“Wait, Noey,” Gavin called from the center of the shop. “I’m gonna bring you something to try.”
And so he did.
He lifted the dress over the top of the dressing room door, and I hung it in the hook while I got out of the last outfit. I knew before putting it on that it was what I was looking for.
The pale pink, scoop neck dress was classic and perfect. It would look nice in black and white and would work great with my skin tone and dark hair.
“Where was this hiding?” I said through the door.
“Behind some other things,” Gavin said, and I could hear a smile in his voice. “It’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yep, we got it this time,” I said and stepped out so he could see. A little twirl made the skirt pop and he shook his head in approval. “Good work, you!”
“You’re the one wearing it, good work you!”
As I was changing, I heard what I thought was my cell phone rang and I peeked out because my purse was sitting on the couch with Gavin.
“It’s probably—” I cut myself off to find Gavin on his cell phone.
All I heard was him say, “I understand,” to whoever was on the phone and then he hung up.
“Everything okay?” I asked through the dressing room door again.
“Yup...yep...everything’s fine,” he said, not convincing me.
“Think I need a necklace?” I asked, coming out of the dressing room with the winning dress to go pay for it.
"Nope, not with that neckline," he said and smirked. I could tell something was definitely wrong, but I wanted to wait until we got to the car to pry.
Chapter Nineteen
“Sight for sore eyes,” Nik said as he came into the guest bedroom where I had made camp. The Eastwood Estate was an old mansion and all the bedrooms came furnished with huge beds and claw foot bathtubs right in the rooms. I had plans for that bathtub before the night was over.
“You’re the one who is a sight for sore eyes!” I got up and sprinted toward him causing him to drop his bags and catch me in midair. My legs wrapped around this man that I loved, and I never wanted to let him go.
“Hello to you too,” he whispered in my ear.
“I think I missed you.”
"I think I missed you more," I said, still wrapped around him. "Gavin is going to want to get this photoshoot going before the sun goes down, but I thought you might want to take a quick bath?"
“A bath?” he asked like I suddenly grew two heads. “Bath later, quick shower now.”
“Boo…”
"I want to savor you later when there is more time," he said. It wasn't like him to blow off an invitation like that. "But you could join me in the shower?"
There we go.
It had been too long since we had been together. And I was doing everything in my power not to think about Grands. Nope, no siree, she wasn’t going to ruin this.
I started unbuttoning his shirt as he carried me over to the bed. He slid my jeans down my legs and pulled them off completely.
“Wait here,” he whispered. “I’ll start the shower.”
Nik came back from the actual bathroom inside the bedroom where there was a stand-up shower, sink, and toilet. The clawfoot bathtub sat in the room overlooking a large window and the open garden. He closed the shades before coming back to undress me further.
“I like seeing you shirtless, Mr. Eastwood,” I said with a smirk.
“I like seeing you shirtless too,” he replied with a big grin. I slid my top over my head, and he pulled my lacy panties down my legs leaving me laying on the bed in just a bra. “That’s not shirtless…we need to remedy this bra business.”
He reached behind me as he had done so many times before and unclasped my bra.
“Pants,” I whispered in his ear as his face was so close to my chest. “You need to lose yours.”
The belt came off first and the pants and everything else on the lower half of Nik hit the floor. He scooped me up in his arms again and kissed me silly. The shower water was warm, and I could feel the steam as he carried me into the bathroom.
“Wait, wait…” I said and he sat my bare behind on the edge of the sink. The shriek from the shocking cold made me grip my legs even tighter and Nik let out a laugh, pulling me even tighter to him.
“Wait, what?” he said with another chuckle.
"I need a scrunchie! I don't have time to redo my hair!" Again with the laughter, it was kind of funny, in hindsight. He left me on the cold counter to go get a scrunchie before anything further. "You do get me, don't you?"
"I do," he said and messily tried putting my hair up on my head. With a few twists, the messy knot was perfect, and I was wrapped around Nik’s waist again. “I don’t like being away from you, you know that?”
“I don’t like being away from you either,” I whispered as the water washed down over my back. Nik leaned me against the shower wall, which thankfully was not as cold as the sink, and eased into me. I tried to remember the walls in the old mansion weren’t made as thick when The Estate was built. Nik’s kisses covered my soft moans. As we rocked back and forth in the old shower, the water running down our bodies, I was able to forget all the stress of the summer and just be with him. I thought about our future and how pretty soon, it would be Nik and Noey against the world...
Chapter Twenty
“Huh, that’s weird,” Nik said as he was drying off. “I missed a call from Teagan.”
I could tell he tried calling her back, and she didn’t answer.
“She didn’t leave a voicemail?” I asked.
“Nope, must not have been important,” he said.
"Or maybe she butt-dialed you." I chuckled, which made him chuckle.
We changed into our photoshoot clothes and met Gavin outside The Estate. He was already out taking pictures of the flower bushes and nature that surrounded the house. He smiled when he saw me, but I could immediately tell something was still up with him. During the car ride to The Estate, he was quiet as a mouse and would never answer my question as to who called him and why he looked like a ghost.
“You look fresh and summery,” Gavin said as I approached, my hand firmly holding Nik’s as if I was afraid he’d leave me. “Mr. Eastwood, I presume?”
“You must be Gavin...please call me Nik,” he said.
“Nice to finally put a face with a name; Noey has told me all about you,” Gavin’s small talk didn’t distract me from the way he was looking at us.
“You okay?” I interrupted.
"Yep, you guys ready to take some photos?" I wasn't going to let him get away with ignoring my question. By golly, we would figure out what was up with Gavin, but at this current moment, I had to smile and act lovey-dovey.
There was an old bicycle Gavin found in one of the outbuildings while looking for props and places to take pictures. While we were, err showering, Gavin was preparing for the photoshoot. I made a mental note that I needed to buy him some more candy when we got back out on the road. He had been good to me. So we took photos with flowers and photos with the bike, photos by the bushes and photos on an old bench. It turned out to be a lovely afternoon and from the digital preview on his camera, I could tell we had a few good pictures to choose from to use for the engagement announcement in the newspaper.
Nik’s phone rang as we were looking over Gavin’s shoulder, and he stepped away to answer.
“Well, hey pretty girl,” was all I heard as Nik was walking away. I assumed it was Teagan calling him back.
It was as good of a time as any to see what was up with Gavin.
“You’re being weird, what was that phone call about?” I just flat out asked him.
“Just can’t talk about it right now, Noey…” his voice trailed off, and I could see he had made eye contact with Nik, who was walking up behind me. As I turned I could see he was now white as a ghost.
“Come here, Noey,” he said and walked me over to the bench where we sat down together. “I just got off the pho
ne with Teagan. She had tried to call me earlier, and it sounds like maybe she got ahold of Gail who then called Gavin, hoping he could keep you in Elkton until Teagan’s plane landed.”
“Her plane? Why is she coming here and what in God’s name is wrong with you both? Spit it out, whatever it is!” I demanded.
“Gail didn’t know Nik was coming here when she called me earlier, I was able to fill in those gaps for her, but she didn’t want me to tell you until Nik or Teagan got here…” his voice trailed off.
“So that’s what’s been up with you, something I’m not supposed to know?” I swear smoke was about screech out my ears.
“Sweetie,” Nik grabbed hold of my hands. “Your Grands...she didn't wake up this morning."
“Wait, what? But what is Teagan doing? Hang on, Grands is…” I kept shaking my head back and forth trying to take it all in.
“Teagan is on her way here because she knew you’d need her when you found out. She didn’t know that I would be here and didn’t want you to be alone,” Nik said and put his arm around me.
“But, Grands, she was fine...she was FINE!” I started breathing erratically, and Nik held on to me tighter. All sorts of emotions came flooding down. How disappointed she would be with me? All the things she wanted me to do for the wedding that I just shrugged off and said I’d get to eventually weighed down my shoulders. How could I live up to her white wedding dress expectations? “She just can’t be gone…”
Chapter Twenty-One
The black patent leather Louboutin’s I wore to Grandmother Audrey’s funeral were far from the ones I wore to my mother’s. Nik was able to take the next few days off for bereavement time, and he flew back to San Francisco with me and Teagan. We had a simple service for Grands, and Teagan promised me we’d talk about all the things she and Grands discussed that she wanted for my wedding. I was set on making as many of those things happen as I could possibly stand.
“The biggest thing she wanted to surprise you with was her wedding veil,” Teagan told me as we sat and talked after the burial. Nik kept telling me to eat, but I didn’t want to eat, so he suggested we all walk down to Fisherman’s Wharf, so I could get a frozen cheesecake on a stick, my favorite Bay City treat. He knowing how much I loved those made me love him even more.
“I wish we had more time with her, I have so many questions about our grandfather…” I told my sister. She held tightly to my arm, and Nik held my other hand, I was as safe as could be. “I never imagined she’d have wanted me to wear her veil, I didn’t even think she liked grandpa!”
Nik couldn’t help but laugh at that remark. “Maybe your dad can help fill in some of those details?” he suggested.
Gavin took a couple of days off from our candy tour and drove around the northern USA taking pictures and seeing sights. Gail's assistants were able to once again rearrange our schedule so that we could get everything we wanted to get done on the calendar. I put up a blog post about celebrating my "100 Grands" and that I'd be back at the shop tour soon. Messages of condolences kept pouring in; I finally had to just ignore them and promise myself to return their sentiments once I was back on the road, and Gavin was at the wheel.
I was kind of mad at him that he kept the news from me, but I knew he was doing as Gail said and just making sure I was at The Estate when Teagan arrived. It was sweet of her to come too, not wanting to tell me the news over the phone while I was by myself, or rather with Gavin, who I still barely knew.
The rest of the summer was somber, and I kept to myself. Teagan was home for the summer, so she ended up coming back to join me and Gavin on the last leg of our road trip. It was fun getting in some sister time and she and Gavin hit it off pretty well too. I wondered if there were sparks between them, but I didn’t ask.
“Well it took a lot of digging, but I found your grandmother’s wedding dress and the veil you asked for,” Dad said to me one evening as we were driving to Colorado. “Want me to just bring it with me when I come up to Elkton for the wedding? Will you be home before then?”
“That’ll be great, Dad,” I told him. “I’m going to be pushing it finishing up this tour and may not make it back there before the wedding. It really depends on where we end up.” I knew he was taking Grands’ death harder than any of us. Not only was she his mother, but she became his fill-in when mom died. She took care of us until we were adults, and it wasn’t until Teagan went off to college that Grands had purchased her condo by the bay, and Dad started living on his own again.
Nik and I hadn’t had sex since the day I found out about Grands. The guilt was more than I could stand, and my wedding planning mojo went completely out the window. If it wasn’t Grandmother Audrey’s idea, I left Blaire to make the decisions. She had even been working with Nik to do some honeymoon planning. He had suckered her into helping with the “package”—as she called it. Nik knew how upset I was over losing Grands, and he had sent little things to cheer both me and Teagan up throughout the rest of the trip.
The wedding was looming. I was sad and guilt-ridden, despite everyone’s advice not to be. And I felt so lost...
Chapter Twenty-Two
I was so grief-stricken I had totally forgotten Brooke was about to pop when we left Elkton to go back to San Francisco. Nik was able to go back to work for a few days, then had to fly back to Elkton for the birth. I offered to come but wanted to give them their privacy too.
Nik and Brooke were as close as siblings could get, and she wouldn’t have been able to handle him not being there. I loved their love for one another. It was around the time we got together that he and Brooke started rebuilding their relationship with their parents, and Brooke settling down in Elkton helped strengthen that reunion.
“The baby is fine and Brooke is doing great,” Nik said, sounding ecstatic over the phone.
"Please give everyone my love and tell them I'll see them soon!" I thought about all the happiness that would surround me when we got back to Elkton for the wedding.
"Uh, Gavin?" I said realizing I had majorly forgotten something. “Would you mind driving for a little so Teagan and I can sit in the back and talk wedding details? I just realized she needs a bridesmaid dress…”
What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking, that was the problem.
“First I gotta call Nik,” I said and did just that.
“Hi honey,” he said when he answered. “What’s up?”
“Tuxes. Did you get tuxes?” He laughed.
“Yes, first thing this summer I got fitted and so did Gus, Tricky, and Gage. It’s all taken care of,” he said.
“And they’re gonna be ready to pick up, right? They didn’t just measure you, you actually ordered the tuxes right?” After clarifying everything I didn’t tell him about my mess up, I just hung up the phone and called Lydia.
“Lydia. Oh my gosh, you’re never going to believe what I forgot,” I told her. And then I thought about Brooke just having the baby and whether or not she’d even want to be a bridesmaid. Lydia reassured me she would and just said she figured the guys were going to be ushers, and I didn't need any more bridesmaids. If only she knew how much I needed them at that moment.
“We are going to go to a bridal shop as soon as we can find one,” I explained to Lydia and Gavin and Teagan nodded their heads in agreement as I continued to talk. “And I’m gonna pick a color scheme, okay? And I’ll send that to you if you could work on getting dresses for you and Brooke?”
Lydia was on board.
I told Blaire about the colors I had in mind when we first started talking wedding planning, but it was more of a color family than anything, and she and I never really talked anymore about the bridesmaid dresses after that. I think she must have thought I put it off on the girls to take care of themselves. Hindsight, I should have done that.
We found a bridal chain that also had a location in Des Moines so Brooke and Lydia could easily find something to fit in with the rest of us. The gentlemen would be wearing dark grey tuxes with accents of th
e bridesmaid's dresses...rose colors, light pinks, mauves, greys, and creams.
As Teagan tried on dresses, I noticed Gavin snapping photos of the two of us, and I was grateful for that because I knew I'd treasure these moments years down the road. Grands' death had opened my eyes to how families change over the years. I missed our mom and thought about how Grands was the only mother Teagan ever knew. All these emotions were getting ridiculous.
Teagan tried on a muted mauve dress and we both could tell it was the one...she looked gorgeous and comfortable...and Lydia and Brooke could find similar, but different styles to work for them in the same color family. It was going to be lovely.
As we were checking out, Gavin offered to go pull the car up to the front of the store and pick us up. We loaded the dress in the back and set off to Spring City, Kentucky. We had one shop to visit and then a quick drive to Louisville, where we would spend the night and hang out with Blaire the next day.
“Gavin, I need to apologize,” I blurted out as we hit the dusty trail.
“What for?” he said, looking puzzled.
“Because when you set out on this journey, I bet you had no idea what this summer was about to entail...I’m so sorry for being so high maintenance and for all the hiccups along the way.”
"Oh, Noey," he said with a shy smile. "It's been fun getting to know you, and I think my aunt will be pleased with what we come back with when the journey is complete."
“Wait...your aunt? Who’s your aunt?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Gail didn’t tell you that I’m her nephew?” he put forth the information that I was feeling had been somehow withheld.
“Um, no, she did not…” I replied, suddenly feeling judgy and again guilty.
“I mean, not that it matters.” I tried lightening the mood. “It doesn’t matter that she’s your aunt, I just didn’t realize.”
White Wedding Mints Page 5
