ALMOST HEAVEN

Chapter 20

Later that evening, Mellie stopped by the house and dropped off a couple of bridal magazines.

"This will get you started. Look online though. There's more magazines online now."

"Thanks, Mellie. I'm going to look tonight online."

Clyde came walking out of the kitchen. "Hey Mel. What do you have there?" He nodded at the magazines on the table.

"Some bridal magazines for Laurel. Now I've got to run. Joe is coming into town tonight."

"Well, good luck with that," Clyde said with a grin.

Once Mellie was gone, Clyde picked up one of the magazines. "Bridal Guide?" He sat beside Laurel and smiled. "You looking for ideas?"

Laurel nodded shyly. "I just thought that I should educate myself on weddings before we go back to Eliot Springs on Wednesday. Maybe get an understanding about flowers and things like that. Mellie tells me I should be looking online to get ideas. I've been thinking that I'm going to ask Emily to be my maid of honor."

"That would be nice, Laurel. She'd like that. I'm going to ask Jimmy, of course, to be my best man but I'm thinking of asking David to be a groomsman."

"I was thinking of asking Mellie to be a bridesmaid, so that would even things up," Laurel said while thinking it might be nice to introduce Emily to David.

"Well, I also was thinking of asking Elise as a groomsman. What do you think of that?" Clyde asked.

"We need another bridesmaid then. How about Sylvia?"

"That would be real nice. I guess Sadie is too old to be a flower girl."

"She is but maybe we can figure something out for her." Laurel looked at Clyde with a look of surprise. "Here we are talking bridesmaids and groomsmen." She laughed. "It just seems a bit crazy but I'm slowly warming up to this big wedding idea of your's, Clyde."

Clyde put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "We can have some fun with this, Laurel. Don't forget, you get to go dress shopping. You like that."

She snuggled closer to Clyde and picked up one of the magazines. "You're right, I do like dress shopping."

The next morning Clyde work up to find Laurel sitting at the kitchen table in a panic as she peered at her iPad. "Clyde, I've got to find a wedding dress soon. All these websites say you should buy your dress nine to six months ahead of the wedding. Hell, we've barely got a full six months. Where the hell am I going to get a wedding dress around here?"

"Good morning, angel. Is there any coffee before we begin to tackle this problem?" He looked around the kitchen and then headed over to the coffee machine. He grabbed a mug and took it over to the table. "Laurel, you want another cup?"

"No, in fact, I might have had a little too much coffee. That's the second pot. You have a seat, love. I'll get breakfast in just a minute." She swung the iPad towards him. "See, read that. I have to have fittings, too. Three of them, they say. Who knew all this stuff?"

Clyde pulled the iPad close to him and began to read. "Hmm."

Laurel nodded her head. "Exactly. Hmm."

She got up and headed into the kitchen. "What do you want for breakfast this morning, Clyde?"

"What's on the menu?" Clyde asked distractedly as he continued to read.

"Well, it's Saturday so the kitchen is open. I could make biscuits and sausage gravy. We got French toast, pancakes, omelettes, just regular eggs. We got bacon and sausage. Let's see, what else? Breakfast potatoes and grits are also available."