Healed (13 page)

“I had a feeling you would. The next weekend I went to the same club, hoping to see her again. When she hadn’t shown up after an hour or two, I almost gave up and left. I paid my tab at the bar and stood up, and that was when she walked in the door. Without giving her a second, I walked up to her and offered to buy her a drink. She agreed, but looked skeptical. She did, however, follow me to the bar and I ordered her favorite drink without even waiting to see what she wanted. The smile that graced her face told me that I’d done exactly the right thing. She spent the rest of the night talking and dancing only with me and, well, you know the rest.”

“I can’t believe she ignored you at first. That’s not what I expected.” I laughed.

“As funny as you find that, I had a better reason for telling you that story.”

My laughter turned to chuckles. “Sorry, Dad, it’s just that you always seem to have the answer whenever I had problems with a girl. To think Mom gave you hard a time is just funny.”

“Yeah, very funny. Back to the point. Mom and Emily have something in common. There’s something about them that draws us to them. Something we can’t ignore. And because of that, there won’t be a time when she’s far from your thoughts. You’ll always know where she is in a crowd of people, and your need to protect and care for her will override everything else.”

Dad’s speech stopped the laughter instantly. I knew exactly what that meant. It was how I felt about Emily every day of my life. “That’s it, exactly.”

“I know, Son. Just remember to treasure it always.” Dad placed his hand on my knee and gave a squeeze.

“I will. Thanks, Dad.”

My parents were amazing. Between their present, which was more than I could have ever expected, and Dad’s story about how him and Mom met, I couldn’t get the smile off of my face all day.

It was Christmas, and it was wonderful.

Eventually the girls came back downstairs and we spent the rest of the day lounging around, watching movies. It felt good to snuggle on the couch with Emily and a bowl of popcorn. Like we were a family. No, it wasn’t
like
we were a family—we
were
a family. And this was only the beginning of a host of new things for us.

A few hours later my aunt and uncle showed up for Christmas dinner and like everything concerning food and holidays in our household, it was way over the top. Even though she shouldn’t have been surprised after the spread at brunch, Emily’s eyes had bugged out of her head when she’d seen the table.

“Dinner was delicious,” Emily said, giving my mom a hug as we were getting ready to leave.

“Thank you, sweetheart. I’m glad you liked it.” Mom pressed a kiss to her cheek, then bent down and whispered something in her ear, before pulling back to look at her. Emily smiled and nodded.

I wonder what that was all about?

Mom turned her attention to me. “Now, no more dillydallying with the wedding plans. Any help you two want, call me, I’m there.”

“You bet. Although, I don’t know why I’m saying that—it’s all up to her,” I said, gesturing toward Em.

She laughed and patted my cheek. “You’re learning early.”

Emily burst out laughing too. “Yes he is.”

Dad came around the corner with a bag full of Tupperware containers. “Here,” he said, handing me the bag. “Your mother won’t be able to sleep if we don’t send you home with leftovers, and there is no way in hell we can eat all of this food ourselves.”

“Mike,” Mom scolded with a laugh and a swat to his arm. She smiled back at us. “But your father’s right, you need to take some food home. We have more than enough.”

“That’s an understatement,” Jess said, poking her head out of the kitchen.

“What is this, ‘Pick on Mom’ day?”

“Maybe,” Jess and I said at the same time.

Mom shrugged. “Well, at least you’re leaving someone else alone.”

“So, I’ll see you guys sometime next week when I come down to visit?”

“Definitely,” Emily said, walking over and giving her a hug.

“Merry Christmas, Sis,” I called from the doorway.

“Merry Christmas. Have a safe drive home.”

“We will.” I turned to Emily. “Ready?”

“Yep.” She looked over at my parents again. “Merry Christmas, and thank you so much for the trip. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. Now get going before it gets too late,” Mom said, shooing us out the door with a smile. Emily stepped out first and I gave my mom a quick peck on the cheek, shook Dad’s hand, and followed her out the door.

When we were settled in the car and backing out of the driveway, my curiosity got the better of me. “What did Mom say to you right before we left?”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the smile grace her face, illuminated by the light of the dashboard. “She told me that she understood how hard it is to be away from your family on Christmas for the first time, but that I wasn’t away from my family, I was just spending time with the other part of my family this year.”

Wow. “My mom knows everything.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty amazing.”

“She is. Did you have fun today?”

“I did. I don’t know what you were worried about earlier. That was a pretty awesome Christmas—and that’s just thinking about all the food. I wish your mom would come down and cook for us more often. It was fantastic.”

“She does that every year.”

Emily leaned forward to fiddle with the dials on the radio. “Every year, huh? I could get use to that.”

Reaching over, I placed my hand on her thigh. “You’d better get used to it, since we’ll be spending every other Christmas there.”

“I know,” she squealed. “I still can’t believe they paid for our honeymoon. That’s completely crazy.”

“It is. I love the idea of going on a cruise.”

“Me too. You know, I really mean it when I say I had a great time today, and that has nothing to do with the gift they gave us.”

“I know. Merry Christmas, Em.”

“Merry Christmas.”

The ride home didn’t take long since it was pretty late and the roads were empty. We hadn’t done much all day but I was still exhausted when we got home, and it felt great to curl up in bed with Emily. It wasn’t long before I heard the soft snores coming from where her head rested on my chest.

Taking our fight out of the equation, it had been a pretty good day. Actually, it was the perfect day.

I fell asleep with the thought that it was only the first of many more to come.

A laugh sounded from across the room and I looked up from the project I was working on for Monday morning. Everyone else had gone back to class about three weeks ago but with the internship, I’d been hard at work for the last six weeks. Things had been going really well, and even with having to be at work for the most part, Emily and I had still managed to spend a ton of time together. It felt good to have the nights to ourselves.

I was watching Emily and our moms discussing wedding plans at the kitchen table. They had come over to help her start searching for venues. Something you apparently had to do far in advance. All I knew was that they’d brought a checklist of things that needed to be done and how far out from the wedding they needed to be completed, with a little book to keep track of everything. It seemed crazy to me, but this was Emily’s day, so if she wanted to start planning now, then we’d start planning now . . . even if we still had a little over a year to go. Both of our moms kept warning us how fast that time would fly by.

Seeing Emily so happy made me happy—it also kept me out of trouble for the little shit she could get mad at. I was expecting plenty of that—enough that I might be in the doghouse for days. Watching my mom help the woman of my dreams plan the most important day of our lives meant the world to me.

Mom had taken to Emily from the beginning. Every guy worries about bringing
the one
home to Mom, afraid she won’t live up to expectation. There are always those horror stories of engagements that crashed and burned because the mom decided that the fiancée wasn’t good enough for their son. My mom was not like that at all, and only shown Emily more love since we’d gotten engaged, treating her like one of her own children. Their gift at Christmas still amazed me. Mom treated Emily even better than she did Jessica and me, which was karma, I suppose. Jessica was the youngest and got away with everything. I remember sitting back and trying to figure out how she did it. Then one day I realized she’d been learning from my mistakes. Life was so screwed up sometimes.

I heard another laugh come from the table. This time it was Emily’s. Her excitement was almost palpable.

“What do you think of light pink and lilac for the dresses, with bows on the back?” Emily asked.

“Li—what?” What the hell was she talking about?

Turning my head, all three of them were looking at me expectantly.

“It’s a shade of purple,” Mom chimed in.

“Um . . .” Pink and purple did
not
sound like colors Emily would choose, and bows? That was something I couldn’t imagine. But if I said anything and it was what she wanted, I was going to be in so much trouble.

I hated loaded questions.

Emily stood, eyes narrowed. “You don’t like it?”

Shit
. “Well it’s . . . it’s . . . umm . . . it’s—”

“Well?” Emily had her hands on her hips, staring me down.

Damn. I had no idea what the right answer was. The collar of my shirt felt a little too tight. This was one of those trivial things, but with the party at the frat house tonight looming over my head, I wasn’t really interesting in an argument. Deciding a neutral answer was best, I went with it.

“I think if you like it, then that is all that matters.” Then I shut up and waited for her reaction. Her mouth turned down in a frown. Great. I thought that answer would work. I felt my body tense, waiting for the blow.

Then all three of them burst out laughing at me. “You don’t think
I
would actually choose pink and purple, do you?” she said between fits of laughter.

“Oh, honey, you should have seen your face,” Mom said, wiping at her eyes.

Julie, Emily’s mom, was doing her best to calm down. “Can you really see Emily in b—b—bows?” She started laughing all over again.

“This is only ’cause I’m outnumbered,” I said.

“Nah.” Mom, waved her hand in a gesture of dismissal. “With the way you and your father pick on me, you deserve it.”

I rolled my eyes, but gave her a smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Anytime, sweetie.”

Pointing at Emily, I said, “And you’re no better.”

“I know.”

After a few more cracks at me, which sent them into more fits of laughter, they went back to wedding planning. At one point, Emily brought over a picture of a beautiful silver dress she wanted for the bridesmaids. It was exactly what I would expect her to pick.

“If you’d shown me this in the beginning, I would’ve been able to answer you right away. This looks perfect.”

“I know, but where’s the fun in that?” She smiled and went back to the kitchen.

“Oh, I like that one,” my mom’s voice popped up from the table. Taking my glasses off, I simply sat and stared at them, contentment settling over my body, making me feel like I could conquer the world if I wanted to. Now that they were done picking on me, I could sit back and appreciate how well our families got along. In my opinion, life was pretty damn good.

Emily gave me a beaming smile, before turning her attention back to the stuff they had laid out in front of her. Picking up my glasses, I went back to the folder in my lap. My assessment was due to my boss Monday morning so I’d need to work hard so that we could still go to my frat house for the party.

Over the next few hours I tried to get a bit more work done, but it was hard to concentrate. Everything about tonight’s party was making me nervous. One of my frat brothers called to make sure we would be there because they had a special surprise for us. There was no way I could miss this one. I’d avoided going to the house since we’d gotten engaged. It actually hadn’t been that hard, especially with all of the studying Emily had been doing, plus all of the problems Josh and Lauren had. We’d all had way too much on our plates.

But I just knew they were going to have some shit arranged tonight to celebrate our engagement. The problem was, not all of it would be good. There would be a lot of jokes before they got to the actual celebration, and I’d seen what had happened to the other guys who’d gotten engaged over the years. The guys were brutal about it. They loved to use every “ball and chain” joke they could find.

But even knowing how bad it could get, Emily still wanted to go. I just wasn’t sure if Emily’s temper could handle the teasing. And adding alcohol into the mix could only make it worse. There was just too much that could go wrong tonight. I wanted nothing more than to stay home and think about the plans I had for tomorrow.

Tomorrow was the anniversary of our first date. The night that had led us down the path we were on. Yet, the party could ruin it all. I had to hope that Emily took it all in stride, or realized that none of it was actually my fault.

For both our sakes.