Page 31 of Winter's Kiss

“Knock, knock.” I turned to the sound of my mother as she walked into the room in a slow movement. She smiled, truly smiled when I turned around and she saw me for the first time in my wedding dress. “You look beautiful.” She whispered.

“It’s nothing special,” I said with a short laugh, tears built in the corner of my eyes.

I had decided on a simple white dress with off-the-shoulder sleeves. It was off the rack, and that was okay with me. I didn’t need a fancy five-hundred-dollar dress.

“No, you look breathtaking.” She added. “Natasha, I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry.” She continued with a slow stride toward me.

“Sorry for what?”

“For never giving you the space you needed to spread your wings. To experience life the way it was meant to be. I’m sorry we brought Andrew in a poor attempt at bringing you home. For not giving you the respect you deserve in picking your path. It’s just that we love you so much and wanted to protect you as much as we could from pain, from the pain of losing someone you love.” I smiled at my mother’s tearful apology; my hands gripped hers.

“I understand. You don’t need to be sorry. I think in a way, if you wouldn’t have protected me the way you had, I would have never met Rowland and I wouldn’t be marrying the man I love today.” She smiled at my words.

“Your father wasn’t my first love. It was a young man who worked at our house in the summer. I loved and adored him to the moon and back.” Confusion filled my features with her confession. “He was everything my parents hated, which made me love him more.”

“What happened?” My mother sniffled while she ran a tissue under her watery eyes.

“Your grandparents.” She sighed.

“He was a man of low income and back in those days, classes did not mix. They allowed me to have my fling, my short-lived romance. Yet, when I returned to school, he stopped communicating with me. I had found out after your grandfather’s death that he had paid the man to leave my life, an offer he accepted.”

“Mom, I… I’m so sorry.” She smiled with my sympathy and shook her head.

“I was devasted, but I met your father through my parents. He was the son of a fellow business partner with your grandfather. We fell in love and the rest is history.” She smiled after her story.

“I understand.” She nodded her head, pleased I finally knew why she had controlled so much of my life. I couldn’t say I agreed with her actions, but after knowing why she did what she did my entire life, I understood.

“I love you, my sweet baby girl.” I wrapped my arms around my mother.

“I love you, mom.” It was the first time in my life we had embraced true love behind the act. The first time we shared a moment that wasn’t covered with sarcastic words or hidden meaning.

“Hey,” the door opened as Laurel poked her head inside the room, “you ready, bitch?” Our mother scoffed with a turn in her eldest daughter’s direction.

“That any way to talk to your sister on her wedding day?” Laurel laughed with a shrug of her shoulders.

“I think the better question is asking your daughter how she could wear white on her wedding day when her future husband has…”

“LAUREL!” I screamed. Our mother rolled her eyes and turned to move from the room, and my sister laughed.

“Come on, girls. Let’s get this one married.” The clink of my mother’s heels against the wooden floor as she walked from the room was loud with her quick steps. “I heard on the news this morning there was a snowstorm coming in.” Laurel winked with a turn as she followed our mother down the stairs, while I looked at myself once more in the mirror. With a slow exhale, I smiled at myself.

“It’s time.”

Heaters had been brought into the barn for the ceremony, as well as tents that lined the walking path from the house. The weather had called to be nice, not as chilly as the days before, yet as typical Muddy Waters weather, everything shifted an hour before the ceremony. Clouds rolled in, the wind picked up, and as the threat of snow neared, I made my way to the back door of the house.

Everything had been set up perfectly, and regardless of the quickness of the wedding, it was everything of which I had ever dreamed. Lights strung along the tent roof; a light blue runner staked down that led to the double-opened barn doors.

My sister and mother walked before me; my father stood beside me with a wide grin on his face.

“You look beautiful.” I smiled at my father’s words and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

“I love you, daddy.”

“I love you, sweetheart.” Just then the music changed, and my eyes closed as I knew it was time, time for me to take that final walk toward him. My hand gripped my father’s bicep. I exhaled and with a slow step, we started toward the barn.

As we walked into the bar and everyone stood, I felt as though I would faint. The entire town was there, all there to welcome me as one of their own. The barn looked wonderful, white lights strung throughout the ceiling, and the runner stretched to the front of the building where an arch stood mixed with vines, pansies, and violas flowers. I took in everything only seconds before my gaze fell on him, waiting for me at the end of the aisle.

There were no words for how magnificent he looked. He stood in dark navy-blue slacks, a matching vest with a long-sleeved white dress shirt, rolled up to mid-forearm. He wore a burgundy tie, his hair slicked back, his beard perfectly shaped along his strong jawline. Everyone else faded into the distance, except him. The nervousness that had filled me only seconds before was gone as our gazes connected.

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