>Sam's POV<

After the wedding, when everyone had gathered outside to congratulate the bride and groom, Susie had revealed that she had changed the seating arrangement shortly after Penny showed up with me. That's why the Jones family shared their table with Penny's parents and siblings in the large hall of our hotel, which the bride and groom had booked especially for the celebration.

Could things actually get worse?

As embarrassed as I felt about Dad's appearance earlier, Penny didn't mind. On the contrary, she liked my father and he liked her, and that should be something good - it had taken Gwendolyn over a year to understand my father's strange sense of humor and for him to stop scaring her.

In fact, it filled me with indescribable joy and pride that Penny and my father liked each other so quickly. Even my mother seemed overwhelmed by her.

But everything would stand or fall if my parents said or did something that Penny's parents wouldn't like. But I wasn't worried because they also got along with each other.

During dinner, Owen asked Dad with interest about fishing, while Eira was never tired of asking my mother about my childhood sins - which, to my chagrin, also interested Penny. Unfortunately, Eira couldn't say much about Penny, as she had obviously always been a quiet, sweet child.

As the bride and groom got ready for the first dance, we all happily watched them dance to the song “All of Me” and then applauded them.

"Now all unmarried women please come to the dance floor with us! We'll find out now who will marry next!" Susie asked everyone and Penny made no move to get up, so I gently pushed her with my shoulder so that she would leave too. "You too, Penny!" demanded Susie, picked her up at that moment and she blushed again as she stood up and joined the other women.

Roger turned Susie in a circle a few times before placing her with her back to the women and everyone counted down from three when Susie threw the bouquet backwards in a high arc. The bouquet bounced off the countless hands stretched into the air more than anyone could actually grab it. But when it flew towards Penny, who showed no interest in catching anything tonight, she caught it thanks to her perfect reflexes and a disappointed murmur went through the group of women as everyone went back to their seats.

"I knew it!" Eira shouted happily as Penny returned to us and placed the bouquet on the table in front of her. "That's a sign!" she added, winking in my direction as my mother agreed with her. I immediately had the impression that I was getting choked up and I loosened my tie a little. Eira didn't seem to want to let it go until I put that damn ring to it's purpose.

The first dance started and I immediately pulled Penny onto the dance floor, making her laugh. I was just happy that I had found a good reason to escape.

"Sam, they'd think you couldn't wait to dance."

"Oh, I can't. On the one hand, I like dancing with you and on the other hand, I really enjoy making fun of all the male audience. They're all staring at you because you're far the most beautiful one here."

"I didn't know you could be such a show-off," she replied, laughing.

"Only if I have what I always wanted. Even if it's just for one evening, but I'll enjoy it thoroughly," I replied with a smile and pulled her a little closer to me. My heart beat excitedly in my chest as Penny stumbled for a moment, but I held her and immediately got her back into step. "Nervous?" I asked her teasingly.

"A little, if you say things like that," she replied sheepishly and looked up into my eyes.

"I hope it doesn't make you nervous because it makes you uncomfortable?" I replied worriedly and she shook her head gently.

"It's not unpleasant. Quite the opposite." I smiled happily at her confession and wanted nothing more than to kiss her. The moment was so perfect. I bowed my head. Should I kiss her? Here? In the middle of the dance floor and in front of everyone?

"I'm happy to hear that," I murmured in her ear and put my face next to hers. Everything in me was going crazy, but at that moment I completely let myself go and enjoyed her closeness and her wonderful scent that surrounded me and completely absorbed me.

I was in 7th heaven. My plan to win Penny over seemed to be working and I thoroughly enjoyed her allowing me to get that close. I was completely lost in the moment until my eyes fell on Eira.

The table arrangements slowly began to unravel as I saw that Susie and her mother, along with two other women, had joined our mothers at the table, while Owen and my dad had joined the groom and his father and father-in-law. Eira was telling the women something with such exuberant joy that I felt ice cold. She wouldn't...? The eyes of all six women darted around in surprise, burning into us with disbelief and curiosity. Eira, Mom and Susie, on the other hand, looked at us with enthusiasm and I was glad for a moment that Penny couldn't see their eyes.

"Ouch," she groaned at that moment, startling me, snapping me out of my thoughts, only to realize that I had gotten out of step and stepped on her foot. "What's wrong with you, Sam? Are you starting to rust?" she teased me.

"I, well...I'm sorry. Yeah, that's probably it. How about a break?" I asked her awkwardly and led her back to our table to have a drink with her. The fact that the gang of women were whispering again only served to increase my nervousness.

I reached into my pocket and immediately had the ring in my fingers that Eira had given me this morning. Why had I brought it with me and not left it upstairs in the room in the pocket of my trousers that I had worn this morning?

What had I done?!?

We had a drink and I was happy that Eira changed the subject when we came to them. The best man then called the bride and groom over and sat them on two chairs that were back to back.

"Now let's see how well our bride and groom really know each other and whether this marriage is a good one. Please take off both of your shoes and pass one of your shoes on to your spouse. I'll ask you questions now and you'll pick up the shoe whoever you think it most likely applies to," the best man explained to them. This could be fun, I thought to myself.

"Oh, I know the game. But we don't play it alone! I want everyone to play who is engaged and..." Her eyes wandered around the room and flashed at us with amusement before she continued: "Penny and Sam too because she caught my bridal bouquet!"

“What?” asked Penny in shock, while three more couples entered the stage and lined up their chairs next to the bride and groom. Men on one side, women on the other.

"Now don't be shy or do you really want to deny the bride this wish?" the best man called out to us and, with our mothers cheering us on, we gave in and took our chairs with us onto the stage.

As soon as we sat back to back, Penny handed me one of her shoes and I gave her one of mine.

"So, let's get started then! Who do you think is the Boss in your relationship?" Since I was sitting so that I could see our reflections in the window, I saw that everyone was holding up their own shoe, including Penny. Only I held up hers. There was general laughter among the audience.

"Who is the better driver?" I held up Penny's shoe again, just like she did. Given the maneuvers she had already done with Venus, that wasn't difficult to answer. As for the other couples, everyone agreed that it was the men.

"Who took the initiative in the first kiss?" Considering what had happened last night, Penny and I also agreed that it had been me.

"Who gets up earlier?" Again unanimously and undoubtedly Penny.

"Who often has a bad mood in the morning?" Here too we agreed that it was me.

"Who is more stubborn?" Undeniably me.

"Who has more patience?" Without a doubt Penny.

"Who is messier?" I had to smile as we both held up Penny's shoe.

“Who makes the worse jokes?” I rolled my eyes with a smile as I saw Penny holding up my shoe and followed her lead. She was kind of right. The extra laps around the roundabout traffic yesterday had been really mean.

“Who proposed?” We both abstained from answering this question.

"And last but not least: Who said I love you first?" I saw in the reflection that Penny was hesitating just as much as I was. So what should I do? I raised the arm with my shoe just as Penny raised the arm with hers. "Oh, oh. All the couples agree, only our couple, who is still to be engaged, has found their point of contention here. Nevertheless, the two of them have Here are the most similarities. Congratulations to everyone. You'll still have enough to discuss tonight, I think," the best man said goodbye with a grin and we gave each other our shoes back to put them on and leave the stage with the chairs.

The bride and groom still had to do a lotnof jokes for over an hour. They had to look at embarrassing photos of their childhood. They had to crush balloons with flippers and collect the money inside with boxing gloves to earn some pocket money for their honeymoon. The groom, blindfolded, had to figure out his bride from 5 women just by feeling her ankles, the bride did the same, but she only had to feel her husband, who always moved one chair further.

It was extremely amusing to watch them do all this and at least it kept our parents from teasing us any further or sharing stories with each other.

"And so that you can still benefit from the wedding for another year, we have written twelve tasks on pieces of paper that are stuck in the band of this hat. Now I'll ask all the guests to come to the dance floor. As long as music is playing, the hat can go around and put on someone's head, but whoever has the hat on when the music stops has to draw a task and complete it for the bride and groom in that appropriate month. I wish you all the best of luck. I don't want to be the one who cleans their bathroom or does their laundry," one of Susie's friends explained the game and everyone, including us, went to the dance floor while she spoke. As soon as she finished speaking, she put the hat on a little boy's head and signaled to the DJ to play music.

For me it was a no-go to dance alone and since Penny mastered every dance, I naturally took her as a partner, especially since the first song was a slow one. But after every break, every song got a little faster and the hat went over our heads a few times. We always got off lightly, except for the last time when I got the hat on at the last moment when the music had already stopped playing.
Like the good loser that I was, I pulled the last piece of paper with a smile out of the band as Susie's friend shoved the microphone under my nose so everyone could hear what I had drawn.

“Barbecue in July,” I said and Penny laughed out loud.

"Oh, Susie. I hope you like your steak raw? Sam was never able to fire a grill before!" she interjected, much to everyone's amusement, and I glared at her.

"I'll manage it. You couldn't help yourself now, could you?" I teased, pulling her in for another dance when Susie's friend took off the hat of me and the DJ started playing another song. "You owe me a dance for that!" I forced her, as she had complained three dances before that her shoes would kill her.

Unexpectedly, she didn't complain now, her eyes sparkled provocatively and she simply took off her shoes and kicked them aside a little.

The song started slowly, but we both knew it wouldn't stay that way - just like our dance. I was so excited as I began to move in time with the music with her in my arms.

To be continued...

Who wants to know to what song and how they dance? I found this video and I think this is the real one. These dancers are amazing but we are talking about Sam and Penny here, so just imagine a lot more feeling and sparkles between them both. Just take a look 😉

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TMcfrK3aY3Q&si=qzaQvQDmfGt-dgXN