Page 20 of A Wedding in the Bay

She laughed and took a sip of her coffee before opening her notebook and clicking her pen open.

“So. We’ve decided on a date for our wedding,” she said, sighing in satisfaction as she checked off the first item on her to-do list. “A spring wedding will be lovely. And I think two weeks before Alissa’s due date is early enough, don’t you?”

“Fingers crossed,” he said, grinning. “I think it’s definitely best to have the wedding before Alissa and Dane’s baby is born. They’ll have too much to deal with after that happens.”

“And we want to be back from our honeymoon by then, so that we can help out,” she said, nodding in agreement. She was determined to give Alissa all the support her twin sister could need when she welcomed her first child into the world. “But I don’t think we need to worry too much about Dane and Alissa being stressed out by our wedding, even if the baby is born first. Let’s just do something simple, without any fuss. A quick marriage at the courthouse. Dane and Alissa can be our witnesses, but they won’t have to plan on spending a long day doing wedding party activities. That way they won’t feel too overwhelmed as they’re getting ready for the baby to be born.”

He nodded. “So that’s what you want?” he asked. “Just an informal wedding?”

“I do, if that’s all right with you! I know men usually don’t like all the wedding fuss anyway. I figure this way we can both get what we want and be married that much more easily.”

“You sure you don’t want to get married in Hawaii?” he teased.

She laughed. “No. I don’t need a big celebration to feel good about marrying you. I just need Pearl there, and some witnesses, and you, of course.”

He chuckled and kissed her cheek. “I think it’s really sweet that you feel that way.”

She beamed at him and took another sip of her coffee. She turned back to her to-do list and laughed. “Besides, look at how short this list is! If we were having any kind of a big wedding, it would be pages.” She pretended to grimace and glanced at him, expecting him to be smiling. Instead, he was staring into space with a slightly troubled expression.

“Everything all right?” she asked him, touching his arm. She got the sense that something was off, but she had no idea what it was.

He turned to her with his wonderful smile. “Absolutely. I was just—”

At that moment, Pearl came rushing into the room. “It’s snowing!” the little girl cried, waving her arms up and down as if she was choreographing a new kind of dance. “Let’s go outside!”

Caitlin and Michael turned to each other, laughing.

“I would be up for some playing in the snow, what about you?” he asked her, grinning.

“Sure.” She laughed and closed her notebook. “Wedding planning can wait for another time.”

“I smell a snowball fight,” Pearl said, with the dramatic flair that only eight-year-old girls can muster.

“Oo, game on,” Michael said, rubbing his hands together.

They got on their coats and hats and gloves and boots and tramped out into the snowfall together. Delicate white flakes were swirling down from the sky, and Pearl took off across the yard, whooping. Laughing, Michael and Caitlin followed her, holding hands.

I’m so happy, Caitlin thought. I don’t need a big wedding to feel like our love is important. I could marry him tomorrow with no trimmings or trappings and have no regrets at all.

A snowball sailed through the air and landed on her leg.

“Oh, good shot, Pearl!” Michael crowed, and Caitlin laughed as she dusted off her leg.

The snow fell faster as the late afternoon turned into dusk. The three of them stayed outside, laughing and throwing snowballs as the lights of the house grew warmer and brighter against the darkening day.

“How about Claude?” Dane suggested, scrunching up a piece of paper before lobbing it toward Alissa’s desk.

She shook her head at her husband, amusement filling her as she uncrumpled the wad of paper that he’d tossed at her from inside his office. She adjusted her glasses, then looked down at the long list of names that was written on it. All of them had been crossed out except for the last one, which was Claude.

“That makes me think of some French guy in the early nineteen hundreds,” she said, shaking her head with a wry look. She crossed the name off the list with a flourish.

Dane groaned. “What’s wrong with French guys in the early nineteen hundreds?”

“Nothing—but I couldn’t possibly call a baby Claude.” She laughed, tapping her pen against her chin as she tried to think of another name to write down.

“Honey, there’s been a wonderful invention. Let me tell you all about it. It’s called a nickname.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, and he grinned.

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