They celebrated late into the evening.
Reyona couldn't stop laughing all evening as her family got into different shenanigans from time to time.
Spoilsports that they were, of course, they stopped her from having the best fun too.
You should rest now.
'You should sit now' was not far from the mouth of one of them from time to time.
Even Junior! Ah!
She had to watch when her mother offered to teach Junior how to dance like a gentleman so he could have girls swooning over him at the wedding.
Then, of course, they ended up engaged in an impromptu samba that Reyona still couldn't remember how it started.
Then Toria, who was not to be outdone, remembered a dance step she learned when she was going through her world traveller phase.
She reminded Allysyn that any guy would always go crazy over a girl who could dance.
Even though the latter said she didn't want any silly boy to go crazy over her, she watched with rapt attention as Toria made her grand entrance.
"Is that so? Are you crazy about me because of my dance moves?" Reyona asked Maxwell in a whisper.
He turned to her as he whispered back "Babe, I am crazy about you because of a lot of things. Your dance moves and your dance moves are few of them." He said in a suddenly heated voice as he trailed his eyes over her body in a way that she immediately knew what the second dance move meant.
She blushed furiously as heat spread through her. "Maxwell, my parents are right in front of us!" She said in a strangled tone.
He chuckled low in his throat as Reyona cleared her throat awkwardly and looked away.
Reyona's chagrined face morphed into laughter when she saw that Toria had finally started her dance after her elaborate intro.
It was the most ridiculous dance she had ever seen.
Toria dissolved into laughter when her father asked if she had by any chance seen someone who had an epileptic episode, and she had mistaken it for a dance.
"Not nice, dad" Toria had said after she controlled her mirth. "I tell you, it is a very wholesome dance. I learnt it in a village where I found myself somewhere up north. I can't remember the name of the dance now, but I can remember how the local folks, bless their hearts, took their sweet time to teach me." she doubled over with laughter again.
She inhaled over and over again to stop laughing, then stood and declared "So, I am not going to let you discourage me from passing on a fine culture like this."
Then she insisted on teaching them all.
Reyona was super glad to sit that one out as Toria paired up with Maxwell and had the kids pair up, while her parents did the same.
Reyona was just laughing and eating while she watched the reluctant students try to catch up to their enthusiastic, neck-jiggling tutor.
Carlisle finally put his feet down when he knocked into Maxwell and Toria the second time, and almost tripped over the kids while taking his ex down with him.
Weirdly enough, Gladys was getting into the spirit of the dance, and she willingly chose to continue when Carlisle walked towards Reyona with a dazed look as if he had been traumatised for life.
The kids didn't seem to mind much either and Maxwell was stuck with Toria.
Reyona laughed and blew him a kiss when he threw her a miserable look above Toria's head.
Leave it to her sister to turn an engagement party into a dance class. Yet, Reyona knew she wouldn't trade that moment for any traditional, properly regulated engagement party.
"You survived. I am so proud of you." Reyona said in a mock sympathetic tone as she patted her dad's arm while he guzzled his drink like a survivor.
"Nobody should ever make me do that again," Carlisle said in a heartfelt tone.
"Ssshh, lower your tone, or she might just slide it in for our daughter-father dance. Yes, I can see her doing that." Reyona said with a slow nod of her head as if picturing it already.
She looked back to see the horrified look on her Dad's face, and she burst into laughter.
Carlisle shook his head, looked at the momentary dance floor, then immediately turned his head away as if he couldn't even bear to look at the flailing limbs and twisting motions.
"He makes you very happy, doesn't he?" He asked suddenly.
Reyona was quick to answer with a nod, "He does. I am very happy, Dad"
Carlisle gave her a long look as he nodded while swallowing like he had something in his throat. "I am glad. I am so glad." He said while patting her hand as he looked away.
He looked back at her and repeated "I am very glad for you, daughter. You know I once asked you that when…" When she married Thomas. "I asked you that and the answer was not the same. Not the way you just said. Not the same at all."
"Really?" Reyona thought as she wondered what she had said then.
She had been gullibly happy then, and would have thought she answered in the affirmative.
It was funny that she couldn't even remember when he had asked her such a question.
That was strange. Could it be that even when she had convinced herself back then that she was in love and fully happy, she had somehow given off a different aura?
"What did…?"
Reyona's phone buzzed with a message notification.
She pressed it open and saw the message from Maxwell.
"Babe, save me!"
Carlisle chuckled as he saw it too.
They both looked up to see Maxwell looking innocent with no phone in view as Toria turned back to him.
She had been giving some hands-on instructions to Gladys, who was now dancing with Junior.
Reyona grinned at him even though he had his face turned away.
"See? Not the same at all." Carlisle repeated with a smile.
Maybe he was right.
In fact, he was right.
Even though she would still like to know what she had said back then, she needed to go save her man from her tyrant sister for now.
She might ask him later. Or not. It was no longer important.
She hefted herself out of the chair and moved towards the dancers.
"This looks like a lot of fun. I think I will join in too. I would like to try that part where you wiggle all the way down and…"
"No!" The protest was instant from all angles.