Page 11 of His Christmas Star
“People?”
“A psychologist or someone who understands the deeper situations a lot of our students will be dealing with but may not want to talk about in therapy. Having someone here they can talk to during their sessions could be as beneficial as the horse.”
“That is an excellent idea. I know many of our students will be referred by mental health providers. Would you like me to look into if there are any grants available to help cover the new therapist’s salary?”
He tipped his head. “Is that a thing?”
“Absolutely,” I promised. “I mean, I don’t know if there are any available, but it’s worth checking out. It may require us to take injured veterans as a certain percentage of our students, but we planned to do that anyway. I might even be able to find someone in the community with the time and the talent for the position.”
“Yes, that would be great!” he exclaimed, standing up straighter. “The more we can involve Wellspring in the school, the better off we’ll be. Speaking of community, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure, ask away.”
“Yesterday, you had a meeting about the Christmas dance?”
“We did, but Cece was there, too,” I said with confusion.
“I know. She mentioned your suggestion that we get married at the Christmas dance.”
I held up my hand to stop him. “It was a bad idea. I was just trying to throw the attention off me, and I tossed Cece under the bus in the process. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I was going to say it was a great idea.”
I whipped around to face him. “What?”
“We couldn’t ask for a better time and place to do it. Everyone is there, the barn is dressed up in its finest, there’s a horse and sleigh ready to take us to the ceremony, and there’s a reception of food already built-in.”
“You’re serious, right?” I asked, just in case he was pulling my leg and I wasn’t picking up on his sarcasm.
“Dead serious. It’s been hard to find time to plan a wedding around here, and that’s not going to improve any time soon. Sure, we could just get married without making a big deal about it, but I’d like to give Cece a night to remember. I think getting married at a Christmas dance would be a wonderful way to start our life together.”
“Cece said she doesn’t even have a dress. She was leaning more toward spring.”
“She’s leaning more toward a time when we aren’t stretched thin, but that might not happen for two years. I want to be Poppy Rose’s dad sooner rather than later.”
“You already are. A piece of paper won’t change that, Caleb.”
He made the so-so motion with his hand. “Emotionally and day-to-day, you’re right, it won’t. Legally, it will. If something were to happen to Cece, I would have no rights to Poppy Rose. She would go into the system, and there would be no guarantee I’d get to keep her, even if Cece requested that in her will. If I’m her adoptive father, then I’ll never have to worry.”
“Oh,” I said with understanding. “Now I get what you’re saying. What was the question you wanted to ask me?”
He shifted off his right leg and leaned more on the gate. He was getting tired and I needed to wrap this up. He had his disease under control, but it was easy to see when he’d done too much and needed to rest.
“I wanted to know if we could pull it together in less than a month.”
“The amount of information I know about planning a wedding would fit in Poppy Rose’s pinkie finger,” I said as he laughed. “But, I don’t think it would be hard as long as you didn’t want anything too extravagant. Since Cece and Amity are doing the food for the event, Cece could easily plan the menu and the cake. I’ll be driving the sleigh, so if a grand entrance is what you want, I’m happy to provide that, along with a private sleigh ride for pictures after the ceremony. Beau will already be at the dance, and I’m sure if you asked, he’d be thrilled to marry you. As for a dress, that shouldn’t be hard to come by as long as she doesn’t want something handmade.”
He shook his head. “You know Cece. She’d get married in jeans and a flannel shirt if I let her.”
I pointed at him and grinned. “Totally what I was picturing if I’m honest.”
“Maybe I should run it past Dawn and Heaven tonight at the meeting.”
I held my finger up again. “Maybe you should run it past Cece? If it were me, I’d want a say in it before anyone else.”
His sheepish grin told me that he had forgotten himself for a moment. “Of course. I need to talk to Cece. I just wanted to get a woman’s point of view to know whether it was worth bringing to her as a real option. If we couldn’t get it together in time, there would be no point asking her. Thanks, Tobi. I’m going to go find her now.”
“No problem. Let me know what Cece says, but so help me God if they pull me in for an emergency planning meeting, I’m making you do morning chores.”
