Til We Meet Again (18 page)

“Ah, good morning,” Pierre said with his wonderfully French accent that always made Katie giggle.

“Good morning Pierre,” Katie replied.  “Dare I inform you that it’s now afternoon?”

Pierre smiled at her and looked at his watch.  “You are right my dear, but I always do my best work in the mornings so morning it remains.”

Katie giggled again and sat down in his chair. 

She got lost in her own thoughts as Pierre set about working with her hair.  It reminded her of when she was a little girl and her mother used to spend hours playing with her hair, braiding it, twisting it, and putting it in ringlets.  It had always felt so good. Then she thought of Dean running his fingers through her hair when they made love and how different that felt.  She thought of Grace and how long her hair had been and wondered if her mother had ever taken the time to play with it all.

“Fin,” Pierre said.  “It is absolutely my best work.”

“You’re done?” Katie asked.

Pierre pretended to pout.

“I’m sorry, Pierre,” Katie said.  “I was lost in my own little world there.”

“I noticed and that is okay my dear. It’s your wedding day,” he told her.  “So what do you think?” he asked pointing at the mirror.

She looked at her reflection and hardly recognized herself.  He had piled her hair high on her head and pinned down as many curls as he could.  He had left several tendrils to frame her face and had carefully curled them into ringlets.  There were even a few fine sprays of hair that she could see at the back.  “It’s beautiful Pierre,” she said quietly.

“Last touch is the headpiece,” he said as he carefully picked up the antique tiara and held it over her head for a moment before he placed it perfectly around the pile of curls.  “Ah, it is beautiful.  You are a true princess,” he told her.

Katie smiled at her appearance.  She agreed that she looked like a princess and she would be walking down the aisle to meet her prince in a very short time.  She now knew how Cinderella had felt on the night of the ball.

“Oooo,” came a squeal from behind Katie causing both her and Pierre to turn around.

It was Beth who had come up behind the two of them to admire Pierre’s handiwork.  “It’s so beautiful,” she said.  “Stephanie, mom, come see,” she called to the others.

Katie cringed and was grateful to look around and see her mother sitting under a hair dryer completely oblivious to what was going on.  She smiled as Stephanie came over, her hair pulled into a French twist, the same as Beth’s.

“Wow,” Stephanie said.

“I could say the same for the two of you,” Katie replied.

Katie couldn’t thank Pierre enough for the fabulous job he did and thanked him profusely even while his make-up artist worked on her face.

“It is really no problem, you are the most beautiful bride I’ve had the opportunity to work with, I should be thanking you,” he said.

Katie smiled and let the artist continue with her work.

Her mother came out at last with her hair nicely done as well.  She stopped in her tracks when she saw her daughter sitting at the table.

“You look so wonderful,” she said.

“Thanks mom, so do you.”

They waited patiently for Katie to finish getting her makeup done so they could all return to the house together to get ready for the ceremony.  Beth, Stephanie and Maggie were doing their own makeup but thought it would be nice for Katie to have hers done professionally for the day.

As they drove through the quiet town, Katie looked out the window and was thankful she had been brought here.  It felt as though she had been brought by a higher power and even though she hadn’t thought of it much before she moved here, she certainly believed in all of that ‘fate’ stuff now.  It was too hard to believe that it was only a stroke of luck, or several in a row, that had led her here, to the job at the library, to Dean and to their relationship.  It was also a higher power that had brought Grace and her story alive for Katie.

“What are you thinking about?” her mother asked.

“How lucky I am,” Katie said trying hard not to cry. 

“How do you figure you’re lucky?” her mother asked, slightly sarcastic.

“Well, I moved here, got a great job, met a great guy,” Katie replied.

“Oh, I see,” her mother said.

Katie had to take a deep breath and hold it to keep the tears from streaming down her cheeks.  Stephanie looked at Katie and gave her a reassuring smile as Beth pulled the car into Katie’s driveway. 

Before the car had stopped completely, Katie burst out of the car and took off for the front door.  It was as she was closing the door that she heard her mother ask the girls what her problem was.

She let herself into the house and went straight upstairs to her bedroom where she locked the door and threw herself onto the bed.  The tears finally streamed down her cheeks and she didn’t care about her make-up.  She finally calmed down enough to pick up the phone and she dialed Dean’s cell number.

“Hello beautiful,” he answered recognizing the number on his cell.

“Hi,” Katie said and sniffed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked knowing instantly something was wrong.

“My mother, she just, I don’t even know, she just made a remark before when I was saying how lucky I feel.  I guess she doesn’t agree,” Katie told him and sniffed again.  “And now I’ve just ruined my makeup,” she said.

“I don’t care about your makeup,” Dean replied.  “You’re going to look terrific anyway.”

Katie smiled in spite of everything and they talked for a few minutes longer about the wedding, Dean doing his best to distract her. 

“You’re not dressed yet are you?” Dean asked.

“No, we just got back from the hairdresser’s and my mom got bitchy in the car and I just came straight into the bedroom.  I haven’t spoken to any of them yet,” she told him.

“Well, you better go get dressed because I can’t wait to marry you,” Dean told her.  “Oh, and all I can say is to ignore your mother,” he added.

“I’m going to try,” she said.  “I can’t wait to marry you either.”

“I also can’t wait for our baby,” he said.

“Me either.  I love you.”

“I love you too, see you soon.”

They said goodbye and hung up.

It was as if someone knew she had hung up because just as she set the phone back down in its cradle, there was a soft knock on the door.  She crossed the room and unlocked the door. “Come in,” Katie called.  She went back and sat on the bed.  She knew it was probably Beth or Stephanie to check on her and fix her makeup and was surprised when her mother walked through the door instead.  “Oh hi,” she said a little more unkindly than she wanted.

“Sweetie, I’m sorry.  I don’t know what’s gotten into me.  I just miss you back at home and wish you were around more.  You’re my first born daughter, we were friends and then your grandmother died and you were going through a rough patch and you wanted to move here to start over and I agreed 100% that it was the best option for you so I don’t know why I said what I did.  I have hoped for many wonderful things for you for so long and when I met Dean I really did think he was fabulous.  He’s better than anybody else you have ever dated.  I love you and I know that you’re happy and I know that Dean makes you happy and that’s all I’ve ever wanted for any of my kids.  Maybe you’ll someday be able to move back into the city and we’ll be able to visit more again,” her mother said.

Katie had more tears streaming down her cheeks.  “Thanks mom.  And I know you’ve been going through a tough time too.  You could have called me and talked to me.  You could have even called me at work, I sort of have this ‘in’ with my boss,” she said.

Maggie laughed.  “I guess you do don’t you?” she replied.  “And you always find some way to make others laugh.”

Katie looked at the clock on the bedside table.  “I guess I should get dressed now,” she said.

Maggie turned and looked at the clock too.  “Oh my, yes, we need Beth and Stephanie in here to fix your makeup first,” she said.  She got up and went to the door and hollered for the other two to come quickly.

They almost crashed into one another in the doorway as they had come from two different ends of the hallway.  They stood there for a moment unsure of what to expect. 

“What is it?” Beth asked.

“What’s wrong?” Stephanie added.

“She needs her makeup fixed right now and then she needs to get into that absolutely gorgeous gown so we can get her to the church on time,” Maggie said.

“We’re on it,” Beth and Stephanie said and saluted on their way to the bathroom to see what they could find to repair the damage that Katie’s tears had done.

It was a half hour later when they had salvaged Katie’s face and she was standing in the living room with her gown on waiting for Bryan to arrive to take some pictures.  It was huge and she suddenly wondered how she was going to get into the car.  They had only hired a limo to take them from the church to the reception as they’d wanted to save as much money as they could.  They didn’t figure they needed to go to the expense when they weren’t going very far.

Bryan arrived on schedule and in a matter of twenty minutes had taken at least five rolls of film just of Katie alone before he shot as many rolls of the rest of them.

“What are you doing?” Katie asked as she heard almost continuous clicking from the shutter.

“Taking all the pictures I can of a very beautiful, and photogenic, bride,” Bryan replied.

“Well thank you.  We really need to get going though,” Katie told him.

They headed outside to the cars where everyone worked to pack Katie’s gown inside.

“See ya there,” Bryan said and almost ran to his own car. 

They managed to get Katie and her gown into the SUV and Beth drove down the road towards the church.

Katie again looked out the window and noticed people staring at her when they realized that she was a bride on her way to her wedding.  Some even pointed and she smiled and waved feeling suddenly like a real princess.

They arrived at the church and Beth pulled up out front.  Katie saw Dean’s car in the first spot of the parking lot and smiled knowing he was inside waiting for her and smiled.

“Here we are, you ready?” Beth asked as she parked the car and everyone but Katie clambered out.

Katie nodded, not that anyone noticed, and waited for her rescue brigade to help her out of the car. 

With everyone’s assistance, Katie made it out of the car and they walked up the few short steps to the front doors. 

“Last chance to run,” Stephanie teased as she reached for the brass door handle and pulled.

“Would you?” Katie asked her sister-in-law.

“Not in a million years,” Stephanie replied.

They got Katie and her gown through the door and found a box of flowers sitting on the table.  Stephanie gushed over them first before she began handing them out. 

“First the bouquet for the bride,” she said as she held out the Christmas bouquet in deep reds, greens and whites.

Katie pulled them to her face and inhaled.

Stephanie handed one of the other two bouquets to Beth before she pulled out the wrist corsage and held it for Maggie to slip her hand through. 

“We’re ready for the mother of the bride,” Steven said startling all of them.

“Don’t do that to me, bro,” Katie said playfully swatting her brother.  “My nerves are on edge enough.”

“Sorry sis, and wow, do you look hot,” he told her.

“Thanks!  You look pretty good yourself,” she told him.  She reached up and pretended to straighten his already perfect bowtie. 

“Leave it alone.  It took me hours to get it right,” he said swatting her hand away.

“You did not, it’s a clip-on,” she retorted.

He grinned sheepishly and held his arm out to his mother and led her away from them all. 

Katie knew as soon as her mother was seated it would be time for them to walk down the aisle.  It was then that she looked up and saw her father who gasped.

“Daddy,” she said and let him pull her into his arms for a hug.

“You look like a princess, Princess,” he said.

They both laughed.

“Thank you daddy,” she said to him.  “I feel like a princess too.”

“Are you ready?” he asked.

She nodded.  “More ready than my nerves,” she told him.

“That’s just nerves, they do go away,” he promised and held his arm out for her.

Beth and Stephanie gave her a squeeze and stepped to the back of the church for their procession.

Katie’s father let go of her long enough to pull her train out for her.  He stepped next to her again and held out his arm for her once more.  As the music changed, they stepped out and Katie couldn’t help but smile suddenly.  She took her first step towards her future.

Part way down the aisle, she could see Dean and smiled even bigger at him as he smiled at her.

When they reached the front of the church, Bruce slid her hand into Dean’s and gave a nod to them both before he sat down next to Maggie.