Chapter 16

The wedding was a very small one. There were just the Peters, with Jan and Peter as matron of honor and best man, along with a few family friends. In spite of its small size, the wedding mass was beautiful. After the ceremony, they all went back to the Peters where Martha had prepared the reception herself. The food was magnificent and after the cake was cut and the bride threw her bouquet, the other guests left the house.

After taking off her bridal gown Jill came back downstairs wearing skin-tight Levi's and kissed her parents. Martha could feel tears as her daughter hugged her and thanked her for the beautiful wedding and reception. They went out to the kitchen again where Jan and the men were finishing the cleanup. Martha looked around and laughed. "This has to be a first! Just look! Here we find the matron of honor, the best man, the groom, for chrissakes, and the father of the bride doing the dishes. By the way, where are you two going on your honeymoon and when are you leaving? Your father and I forgot to ask.

Jill looked up sheepishly. "Mom, would it be all right if we honeymooned here? Bob and I ... Well, he's an orphan and ... Could we stay for Christmas? We sort of had our honeymoon on Maui before we got married."

Martha exclaimed in delight. Then she looked at Mark and said, "Darling, I think it's time to give the kids their wedding gifts, don't you?"

"Golly, after springing for an expensive wedding and all ... You mean we have to give them gifts, too?" But his eyes were dancing as he said it. He and Martha went into another room and came back with two envelopes which the young people looked at, puzzled. The containers were sized and shaped like no wedding gifts any of them had ever seen or heard of. Bob was sitting at the table with Jill sitting on his lap. He had unbuttoned her shirt and was caressing her breasts while she just made soft happy sounds.

Martha said, "Could you kindly quit handling the merchandise and open your presents?"

"But it's such beautiful merchandise," Bob protested. Nevertheless, he withdrew his hand.

Jill opened the smaller package and found it was a business envelope. Opening it, she found it contained a legal document. She scanned it and just shook her head. She wasn't sure exactly what it was and passed it to Bob who studied it more closely.

After reading it carefully, he looked up, startled. "Martha, is this what I think it is? It's the assignment of a copyright, isn't it?"

Martha smiled warmly and said, "Kids, it's pot luck. It's the copyright on the new book you and Jan have read. It's yours. Let's hope it makes a lot of money." She smiled softly and added, "Bob, we know you made a ton of money when you sold GorTech. We don't even know where you're going to live so we couldn't buy anything for your home. So we thought you might like a different sort of wedding present."

Jan jumped off Bob's lap and hugged her mother and father. "Thank you so much! But Mom, you're giving up income. You need it!"

Martha smiled wryly and went to a kitchen drawer. She took out a fistful of envelopes and dumped them on the table. It was obvious they were all checks. "This is a couple of weeks' worth of royalty checks. Dad and I haven't had a chance to get to the bank since you two arrived so they just piled up. Darling, we really aren't hurting for money."

Jill just shook her head and went back to Bob's lap. He opened the larger of the packages and found a packet of drawings and another legal document. This was more familiar. He scanned through it and looked up in dismay. "You can't do this! This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Jill, your parents are giving us the new disk drive. It's ours! Honey, there's no way we can accept it! It's value makes the money I got for GorTech look like petty cash."

Mark had his arm around his wife's waist and turned to kiss her. The others could see the electricity flowing between them. "I told you he could figure it out. See? Our new son is smart."

He looked at Bob and said, "Bob, Martha and I have a favor to ask. Could we think of you as our son, not our son-in-law? We want you to know we love you as much as our daughter. In fact — and I guess it's largely due to you and Jan — we love you far more than we did her up until a few weeks ago. We had just about given up hope. You've restored our daughter to us and we hope you will be our son. Will you?"

Jill looked at Bob and saw tears in his eyes. She got off his lap to allow him to stand. He went to Mark, gripped his hand and then hugged him. The others heard him say with a hitch in his voice, "Thanks, Dad! That's the finest present I could possibly have. And it's all we can accept."

He then hugged Martha, picked her up the way he did Jill, swung her around, put her back on her feet and then kissed her soundly. When he released her, her eyes were glazed. She said softly, "Wow! I didn't know sons ever kissed their mothers like that!" Turning to Mark she said, "It's a shame we had to wait so long to get a son. I didn't know what I was missing." Turning to Jill, she said firmly but with her eyes gleaming, "You better take care of this young man. If you don't, I'll ask him to move in with us. Your father could use the help," she added with a wink towards Mark.