigh. "You're right."
"Of course I am," he said, knowing a good amount of her reaction was due to her hormones wreaking havoc on her emotions. "So, since the company told you to keep the items, why don't we go ahead and use them and make the best of a very funny situation?"
She lifted a delicate brow, a hint of her playful side emerging. "You find this amusing?"
"In the scheme of things lately, yeah, I do." He ran the tip of his finger down the slope of her nose. "Just think how the other couple is going to feel about getting our Hawaiian candy leis."
She laughed in agreement, the sound soft and sweet.
He motioned toward the box on the coffee table. "Let's see what we've got to work with."
Scooting forward, Leila pulled out two different items—a cigar and a small gold box—and handed them both to Jason. "Cigars and a box of pastel candy. Hardly a Hawaiian wedding tradition," she said wryly.
He grinned, glad to see her humor resurfacing. He cast a quick glance at the words imprinted on the favors, and came to the conclusion that these particular items had been meant for an Italian wedding.
"Salute!"
Luke and Maria Santori
May 21, 2005
"Well, the cigars are obviously for the male guests," he said, twirling one between his fingers. "And I believe these are bombonieres for the women."
"Bombonieres?" she repeated, her expression creased in confusion. "What is that?"
"It's a box of candies." He shook the favor so she could hear the rattling sound the hard candied almonds inside made. "A bomboniere is a traditional Italian wedding favor."
She appeared both intrigued and surprised at his knowledge. "How do you know so much about Italian wedding traditions?"
"Nick is Italian, and they had these kind of favors at his sister and cousin's weddings," he explained. Then he met her gaze. He had another piece of interesting information about the favors he wanted to share with her. "Know what else is an Italian custom relating to the bombonieres?"
"No. What?"
"Well, it's said that the number of candied almonds that are in this box indicates how many children the couple will have."
Her eyes widened and sparked with curiosity. "Really?"
"Yep." He rattled the box of candies again and waggled his brows at her. "Shall we see what Fate has in store for us?"
She placed her hand on her belly and grinned at him. "Sure, though we're already ahead of the game by one."
He opened the gold box, counted the pastel almonds, then let her do the same.
When she was done, she gasped in shock. "Five? We're going to have five kids?"
He chuckled. "I'd be very happy with five children."
"Oh, Lord!" She dropped back against the couch. "Let's get through this one first, and then we'll talk."
"Fair enough." He put the cigar and candies back into the bigger box, figuring they had plenty of time to discuss their family affairs later. "By the way, Kalani gave me his blessing to marry you."
Her head rolled against the back of the sofa, a frown etching her features. "He did?"
"Yep." He reclined against the couch next to her. "I thought it was quite nice of him, actually."
"When did you see Kalani?" she asked, a cautious note to her voice.
"Your brothers invited him to my bachelor party last night."
"Figures," Leila muttered, rolling her eyes at her brothers' lack of social decorum. Didn't Paulo and Mani realize it was in bad taste to invite an ex-boyfriend to her current fiancé's bachelor party? Obviously not.