Return To You: A Small Town, Second Chance Romance

55. Grace

fifty-five

A few months later

*

“Your daughter is going to be the most beautiful bride,” Mom tells Dad, pecking him on the cheek as Mom and I walk into their house. Ethan is already here, sipping an Arnold Palmer with Dad, a nice fire roaring in their chimney. He stands to greet us, and after a side hug to Mom, gives me a full-on kiss on the mouth.

Sometimes I think he just does it to see how far he can rile up Dad, or maybe as a revenge on the past.

“Missed you,” he whispers in my ear.

Or maybe he just really missed me and that’s his way of telling me. He wasn’t even in Dad’s line of sight.

Mom, Haley, and I spent the day in Burlington shopping for a wedding gown, and I found the one. I never thought I’d be that person, but here I am. Preparing to marry the man of my dreams—Ethan King.

Over lunch at Leunig’s—the best French bistro in Burlington in my opinion—Haley asked about the design of the engagement ring. After I told her, she confessed she had no recollection of playing wedding with her brothers. Ever. Me? I would have said it was her favorite game, at one time. Funny how we really do hold onto the memories that matter most to us, and possibly mold them to suit our personality.

On our way back, Mom and I dropped Haley off at the farm, stopped for tea with Lynn, and showed her pictures of the winning dress. Now I’m at my parents’ for Mom’s lasagna and some quiet time with my parents and fiancé.

Ethan resumes the conversation he was having with Dad when Mom and I came in. He’s catching him up on his latest hire, someone from out of state, and letting him know how the others are doing, whether they’re married or not, and how they’re liking life in Emerald Creek.

The table is already set for four, and I recognize Ethan’s touch in the small tealight candles at each end.

“No Colton?” I ask as we take our seats.

“He had a date,” Dad supplies. “Came to grab some suit or something this morning.”

“His suit?” Something’s off. “Why would he go on a date in a suit?” Come to think about it, I saw him on the schedule with Cheyenne, to get his nails scrubbed free of grease.

“Did he tell you anything?” I ask Ethan.

Ethan shrugs. “Uh… he might have mentioned some girl he met online. Not sure.”

“Online?” Mom exclaims. “Why on earth would he do that?”

“It’s hard to meet people these days,” I suggest, not really sure myself why Colton would need to look online for dates.

“That’s ridiculous,” Mom responds. “All he needs to do is start repairing his cars bare chested, and you’ll see all these cute tourists line up to get their…” She interrupts herself, blushing slightly. “Sorry. That was out of line. Also, it’s winter,” she adds with a giggle.

Dad chuckles, and Ethan makes a funny face. “Sounds like something my mom would say.”

“I’m with you, Mom,” I chime in. “I don’t know what’s up with him. Seriously. Nothing wrong with the women around here. Autumn is single. And Willow. And Sophie. And-and-and…”

“Kiara,” Dad says. “She makes good cakes.”

“Kiara’s not interested,” I interrupt him before he gets ahead of himself. “Oh god, we gotta stop.”

“Stop what?” Ethan asks.

“This gossiping! It’s not right.” I take a mouthful of lasagna, so I keep quiet for a beat.

“It’s not gossiping if it’s not on Echoes,” Mom interjects.

“Or said out loud at Lazy’s,” Dad adds.

Seeing their point, I add, “Or at Easy Monday. That counts as gossiping too.”

“For sure,” Mom adds. “By that token, what’s said at Game Nights is gossiping too.”

I roll my eyes. “Oh totally. That’s like, gossip central. More so than Echoes. No traceability,” I add, having picked up a concept or two from Ethan’s work (the little he shares with me) over the past few months.

Ethan moves his fork in a circle. “So… what’s this?”

“It’s caring!” Mom and I exclaim together.

“Lotsa caring going around in this household,” Dad chuckles. “Get used to it, son,” he adds naturally.

Ethan does a double take on Dad, his forehead coloring a little, his eyes warming up. It’s the first time Dad calls him son, and the way it came out makes me all kinds of mushy. But Dad doesn’t show any particular emotion, and even Mom doesn’t seem to notice, as if it’s a given. Ethan promptly focuses back on his lasagna.

“Haley found her dress too,” Mom says to Ethan, then turns to me. “And they had the cutest flower girl dresses, right? Skye is going to be over-the-moon happy.”

I give Ethan’s hand a quick squeeze. Our wedding is bringing so much happiness to so many people, we’ve decided to have it at the church, with the reception being on The Green, so that literally everyone in Emerald Creek will feel comfortable attending. Lazy’s and Clover’s Nook (Chloe’s new restaurant) will be catering, but I’ve made Justin and Chloe promise that they would hire extras from out of town so that they and their staff could have fun as well.

I pull out my phone and show Ethan the pictures of Haley’s and Skye’s dresses.

He takes the phone in his hands and zooms on the selection of dresses for Skye. “She’s gonna love the one with the butterflies,” he says, a smile curving his lips up. “Oh wait… does this one have little Ivy leaves?”

I giggle at my future husband’s interest in flower girl dresses.

“When are you giving me grandbabies?” Dad asks gruffly.

I act offended. “Dad!”

“You made me a promise on my death bed,” he says to Ethan, ignoring me.

“Your what?!” Mom cries.

“You know what I mean,” Dad waves dismissively.

Ethan smiles softly and takes my hand. “That’s up to Grace.”

Dad raises his eyebrows. “A promise is a promise.”

Ethan nods. “And I promised you as many as she wanted.”

Dad grunts.

“What—When did this happen?” I ask, mildly amused and intrigued at the same time. Dad and Ethan talking about grandbabies on a supposed deathbed? That’s news to me.

“Never mind,” Dad and Ethan say at the same time.

Okay, then. My dad and my fiancé have their side conversations. That’s rather sweet, considering where we came from. “We have a wedding to plan,” I state. “We’ll talk babies later.” I sound way more assured than I feel. Just thinking about having Ethan’s babies fills me with something indescribable. And very desirable.

“Well, I would hope so,” Mom says. “You have a dress to fit into.”

“The voice of reason,” I say.

Ethan frowns and grunts. I feel like grunting too. Six more months to go, give or take.

“You’ve waited ten years. What’s a few more months?” Mom says.

Now it’s Dad’s turn to grunt.

“Who wants more lasagna?” Mom asks, dipping the serving spoon in the dish.

We all hand our plates.

Dad frowns. “Oh—now she doesn’t have a dress to fit into?” he asks playfully.

“It’s lasagna, honey. It’s nice and light,” Mom says with a straight face.

Dad laughs heartily at that. “Okay then, since it’s nice and light, double serving for me,” he says, making us all laugh.

Ethan reaches under the table and strokes my thigh, then looks at me with a sweet smile.

Later, after we say our goodbyes, we settle in the SUV that Ethan started a good ten minutes before leaving so it would warm up. “You know,” he says, not driving away just yet, “I had a vague idea of what I wanted in life. Something ideal. With you in the center of it all. But it turned out so much better than I thought. This is all so much more everything… So much more love, and fun, and fulfillment. And there’s so much more to look forward to.” He takes my hand softly in his. “I can’t believe this is just the beginning.”

I lean across the center console to kiss him. His hands come to my nape, pulling me gently to him, cradling me. “You’re the best part of me, Grace,” he says, choking a bit on his words.

He clears his throat, and I sit back in my seat. “Home or nightcap at Lazy’s?” he asks as he pulls out of my parents’ driveway.

I really want to go home, but we haven’t seen our friends in a few days. And it’s still relatively early. “Quick nightcap at Lazy’s?”

His smile tells me this is where his mind was too. We can’t wait to get our hands on each other, but we have all night, and all day tomorrow. Even if we decide to go snowboarding, or skating.

With how it’s been snowing all day today, Lazy’s is less busy than a usual Saturday night. We order hot toddies and chat with Haley, Alex and Chris.

As we’re thinking about heading home, the door opens on Kiara carrying one of her pastry boxes, but this one is so tall you can’t see her behind it—only her legs in fishnet stockings. Which is totally not Kiara’s style. And totally not weather appropriate.

Right behind her, holding the door, Colton comes in, wearing dress pants and a shirt under his coat.

I turn to Ethan for an explanation. He shakes his head at me, just as puzzled as I am.

Kiara sets the cake on the bar and Colton opens the box. It turns out to be the leftover half of a cake, showing several layers that I can already tell will taste decadent. But what renders me speechless for a beat is the décor of the cake. Entirely white—white roses, white twirly things on the sides, some gold accents.

This is a wedding cake.

Now. Why would Kiara have half a wedding cake?

Why would Kiara be all dressed up (granted, not in white)?

Why would Colton be dressed up at all?

I mean, if they’d been to a wedding together, we’d know, right? There would be a good chance we’d know the couple, so we’d know of the wedding, even if for some bizarre reason none of us were invited.

The strangest, yet most obvious answer pops into my mind, and I’m about to ask for confirmation when Haley beats me to it, laughing. “Did you guys get married?”

Kiara rolls her eyes and blurts, “Ugh. Even that sounds better than what happened,” while Colton looks at me like a deer caught in the headlights.

Oh-oh.

“What the hell is going on between those two?” Ethan whispers in my ear.

My thoughts exactly.