Page 8 of Needing Happily Ever After

Taking a degree program via correspondence hadn’t been easy, but it would be totally worth it. Soon.

If she could study.

Still, her mother was clearly not going to let this go anytime soon. She leaned back in her chair and peeled the paper off the muffin. “Okay, what do you want to know?”

Katie took a slow bite and focused on the delicious taste filling her mouth as she waited for her mom to grill her. It wasn’t until she’d chewed, swallowed, and moved for another bite that she realized her mother hadn’t said anything yet. She put the muffin down slowly and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and turned to see her mom, her head dropped to her chest, silently crying.

Shit.

Katie abandoned her muffin, pushed back the old wooden chair with a scrape along the linoleum, and went to stand in front of her mother. Her hands danced around, unsure whether she should hug her or not. Finally she settled for putting her hand on her mother’s arm. “Mom? What is it?”

“You’re getting married.” She still wouldn’t look up, so she fortunately missed the wince that Katie was sure she hadn’t been able to hide. “And I didn’t know.”

“Yes you did,” Katie said quickly. “You did know, Mom. I told you.”

Debbie shook her head and finally looked up, her eyes full of tears. “But I didn’t know you were in love. I mean…I guess I always kind of knew. You and Damon were just…”

What. The. Hell.

Katie shook her head. “We were what?”

A small smile crossed her mother’s pretty face. “You two were always inseparable and there was just something about you when you were together.”

“We were best friends,” Katie insisted. “We were only ever best friends. Really. I had…” She trailed off, unsure as to why she was defending their relationship when her mother was basically saying exactly what she wanted her to.

Still, it felt weird.

Veryweird.

Her mom shrugged. “I know you said that, but it always kind of seemed like more.”

The idea was boggling to her, but Katie made the decision not to push her mom on the issue. Instead, she played along. “Well, maybe it always was.”

That made her mom smile again, but only for a moment before she burst into tears again.

Katie had known that her family wouldn’t just blissfully accept her engagement announcement without any pushback, but she hadn’t been expecting so much emotion from her mother. Not really. Debbie Langdon had never been much of a crier. Katie could only remember a handful of times when she’d actually even seen her mother cry, and it was almost always when someone died. Not when someone got married.

She wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact that her engagement brought out the same type of emotions in her mother that death did. Fake or not.

Katie waited a beat and contemplated going back to the table to finish her muffin, but in the end, she took a deep breath and asked, “So why are you crying? This is supposed to be a good thing.” Whether it was or not, she didn’t need to go there. Not yet. She already felt terrible about lying to her family; the truth was not going to be easy to tell when it was time. She could only hope that they understood that she would do anything for her best friend, including agreeing to a fake engagement.

“It is a good thing,” Debbie said after a moment. She looked up and smiled as she wiped her cheeks. “My baby is getting married. Married! And that is a very good thing. There’s so much to do and plan and prepare.”

And just like that, the tears were dried up and Katie’s mother was in full-on planning mode. She moved quickly through the kitchen to fetch her ever-present notepad that hung with a magnet on the fridge and a pen. She pulled out her chair, sat, and immediately started scribbling things down while Katie looked on in awe.

“You’ll need a dress, and we’ll talk to Faith about the food. Maybe we can get Brody Morris at Birchwood to cater. His food is so good.” She looked up for a moment before once more bending her head to her task. “How many people are you thinking? Maybe keep it small, like fifty or sixty people? I’m not sure what Damon’s list will look like but that’s probably a reasonable number.” She thought about it for a moment before nodding to herself. “Yes, very reasonable.”

Nothing about what she was saying sounded reasonable at all but Katie did her best to try not to look too panicked. “I hadn’t really thought much about it yet, Mom. I mean, it’s weeks away, right? And I still need to write this exam.”

“Weeks? Weeks! Exactly. It’s only weeks away, Katie. Do you know how fast that will pass?” She snapped her fingers. “Like that. We really need to nail down some details.”

Katie moved quietly to her stack of books. What she really needed to do was nail down the concepts surrounding standard deviation for her exam. “Maybe you could go through some of this with Faith, Mom? I’m really not too fussed with the details. And I really don’t want anyone to go to any trouble. Can we please just keep this small?”

Debbie smiled. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I just got excited.”

“It’s okay. But really, I do want to keep things simple, if it’s all the same to you?”

“Whatever you want, Katie. It’s your day. But I will be talking to Faith about a bridal shower.”

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