Page 26 of Claiming His Prize

“Are you going to do that before or after graduation?” he asked.

“I was thinking I’d start before I graduate. I’ve already started looking at websites to see if they’re hiring and keeping an eye on the major job sites to see if they advertise any openings. I’m sure there are other people who will also be sending in their resumes before graduation, but there’s a lot of people who procrastinate. I’d rather be in the earlier group.”

Her father nodded approvingly. Allison was taken aback at the expression of pride on his face; he was almost glowing. What on earth had changed while she was away? Before, he’d been supportive but not like this. Not only was he much friendlier and more open with Todd than she’d ever expected, but the approval fairly emanating from him wasn’t what she was used to when it came to talking about jobs.

“Would you like me to look at your resume?”

It wasn’t just her father. Her mother was beaming at both him and Allison, as if they were having a very clever conversation. Was it the fact Allison was engaged, and her mother was happy with whatever else she chose to do, or had Patrice truly missed her daughter so much, she didn’t care what Allison did anymore?

“Yes… I would appreciate that,” she said, trying to cover her surprise.

“Oh, surely, you can do more than that, dear,” her mother said, reaching out to touch her father’s hand. “Aren’t you friends with—”

“No, it’s okay, that’s perfect,” Allison interrupted.“I really appreciate it.” She smiled at her mother to take any sting out of her words.

Although it would definitely make her life easier to use a little nepotism, that’s not how she wanted to get her job.Right now, she felt like she had a bit of a leg up on most people in school, working part-time and getting experience to go along with her degree. If she really couldn’t find something she wanted, maybe she’d allow her parents to help her with their connections. After all, a big part of the business worldwasconnections, but she really wanted to try to do it on her own. More than anything, Allison was touched her parents wanted to help.

Her mother made a little face of disappointment but subsided without a fight, then brightened again. “Can we talk about the wedding now?”

Allison giggled at the pained look on her father’s face. Listening to party planning wasn’t his favorite thing, and she couldn’t imagine a wedding would be any different. Todd smiled encouragingly, reaching out to cover Allison’s hand with his own. She smiled back, giddy.

“When are you thinking?” her mother asked, her eyes glowing with approval as she looked from Todd to Allison.

“Ah...” Allison shot a glance at Todd. “We hadn’t really talked about that yet.” They’d been too busy having mad passionate sex, fighting, then having more mad passionate sex. While the fighting hadn’t been pleasant, she could say she preferred the mad passionate sex to sitting down and trying to think about wedding planning particulars.

“Well, spring is always nice, but very busy... That would give us a full year to plan, though, which is just barely enough time.”

“A year is barely enough time?” Todd looked amazed. Allison wasn’t surprised, but then again, she was a girl. She’d watched enough wedding shows to know a lot more went into planning a wedding than most men realized. Okay… and researched it a little herself, although she was no longer particularly interested in having the giant wedding, she’d planned in her head when she’d done things like look through bridal magazines at dresses and venues.

“Oh, my, yes. Places book up a year in advance, sometimes more! Especially the best venues,” her mother chirped, her eyes brightening as she warmed to her topic. “Allison will need to pick out her dress at least six months in advance, although more would be better, so there will be plenty of time to have it made, then altered if needed. We’ll need to do a tasting for the food from at least three caterers for comparison, and the same for the cakes, then the flowers, the invitations, the officiant… Do you know if you want to be married in a church or somewhere else? By a member of the clergy or a judge? Oh, and you’ll need to pick out a wedding party and tuxes and bridesmaid dresses, but before that, you’ll have to decide on your colors. Oh, we can’t forget we need to pick out favors. Something unique but not tacky. Announcements… we’ll have to send out an engagement announcement and write up something for the wedding announcement for the paper…”

The expression on Todd’s face started to match Allison’s fathers as her mother chattered on, and it was all Allison could do not to laugh. Her mother was babbling on so quickly, no one would have been able to get a word in edgewise if they’d wanted to, but at least Allison knew there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d forget anything important during the planning process—not with Patrice Bradford as her mother.

“Oh, and dear,” her mother put her hand over Todd’s, beaming at him with all the happiness of a future mother-in-law hellbent on planning a wedding. “I’ll need your mother’s phone number.”

“Um… of course.”

Stifling her giggles, Allison decided she’d better step in and save the menfolk. Her father looked more and more pained the more her mother spoke, obviously finding it all too easy to envision the upcoming months of event planning.

Besides, Allison knew they needed to change topics if they were ever going to move on to dessert. Her mother seemed to have forgotten the purpose of dinner was eating.

“We’ll have to talk about the rest of it and get back to you,” she said smoothly as her mother paused for breath between explaining all the myriad of details that would need to be considered. “I think we’ll focus on the big things first—date, budget, and guest list, then move on from there.”

“Budget first,” her mother trilled. Allison was a little surprised she wasn’t bouncing in her seat, she was so happy. Obviously, she’d considered containing herself during the first part of dinner to be a duty well completed and was perfectly happy to commandeer the conversation, now that the end of dinner was approaching. “That will determine the venue and the number of people on the guest list. I can already tell you, I’ve put aside an account, and you have at least $60,000 to spend, although I’m sure your father and I wouldn’t have a problem if you needed more.”

Allison couldn’t help but notice her mother completely ignored the way her husband’s jaw clenched. Todd’s jaw dropped, and Allison shook her head.

“That’s way too much, Mom. I don’t want or need a wedding that big.”

Her mother waved a negligent hand as Todd blinked, still looking adorably stunned at the idea a wedding might actually cost that much. Allison knew all too well, weddings could cost even more, although she’d seen weddings just as wonderful without going to all that expense. At a certain point, no one cared if you spent two-hundred or two-thousand dollars on your flowers. Either way, the flowers were beautiful.

“Well, it’s there for you to use. I thought you should know. And you might be grateful for it when you see our side of the guest list.”

“Todd and I will talk about it,” Allison said firmly. “But I want asmallwedding, and by small, I don’t mean less than three-hundred, I mean less than one-hundred-and-fifty people.” Now Todd looked slightly horrified at the idea a small wedding could be up to one-hundred-fifty people, and Allison was having the hardest time not laughing. Her father’s attention had obviously wandered. He had a blank look on his face that said he was thinking about anything other than the conversation at hand. Well, she really couldn’t blame him.

“But how will we invite all of my friends and your father’s business associates?” Her mother blinked, looking disappointed and confused.

“We won’t.”

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