Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
“ I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Don’s head lowered and she lifted hers, and they shared a chaste but warm and happy kiss as the living room erupted in claps and cheers.
There weren’t a whole lot of extra people at the wedding, just Grace’s sisters and their husbands and Stacy’s children, along with Trevor’s siblings and their spouses and children as well.
Don had one sibling who had come in for the wedding, and Gita had a couple siblings there with their spouses as well.
All in all, it was less than thirty people.
But that made the living room very crowded.
“They look good together, don’t they?” Trevor leaned down and whispered in Grace’s ear.
He loved having her beside him and had been watching her more than he’d been watching the couple in the front say their vows.
She had been deeply interested and engaged, and had almost seemed on the verge of tears a couple of times.
The wedding didn’t move him nearly that much, but it made him want to have a wedding of his own.
“They do look good together. And they look so happy.”
“Have you changed your mind on a wedding ring?” he asked, wondering if he maybe should get her one anyway.
It seemed like sometimes women said things that they didn’t really mean, and they wanted men to figure out what they actually meant, which was ridiculous, since they often said the exact opposite of what they meant.
“I was serious. I just want you.”
“Would you marry me?” he asked, his voice low and his inner critic telling him that he couldn’t have picked a worse time.
But Grace looked up at him with shining eyes and was nodding her head even before the word passed her lips. “Yes.”
He smiled. She hadn’t said that he had picked the wrong time or that he hadn’t been very romantic or complained about anything like that.
She just seemed happy that he had asked and that they would be getting married.
In his opinion, those were the things that they should be happy about.
The trappings, the ring, the perfect setting, all that, was just…
distraction. Or show. And maybe, maybe Grace had enough of that.
“Can we set a date soon?” she asked, lifting her head as her breath whispered along his neck, making him draw her closer to him.
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
She leaned back, and they shared a look that said that they would be talking about that the next time they had an opportunity.
That had to be good enough for him.
“Have you ever seen Mom look so beautiful?” Stacy came over and stood in front of them, glancing back at the couple at the front of the room, who were accepting congratulations from the people around them.
“She’s practically glowing,” Grace said as Trevor casually listened.
Stacy was nice, and her husband was okay, and he would get along with them because they were Grace’s family, but he would stay out of the sisters’ conversation unless invited in.
He didn’t have that much experience with women, and sometimes their conversations, rather than going in a straight line, took the route of a gravel mountain road, with switchbacks and lane changes and U-turns and lots of other things that would lose a man who wasn’t used to such things.
“And by the way, I’m happy to see the two of you together. Finally,” Stacy said.
Jill came over and heard Stacy’s last comment. “It’s about time. The two of you are perfect together, and I can’t believe it’s taken you all this time to figure it out.”
“I’m a little slow, but I hope to make up for that by getting your sister to marry me sooner rather than later.”
“Good luck with that. And by the way, you guys should join forces and make crafts together. It’s been obvious to everyone that Mom needs someone to take over her craft business, and Grace is the perfect choice, but you would take everything up a notch and allow Grace to offer things that Mom never could. ”
“We haven’t talked about that, but we’ll have to, won’t we, darling?” he said, unwilling to take his arm out from around her waist, no matter how many people were crowded into the room or how warm it got. She didn’t seem like she minded, since she pressed against him.
“I think that’s good. I couldn’t imagine anything better than getting to work with you every day.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” They hadn’t talked about where they would live, but it seemed to make sense that whatever house their parents moved into, they would buy and live in the other one. He really didn’t care, as long as Grace was by his side.
Neither one of them mentioned that he had just asked Grace to marry him. He supposed Grace felt the same way he did, not wanting to take attention away from their parents’ happy day. There would be plenty of time for them to make their announcement some other time.
“Attention, everyone. Can you listen for a second?” Gita stood in front of everyone. The room quieted down as people stopped to listen to what she had to say.
“Don and I are so honored that you came here to share our special day. We have food available in the dining room. It’s a buffet-type meal, where you just grab your plate from the stack and pick what you want.
Be sure to get some of the crockpot pepper jack cauliflower, since it’s our signature relationship dish.
It…has grown along with us.” She smiled at Don.
“And Gita made it herself, so be sure to compliment the chef, although don’t compliment her too much, because I don’t want to take her spotlight away from me. ”
Laughter rippled throughout the crowd as Gita gave him a look that said that no one could outshine him in her eyes.
“I hope we’re that cute when we’re old,” Grace said, looking up at Trevor.
He hadn’t exactly been thinking that same thing, but his words were true. “I hope so too.” And somehow they reminded him of something he had wanted to tell Grace earlier. “Oh. I know what I wanted to tell you. I heard that Claire was back in town. Did you hear that?”
“No. I didn’t,” Grace said, sounding shocked.
“It’s just a rumor that’s going around. I haven’t actually seen her.
And I haven’t made it out to her grandmother’s house to check.
I did think that you might be interested, since I overheard you mentioning something to your mom about you trying to get in contact with her and Lauren and not being able to get a hold of either one. ”
“Thanks. I appreciate you hearing that and remembering. I’ll definitely try to see if I can make it out to go visit her. Maybe I have an old number that’s been disconnected or something.”
Trevor leaned down to Grace’s ear. “Are you sure you’re okay with that? I know that you love your friends, but there are some memories involved there.”
She seemed to appreciate his caring concern.
He didn’t want her to get lost in all of the sadness and tragedy that circled around when the three of them got together.
Even though they’d been friends long after the tragedy had occurred, it seemed to get bigger over the years. Sitting like a mountain between them.
He knew he thought about it more than once, even though he hadn’t been directly involved. He also knew that even in high school, it had bothered Grace, and she talked to him about it more than once.
“I can’t believe that you remember the things I said to you way back when.”
“That would be something that would be hard for anyone to get over. But yeah. I definitely remember. You always got sad around the time of the anniversary. And you didn’t enjoy going on the water like you did before.”
“It was attached to a lot of bad memories. But I did have a good time kayaking with you and our parents. I’d really like to do that again. ”
“Maybe we can get married on water?” Maybe that was a bad idea, but surely if they made a point of attaching good memories to the water, it would overcome the bad memories.
“As long as there’s no storm. Although there was a storm while we were kayaking, I really enjoyed it. Although…you didn’t kiss me back?” She looked up at him, as though finally asking why.
He didn’t have a problem answering her. He remembered exactly why. “It felt like you were saying goodbye. I didn’t want to participate in that. I didn’t want to admit that it could have been the end.”
“Why did you think it was goodbye?”
“You had just said that we weren’t a couple, didn’t have a relationship, and when we got in the kayak, you didn’t want to talk about it.
So that was where I thought you were. And…
I guess I just thought that you were sealing it with a kiss, as crazy as that sounds.
” Looking back, he realized that that probably was a ridiculous idea on his part.
But it was the truth. It was exactly how he felt.
“I’m sorry. I can see how you would feel that way, but no. It was…me not being able to resist you, I guess.”
“I like the idea that you find me irresistible. I kind of feel like we ought to find a spot where you can show me exactly how irresistible I am.”
Despite the happy celebration of the day, he was tired of all the people hanging around. He wanted to have Grace by himself. So he could kiss her whenever he wanted to and hold her in his arms without making the people around him uncomfortable.
“I think that’s a really good idea, but I think our parents would be a little bit upset if we disappeared on their wedding day. We probably ought to at least make a bit of an effort to mingle.”
He could see in her eyes that she was still thinking about Claire too. He figured, once they got out of here, she’d want to go see her friend.
“All right. You’re right, as usual. Still,” he said, then he leaned down and put his lips on her temple. He couldn’t resist, but that would have to do until later when there were not quite as many people around.
Hopefully, they would have a lifetime of laters.
Thanks so much for reading! If you would love to stay in Raspberry Ridge just a little longer, and if you’d like to see what happens with Claire - does she get a second chance at love? - you can order Over the Verdant Hills HERE .