Til We Meet Again (15 page)

“I’m just trying to help,” her mother answered sheepishly.

They ate in silence for a few minutes and Katie passed Tom a grateful look and smiled a little when he winked at her.

When they were all getting ready to leave later on, Tom gave his sister an extra big squeeze.

“Thanks for the rescue,” Katie whispered.

“No problem, I could see where that was going.  You take care of yourself and that baby,” he whispered back.

They shared a smile before she was pulled into Steve’s arms for a huge hug.  He whispered the same thing before he let her go.

The others all shared hugs and said goodbye.  Katie felt tears in her eyes as her brothers left with their wives and she was left with her parents who would be staying another night and leaving for home in the morning. 

Her mother retreated to the kitchen and started to clean up and Dean pulled Katie upstairs to their bedroom and shut the door.  “Are you okay?” he asked turning to her.

Katie only nodded as tears streamed down her cheeks and Dean pulled her into his arms.  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I’m so tired.  I should never have agreed to this, this was awful.  I was practically falling asleep at the table and my mother…” she trailed off.

“You’re mother
is
being a bit of a nuisance,” Dean finished.  I didn’t think she was like that.”

“She isn’t.  She’s apparently going through a lot of stuff at work and isn’t too happy about it but she won’t talk to me about it because she doesn’t think I can handle it,” she told him.

“Well, you’re not exactly telling her everything either are you?” Dean reminded her.

“No, but I thought I had a better reason not to,” she told him.  “I was told not to tell her because of what she’s got on her plate already.  I wanted this thanksgiving to be nice, not filled with fights and putdowns.”

“Well, you managed to succeed, mostly,” Dean said trying to make her feel a little better.

Katie kept crying and Dean pulled away.  “You stay here, I’ll go help clean up in the kitchen and just tell your mom that you are in the bathroom with some stomach cramps or something like that,” he said.

“She’ll actually believe that,” Katie told him.

Dean left the room and went to the kitchen leaving Katie staring at the door as he closed it behind him.  She went and sat on the bed and wondered why she was so upset.

Chapter 14

“Bye, thanks for coming,” Katie called to her parents as they were pulling out of the driveway.  Katie had smoothed a few things over with her mother when she had finally gone to the kitchen to help clean up after she’d pulled herself together.  Her mother had finally confided that it was almost a done deal that she would soon be leaving her job.

“Mom, it’s okay.  You and dad don’t need the money now, enjoy yourself, find a hobby,” Katie had told her.

Her mother had laughed at her and together they made a list of hobbies she could take up that she would enjoy.

“So what should we do now?” Dean asked.  “We have this whole entire day to enjoy all to ourselves.”

“I have an idea,” Katie said as she wrapped her arms around her and reached up to kiss him.

“Mmm, I was thinking the same thing,” he murmured as his lips left hers and moved to her ear.

She pulled away so she could unbutton his shirt and slid her hands inside.

“I say we should go to the bedroom and pick up there,” Dean suggested.

Katie nodded and followed him to the bedroom where they undressed each other slowly as if unwrapping a precious gift.

“It’s been a whole weekend that we had to be so careful,” Katie whispered as Dean led her to the bed.

“I know, it’s been far too long,” Dean said as he stretched out beside her and began making love to her. 

They cuddled under the blankets afterwards.  “We could stay here all day,” Katie said after a few minutes.

“Yes, we could, there’s nothing else to do,” Dean replied kissing her shoulder.

“At least it’s warm,” Katie said.

“Oh, it is definitely warm,” Dean said as his hand slid over her stomach.

“I like warm,” Katie said quietly as Dean’s hand rested on her thigh.

“So do I,” Dean whispered.  “I love warm.” 

“So how did the wedding gown fit?” Dean asked after they had snuggled together.

“It fits perfectly.  It’s so beautiful Dean,” she told him.

“I know it is,” he replied.  “I really wanted to see you in it,” he said.  “Well, no, I really wanted to help get you out of it,” he corrected himself.

Katie laughed.  “Soon enough you’ll be getting me out of it,” she told him.

“I know.  How long until the wedding?” he asked her.

“What, you can’t remember?” she teased.

“Nope, maybe I don’t remember asking you either,” he teased back.

“Is that so?”

Dean got out of bed, went to her side and knelt down.  “Marry me,” he said.

“I’m not sure I want to if I will have to keep reminding you who I am,” she replied.

They laughed together.

“But then think of all the jewelry I’d have,” Katie said as an afterthought.

“Okay, I give up, I remember, never mind,” he said suddenly.

Katie laughed.  “Don’t want to have to pick out another ring?” she questioned.

“No, don’t have the money to,” he answered.

“I love you so much and I can’t wait to marry you,” Katie said getting serious.

“I love you that much too and I can’t wait to be the one to get you out of that gown in a couple of months,” he said.

They made love again and decided to spend some time working on the wedding plans since it would be the only day they had off together.

They finalized the guest list before they moved on to working out the seating arrangement since it was about all they could do since it was a holiday.  They couldn’t go anywhere to shop as everything was closed.

“I think we made pretty good progress.  This is probably the hardest hardest thing we had to do,” Katie said sitting back.

Dean nodded.  “Now what else do we need?” he asked.

“I think some flowers need to be ordered, as well as a photographer needs to be hired.”

“I know a great guy who takes the best pictures, lived here forever,” Dean said.

“Okay,” Katie said slowly at Dean’s sudden burst of energy.

“I’ll call him right now,” Dean told her reaching for the phone.

Katie stared at him and listened to their conversation while they seemed to spend more time cutting each other up than anything else.  She smiled as he hung up the phone.

“He’s coming over right now to prove to you how great he is,” Dean told her.

Katie looked at him.  “You’re kidding right?” she asked.

“Nope, why?”

“I haven’t showered, or anything like that,” she told him.

“Well he’s not going to be here in five minutes, he lives on the other side of the river, why don’t you go have one right now,” he suggested.

She nodded and went upstairs to shower and dress a little more appropriately than her grubby sweat pants.

She was just walking back down the stairs when the doorbell rang and Dean let in a whirlwind of energy. 

“Hey my friend, how are ya?” Bryan asked pulling Dean to him for a hug.

“I’m good man, how are you?” Dean asked as he slapped Bryan on the back.

“I’m keeping busy my friend, keeping busy.  So you decided to get hitched did ya?” he said as he looked at Katie standing on the stairs.

“Yeah, this is my fiancée Katie,” Dean said introducing her.

Katie stepped off the last step and stepped forward with her hand extended but was pulled into Bryan’s monstrous arms and hugged tightly.

When he released her he stepped back.  “Great catch, man,” he said.

“Thanks, I think,” Katie said.

“Lighten up Katie, I knew your grandma, used to take her picture,” Bryan told her.

Katie was shocked.  “She never mentioned you,” she said.

“Probably not, not something she knew about,” he said.

“Why?” Katie asked.

“I enjoyed taking her picture from afar as she worked in the garden,” he replied.

Katie didn’t know what to say and was grateful that Dean invited Bryan to sit down in the living room.

Bryan pulled his portfolio along with him and set it on the coffee table.  He began rooting through the stacks of photos and Katie couldn’t help thinking of how disorganized he was.  Then she saw one of the most beautiful photos she had ever seen and reached for it. 

“This is beautiful,” Katie said looking at it closely.

“Thank you,” Bryan said.  “And that could be you and Dean here.  Aha, here we are.”  He spread a number of photos around the table and waved his hand above them.  “There you are, this is what I do.”

Katie and Dean looked at what he had spread out before them.  Dean didn’t take near as long since he had seen Bryan’s work on many occasions before. 

Katie, however, was in awe.  She had seen pictures of friends’ weddings before and none had been like these were.

“So what do you think?” Dean asked. 

“I think they’re wonderful,” Katie replied.

“So can we hire him?”

Katie set down the prints and nodded.  “I can’t wait to see ours,” she said.

Dean smiled and Bryan leaped off the couch and began hugging them all over again. 

It wasn’t long before he left and Katie was excited that they had actually been able to hire a photographer despite it being a holiday.  She ran to get her planner and crossed it off her to-do list.  “This is amazing.”

“Yes it is,” Dean replied.

They took a walk after that and went to the nearby park.  The traffic was getting heavier as people passed through on their way home from spending the long weekend away.  When they arrived back home, Katie was tired and she stretched out on the couch for a minute. 

“I’ll go make us some dinner,” Dean said heading for the kitchen.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Katie replied, yawning.

“You stay there as long as you need to,” Dean told her.  She looked tired and he hoped she would have a little nap.

“I won’t be long,” she told him again.

“Hey sleepyhead, it’s dinner time,” Dean was whispering.  He kissed her gently on the lips and she began to stir.  “You weren’t going to sleep eh?” he asked.

Katie smiled.  “I wasn’t sleeping, I was resting my eyes,” she said.

“Sure you were, I believe you,” he teased.

He helped her up and led her to the kitchen where they sat down to eat.

“So, have you heard from Grace lately?” Dean asked.

“Nope, I haven’t seen her at all, you were the last one,” Katie said reminding him of his little visit with Grace the night her parents had arrived.

They ate quietly for a few minutes and Dean poured them both some fruit juice.  He had eliminated of wine completely since it wasn’t fair to be able to drink it when Katie couldn’t. 

They curled up and watched a movie after they had cleaned up after supper and Dean had built a fire.  It was nice and cozy and Katie found herself craving Dean’s touch.  She could hardly wait until the movie was over and when the credits started to roll she practically jumped off the couch.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?” Dean asked.

“I really have to pee,” she told him.

Dean smiled at her as she turned and left the room.  He stayed behind to turn off the lights and make sure the fire went out safely.

Katie went to the bedroom first and found something she had been dying to show off.  She slid into the bathroom and quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth after she changed and she was just leaving the bathroom to go to the bedroom when Dean came up the stairs and headed towards the bedroom.  She smiled when he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed.

Katie smiled.

“Where did you get that?” he asked.

“Don’t you like it?” she asked.

“I love it,” he told her.  “You look beautiful.”