Chapter 12 #3
“Hell’s bells, is that right? Ok, my fears are justified,” he agreed. “But you could be scared of other things, too. I am.” He listed some of them while we waited to board. “I don’t like wooden popsicle sticks. I get creeped out by how they feel against my teeth. I don’t like gnomes, either.”
“Really?”
“They’re grubby and they squat,” he explained. “What’s there to like?”
I determined that I wasn’t afraid, not of gnomes or anything else.
But I did hold his hand as we boarded the plane, which was pretty cramped compared to the private jet.
He took up his whole seat and we raised the armrest so that he took up a good portion of mine, too, but I didn’t care.
It felt better to have him so close but the flight was smooth and non-bumpy anyway.
No one drank bourbon the whole time, either, and I didn’t miss the smell of that in the glasses or in the puke when it came back up.
“This was fine,” I declared as we waited to disembark. Since he was too tall to stand upright in here, not even in the aisle, we waited in the seats until it was our row’s turn.
But now, Ronan seemed unhappy himself. “Yeah, it was fine.” He looked impatiently toward the exit.
“We should go straight to the hotel, if we can ever get off this plane.” He had rented a room so that we could get dressed for the wedding and leave our bags.
My lunch friends, who had participated in several weddings as bridesmaids, junior bridesmaids, and flower girls, as well as attending as guests, had explained that the groom and his groomsmen usually hung out together before the ceremony.
But Ronan’s brother hadn’t wanted to do that.
He hadn’t wanted any kind of bachelor party, either, or a trip, or anything.
The girls had thought that was weird but it made sense when I considered that maybe this marriage was more like a business arrangement.
In the car on the way to the hotel, I expressed that idea to Ronan.
“Maybe your brother’s fiancée got pregnant and they both wanted the baby, but it’s not a love and romance kind of thing,” I suggested.
“That’s why they’re not doing a big wedding.
” Victoria especially had told stories of hugely ornate weddings that she had attended and it seemed to me that she equated the size of the guest list with the depth of the bond between the couple.
She’d said that she wanted a giant wedding for herself, and Taylor had thrown out that she wasn’t interested in marriage (then she and Kiya had gotten into another argument).
He seemed to mull over my theory. “You could be right,” he answered. He sounded unconvinced. “I think he’s just not much into ceremony crap. I wanted to go to his high school graduation but he took another shift at work and skipped it.”
“Did he go to yours?”
“No, but my parents did. Then they ran into a family in the parking lot that hadn’t been able to get enough tickets for the grandparents to attend, and they gave their seats to them.
So, they were present in the general area, but they didn’t actually see the graduation.
” He looked over at me. “I should stop telling you this stuff about my parents. You get the flush.” He touched my cheek to show me what he meant, but I was already aware.
I actually felt angrily hot all over, not just my in my face.
“Where are they now?” I asked.
His brother had managed to find them a place to park their RV, but Ronan was paying for a car to bring them from that location to our hotel so that we would go to the wedding together.
“I have to, because I don’t know what trouble they’d get into if they went alone,” he said, but then checked my face and clammed up, refusing to provide any more details about the problems they could cause.
“You’ll all get along,” he informed me, and I nodded. I was certainly going to try my best.
He was ready within fifteen seconds after our arrival at the hotel, tie included.
I’d done a practice run at Taylor’s and Kiya’s condo with their help and another on my own, so I was clear about how long it would take me.
“I’ll be in the bathroom for thirty-five minutes,” I told him.
“Then I’ll need help zipping up my dress. ”
“Cool. I’ll amuse myself by practicing on the zipper on my pants…that didn’t sound right.” He checked his phone. “My parents should be here soon, too.” He still looked tense, maybe about them getting into trouble?
I got my stuff laid out around the bathroom sink and then started to work.
This wasn’t a process I enjoyed very much but it was necessary, of course, for a wedding.
And Ronan already looked so nice in his suit and the tie that he hated.
Before we’d left, I’d seen him polishing the shoes he was wearing, carefully wiping and buffing them. I was serious about looking nice, too.
And I was also serious about getting along with his mom and dad.
No matter what I’d said to Kiya, Tay, and Victoria, they had been unable to give up on the idea that it was a huge thing for me to meet his family.
I was more concerned about making this day as easy for him as possible, by being polite and not letting on that I thought they were idiots.
Since I was adept at hiding my feelings, I trusted that they would never know.
Before I was totally done, I heard someone knocking at the hotel room door. “That’s my parents,” he called to me. “Get ready, here they come.” I was quiet as he opened it so I could eavesdrop. They were so happy to see him and so excited about their other son getting married.
I rushed through my last few steps and came out to meet them.
They smiled and introduced themselves as Gerald and Margaret as their son zipped me up (he hadn’t needed the practice on his pants), and I said hello and it was also nice to meet them.
They seemed normal to me, but there wasn’t much time to confirm that.
Ronan started hurrying us to the elevator and then through the lobby and out to a car.
I’d never seen him act so drill-sergeant, not even when he’d been doing actual drills on the football field.
“Dad, this way. You’re in the back, Mom, other side,” he said, almost barking out the commands.
I went along quietly and took my place between his parents, since he didn’t fit in the rear seats himself.
I did notice that there was quite a bit of pet hair on his mom—like, a whole lot, enough that it was transferring onto me as well.
His dad, Gerald, was likewise sprinkled with it and didn’t do any clean-up as we rode, but I noticed Ronan picking strands off himself in the front seat.
It wasn’t a long trip to the location of the ceremony, a municipal building, and as we went, his parents asked me questions. Margaret wanted to know my name—my full name, she clarified.
“Cate Alexis McNaughton. It spells ‘cam,’” I answered. Then the questions continued.
“I’m twenty-two,” I responded next.
“Yes, I graduated from college a year ago with a business degree.”
“I work for the Woodsmen team so that’s how we met.”
“I don’t have any family, no one that I’m close with. I guess it is a shame.”
“No, I’ve never been to Missoula. I’ve never spent significant time in Montana.”
“I don’t have any pets and they’re not allowed in my building. I don’t mind dogs at all.”
“I’m a pretty good speller. I won a bee—that doesn’t matter.”
“I don’t drink much hard liquor but I’m not against it. What did you say, Gerald?”
“No, I don’t speak Swedish. It’s called Malort?”
“Definitely orange. It wasn’t my favorite before, but I love it now.”
“Um, if I really had to pick, I guess it would be the power to see through walls. But I never gave it much thought.”
“I do know how to drive a manual.”
“No, thank you. I’m not hungry right now.”
At that point, Ronan interjected. “Dad, why do you have hard-boiled eggs in your pocket? Put them away.” Then the car pulled to the curb and stopped. He helped his mom out first and I scooted across and took his hand.
He brushed at my dress. “What the hell is all over you?” he muttered.
“It’s fur,” I said. I was still in the answering mode.
“I know, but why…oh, no. Mom, let me see inside your purse.”
She had a small animal in there, one about the size of an Affenpinscher, but luckily it was an actual dog and not a mouse. “Why?” he asked her.
They had found it at the RV park when they’d driven in. His mom was pretty sure it was a stray because it had been starving.
“We can’t take this inside the building,” he said, and also, the rideshare driver had now noticed the fur situation and was furious that it had been in his car.
“I’ll deal with the dog,” I volunteered after Ronan calmed everyone down. “You guys don’t want to be late for the ceremony.”
“No, Cate, I’ll—” He shook his head like he didn’t know what he would do.
“Yes, go on. Margaret, can you give me your scarf?” She handed it over and I made a leash.
“There you go,” I said to the animal.
“I’m calling her Blossom,” Margaret told me, and her son looked ready to explode.
“Mom, please go inside. Dad, please follow.” He ushered them in and then returned to where I stood with Blossom. “Cate…”
“This is fine. I think your mom would get upset if we left the dog out here alone.” I could tell by looking at her that she was a weepy type. “We don’t want to mess up your brother’s wedding.”
“We’ll do something with it before we go to dinner. This is ridiculous.” He frowned at Blossom but she was a cute little dog, just overly hairy. “I didn’t think to check them for animals.”
“Have you had to do that in the past?”
He started to tell me but then glanced over his shoulder. “Are you sure about this?”
“Go,” I ordered. Then it was just me and the dog on the sidewalk. “I’m overdressed for this,” I told her. She looked great in the scarf, though.
We were fine waiting.