My Fighter | Book II ✔️

My Fighter [16]

My Fighter [16]

Everywhere I go I can feel my mother. It's in the men and women ringing the salvation army bells in front of the entrance at Walmart. It's in the tents selling Christmas trees everywhere. It's the cooler weather that's gotten down to forty, the coldest it ever gets in Florida. It's in the red and green lights strung up on all the houses. Its in the shopping carts of parents buying toys for their kids. Its in all the Christmas decorations around my house. 

It's taken me a long time to get everything just how I like it and even now I find myself changing things around. We have a fake tree, like always, strung in lights and tinsel and special ornaments. I can remember putting up the exact ornaments just two years ago with my mom and dad. Even when I was in college I would come home for Christmas and she would wait until I got there. On the first night home we would spend the entire day making cookies and then put up the tree that night. 

My house smells like sugar cookies and gingerbread men. We've spent the last few days making cookies. It seems whenever Colt and I were almost done making them, someone would come over and eat half of them. Mar and Bradley have been over. We've been going over what we thought would be best for their ceremony. 

"Walk me through this again." 

I've made Colt and Bradley move the furniture to create sort of an aisle. A space in front of the tree is reserved for the couple to stand in front of. There's a fireplace beside the tree that's decorated with garland. There will be a fire burning during the wedding. Beautiful pictures can be taken in front of it. There's a fire pit outside on the patio for after the ceremony. It's where Mar and Bradley will have their first dance. 

I take Mar's arm in mine, "Just walk towards the tree Mar, that's all you've got to do." 

She gives me a sheepish smile, "Sorry, I'm just really nervous. The wedding is in a week." 

"I know." I said. "I still can't believe you want to have the ceremony here." 

"Your house is beautiful El, no ballroom can match this. It's perfect for me and Bradley." 

"And tell me how many people are going to be here?" 

"Including me and Nick, it'll be twenty-four all together." 

Twenty-four people in my living room. That's going to be hard to sway. Our house isn't small, we wanted it to be large enough to fit a lot of people. It'll work, it just might be a tight squeeze. 

"My aunt and uncle and my cousins are leaving after the ceremony. They have a few christmas dinners they need to be at. I think Bradley's grandparents can only be here a few hours, they're old and have to get back to the nursing home before their Christmas feast." 

"They're leaving their own grandson's wedding early for a retirement home dinner?" 

"There's a free game of bingo and the winner gets free bingo for a month. I guess there's some kind of karaoke as well. His grandma is a drunk, you don't want her here for that long, we'll be cleaning up after her all night." 

I laugh and take a seat on the couch.  I look around my house and smile, it really does look pretty in here. It makes me want to keep my Christmas decorations up all year long. Mar sits beside me a similar smile on her face. She's looking around the room, probably imagining her wedding day. 

"So, my dad and Colton's parents are going to come over at nine. We're going to open presents. If you come around ten we can start getting you ready. We have nothing to do here besides pick up the cake and get the food ready. We have a makeup and hair person coming in at eleven. You're family will get here by two and whenever you're ready, we'll have the ceremony. We're not on too tight of a schedule. I would like to have dinner at five maybe before it gets dark, then we can have a fire and you can dance under the fairy lights we put up on the porch."