Found My Love [Learning to Love 3] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Alison Mello

  She chuckles. “I don’t care. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t something with your dad.”

  I smile. “No, and I feel so much better now that he’s home.” I continue glancing at the menu.

  “Katie, do you want mac and cheese, honey.”

  “Yes, please, Mommy!” she says as she colors on the mat the hostess gave her.

  The waitress comes back, and I tell the girls to order and that I will decide by the time they get to me, so she starts with Abbey and goes around the table so she ends with me. I tell her that Katie wants the mac and cheese, and I order a grilled chicken Caesar salad. She walks away promising to be back with our food soon.

  “So where do you want to go shopping for your dress, Abbey? We can go back to the bridal shop. We can go to Dress Barn or another department store.” I ask her as I look over the menu.

  “Can you text your friend and see if she has bridesmaid dresses that can be bought off the rack?” Abbey ask Sylvia.

  Sylvia nods and pulls out her phone.

  “If she does, let’s just go back that bridal shop.” Abbey says.

  “Fine with me. Your cars are there, so we need to go back there anyway.” I add.

  Silvia smiles and nods as she says, “Good to go! I told her we will be back as soon as we are done with lunch.”

  Our lunch arrives so we all quickly eat because we are all excited to get back to the bridal shop. Luckily, we’re all pretty hungry, so we’re doing more eating than talking. The waitress brings us one more round of sodas as we eat, and I ask her to bring me the bill because we are in a bit of a hurry. She returns with the bill a few minutes later, so I pull my credit card out of my wallet and hand it to her with the slip. We all finish up and head out the door to go back to the bridal shop in hopes of finding a dress for Abbey.

  We arrive back at the shop and are shown to a section of dresses that are discontinued, so they do not need to be ordered. There is a pretty good selection, and the dresses are separated by color and then by size. Knowing our situation, the seamstress tells Abbey no more than one size bigger or it will take too long to alter it. We say okay and hit the rack, picking anything that will look nice on Abbey and is close to her size. We find five dresses, and Abbey hits the changing room. After thirty minutes of debating and changing, we have nothing we are in love with so we hit the rack one more time. We find three more potential dresses, and one of them I really like on the hanger. She tries it on first, and I’m really excited. The dress is a deep smoky purple dress and fits her beautifully. We all agree this is the one, so the seamstress comes over and is pleased that she does not have a lot of work to do on this dress. We just added three dresses to her workload, and they all need to be done by Friday.

  Abbey changes and heads to the counter to pay for her dress. She discovers that she truly got a steal at eighty-five dollars. We are all joking about some of the dresses on Abbey.

  Audrey shakes her head and says, “I can’t believe you’re pulling this off in a week.”

  “It’ll take teamwork on our part, but if there is one thing we have learned in the time we have been together, it is we work really well together. He has been so helpful with my dad and Katie, and I could never thank him enough,” I say, so proud of our teamwork.

  We all say good-bye and hug before we head our own separate ways.

  Katie and I get home and as soon as we walk in I smell something amazing. “Honey, we’re home.”

  “Mom, can I go play in my room?”

  I nod and Katie runs off.

  “I’m in the kitchen, T!”

  I head in and am greeted with a hug and a kiss.

  “What are you up to? It smells really good in here.”

  “I have shepherd’s pie in the oven for dinner tonight and a chicken potpie for later in the week.”

  “What’s up with all the cooking you’re doing?”

  “I was bored, and I figured I could use the leftover chicken from yesterday for the potpie.”

  I’m grinning ear to ear when he asks, “What’s so funny?”

  “Is this why you need the truck, to show you’re manly? You all seem to cook and keep a clean, tidy house but drive manly trucks,” I say as I pretend to flex my muscles.

  “You want to see my muscles?”

  He picks me up, sets me on the counter, and stands between my legs. I lean forward and give him a kiss. “For the record, I have seen all of your muscles and love each and everyone one of them.”

  He smiles at me. “That is good because I know one muscle in particular that really loves you.”

  We’re in our moment kissing and touching each other when we hear, “When are we going to eat dinner? I’m hungry.”

  He leans his forehead on mine and whispers, “It’s like she knows we are having a moment. She just senses it and comes running.”

  I burst out laughing as does he and like that our moment is over.

  Chase looks down at Katie. “Dinner is almost done, sweet pea. Why don’t you go wash your hands, and I’ll check on dinner while you do.”

  “Okay, Chase.” She runs off to the bathroom to do as she was told.

  I jump off the counter and start grabbing plates from the cabinet so we can sit and eat. I set place mats and utensils on the snack bar, where we usually eat. “I would like to try to plan a night to have your brother and his family over for dinner again so the girls can play more and maybe spend the night.”

  “That is fine, T. Let’s just get through the wedding first.”

  “Absolutely. Speaking of the wedding, what are we doing about food and stuff?” I ask, realizing we have not talked about it.

  “I need to print the e-mail I have for us to look over from the caterer that Seth and Abbey used. They’re going to squeeze us in because we are a small party and because we are friends with Seth and he referred us to them. We need to go over the menu tonight so I can e-mail them tomorrow with what we want. They need to be sure they have what they need.”

  “Great, are we going to have music? I was thinking maybe a pianist or a DJ to play the wedding song or some light music during dinner?”

  “That may be a little harder to find, but I’ll make some calls tomorrow to see if we can find someone who is available last minute. There has to be someone who isn’t booked. We also need to decide on a time because we said Saturday but didn’t give anyone a time.”

  Katie comes back, sits on her stool, and patiently waits for dinner while Chase pulls it out of the oven. He scoops some shepherd’s pie onto a plate for her and tells her to be careful because that it is hot. I pour her a glass of milk as Chase finishes making our plates so we can sit to eat, too.

  “I think we should get married at four so my dad doesn’t have to be here too late. We can do the ceremony and eat about five so my dad can leave whenever he’s tired.”

  “What do you want to do about pictures?” he says. “I know we’re throwing this together last minute, but I’m sure you would still like some pictures of the day,” he says as he starts eating his dinner.

  “Mmm, this is really good, Chase. Yeah, I would like to have some pictures. I know a girl Lauren on Facebook that’s a photographer. Let me see if she’s available or knows anyone who is? She posts proofs all the time and does a good job.”

  “Cool. See if she can come to the house one night this week, too, so we can do some engagement photos of us. I’d like some of just the two of us, and some with all three of us in the yard. I know it is a short engagement, but it’ll be nice to put on the wall.”

  “I agree. I’ll message her as soon as we are done with dinner. Then we can go over the menu after Katie is in bed.”

  “Mommy, can I have a little more?” Katie asks, so I get up and give her another small scoop.

  “You’re really hungry, huh, sweet pea?”

  She nods as I put her plate in front of her.

  I sit down to finish the last of my dinner. “Okay, so I’m going to work on the photographer, and we’ll w
ork on the menu tonight. You will work on music tomorrow. Are we missing anything?”

  “We can send an e-vite out this evening to everyone we want to invite with the time and everything,” he says.

  “Good idea. I’m torn over whether to invite my sister or not. What do you think?” I look at him, totally unsure.

  “I think it’s your wedding and you should do what you feel is right.”

  “I’ll invite her, but part of me hopes she says she can’t make it. That way she can’t say I excluded her.”

  “Mommy, I’m all done,” Katie says and shows me her cleaned plate.

  “Good girl. Go ahead upstairs, and I’ll be up to give you a bath shortly.”

  She jumps down from the table and heads upstairs. I get up to start clearing our plates and cleaning up from dinner. Chase covers the rest of the shepherd’s pie to save it for another night and then pulls the chicken potpie out of the oven and places it on the burner to cool. I rinse the dishes, put them in the dishwasher, and then wipe down the counter.

  I head upstairs to tell Katie that it’s time to take a bath, and I find her reading on her bed. “Hey, sweet pea, are you ready to take a bath?”

  She shrugs.

  “What’s wrong, baby girl?”

  “I was just thinking that because you’re marrying Chase, does that mean he’s going to be my stepdad and I’ll have two dads?”

  “Oh, sweetie, Daddy will always be your father, but yes, you’ll have a stepdad now. That doesn’t make Chase any better or worse than your father. It just means he loves us and would like to become a part of our family. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah, I’m excited he wants to be a part of our family, but I guess it’s just confusing because I don’t see Daddy much,” she says.

  I can see the cogs turning in her head. “I know, sweetie, and I’m sorry your father doesn’t call you or see you more often, but he is who he is, and there isn’t much we can do to change that. You just have to appreciate the time you do have with him, and when you get older you can make your own decisions about seeing him. Okay?”

  She nods. “Can I take a shower instead of a bath? I want to be a big girl.”

  “Sure, sweetie, come on.” I get up and head into her bathroom with her.

  After her shower, we quickly dry her up and I tuck her into bed. I read her a quick bedtime story so we can spend a little time just the two of us. Once the book is done, I kiss her on the top of the head and say good night.

  I have been playing over our conversation in my head since it happened, wondering if I should have pushed her harder to love her father for who he is, but how can I push her toward a father that doesn’t want to be her father? I head downstairs thinking about it, and I find Chase at the snack bar with his laptop and some papers.

  “Hey, sweetie, what are you doing?”

  “I just pulled up evite.com and printed the menu so we can look it over,” he says, showing me the pages of the menu.

  “Which do you want to start with first?”

  I ask lost in my thoughts. “Let’s do the e-vite first,” I say as he’s scrolling through pictures of e-vites.

  We choose a simple invite that has a picture of two gold wedding rings on it in the upper right corner, and the writing is in gold and black. We fill in the time of the wedding and the address to the house since it’ll be in the backyard. Then we add a few people to the list who were not at the house last night. We have invited about thirty people. Once we’re satisfied with the invite we hit Send and check that off the list.

  “Oh shit, we need a JP,” I shout, realizing we have talked about all the important aspects except that.

  Chase starts laughing. “I got us someone, baby. We’re going to have the same person who married Abbey and Seth.”

  My phone pings, and it is Kyle.

  I want to take Katie this weekend.

  Nope. Chase and I are getting married this weekend so she’ll be staying with me.

  Weekends are my time you can’t do that without asking.

  Dude, are you serious? You have skipped out on so many weekends with her, and now because I’m getting married you want to pick her up. Well, tough shit. You’re not getting her. You can have her the following weekend.

  We will see about that. What are you going to do when I show up to pick her up? Tell me in front of a wedding full of people I can’t see my daughter.

  You won’t be allowed near the wedding.

  “Call Seth. We need security here the day of the wedding. Kyle is threatening to show up and take Katie to ruin our day.”

  “Baby, you forget it’s my company, too. I’ll arrange it tomorrow,” he promises me.

  I smile. “Thanks, baby. I don’t want him showing up and ruining our day.”

  “Oh, trust me, he won’t. Now let’s look over this menu before it gets any later. We need to make a decision because I promised I would e-mail them no later than first thing in the morning.”

  “Why don’t you open your e-mail and just send it right now.”

  “Good idea, T.” He opens his e-mail, hits the reply button, and we pull out the first part of the menu.

  “Okay I would like both, a green salad with a couple of dressings and a Caesar salad, so people can choose.”

  “We can pick up to three meat options,” he says as he finishes typing that into the e-mail.

  “Chicken, steak, and fish?” I ask. “Maybe we should do the fish in a pasta option.”

  “That is fine. They have a shrimp, with a lemon garlic wine sauce. We will do that with chicken breast and beef kabobs,” he says as he types it in. “How about sides?”

  “What do you think about doing baked potato and rice pilaf with asparagus and glazed carrots?”

  “I like it.” He continues typing on his laptop. “Do you want a wedding cake, or do you just want them to provide desserts?”

  “I don’t think we need a wedding cake. Just have them provide desserts, or if it is easier for them they can make two different flavor cakes and cut it into small pieces to put on dessert table.”

  He nods. “I agree.”

  My phone pings, and it is my friend Lauren the photographer.

  I’m free what do you need?

  My dad is ill so we are planning a very rushed wedding and need a photographer to take pictures the day of the wedding. We are also hoping to do some photos of us this week as engagement pictures so I don’t miss out on that.

  Sorry about your dad. I can do both. How is Wednesday for the first round of pics?

  “Hey, hon, is Wednesday okay for engagement pics?”

  He shrugs. “Sounds good to me.”

  Wednesday is fine.

  Okay. Do you want to do them at the park?

  “She wants to know if we want to do them at the park?”

  “I actually think that’s a really good idea since we like to take Katie to the park.”

  Perfect!

  We will need to meet around 5:00 so we can get through them all without fear of losing the light.

  No problem we will see you there.

  “Okay so we are both going to need to be home early on Wednesday because we have to be at the park by five. She doesn’t want to worry about light.”

  “No problem,” he says as he’s typing something.

  I send her a quick text telling her where we will meet her and then put my phone back down on the snack bar. “Okay, so we’ve sent the e-vites, ordered the food, set the photographer, and you already have the reverend set up to marry us. What’re we missing?”

  “Do you trust me to pick our wedding bands?”

  I chuckle, realizing I’m forgetting wedding bands. “Of course, I trust you,” I say as I kiss him while looking deep into his eyes.

  “Great. I’ll grab them tomorrow.”

  Now that we’re satisfied with our wedding planning for the night, we decide to start getting ready for work tomorrow and planning the rest of our week.

  Chapter 17

&nbs
p; Today is picture day, and it’s going to be crazy. I have all three of our outfits laid out already. Chase has already left for work so he can leave early. I need to finish getting Katie ready so she can jump on the bus in twenty minutes. She comes into her room as I’m checking over her stuff to make sure she’s all set for school.

  “Mommy, I’m ready for you to do my hair.”

  I look up from her bed and tell her to have a seat at her vanity. I quickly French braid her hair and tell her she’s all set, so she grabs her backpack, and we both head downstairs.

  I grab my lunch from the fridge, put it into my lunch bag, and put everything I need by the door so I can head out the door as soon as she’s on the bus. Jack has been so good about letting me leave early so I can do what I need to for my dad and the wedding. I want to get in as early as possible so he doesn’t think I’m taking advantage of his kindness.

  Katie is excited to get outside, so I grab my things, and we head out to wait. I put my things in the car and wait in the driveway with her. This is her third day at her new school, and so far she’s so happy there. When I picked her up from after-school care, she had very positive things to say. The bus rolls up, and I wave to the bus driver as I watch Katie skip down the driveway. As soon as she pulls away, I jump in the car and back out of my driveway, heading in the opposite direction so I don’t have to follow her.

  I’m at work by eight thirty, and I jump right into business. I have so much to do for the end-of-quarter reports we need to put together. I have zero time to think about anything else until my phone pings. Of course, worrying it’s my dad, I jump to look, and it’s my mom, so I panic for a minute. I quickly open the text with my heart racing a million miles an hour. I take a deep breath and calm myself when I realize she’s texting me about my sister.

  Your sister is coming to dinner tonight. Can you guys join us?